DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0413
THE MYCENAEAN WORLD AND HOMER 359
the roost essential elements of her civilization. Of this
Mycenaean communication with the West we have clear
evidence : among other things Mycenaean fibulae are found
in the Italian terramare, and in Hungary, Bosnia, and
Switzerland.1 Again, the Mycenaean sword (in the form
represented in Fig. 87) is held to be the archetype of nearly
all the swords of the bronze age throughout Europe.2 Fibu-
lae appear at Mycenae only in the more recent period;
and, whether invented there (as they most probably were)
or elsewhere in Europe, they are characteristic of Greek
and indeed of European civilization as distinguished from
that of the East, where they were unknown. Thus, as we
have seen the Islands mediating between the two shores of
the Aegean, the larger Mycenaean world was the clearing-
house of culture (if we may use the phrase) for all the
Mediterranean lands, the natural and happy mediator be-
tween primitive Europe and the older civilizations of the
East.3
The post was one of honor, but of peril as well. The
Mycenaean world was of the West, not so much geographi-
cally as in its whole spiritual attitude. It was forward
1 Undset, Zeitsch. JUr Ethnologic, 1889, p. 205 f.; Orsi, Bull, di Palaeont.
Ital, 1891, p. 174.
2 Undset, I. e.
3 Cf. Arthur J. Evans, I. c. " It is difficult to exaggerate the part played
by the widely ramifying Mycenaean culture on later European arts from
prehistoric times onwards. Beyond the limits of its original seats, primitive
Greece and its islands and the colonial plantations thrown out by it to the west
coast of Asia Minor, to Cyprus, and in all. probability to Egypt and Syria, we
can trace the direct diffusion of Mycenaean products, notably ceramic wares,
across the Danube to Transylvania and Moldavia. The Mycenaean impress
is very strong in southern Italy and Sicily. More isolated Mycenaean relics
have been found still further afield, in Spain and even the Auvergne where
Dr. Montelius has recognized an evidence of an old trade connection between
the Rhone Valley and the Eastern Mediterranean in two bronze double axes of
the Aegean form."
the roost essential elements of her civilization. Of this
Mycenaean communication with the West we have clear
evidence : among other things Mycenaean fibulae are found
in the Italian terramare, and in Hungary, Bosnia, and
Switzerland.1 Again, the Mycenaean sword (in the form
represented in Fig. 87) is held to be the archetype of nearly
all the swords of the bronze age throughout Europe.2 Fibu-
lae appear at Mycenae only in the more recent period;
and, whether invented there (as they most probably were)
or elsewhere in Europe, they are characteristic of Greek
and indeed of European civilization as distinguished from
that of the East, where they were unknown. Thus, as we
have seen the Islands mediating between the two shores of
the Aegean, the larger Mycenaean world was the clearing-
house of culture (if we may use the phrase) for all the
Mediterranean lands, the natural and happy mediator be-
tween primitive Europe and the older civilizations of the
East.3
The post was one of honor, but of peril as well. The
Mycenaean world was of the West, not so much geographi-
cally as in its whole spiritual attitude. It was forward
1 Undset, Zeitsch. JUr Ethnologic, 1889, p. 205 f.; Orsi, Bull, di Palaeont.
Ital, 1891, p. 174.
2 Undset, I. e.
3 Cf. Arthur J. Evans, I. c. " It is difficult to exaggerate the part played
by the widely ramifying Mycenaean culture on later European arts from
prehistoric times onwards. Beyond the limits of its original seats, primitive
Greece and its islands and the colonial plantations thrown out by it to the west
coast of Asia Minor, to Cyprus, and in all. probability to Egypt and Syria, we
can trace the direct diffusion of Mycenaean products, notably ceramic wares,
across the Danube to Transylvania and Moldavia. The Mycenaean impress
is very strong in southern Italy and Sicily. More isolated Mycenaean relics
have been found still further afield, in Spain and even the Auvergne where
Dr. Montelius has recognized an evidence of an old trade connection between
the Rhone Valley and the Eastern Mediterranean in two bronze double axes of
the Aegean form."