DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0419
THE MYCENAEAN WORLD AND HOMER 365
involved (as that of burial) were more or less radically
changed.
If these tumultuous times between mighty overturnings
and the rise of a new order were peculiarly favorable to
religious evolution, they were not equally favorable to pro-
gress in general culture. As compared with the Mycenaean,
the Homeric civilization marks decadence. The arts espe-
cially are stationary or even retrograde; and the Phoeni-
cians have resumed their old lead in art as well as in com-
merce. True, the Homeric Greeks inherit many artistic
principles from their Mycenaean forefathers, and their
Princes still dwell in palaces not unlike those we know at
Tiryns and Mycenae. On the establishment of the new
order with a new accumulation of wealth, some of the old
arts revive, while others have to be created afresh. Once
again the Mainland receives them from the Islands and the
farther shores of the Aegean ; for in Greece proper the rise
of the new order out of the chaos of the migrations was a
slower process than in the colonies. The remnant of the
old stock that still clung to the old Mycenaean seats was
but a feeble folk compared with their hardy and vigorous
conquerors. The Dorian, indeed, was still a barbarian,
requiring the slow discipline of centuries to subdue and
civilize him. Thus the Dorian migration marks the begin-
ning of long dark ages, the mediaeval epoch of Greece, out
of which she emerges only in the Homeric Renaissance.
But for this great break the history of Greek art, of Greek
civilization, must have followed a different course. Had
these upheavals never taken place, the world might not
have had so long to wait for the Phidian bloom; and again
it might have waited in vain for the full-voiced song of
Homer.
For it may well have been only in the presence of the
involved (as that of burial) were more or less radically
changed.
If these tumultuous times between mighty overturnings
and the rise of a new order were peculiarly favorable to
religious evolution, they were not equally favorable to pro-
gress in general culture. As compared with the Mycenaean,
the Homeric civilization marks decadence. The arts espe-
cially are stationary or even retrograde; and the Phoeni-
cians have resumed their old lead in art as well as in com-
merce. True, the Homeric Greeks inherit many artistic
principles from their Mycenaean forefathers, and their
Princes still dwell in palaces not unlike those we know at
Tiryns and Mycenae. On the establishment of the new
order with a new accumulation of wealth, some of the old
arts revive, while others have to be created afresh. Once
again the Mainland receives them from the Islands and the
farther shores of the Aegean ; for in Greece proper the rise
of the new order out of the chaos of the migrations was a
slower process than in the colonies. The remnant of the
old stock that still clung to the old Mycenaean seats was
but a feeble folk compared with their hardy and vigorous
conquerors. The Dorian, indeed, was still a barbarian,
requiring the slow discipline of centuries to subdue and
civilize him. Thus the Dorian migration marks the begin-
ning of long dark ages, the mediaeval epoch of Greece, out
of which she emerges only in the Homeric Renaissance.
But for this great break the history of Greek art, of Greek
civilization, must have followed a different course. Had
these upheavals never taken place, the world might not
have had so long to wait for the Phidian bloom; and again
it might have waited in vain for the full-voiced song of
Homer.
For it may well have been only in the presence of the