DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2532#0109
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Standing above the Upper Temple platform, the beholder has before him, immediately at his feet,
the remains of the Older Temple, covering, without hiding, vestiges of man's history which preceded
by centuries the age of Homer's heroes. Here the descendants of Phoroneus marked the begin-
nings of mail's civilized life in Greece ; here the Cyclopean masons built their wall in the times
of Proetus of Tiryns. At our very feet stood the temple where the Aohaeans worshiped, and
where (Dictys tells us) they chose Agamemnon as their leader when they set out for Troy. Hither
the sturdy Dorians came, — Temenos and all his elan. Here Phidon set up the symbols which
marked an era of wider commerce. At the gates of this temple Cleomenes III. of Sparta in vain
sought admittance into the shrine.
And in the glorious age when the Hellenic genius manifests itself in all its lasting splendor,
when Athens leads the world, after the Persian host from the east has been driven back, when the
figure of Pericles stands forth in shining light and Phidias hallows the Parthenon with the lasting
beauty of his sculpture, — then Polycleitus fashions a statue, "the most beautiful of all," for
that temple the foundations of which so. clearly lie at our feet below the older shrine. One of the
buildings at our left was probably erected in the time when Alexander the Great undertook the
conquest of the world. On our right the elaborate walls on the lowest level of the precinct were
erected by imperial Rome, perhaps when Hadrian presented his golden peacock to the temple.
And then we see the early Christians, the Byzantines, and the Prankish and Norman knights take
possession of the country, destroy this sanctuary, build out of its ruins the churches you see scat-
tered over the plain, and erect their fortresses at Palamidi and Argos. Then the devasting Turk
lays his yoke on the people of the plains. We see the traces of his handiwork in the plain, — Pasha,
the village straight before us is called, — and of the army of the great Venetian republic, all trans-
porting building material from this shrine to their mosques or their castellated citadels over yonder.
The Venetian rule is succeeded again by that of the Turk; until, in tin; narrow pass, Dervenaki,
up there to the north, in that glorious struggle of the new Greeks for freedom, Kolokotroni
annihilates the Turkish host. Argos yonder was once the capital of this young republic. All
these stages in man's history, like great earth-ghosts, rise from the land at our feet as we gaze
over the plain. Suddenly there is a distant, faint, yet shrill whistle, and we are awakened out of
this over-full, dreamlike succession and condensation of historical moods; and here wre see, far over
the plain, on our right, threading its way along like a centipede, a weird, elongated, moving thing,
puffing smoke from its head and rapidly gliding on to Argos.
It is then that we are recalled to the life immediately before us, at our feet; the hundreds of
workmen with marked Southern features, in varied and picturesque costumes ; the small native
horses drawing numerous carts with their rumbling noise, through which the shouts of the drivers
pierce, — and all these men speaking the language of ancient Greece, changed and attenuated
and abused, but still the tongue of ancient Hellas. Dotted among them are foreign-looking young
men, different in feature and garb and tongue, watching over the work. And we ask, Who
are these new men, these new Dorians, who speak the foreign tongue ? and whence come they, and
wherefore? And the answer is, They come from afar, from the land of the setting sun, thou-
sands of miles over the salt sea. But they come not to destroy and conquer, but to restore to the
light of day the life that has been buried under that soil for countless ages. And we are over-
come by the sense of the great poetic justice, the rightness of things, — that the youngest inheritors
of Hellenic culture among the nations should restore to the light of day the oldest sanctuary of
ancient Hellas.
Standing above the Upper Temple platform, the beholder has before him, immediately at his feet,
the remains of the Older Temple, covering, without hiding, vestiges of man's history which preceded
by centuries the age of Homer's heroes. Here the descendants of Phoroneus marked the begin-
nings of mail's civilized life in Greece ; here the Cyclopean masons built their wall in the times
of Proetus of Tiryns. At our very feet stood the temple where the Aohaeans worshiped, and
where (Dictys tells us) they chose Agamemnon as their leader when they set out for Troy. Hither
the sturdy Dorians came, — Temenos and all his elan. Here Phidon set up the symbols which
marked an era of wider commerce. At the gates of this temple Cleomenes III. of Sparta in vain
sought admittance into the shrine.
And in the glorious age when the Hellenic genius manifests itself in all its lasting splendor,
when Athens leads the world, after the Persian host from the east has been driven back, when the
figure of Pericles stands forth in shining light and Phidias hallows the Parthenon with the lasting
beauty of his sculpture, — then Polycleitus fashions a statue, "the most beautiful of all," for
that temple the foundations of which so. clearly lie at our feet below the older shrine. One of the
buildings at our left was probably erected in the time when Alexander the Great undertook the
conquest of the world. On our right the elaborate walls on the lowest level of the precinct were
erected by imperial Rome, perhaps when Hadrian presented his golden peacock to the temple.
And then we see the early Christians, the Byzantines, and the Prankish and Norman knights take
possession of the country, destroy this sanctuary, build out of its ruins the churches you see scat-
tered over the plain, and erect their fortresses at Palamidi and Argos. Then the devasting Turk
lays his yoke on the people of the plains. We see the traces of his handiwork in the plain, — Pasha,
the village straight before us is called, — and of the army of the great Venetian republic, all trans-
porting building material from this shrine to their mosques or their castellated citadels over yonder.
The Venetian rule is succeeded again by that of the Turk; until, in tin; narrow pass, Dervenaki,
up there to the north, in that glorious struggle of the new Greeks for freedom, Kolokotroni
annihilates the Turkish host. Argos yonder was once the capital of this young republic. All
these stages in man's history, like great earth-ghosts, rise from the land at our feet as we gaze
over the plain. Suddenly there is a distant, faint, yet shrill whistle, and we are awakened out of
this over-full, dreamlike succession and condensation of historical moods; and here wre see, far over
the plain, on our right, threading its way along like a centipede, a weird, elongated, moving thing,
puffing smoke from its head and rapidly gliding on to Argos.
It is then that we are recalled to the life immediately before us, at our feet; the hundreds of
workmen with marked Southern features, in varied and picturesque costumes ; the small native
horses drawing numerous carts with their rumbling noise, through which the shouts of the drivers
pierce, — and all these men speaking the language of ancient Greece, changed and attenuated
and abused, but still the tongue of ancient Hellas. Dotted among them are foreign-looking young
men, different in feature and garb and tongue, watching over the work. And we ask, Who
are these new men, these new Dorians, who speak the foreign tongue ? and whence come they, and
wherefore? And the answer is, They come from afar, from the land of the setting sun, thou-
sands of miles over the salt sea. But they come not to destroy and conquer, but to restore to the
light of day the life that has been buried under that soil for countless ages. And we are over-
come by the sense of the great poetic justice, the rightness of things, — that the youngest inheritors
of Hellenic culture among the nations should restore to the light of day the oldest sanctuary of
ancient Hellas.