These petty states, each of which was governed by its respective sovereign, and all of them independent of one another, were continually at war among themselves, and exposed to the incursions of forci ;It barbarians. To ob•-• viate these evils, and to secure, as far es possible, the gene ral tranquillity, an assembly was formed of deputies from the different countries of Greece. whose business it was to decide all disputes between the states of which the as sociation was composed, and to concert measures of de fence against their common enemies. This was called the council 01 the Amphictyons, from its supposed founder Amphictyon, one of the sons of Deucalion, and king of Attica; but its original constitution, and the period of its commencement, cannot be satisfactorily ascertained. It is supposed by Sir Isaac Newton to have commenced about a century before the. Trojan war. Besides its primary object of establishing a kind of national law among the Greeks, its attention was principally occupied in managing the concerns of the Delphian oracle. But, though its de crees were respected, its power was not very carious. It contributed to restrain the violence of wars, IA; was not able to prevent their frequent occurrence. It derived its greatest consequence from the increasing fame of the oracle at Delphi ; and the superintendence of the religi ous institutions of Greece became ultimately its principal office. It is not mentioned by Homer ; but its existence seems to be implied. in the ready union of the Grecian states against Troy. See AMPRIeTYONS, CADMUS, Ste.
Frequent piratical excursions appear to have been car ried on between the inhabitants of the eastern and western coasts of the eE,gean Sea ; and the rape of Helen by Paris, the sun of Priam, may be considered, according to Herodo tus, as an act of retaliation for some similar injury receiv ed from the Greeks by the Trojan people. A t outrage, however, so nearly affecting one of the kreatest princes of Greece, and aggravated by a breach of the rights of hospi tality, was considered as demanding the united vengeance of the Grecian chiefs; and the hope of returning home enriched with the spoils of Asia, presented no small incen tive to the expedition. The extensive influence also of Agamemnon king of Argos, and brother of the injured Menelaus, urged on the general confederacy ; and, under his supreme command, the chosen warriors of every Gre cian state, from the southern extremity of Peloponnesus to the northern regions of Thessaly, assembled at the port of Aulis in Bceotia. The fleet, consisting of 1200 open ves sels, conveyed to the Trojan coast an army of 100,000 men, who speedily compelled the enemy to take refuge within the walls of their city ; but, unable to surmount its strong and well defended fortifications, they attempted its reduction by excluding every kind of succour and supplies. Obliged, however, to detach large bodies from their army to procure subsistence for themselves, they were unable to prevent the Trojans from again taking the field, and re ceiving every requisite relief to tee:r wants. In this way the siege was prolonged for the space of ten years : and even at the last, the house of Priam was not over thrown without the aid of stratagem and treachery. But, while the allied Greeks triumphed over Trey, it was to each of them a victory dearly purchased. Few of the princes, who witnessed the successful termination Of their expedition, were permitted to enjoy, in their native coun try, the renown and repose which their exertions had earned ; but, having made no provision for the adminis tration of their affairs during their absence, were either murdered at their return by some usurper of their power, or compelled to reimbark with their adherents, in quest of distant settlements. The Athenian state, which seems to
have made the nearest approach to a settled government, suffered least by the absence of the commander of their army; and regular magistrates supplied the place of their chief'. In this city, Orestes, the sun of Agamemnon, obtained an asylum ; and, after remaining seven years in exile, found means to avenge his father's death, and to recover the throne of Argos, which he held with great power and re putation till his death. See ACHILLES, AGAMEMNON, AJAX, llomEn, TROY, S.c. .
Here terminates the history contained in the writings of Homer, who seems to indicate, that the concluding events which he records were within the reach of his own memory; and whose works, in fact, contain almost the only materials for an account of the hyroic age. He af fords at least the best and most authentic view of the po litical and domestic state of the Greek people, during the period which preceded his death and to his poems we may refer for a description of the religion, government, arts, and manners of the early Greeks. The ancient Pe lasgian inhabitants of Greece are said by I lerodotus to have prayed and sacrificed to gods, to whom they gave no name or distinguishing appellation ; and the works of Hesiod still more clearly prove that they drew their first notions on the subject of religion from Oriental traditions. Their future system of polytheism seems to have been im ported by the Egyptian colonists ; but to the principal di vinities thus introduced, their own lively fancy soon added a multitude of other imaginary beings, presiding over every mountain and river, every season and production ; and these were arranged by Hesiod and Homer into a kind of system of the most extravagant and inexplicable descrip tion. There is neither of nnipotence nor omnipresence among the attributes which the last mentioned poet as cribes even to the father of the gods ; neither perfect goodness nor perfect happiness in the heaven, which he assigns as their residence. An incomprehensible power, •denominated Fate, is 'represented as directing all events; and it seems to have been the principal office of Jupiter to superintend the execution of its decrees. Idolatry, as de noting the worship of visible objects, was at this period unknown ; and even temples appear to have been rare. Prayers.were addressed as to invisible deities; and sacri fices, the only duty which they seem to have been con sidered as expecting from their worshippers, were offered upon altars erected in the open air. A few crimes are some times denounced as exposing to the vengeance of the gods, but morality in general finds very little support in the religion of this period. Soothsayers, who professed to foresee future events, were sufficiently numerous ; but fixed oracles had not yet attained any extensive celebrity. The salutary doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments, was taught in those clays; but the ridiculous absurdities, with which it was clothed, tended, when men had learned to despise the fables, to throw contempt also upon the momentous truth which they had veiled. The Form of government was monarchical, and in some degree hereditary ; but the au thority of the kings was extremely limited, and always cont•ouled by established customs. It was the universal prerogative of the prince to exercise the judicial power, to superintend the institutions of religion, to command the armies, and to direct the ordinary business of the com munity ; but, in any extraordinary or very important mea sure, he was required to consult, not only a council of the principal men, but also an assembly of the people ; and a high degree of personal strength and accomplishments seems to have been always necessary to maintain his au thority.