GREEK CULTURE. This term properly embraces all the activities of the Hellenic race throughout all ages, with the influence of the Greeks upon other peoples and civilizations. A rapid survey can include only what is typical of the best periods, and a few aspects of Greek tradition and influence.
Fifty years ago, Greek civilization seemed an inexplicable phenomenon, conditioned, indeed, by the geography and climate of the eastern Mediterranean, yet not derivative in the usual sense, since the early culture of Egypt and Asia Minor would not account for it, while to Thrace the Greek owed little more than an earnest desire to escape from Thracian bar barism. Of late, however,• we have become aware of a vast pre-existent .Egean culture, having centres not only at Argos, Myceme and Orchomenos, and in the Troad and Crete, but extending from the Archipelago to Syria and other distant shores of the Mediterranean. Archeology has pushed back the origins of Hellenic culture six thousand years or more; and if it does not explain the Greek genius and Greek art (since in art and genius there is always something that defies analysis), yet, by affording glimpses of age-long preparation, it satisfies the mind that is accustomed to the notion of simple origins and a process of evolu tion. Even so, in contemplating the efforts of the Greek genius, we should doubtless suspect the bias of our day, and be ready to credit more rather than less to the originating power of great individuals, and to the mutual inspira tion of gifted men, in groups, as compared with the vague effect upon them of the masses.
Explain the origins as we may, two periods stand out pre-eminent in Hellenic civilization: the Homeric age, approximately the 10th cen tury ac. and the age associated with the name of Pericles, an interval of 100 years or so, be ginning about 440 a.c.
The Homeric Iliad and Odyssey represent the flower of early Hellenic culture. They were not, as Lord Macaulay thought, the out come of heroic barbarism; certainly they evince no unsophisticated art. Rather they seem to have appeared near the end of a high stage of civilization, possibly as it began to decline; though they idealize the life of a more heroic past. As to their origin, modern scholarship is now veering again toward the ancient belief in the existence of a gifted poet who may have composed both epics. True, there is in the Odyssey a difference in tone which led Longinus (or whoever wrote the treatise On the Sublime') to ascribe this poem to the old age of the author; and there are grounds for believing not only that the Iliad is an earlier production, but that more than one hand may have been concerned in giving it the form it now possesses. But in any case, the Iliad, and
still more the Odyssey, betray a wonderful com mand of metrical composition, a vast knowl edge of history, geography, tradition and myth, extraordinary insight into the ways and motives of men, and an ability to unite all these poetical resources into a single plot for the attainment of a designed artistic end. In structure the Odyssey is more perfect than most of the dramas of Shakespeare and the works of vir tually all modern novelists. Such an art no doubt is unthinkable in a poet working in isola tion, without predecessors to learn from and contemporaries to inspire and appreciate him. Accordingly, we must imagine a school of igean bards who gave rise to at least one superlative genius: Homerus, the who fits to gether') —a maker or fitter, not merely of verses, but of characters and incidents into one orderly plan with a beginning, middle and end. The final measure of Homeric civilization is the poetic art to be seen in the two epics, from which, centuries after, the Aristotelian theory of poetry was largely deduced. But we have evidence that the Homeric age also a noble architecture, knew the art of writing, was skilled in weaving tapestry, was expert in metal work and woodwork, understood land scape gardening and road-making as well as sculpture, and had developed a seemingly naive, but very subtle eloquence. To judge from its two great epics, the age was benevolent toward religious tradition; not atheistical, but employ ing the tales of the gods in no very way. The Olympians are brought down not quite to the level of the heroes, while the heroes are elevated until, in conduct if not in power, they move on a plane not much lower than the gods as agents in the story. More important than all else, then, the Homeric age transmitted to that of Pericles ideals of human conduct — bravery and endurance in time of war, good counsel and fidelity in time of peace; at all times courage for individual achievement, coupled with rev erence and an instinctive feeling that com munal interests are supreme.