Indeed, a certain section of
students seemed rather to glory in the fact of this seeming isolation
of Greek culture, and to deem it little short of profanity to seek
any pre-existing sources for it. 'The fathering of the Greek on
the pre-existing profane cultures has been scouted by perfervid
Hellenists in terms which implied that they hold it little else
than impiety. Allowing no causation more earthly than vague local
influences of air and light, mountain and sea, they would have
Hellenism born into the world by a miracle of generation, like
its own Athena from the head of Zeus.'[*] But a great civilization
can never be accounted for in this miraculous fashion. The origins
of even Egyptian culture have begun to yield themselves to patient
research, and it is not permissible to believe that the Greek nation
was born in a day into its great inheritance, or that it derived
nothing from earlier ages and races.
[Footnote *: D. G. Hogarth, 'Ionia and the East,' p. 21.]
Indeed, the supreme monument of the matchless literature of Hellas
bore witness to the fact that, prior to the beginnings of Greek
history, there had existed on Greek soil a civilization of a very
high type, differing from, in some respects even superior to, that
which succeeded it, but manifestly refusing to be left out of
consideration in any attempt to describe the beginnings of Greek
culture.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36