The Heroic Age

by H. Munro Chadwick

The suggestions put forward above may doubtless help to account for certain features in both the Teutonic and the Greek Heroic Ages; but it cannot be contended that they are capable, whether singly or collectively, of explaining the phenomena as a whole. If we are to obtain a more satisfactory explanation we shall do well in the first place to give our attention to the outstanding characteristics of that period of history which coincides with the Teutonic Heroic Age.

This period was a momentous time in Teutonic history. In the first place it saw the conversion of most of the Continental peoples to Christianity. But probably no one will suggest that the Heroic Age was an outcome of this change. On the other hand the same period witnessed the fall of the Western Empire and the occupation of almost all its territories by Teutonic peoples. The effect of these movements must have been enormous, and in them we may reasonably expect to find at least one of the chief causes of the phenomena which we are discussing. At the same time it is to be remembered that the Vandals and Visigoths, who penetrated farthest into the empire, do not figure in stories of the Heroic Age, while even the Franks are less conspicuous than the Danes, who took no part in these movements.

In the case of the Greek Heroic Age we have unfortunately to depend upon inferences, since no historical evidence is obtainable. Not many years ago Prof. Ridgeway[638] advanced a very interesting theory, which has greatly influenced subsequent opinion, at least in this country. This theory, stated briefly, is to the effect that the Achaeans were a people from Central Europe who had made their way into Greece by way of Epeiros, not very long before the Heroic Age, and conquered the indigenous inhabitants, whom he calls Pelasgians. In support of this view he has brought forward a large number of arguments relating to physical characteristics, habits, dress, armour, social organisation, religion, funeral customs, etc., in which he shows that the affinities of the Homeric Achaeans lie with the Celtic peoples rather than with the earlier inhabitants of Greece.

It is impossible here to enter into a detailed discussion of Prof. Ridgeway's theory. The first objection which may be raised against it lies in the absence of traditional evidence for the great movement of population which it involves—evidence such as we possess for the Dorian conquest and the Ionic migration. The force of this objection depends of course a good deal upon what may be called details, e.g. the date of the invasion, the numerical strength of the invaders and the method by which the conquest was effected. A more serious objection is perhaps to be found in the conditions postulated by Prof. Ridgeway for Central Europe. Probably few who have given much attention to the subject will be inclined to dispute that the affinities of Homeric civilisation lie in many respects with that of the Celtic peoples, rather than with the earlier civilisation of the Aegean But all the evidence at our disposal seems to indicate that among the Celtic peoples this type of civilisation belongs to a much later period. There is nothing to show that even at Hallstatt and elsewhere in the Eastern Alps the earliest use of iron[639] goes back to the beginning of the first millennium, and it is extremely doubtful whether these deposits are of Celtic origin[640]. In order to prove that Homeric civilisation came from Central Europe evidence must be adduced showing that the chronology usually accepted by archaeologists is mistaken and that a civilisation of the same type prevailed in that region far back in the second millennium. Until such evidence is forthcoming it appears more probable that both the civilisation of Central and Western Europe and the non-Mycenean elements in Homeric civilisation have radiated from a common centre, the true home of which has not yet been discovered.

These considerations however must not be allowed to obscure the fact that Prof. Ridgeway's observations have thrown light on a number of serious difficulties in early Greek history. In the first place he has rightly insisted upon a recognition of the great differences noticeable between Homeric and Mycenean civilisation—differences which can hardly be accounted for except by some such explanation as that which he has brought forward. It is now admitted by the majority of scholars that the Aegean civilisation cannot have originated with the Achaeans; but there is still great difference of opinion as to the nature of its relations with this people. Some hold that the prehistoric civilisation of Crete was non-Achaean—and indeed non-Greek—until its fall, and yet believe that Mycenae and the other cities of the mainland were always Achaean. Others again hold that the later remains both on the mainland and in Crete are Achaean, while the earlier ones, at all events in Crete, were non-Achaean. But neither of these theories accounts for the differences between Mycenean and Homeric civilisation[641]. Both alike involve the assumption that the latter is a reflection of the conditions of a later age—an assumption which, as we have seen, can scarcely be reconciled with the evidence of the poems on the use of the metals and other matters discussed above.

Secondly, Prof. Ridgeway has pointed out the groundlessness of the prevalent hypothesis that the Achaeans were the first Greek-speaking inhabitants of Greece. He has rightly insisted on the antiquity of the Arcadians and Athenians, together with certain other peoples, Ionians and Cypriotes, who had emigrated from Greece, and at the same time called attention to the fact—which is commonly overlooked—that none of these peoples claimed to be of Achaean origin[642]. The Achaean communities of historical times used dialects of the West Greek type, as distinct from Ionic or Arcadian as they are from Aeolic, and we have no evidence that they ever spoke a different type of language. On this subject however enough has been said above (p. [281] ff.). The name 'Pelasgian,' which Prof. Ridgeway applies to the earlier Greek inhabitants, seems to me to be open to objection; yet the evidence of Herodotus can be adduced in its favour.

Thirdly, when Prof. Ridgeway holds that the route by which the Achaeans made their way southwards was through Epeiros he has in his favour an argument of considerable weight in the antiquity and importance of the sanctuary at Dodona, which in historical times lay on the extreme edge of the Greek world. But, apart from this, the linguistic geography of Greece is unintelligible to me unless dialects of the Arcadian and Ionic types were once spoken over a much larger area in Greece proper than that in which we find them in historical times. All indications seem to point to the region west of Pindos as the home of that West Greek group to which the Achaean dialects belong[643].

Lastly it must be regarded as improbable that Epeiros was solely responsible for those elements in Homeric or Achaean civilisation which differentiate it from that of the Mycenean age and at the same time connect it with the civilisations of Central and Western Europe. In historical times this country had passed almost entirely into the possession of barbarian peoples owing to pressure from the north, and we have no reason for supposing that this process was new. It is commonly held that in the period preceding the Heroic Age[644] there had been great movements of population from the Balkan peninsula into the north-west of Asia Minor—a process which likewise was repeated in later times. What little evidence we have for the civilisation of these peoples does not suggest any great difference between their civilisation and that of the Homeric Greeks. The Homeric poems in particular seem to draw little or no distinction in this respect between the Achaeans on the one hand and the Trojans and their allies on the other. Hence, whatever may be our attitude to the arguments based on physical characteristics, etc., on which Prof. Ridgeway lays so much weight, we cannot, I think, reasonably regard it as improbable that Epeiros had long been affected by movements from the same quarter. Indeed the existence of considerable 'Illyrian' or semi-Illyrian populations in Italy, which certainly date from prehistoric times, shows that these movements took a south-westerly, as well as a south-easterly, course. A common centre of disturbance may be found in the highlands of Albania and Upper Macedonia, though I do not mean to deny that this area itself may have been affected by movements from more northern regions.

It may be that in the volumes of his work which have still to appear Prof. Ridgeway will be able to bring forward some stronger evidence in favour of the northern origin of the Achaeans. But even with the reservations expressed above it will be seen that this theory provides a parallel on a small scale to those historical movements which characterised the Heroic Age of the Teutonic peoples. And some such explanation is certainly required, even apart from the Homeric poems, in order to account for the archaeological phenomena and the ethnic and linguistic geography of Greece in the historical period. It is Prof. Ridgeway's great service to have pointed out that the 'Homeric question' is only a part of a much greater problem. Towards the solution of this problem little progress can be made by hypotheses like those which we have discussed in Chapters XIII and XIV—according to which one hero is derived from a god or 'tribal personification,' while another is a fictitious character which a credulous public has come to regard as historical. Even in the best of cases it is only the surface of the problem which can be touched by such investigations. Prof. Ridgeway has shown that the real problem which lies behind the Homeric poems is not, as has been said, the development of Greek heroic tradition ('die Entwickelung der griechischen Heldensage') but the character and origin of the Greek Heroic Age. This in its turn must be regarded as only one of a series of phenomena which we meet with among various peoples and at various periods of the world's history. In short the real problem presented by the Homeric poems is one not of literature but of anthropology.