Now the presence of these leaf-shaped swords in pre-Dorian Greece seems to postulate the presence of intruders from the Danube basin; the paucity of their number, all the more striking when we consider the extent of the excavations carried out in Greek lands, seems to indicate that these intruders were few. These swords had been, as we have seen, invented by the Nordic steppe-folk in Central Europe, and may sometimes have been used by their Alpine subjects. But for a few strangers to intrude into a foreign land needs on their part considerable courage and the spirit of adventure, features which we have found characteristic of the Nordic steppe-folk, and conspicuously lacking among the Alpines. We may, therefore, take it for granted that these intruders, who introduced the leaf-shaped swords into Greek lands, were of Nordic type and temperament.
The heroes of the Trojan War, as Ridgeway has pointed out, were newcomers to the land.[359] In most cases their grandfathers are mentioned, seldom a great-grandfather, unless it is to state that he was a god. Sometimes even the grandfather was a deity, as in the case of Polypoites, but usually when this is so we have reason for believing that the hero, like Nestor, the grandson of Poseidon, was an old man. The earliest ancestor was sometimes Zeus, but usually the pedigree is not actually traced to the divine forefather. In a large number of cases, especially of the minor heroes, they are said to be of the stock of Ares. Dr. Hall has suggested that Ares and his mistress Hera were the chief deities of these northern invaders.[360]
We hear very little in the Iliad of these first human ancestors of the “Achæans,” nor has later Greek legend much more to say about most of them. We have, however, various stories of heroes, arriving alone like Theseus, Perseus, Herakles, and Peleus, or perhaps accompanied by one friend like Amphitryon, at some Greek city. The hero is well received by the king of the city, and often relieves him of some difficulty, whether it be the repulse of a hostile attack, as in the case of Theseus and the Pallantids, or Amphitryon and the Telebœans, the punishment of robbers, such as Periphates, Sinis, Sciron, Cercyon or Damastes, or the slaying of wild beasts like the Cromyon sow, the Marathon bull, the Cadmeian fox, or the various monsters slain by Herakles. The king honours the visitor, the princess, like Ariadne, Comœtho or Polymela, falls in love with him, then some unfortunate accident occurs, as was the case with Ægeus, Acrisius, and Eurytion, and the king is slain. The hero then ascends the throne, marries the princess, and, as the fairy tales say, they lived happily ever after. Such is the almost universal burden of Greek legend, as it is of the märchen, which grew up in the northern forests.
It has been usual to interpret the stories of these heroes as referring to invading peoples, and to believe that the name of the chief only has survived, whereas the memory of the people has perished. That such was often the case is likely, but when dealing with the first “Achæan” intruders we must guard ourselves against taking this for granted. Dr. Wace’s arguments are all against the arrival of a fresh people at this time, for there is no introduction of new styles of pottery; on the other hand, there is nothing in his evidence antagonistic to the view that a few northern heroes, coming unaccompanied by men-at-arms, succeeded in making themselves masters of the cities of pre-Hellenic Greece. It is possible that in this case, as in many others, nineteenth century scholarship has been too clever and too critical, and that the legends as they have come down to us are nearer to the truth than the amendments which have been suggested.[361]
We shall be able to judge better if we look at the actions of Nordics in later times. At the downfall of the Roman empire it was not unusual for quite small bands of Nordics to become masters of even large territories; some of the Norsemen made themselves, single-handed, kings of the cities in South Russia. Later Rollo, with but a handful of men, became Duke of Normandy and defied the power of the Carolingian monarch; later still small groups of Normans conquered Sicily, and set up their rule in many places in the Mediterranean region. Lastly, how often have Englishmen, sometimes quite alone, gained great influence in large communities of aliens, and been in a position to make themselves kings had they not preferred to annex the community to the British Empire? Thus has much of the Empire been built up. But by far the best parallel is the case of the first Rajah of Sarawak.
When such events have taken place in historical times, even in our own day, we cannot consider it as impossible that wandering Nordic heroes from the Danube basin, accompanied perhaps by a faithful henchman, should have found it possible to establish themselves as kings over the trading cities of Mycenean Greece.
But let us glance for a moment at these trading cities and their inhabitants. The original people of the Greek mainland, like the bulk of the present population, seem to have been of that eastern Alpine or Dinaric type, scarcely distinguishable from the bulk of the population of Asia Minor. These are tall dark people, with small but broad heads, which are very high and somewhat conical at the top, though sometimes the excessively flattened occiput gives the impression that the head has been sliced from the top of the forehead to the back of the neck. As far as one can judge from the available evidence, these were the only inhabitants of the bulk of the peninsula, until coastal settlements were made by the Cretans, some in the second Middle Minoan period, but most of them at the beginning of the Late Minoan.[362]
The original inhabitants of Crete seem to have been typical members of the Mediterranean race, but during Early Minoan times we find a few broad-headed people arriving in the east of the island, and gradually spreading over the eastern half. [363] It has been taken for granted, quite naturally, that this broad-headed infusion came from Asia Minor, the population of which at that time must have been exclusively broad-headed. But about the time that these broad-heads appear in Crete we find evidence in the island of the development of the copper mines at Gournia,[364] and of the accumulation of gold ornaments, such as the treasure of Mochlos.[365] There are also signs of the existence of an oversea commerce and of a trade in olive oil with Egypt.[366]
This leads us to wonder whether these broad-heads belonged to wanderers from Anatolia, or whether it is not more probable that here we have evidence of the arrival of the Prospectors, who seem always to be the organisers of oversea trade and of mining operations. We must remember too, that by 2800 B.C., not long after the beginning of the Early Minoan period, the Sumerians were trading in the Mediterranean, and knew, if they had not already settled in, Crete.[367]