The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2

by Karl Otfried Müller

Chapter IX.

§ 1. Difference between the life of the Dorians and Ionians. Domestic habits of the Spartans. § 2. Opinions of the Dorians respecting a future life. § 3. General character of the Dorians. § 4. Its varieties. § 5. Character of the Spartans. § 6. Character of the Cretans, Argives, Rhodians, Corinthians, Corcyræans, Syracusans, Sicyonians, Phliasians, Megarians, Byzantians, Æginetans, Cyrenæans, Crotoniats, Tarentines, Messenians, and Delphians.

1. After Anacharsis the Scythian had visited the different states of Greece, and lived among them all, he is reported to have said, that “all wanted leisure and tranquillity for wisdom, except the Lacedæmonians, for that these were the only persons with whom it was possible to hold a rational conversation.”[1809] The life of all the other Greeks had doubtless appeared to him as a restless and unquiet existence, as a constant struggle and effort without any object. In addition to the love of ease, which belonged to the original constitution of the Dorians, there was a further cause for this mode of life, viz. the entire exemption from necessary labour which the Spartans enjoyed, their wants being supplied by the dependent and industrious [pg 396] classes.[1810] Several writers have dwelt on the tedium and listlessness of such an existence; but the Spartans considered an immunity from labour an immunity from pain, and as constituting entire liberty.[1811] But, it may be asked, what was there to occupy the Spartan men from morning to night?[1812] In the first place, the gymnastic, military, and musical exercises; then the chase, which with men advanced in life was a substitute for other exercises;[1813] besides which, there was the management of public affairs, in which they might take an active part, together with the religious ceremonies, sacrifices, and choruses; and much time was also consumed in the places of public resort, or λέσχαι. Every small community had its lesche;[1814] and here the old men sat together in winter round the blazing fire, while the respect for old age gave an agreeable turn to the conversation. At Athens, too, these small societies or clubs were once in great vogue; but a democracy likes a large mass, and hates all divisions; and accordingly in later times the public porticoes and open market were generally attended, where every Athenian appeared once in the day. At Sparta, the youths were forbidden to enter the market-place;[1815] as well as the pylæa,[1816] which was in other [pg 397] Doric towns besides Delphi[1817] a place for buying and selling.[1818]

2. Having now so fully investigated the manners and daily occupations of the Dorians, it would be interesting to know what were their opinions on death, or on the existence of a future state; but on these points there is no information to be gleaned from ancient writers. Nor can much more be said on their funeral ceremonies, if indeed they had any rites peculiar and universally belonging to the whole race. At Tarentum, the dead were, according to an ancient oracle, called the majority (οἱ πλείονες);[1819] they were buried within the walls, each family having in their house tombstones, with the names of the deceased, where funeral sacrifices were performed;[1820] at Sparta, it was doubtless the ancient custom to bury the dead in the city, and in the neighbourhood of the temples.[1821] Monuments, with the names of the dead, were only erected to those who had fallen in battle,[1822] and many [pg 398] other honours were also paid them.[1823] The sacrifice to Demeter, on the twelfth day after death, evidently denotes the reception of the soul in the infernal regions; the Argives likewise sacrificed on the 30th day to Hermes, as conductor of the souls of the dead;[1824] in the same manner that the Athenians called the dead Δημητριακοὶ, i.e. returned to their mother earth. There was however a considerable difference between the Athenian and Doric modes of burying; for the former laid the body with the head to the west, the latter, at least the Megarians, to the east.[1825]

3. It now remains for us to collect into one point of view all that has been said in different parts of this work on the character of the Doric race, so as to furnish a complete and accurate idea of their nature and peculiarities. That this cannot be done in a few words is evident; but that it can be done at all, I consider equally clear; and by no means agree with those who deny that a whole nation, like an individual, can have one character; an error which is perhaps best refuted by consideration of the different tribes of Greece. And thus the word Dorian conveyed to the ancient Greeks a clear and definite, though indeed a complex idea.[1826]

The first feature in the character of the Dorians which we shall notice is one that has been pointed out in several places,[1827] viz. their endeavour to produce uniformity and unity in a numerous body. Every individual was to remain within those limits which were prescribed by the regulation of the whole body.[1828] Thus in the Doric form of government no individual was allowed to strive after personal independence, nor any class or order to move from its appointed place. The privileges of the aristocracy, and the subjection of the inferior orders, were maintained with greater strictness than in other tribes,[1829] and greater importance was attached to obedience, in whatever form, than to the assertion of individual freedom. The government, the army, and the public education, were managed on a most complicated, but most regular succession and alternation of commanding and obeying.[1830] Every one was to obey in his own place. All the smaller associations were also regulated on the same principle: always we find gradation of power, and never independent equality.[1831] But it was not sufficient that this system should be complete and perfect within; it was to be fortified without. The Dorians had little inclination to admit the customs of others, and a strong desire to disconnect themselves with foreigners.[1832] Hence in later times the blunt and harsh deportment of those Dorians who most scrupulously adhered to their national habits.[1833] This independence and seclusion would however sometimes be turned into hostility; [pg 400] and hence the military turn of the Dorians, which may also be traced in the development of the worship of Apollo.[1834] A calm and steady courage was the natural quality of the Dorian.[1835] As they were not ready to receive, neither were they to communicate outward impressions; and this, neither as individuals, nor as a body. Hence both in their poetry and prose, the narrative is often concealed by expressions of the feeling, and tinged with the colour of the mind.[1836] They endeavoured always to condense and concentrate their thoughts, which was the cause of the great brevity and obscurity of their language.[1837] Their desire of disconnecting themselves with the things and persons around them, naturally produced a love for past times; and hence their great attachment to the usages and manners of their ancestors, and to ancient institutions.[1838] The attention of the Doric race was turned to the past rather than to the future.[1839] And thus it came to pass that the Dorians preserved most rigidly, and represented most truly, the customs of the ancient Greeks.[1840] Their advances were constant, not sudden; and all their changes imperceptible. With the desire to attain uniformity, their love for measure and proportion was also combined. Their works of art are distinguished by this attention to singleness of effect, and everything discordant or useless was pruned off with an unsparing hand.[1841] Their moral system also prescribed the observance of the proper mean; and it was in this that the temperance (σωφροσύνη) [pg 401] which so distinguished them consisted.[1842] One great object of the worship of Apollo was to maintain the even balance of the mind, and to remove everything that might disquiet the thoughts, rouse the mind to passion, or dim its purity and brightness.[1843] The Doric nature required an equal and regular harmony, and preserving that character in all its parts.[1844] Dissonances, even if they combined into harmony, were not suited to the taste of that nation. The national tunes were doubtless not of a soft or pleasing melody; the general accent of the language had the character of command or dictation, not of question or entreaty. The Dorians were contented with themselves, with the powers to whom they owed their existence and happiness; and therefore they never complained. They looked not to future, but to present existence. To preserve this, and to preserve it in enjoyment, was their highest object. Everything beyond this boundary was mist and darkness, and everything dark they supposed the Deity to hate.[1845] They lived in themselves, and for themselves.[1846] Hence man was the chief and almost only object which attracted their attention. The same feelings may also be perceived in their religion, which was always unconnected with the worship of any natural object, and originated from their own reflection and conceptions.[1847] And to the same source may perhaps be traced their aversion to mechanical and agricultural labour.[1848] In short, the whole race bears generally the stamp and character of the male sex; the desire of assistance and connexion, [pg 402] of novelty and of curiosity, the characteristics of the female sex, being directly opposed to the nature of the Dorians, which bears the mark of independence and subdued strength.

4. This description of the Doric character, to which many other features might be added, is sufficient for our present purpose; and will serve to prove that the worship of Apollo, the ancient constitution of Crete and that of Lycurgus, the manners, arts, and literature of the Dorians, were the productions of one and the same national individual. To what extent this character was influenced by external circumstances cannot be ascertained; but though its features were impressed by nature, they might not in all places have been developed, and would have been lost without the fostering assistance of an inland and mountainous region. The country is to a nation what the body is to the soul: it may influence it partially, and assist its growth and increase; but it cannot give strength and impulse, or imprint that original mark of the Deity which is set upon our minds.

But outward circumstances, such as locality, form of government, geographical position, and foreign intercourse, had in the several states a different effect on the Doric character, unequally developing its various features, by confirming some, repressing others, and some wholly obliterating. We shall thus be enabled to separate the particular character of each state from the ideal character of the whole race, and also to explain their deviations, particularly in a political and practical point of view.

5. The Dorians of Sparta were influenced by their geographical position, which, with the exception of that of the Arcadians, was more inland than that of [pg 403] any people in Peloponnesus; as well as by their supremacy, which they at first asserted with ease and dignity, and afterwards maintained by the devotion of all their forces to that one object. The independence and seclusion so desired by the Dorians were at Sparta most conspicuous, and thus the original spirit of the Doric race, and its ancient customs, were most rigidly, and sometimes even in trifles,[1849] there preserved; though it was the mummy rather than the living body of the ancient institutions. This deterioration, however, did not manifest itself till later times; for (as we have more than once remarked) at an early period the mode of life at Sparta was diversified, cheerful, and by no means unattractive. At that time Sparta was the centre and metropolis of Greece. This love of seclusion took a singular turn in the reserve, and in the short and sententious mode of expression, practised by the Laconians. Indeed their silence was carried to a pitch which exceeded the bounds of intentional concealment. Even the artfulness of the Spartans is after the Persian war often mentioned with blame; and it is said to have been impossible to guess their intention.[1850] Sometimes indeed the deception was [pg 404] founded on patriotic principles, as in the answer of the ambassador, who being asked in whose name he came, replied, “In the name of the state, if we succeed; if we fail, in our own.” Demostratus the son of Phæax said with great truth that the Spartans were better as members of a state, the Athenians as members of private society;[1851] the latter indeed were more left to their individual care and exertions, whilst the former were guided by national custom. Hence when they once deserted this guide, they deviated not partially, but wholly and widely from the right path.