An early task is to become familiar with the physical characteristics of the land. Nothing will help better than map-drawing. Relief maps are of great service as showing the mountainous nature and the effect of this on private and public life. Ancient Greece was about two hundred and fifty miles in length from north to south and one hundred and sixty-five miles at the most from east to west. It lies between the thirty-sixth and fortieth parallels of latitude, corresponding very closely in distance and latitude to our coast as it extends from the partition line of the Carolinas up as far as New York City. A comparison of the area of Greece with that of the pupil’s own State is desirable. For instance, while the area of New York State is about 48,000 square miles, Greece contained but 21,000. And very early in the course the fact should be brought out that this tiny territory, in the greatest days of its people, was never united politically, but divided into rival States, really nations, each only about as large as one of our counties. A wholesome corrective to our American boastfulness over size may be found in the slightness of area and population of this marvellous land, which has contributed so many more than its proportionate share of mighty men.
Races and Migrations.
Pelasgian, Mycenean, Achæan, Dorian,—such was the order of the peoples who made Greece. The Greeks, or Hellenes, in whom our interest is centered, belong to the two last of these groups. The Pelasgians concern us in the high schools only as much as the men of the stone age in British history. The Myceneans we know only from the ruins of their towns. That in some respects they were ahead of the earlier Achæans might be pointed out. The relationship of the historic Greeks to the other races of Europe and their kindred with ourselves are important. We feel strange toward Egyptian and Babylonian, but are cousins to the Greeks. The teacher who happens to know Greek might show the similarities of Greek and English speech in the common homely words of everyday life.
Epic, Myth and Legend.
Most of our pupils have heard in the lower schools something of Homer and his “Iliad” and “Odyssey”; and the stories of some of the gods and heroes are more or less familiar. When the teacher comes to the Homeric poems he will not be able to interest his young charges very much in their higher criticism; but he would do well, if time allow, to use the special topic and report method here. The story of the “Iliad,” the theme of the “Odyssey,” and certain characteristic episodes from each might be read to the class by pupils assigned to such duty. A similar course may be taken with regard to the legends of the heroes and gods. One interesting story read will be worth a week of mere recital of the twelve labors of Heracles, or the dry account of the fact that Perseus had something to do with Medusa, and Bellerophon with the Chimæra.
In these times of slighting of the ancient world it is well to reflect how many of the commonest allusions of literature, and even of political editorials, depend for their meaning upon some knowledge of the Greek stories. We speak of “hundred-handed” (Briareus) or “hundred-headed” (Hydra) evils of municipal mismanagement; we talk of “cleansing the Augean stables”; Cyclops, Siren, Gorgon, Chimæra, are household words. We owe it to the children not to let them escape into life without some ability to grasp the content of such daily allusions.
Early Politics.
Mention has already been made of the petty size of the typical Greek State. The marvel is that the Greeks did so much while so divided. We shall speak of “city states.” Some child will run away with a notion of something like New York or Boston with its suburbs. Make them feel that all Greece never had as many people as New York City.
It was the intense Greek individualism which kept the States apart. The difference between Greek individualism and that of the Englishman or American should be indicated. The latter is personal. The Greek was swallowed up in his State, that was his unit and his love.
The progress through monarchy, oligarchy and tyranny to democracy is rightly made much of in the books. (Compare the “tyrant” with our “boss.”) When we come to the development and the glories of the Greek democracy a large degree of caution is needed. In the writer’s opinion there is a good deal of glamour about this so-called democracy. The best Greek never dreamed of manhood suffrage, or the rights of man as man. In his view never were “all men created free and equal.” Athens in her best days had but 30,000 voters, and refused citizenship to all outsiders, even fellow-Greeks from across the nearest border line. Slavery was one of the corner-stones of society. So far as it went, the democracy of Athens was of the pure type. That should be made plain when reached. While our modern democracy, save for minor phases, is representative and not pure, the fact remains that the nineteenth century has brought to birth the only real democracy. And that is one point of our superiority over the Greeks and of more importance than our mechanical and scientific advantages.