On the mode of clothing in Doric states.

1. The next point which we have to consider is the mode of clothing in use among the Dorians; in which a peculiar taste was displayed; an ancient decorum and simplicity, equally removed from the splendour of Asiatics and the uncleanliness of barbarians. At the same time, however, they paid considerable attention to their personal appearance, although their manners did not require the body to be studiously and completely covered. A Dorian was the first who in the lists of Olympia threw off the heavy girdle, which the wrestlers of Homer had worn in common with those of barbarous countries, and ran naked to the goal; in fact a display of the naked form, when all covering was useless, and indeed inconvenient, was altogether in harmony with the Doric character. This reminds us of the nakedness of the Spartan young women, even in the time of Athenian civilization, which custom gave rise to the joke, that “the Spartans shewed foreigners their virgins “naked.” On this subject however it is necessary that we should enter into greater detail.

2. In the first place these words direct our attention to the different modes of life of the married and unmarried women among the Dorians.

On the music and choral dancing of the Dorians.

1. We are now about to speak of the history of music in the different Doric states; and before we notice particular facts and circumstances, we must direct our attention to the more general one, namely, that one of the musical measures, or ἀρμονίαι (by which term the ancient Greeks denoted the arrangement of intervals, the length of which was fixed by the different kinds of harmony, γένη, according to the strings of the tetrachord, together with the higher or lower scale of the whole system), was anciently called the Doric, and that this measure, together with the Phrygian and Lydian, was long the only one in use among the musicians of Greece, and consequently the only one which in these early times derived its name from a Greek nation; a sufficient warrant for us to consider it as the genuine Greek measure, in contradistinction to any other introduced at a later period. A question next arises, wherefore this ancient and genuine Greek strain was called the Doric. The only explanation that can be given is, that it was brought to perfection in Doric countries, viz. in the ancient domiciles of music, Crete, Sparta, Sicyon, and Delphi. There cannot therefore have been any school or succession of musicians among the other Greek nations, of greater celebrity than the Doric, before the time we allude to.

On the Cosmi of Crete, Prytanes of Corinth, &c. On the Artynœ and Demiurgi in other cities.

1. The cosmi of Crete are compared by Aristotle, Ephorus, and Cicero, with the ephors of Lacedæmon. We are first led to suspect the correctness of this comparison by the fact that the larger part of the extensive power of the ephoralty did not exist in the ancient constitution of Sparta, and consequently there could not have been any thing corresponding with it in the sister constitution of Crete. This conjecture is still further confirmed when we remember that the cosmi were chosen from particular families, rather according to their dignity than their personal merits. For to take away from the office of ephors their election from among the people would be to give up its most essential characteristic. If then we abandon this comparison, it will be necessary to find some other analogous office, on account of the great similarity between the two constitutions, and it will then appear that the parallel magistrates to the cosmi in the Spartan government were the kings; whom indeed the cosmi appear to have succeeded, as the prytanes, artynæ, &c. in other states, the expiring monarchical dignity having been replaced by an aristocratical magistrate.

This assertion is confirmed by whatever knowledge we have of the powers of the cosmi, which indeed chiefly regards their influence in foreign affairs.

On the Periœci of Laconia.

1. The clearest notion of the subjection enforced by the dominant race of Dorians may be collected from the speech of Brasidas to the Peloponnesians, as related by Thucydides. “You are not come,” he says, “from states in which the many rule over the few, but the few over the many, having obtained their sovereignty in no other manner than by victory in the field.” The only right indeed which they possessed was the right of conquerors; the Dorians had by the sword driven out the Achæans, and these again could not rest their claim to the Peloponnese on any better title. It seemed also like a continuation of the heroic age, the existence of which was founded on the rule exercised by the military over the agricultural classes. The relative rights of the Dorians and Achæans appear however to have been determined by mutual compact, since the Dorians, obtaining the superiority only by slow degrees, were doubtless glad to purchase the accession of each town on moderate conditions; and this was perhaps especially the case in Messenia. The native inhabitants of the towns thus reduced to a state of dependence were called Περίοικοι. The difference of races was strictly preserved; and was not (as elsewhere) obliterated by an union in the same city and political community.

On the meals of the Dorians.

1. With respect to the food and meals of the Dorians, we will only mention those points which are connected with some historical or moral fact, since we have already considered this subject in connexion with the economy of the state.

In the first place, the adherence of the Dorians to ancient Greek usages is visible in their custom of eating together, or of the syssitia. For these public tables were not only in use among the Dorians, (with whom, besides in Crete and Sparta, they also existed at Megara in the time of Theognis, and at Corinth in the time of Periander), but they had also once been a national custom among the Œnotrians, and their kinsmen the Arcadians, particularly at Phigaleia; and among the Greeks of Homer the princes at least eat together, and at the cost of the community; a custom which was retained by the Prytanes at Athens, Rhodes, and elsewhere. In particular, the public tables of Sparta have in many points a great resemblance to the Homeric banquets (δαῖτες); only that all the Spartans were in a certain manner considered as princes.

On the private dwellings and architecture of the Dorians.

1. Having now examined the political institutions of the Doric states, we next proceed to consider their private life and domestic economy; which two subjects were so intimately connected in the habits of this race, that we shall not attempt to separate them by any exact line of distinction. Our observations will be confined to those matters which appear most to exhibit the peculiar character of the Dorians. For which purpose, having first considered their domestic conveniences, such as dwellings, &c., we will proceed to their domestic relations, their arts, and literature.

2. The dwellings of the Dorians were plain and simple. By a law of Lycurgus the doors of every house were to be fashioned only with the saw, and the cieling with the axe; not that the legislator intended to abolish altogether the science of architecture, but merely to restrain it to its proper objects, viz. temples and public buildings, and to prevent it from purveying to private luxury. The kings of Greece in Homer's time lived not only in spacious, but also richly ornamented houses, the walls of which glittered with brass, silver, gold, amber, and ivory; but no such splendour was seen in the dwellings of the Heraclide princes.

On the historical writings of the Dorians; their brevity of speech, and metaphorical mode of expression; the symbolical language; the Pythagorean philosophy, and its connection with the character of the Dorians.

1. It has been shewn in the preceding chapter that the national and original poetry of the Doric race was not the epic, but the lyric; which is occupied rather in expressing inward feelings, than in describing outward objects. If this predilection may be considered as natural to the whole race, it will enable us to explain why history neither originated among, nor was cultivated by the Dorians. For both its progress and invention we are indebted to the Ionians, who were also the first to introduce prose-composition in general. The Dorians however did not always retain this incapacity; for we are told that the Spartans gladly listened to the sophist Hippias of Elis, speaking of the families of heroes and men, the settlements by which the cities had in ancient times been founded, and of ancient events in general. This naturally suggests the remark, that the Dorians paid more attention to the events of the past than of the present time; in which they are greatly opposed to the Ionians, who from their governments and geographical position were more thrown into society, and interested themselves more in the passing affairs of the day.

Genealogy of Hellen.

There is a particular tendeney which may be traced throughout all the accounts that have come down to us of early Grecian history, viz. of reducing every thing to a genealogical form. It was much encouraged by the opinion of the later historians, that every town and valley had received its name from some ancient prince or hero; thus even Pausanias meets with persons who explained every thing by means of genealogies; who, e. g., out of the Pythian temple at Delphi made a son of Delphus Pythis, a prince of early times. This tendency, however, is manifestly founded on the genuine ancient language of mythology. With the inventors of these fabulous narratives, nations, cities, mountains, rivers, and gods became real persons, who stood to one another in the relation of human beings, were arranged in families, and joined to one another in marriage. Now although such fictions are in many cases easily seen through, and the meaning of the connexion may be readily deciphered, yet these genealogies, as there was nothing of arbitrary and fanciful invention in them, in after-times passed for real history; and were, both by early and late historians, with full confidence in their general accuracy, made use of for the establishment of a sort of chronology.