CHAP. V - THE HEROES AND THEIR AGE

Summary

The period included between the first appearance of the Hellenes in Thessaly, and the return of the Greeks from Troy, is commonly known by the name of the heroic age, or ages. The real limits of this period cannot be exactly defined. The date of the siege of Troy is only the result of a doubtful calculation; and, from what has been already said, the reader will see that it must be scarcely possible to ascertain the precise beginning of the period: but stilly so far as its traditions admit of any thing like a chronological connection, its duration may be estimated at six generations, or about two hundred years. We have already described the general character of this period, as one in which a warlike race spread from the north over the south of Greece, and founded new dynasties in a number of little states; while, partly through the impulse given to the earlier settlers by this immigration, and partly in the natural progress of society, a similar state of things arose in those parts of the country which were not immediately occupied by the invaders; so that every where a class of nobles entirely given to martial pursuits, and the principal owners of the land — whose station and character cannot perhaps be better illustrated than when compared to that of the chivalrous barons of the middle ages — became prominent above the mass of the people, which they held in various degrees of subjection.