GREECE: The Heroes and their Age. "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 [ending B. C. 1183, as reckoned by Eratosthenes, but fixed at dates ranging from 33 to 63 years later by Isocrates, Callimachus and other Greek writers]; and … the reader will see that it must be scarcely possible to ascertain the precise beginning of the period: but still, so far as its traditions admit of anything like a chronological connexion, its duration may be estimated at six generations, or about 200 years [say from some time in the 14th to some time in the 12th century before Christ]. … The history of the heroic age is the history of the most celebrated persons belonging to this class, who, in the language of poetry, are called 'heroes.' The term 'hero' is of doubtful origin, though it was clearly a title of honour; but, in the poems of Homer, it is applied not only to the chiefs, but also to their followers, the freemen of lower rank, without, however, being contrasted with any other, so as to determine its precise meaning. In later times its use was narrowed, and in some degree altered: it was restricted to persons, whether of the heroic or of after ages, who were believed to be endowed with a superhuman, though not a divine, nature, and who were honoured with sacred rites, and were imagined to have the power of dispensing good or evil to their worshippers; and it was gradually combined with the notion of prodigious strength and gigantic stature. Here, however, we have only to do with the heroes as men. The history of their age is filled with their wars, expeditions, and adventures, and this is the great mine from which the materials of the Greek poetry were almost entirely drawn." _C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 5 (volume 1)._ The legendary heroes whose exploits and adventures became the favorite subjects of Greek tragedy and song were Perseus, Hercules, Theseus, the Argonauts, and the heroes of the Siege of Troy. GREECE: The Migrations of the Hellenic tribes in the Peninsula.