Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 1 of 3: I. Prolegomena II. Achæis; or, the Ethnology of the Greek RacesGladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
History
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 1 of 3: I. Prolegomena II. Achæis; or, the Ethnology of the Greek Races
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Civilization, Homeric; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer
1. The division between the military and the agricultural part of the
community.
2. The περίοικοι of Crete, holding the same relation to the Cretans, as
the Helots to the Spartans, and like them cultivating the land.
3. The institution of συσσίτια in both countries.
4. The organism of the government: the five ephors corresponding with
the ten κοσμοὶ of Crete, and the βουλὴ being alike in both.
There also still remain etymological indications that Minos was the
person who raised some tribe or class to preeminence in Crete, and
depressed some other tribes or classes below the level of the free
community. In Hesychius we read,
μνοῖα, οἰκετεία.
μνῆτοι, δοῦλοι.
μνῶα, δουλεία.
And Athenæus quotes from the Cretica of Sosicrates, τὴν μὲν κοινὴν
δουλείαν οἱ Κρῆτες καλοῦσι μνοίαν· τὴν δὲ ἰδίαν ἀφαμιώτας· τοὺς δὲ
περιοίκους, ὑπηκόους[317]. He also says, that, according to Ephorus,
the general name for slave in Crete was κλαρώτης, and that it was
derived from the custom of apportioning the slaves by lot. This
remarkably fixes the character of Cretan slavery as owing its rise
to some institutions public in the highest sense, for merely private
slavery could not, it would appear, have had an origin such as to
account for the name. It thus indirectly supports the idea implied in
μνοία and μνῆτοι, that it was derived from Minos. Athenæus[318] again,
quoting the _Creticæ glossæ_ of Hermon, gives us the words μνώτας,
τοὺς εὐγενεῖς (otherwise read ἐγγενεῖς) οἰκέτας, and thus pointing to
the reduction to servitude of some of the previously free population of
the country.
There can be little doubt that it was the Pelasgic part of the
population which thus succumbed before the more active elements of
Cretan society, and which continued in the manual occupation of
husbandry, while war, policy, and maritime pursuits became the lot of
their more fortunate competitors. For is it difficult to divine which
were those more active elements, since Homer points out for us among
the inhabitants of Crete at least two tribes, the Achæans and the
Dorians, of Hellic origin. Bishop Thirlwall points also to a Phœnician
element in Crete, and to Homer as indicating the Phœnician origin of
Minos. This is suggested not only by his birth, and by his maritime
preeminence, but by Homer’s placing Dædalus in Crete[319]. For that
name directly establishes a connection with the arts that made Sidon
and Phœnicia so famous. The later tradition, indeed, places Dædalus
personally in relations with Minos, as having been pursued by him after
he had fled to Sicily[320].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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