The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2Müller, Karl Otfried
History
The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2
Müller, Karl Otfried
Dorians -- History; Greece -- Antiquities, Dorian; Greece -- History -- Dorian Invasions, approximately 1125-1025 B.C.
14. These obvious points of difference are sufficient to substantiate the
result which we wish to arrive at. It is manifest that the second of the
two forces, which in each of these instances came into collision, must
necessarily have always overcome the first. The slow, cumbrous, unwieldy
body of the Spartan confederacy was sure to suffer under the blows of its
skilful, forward, and enterprising antagonist. The maxims which, according
to Thucydides, were current at this time,(854) that rashness was to be
called courage in a friend’s cause, provident foresight hidden cowardice,
moderation a cloak for pusillanimity, and that to be prudent in every
thing was to be active in nothing, necessarily impeded and shackled the
beneficial effects of the measures of the Doric party. The “honesty and
openness” of the Doric character, the noble simplicity of the ancient
times of Greece, soon disappeared in this tumultuous age.(855) Sparta
therefore and the Peloponnesians emerge from the contest, altered, and as
it were reversed; and even before its termination appear in a character of
which they had before probably contained only the first seeds.
But in the second half of the war, when the Spartans gave up their great
armaments by land, and began to equip fleets with hired seamen; when they
had learnt to consider money as the chief instrument of warfare, and
begged it at the court of Persia; when they sought less to protect the
states joined to them by affinity and alliance, than to dissolve the
Athenian confederacy; when they began to secure conquered states by
harmosts of their own, and by oligarchs forced upon the people, and found
that the secret management of the political clubs was more to their
interest than open negotiation with the government; we see developed on
the one hand an energy and address, which was first manifested in the
enterprises of the great Brasidas, and on the other a worldly policy, as
was shown in Gylippus, and afterwards more strongly in Lysander; when the
descendants of Hercules found it advisable to exchange the lion’s for the
fox’s skin.(856) And, since the enterprises conducted in the spirit of
earlier times either wholly failed or else remained fruitless, this new
system, though the state had inwardly declined, brought with it, by the
mockery of fate, external fame and victory.(857)
BOOK II. RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY OF THE DORIANS.
Chapter I.
§ 1. Apollo and Artemis the principal deities of the Doric race. §
2. Traces of the worship of Apollo in Tempe. § 3. Route of the
Theoria from Tempe to Delphi. § 4. Establishment of the worship of
Apollo at Delphi; § 5. Crete; § 6. And Delos. § 7. Early history
of Crissa. § 8. Doric population of Delphi. § 9. Opposition to the
worship of the Delphian Apollo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account