Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/111

The Coming of the Greeks 67 It became the custom to hold the Olympic games every four years, and they finally aroused the interest and participation of all Greece. Religion also became a strong influence toward unity, because there were some gods at whose temples all the Greeks worshiped. The different city-states therefore organized several religious coun- cils, made up of representatives from the various Greek cities concerned. These councils were perhaps the nearest approach to representative government ever devised in the ancient world. The most notable of them were the council for the control of the Olympic games, another for the famous sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi (87), and the council for the great annual feast of Apollo in the island of Delos. The representatives of the cities who attended these councils spoke the various Greek dialects at their meetings. They could understand each other, however, and their common language helped to bind together the people of the many different Greek cities. A sentiment of unity also arose under the influence of the Homeric songs ( 86-87), with which every Greek was familiar, a common inheritance depicting all the Greeks united against the Asiatic city of Troy. 98. Barbarians and Hellenes. Bound together by these com- mon interests the Greeks gained a feeling of race unity, which set them apart from other races. They called all men not of Greek blood "barbarians," but this was not originally a term of re- proach for the non-Greeks. They gradually came to call them- selves "Hellenes" and found pleasure in the belief that they had all descended from a common ancestor called Hellen. Connected with this word is also the name "Hellas," often applied to Greece. But it should be clearly understood that this new designation did not represent a Greek nation or state, but only the group of Greek-speaking peoples or states, often at war with one another. The most fatal defect in Greek character was the inability of the various states to forget their local differences and jealousies and to unite in a common federation or great nation including all Greeks.