Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/127

To6 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. struggle, described above, was going on in the cities and lands of Central Greece and Peloponnesus. From the mingling of van- quisher and vanquished will come a new people, whose vigour will be increased by the infusion into it of a more abundant and younger sap. The chieftains of these reconstituted groups will take up again their predecessors' traditions, they will surround themselves, both in life and death, with a luxury which will forward industry and art. Greece, over whom they will hold sway, will be more thickly populated than the Greece of the preceding epoch, in that the migratory movement of the tribes of Epirus and Thessaly across Mount CEta and the valleys dominated by Parnassus will go on uninterruptedly for the space of a hundred years ; thence the current will flow, on the other side of the isthmus, throughout territories which in the main will preserve their old inhabitants. When something like order was re- established, we may take it for granted that some sort of Domesday or rough settlement of the various claims to the land was effected, even though nought resembling the name may have been known at that time. It then was, doubtless, found out that the narrow strip would henceforth have to nourish a far greater number of families than before the intruders' coming. Land boundaries had to be drawn in, towns were enlarged, villages multiplied, and land which had been allowed to lie fallow, was now brought under cultivation. The crowding was even greater, and the like measures had to be resorted to in districts such as Attica, which drew to itself fugitives from every quarter. Everywhere, in countries upon which conquest had fallen, as in those which it had spared, under the stimulus of want considerable progress both in social activity and intensity of the productive forces was made. Though the Dorian invasion interrupted for a while the soaring of Greek genius, and by a rude buffet closed the first phase of its development, it none the less prepared, from the very beginning, the second phase, that in which her genius will bring forth the marvellous Epos ; whilst in the domain of plastic art it will foreshadow future excellence, producing works certainly still very imperfect, but wherein we feel that the standard aimed at is higher than that of the Mycenian artist. When a fire is all ablaze, a faggot of green twigs thrown upon it will for a minute or two conceal the flame, and but for the vapour and smoke look as if it had been put out altogether ; but ere long the wood