Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/24

ancient Greece from its earliest origin, it would be easy to make a beginning, by treating of the extant works of Grecian writers in their chronological order. We might then commence at once with Homer and Hesiod: but if we were to adopt this course, we should, like an epic poet, place our beginning in the middle of the history; for, like the Pallas of Grecian poetry, who sprang full-armed from the head of Jupiter, the literature of Greece wears the perfection of beauty in those works which Herodotus and Aristotle, and all critical and trust-worthy inquirers among the Greeks, recognised as being the most ancient that had descended to their times. Although both in the Iliad and Odyssey we can clearly discern traces of the infancy of the nation to which they belong, and although a spirit of simplicity pervades them, peculiar to the childhood of the human race, yet the class of poetry under which they fall, appears in them at its full maturity; all the laws which reflection and experience can suggest for the epic form are observed with the most refined taste; all the means are employed by which the general effect can be heightened; no where does the poetry bear the character of a first essay or an unsuccessful attempt at some higher poetical flight; indeed, as no subsequent poem, either of ancient or modern times, has so completely caught the genuine epic tone, there seems good reason to doubt whether any future poet will again be able to strike the same chord. It seems, however, manifest, that there must have been many attempts and experiments before epic poetry could reach this elevation; and it was, doubtless, the perfection of the Iliad and Odyssey, to which these prior essays bad led, that buried the productions of former bards in oblivion. Hence the first dawn of Grecian literature is without any perfect memorial; but we must be content to remain in ignorance of the connexion of literature with the character of the Greek races at the outset of their national existence, if we renounced all attempt at forming a conception of the times anterior to the Homeric poems. In order, therefore, to throw some light on this obscure period, we shall first consider those creations of the human intellect which in general are prior to poetry, and which naturally precede poetical composition, as poetry in its turn is followed by regular composition in prose. These are language and religion. When these two important subjects have been examined, we shall proceed, by means of allusions in the Homeric poems themselves, and the most credible testimonies of later times, to inquire into the progress and character of the Greek poetry before the time of Homer.