Volume 1

History of Greece / by George Grote.

  • Grote, George, 1794-1871.
Date:
1849-1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of Greece / by George Grote. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tives—to divest them at once both of their genuine distinguishing mark, and of the charm by which they acted on the feelings of believers. Still less ought we to consent to break up and disenchant in a similar manner the mvthes of ancient Greece— 4/ partly because they possess the mythical beauties and characteristics in far higher perfection, partly because they sank deeper into the mind of a Greek, and pervaded both the public and private sentiment of the country to a much greater degree than the British fables in England. Two courses, and two only, are open ; either to pass over the mythes altogether, which is the way in which modern historians treat the old British fables—or else to give an account of them as mythes ; to recognise and respect their specific na- ture, and to abstain from confounding them with ordinary and certifiable history. There are good reasons for pursuing this second method in refer- ence to the Grecian mythes ; and when so con- sidered, they constitute an important chapter in the historv of the Grecian mind, and indeed in that of the human race generally. The historical faith of the Greeks, as well as that of other people, in reference to early and unrecorded times, is as much subjective and peculiar to themselves as their religious faitli: among the Greeks, especially, the two are confounded with an intimacy which nothing less than great violence can disjoin. Gods, heroes and men—religion and patriotism—matters divine, heroic and human—were all woven together by the Greeks into one indivisible web, in which the threads of truth and reality, whatever they might Two ways open of dealing with the Grecian mythes; ]. to omit them ; or, 2. to re- count them as mythes. Reasons for preferring the latter.