PHYSICAL CONTEMPLATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 139 



Hhodians was followed by the expeditions of the Samians^ 

 Phocseans, Taphians, and Thesprotians, which, it must be 

 admitted, were at first directed to carrying off captives and 

 to plunder. Hesiod's aversion to a maritime life may 

 probably be regarded as an individual sentiment, though it 

 may also indicate that at an early stage of civilisation inex. 

 perience and timidity arising from want of knowledge of 

 nautical affairs prevailed on the mainland of Greece. On 

 the other hand, the most ancient legendary stories and myths 

 relate to extensive wanderings, as if the youthful fancy of 

 mankind delighted in the contrast between these ideal 

 creations and the restricted reality. Examples of these are 

 seen in the journeyings of Dionysus and of the Tyrian 

 Hercules (Melkart, in the temple at Gadeira), the wan- 

 derings of lo, ( 195 ) and those of the often resuscitated 

 Aristeas, of the marvellous Hyperborean Abaris, in whose 

 guiding arrow ( 196 ) some have thought that they recognised 

 the compass. We see in these journeyings the reciprocal 

 reflection of occurrences and of ancient views of the world, and 

 we can even trace the reaction of the progressive advance in 

 the latter on the mixed mythical and historical narrations. 

 In the wanderings of the heroes returning from Troy, Aris- 

 tonichus makes Menelaus circumnavigate Africa, ( 197 ) and 

 sail from Gadeira to India five hundred years before Nechos. 



In the period of which we are now treating, i. e. in the 

 history of the Greek world previous to the Macedonian ex- 

 peditions to Asia, three classes of events especially influenced 

 the Hellenic view of the universe ; these were the attempts 

 made to penetrate beyond the basin of the Mediterranean 

 towards the East, the attempts towards the "West, and the foun- 

 dation of numerous colonies from the Straits of Hercules to the 



VOL. ii. L 



