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.

    693/698 (page 653)
    Chap, XVII.] PARTITION OF PAST TIME BY VARRO. (J5;{ appropriate only for subjective history, and matter in which objective evidence is attainable,—we shall only carry out to its proper length the just and well-known position long ago laid down by Varro. That learned man recognised three distinguishable periods in the time preceding his own age : “ First, past the time from the beginning of mankind down to the first deluge; a time wholly unknown. Se- condly, the period from the first deluge down to the first Olympiad, which is called the mythical period, because many fabulous things are recounted in it. Thirdly, the time from the first Olympiad down to ourselves, which is called the historical period, because the things done in it are comprised in true historiesh” Taking the commencement of true or objective history at the point indicated by Varro, I still con- sider tbe mythical and historical periods to be sepa- rated by a wider gap than he would have admitted. To select any one year as an absolute point of com- mencement, is of course not to be understood lite- rally : but in point of fact, this is of very little im- portance in reference to the present question, seeing that the great mythical events—the sieges of Thebes and Troy, the Argonautic expedition, the Kalydo- ' Varro ap. Censorin. de Die Natali; ^^arronis Fragm. p. 219, ed, Scaliger, 1623. “Varro tria discrimina tempormn esse tradit. Primum ab hominum principio usque ad cataclysmum priorem, quod propter ignorantiam vocatur abrjkov. Seeundum, a cataclysmo priore ad Olym- piadem primam, quod quia in eo multa fabulosa referuntur, Mythicon nominatur. Tertium a prima Olympiade ad nos ; quod dicitur Histori- con, quia res in eo gestse veris historiis continentur.” To the same purpose Africanus, ap. Eusebium, Prsep. Ev. xx. p. 487 Me^pt pei/ 'OXvjJLTnddoiv, ovdiv dKpijSes laropyraL rots EWyai, navTcov (TvyKexvptvcov, teat Kara p.r)hev avTo7s rwv npo rov avp(pcovovvT<op, &c.