oint where the legend fades into the mythical, or consolidates
into the historical, is not usually ascertainable.

The legendary period culminates in the tale of Troy, which belongs to a
period prior to the Dorian conquest presented in the Herakleid legend;
the tale of Troy itself remaining the common heritage of the Greek
peoples, and having an actual basis in historical fact. The events,
however, are of less importance than the picture of an actual
historical, political, and social system, corresponding, not to the
supposed date of the Trojan war, but to the date of the composition of
the Homeric poems. Later ages regarded the myths themselves with a good
deal of scepticism, and were often disposed to rationalise them, or to
find for them an allegorical interpretation. The myths of other European
peoples have undergone a somewhat similar treatment.

Greece proper, that is, the European territory occupied by the Hellenic
peoples, has a very extensive coast-line, covers the islands of the
AEgean, and is so mountainous on the mainland that communication between
one point and another is not easy. This facilitated the system which
isolated communities, compelling each one to develop and perfect its own
separate organisation; so that Greece became, not a state, but a
congerie of single separate city states--small territories centering in
the city, although in some cases the village system was not centralised
into the city system. On the other hand, the Hellenes very definitely
recognised their common affinity, looked on themselves as a distinct
aggregate, and very emphatically differentiated that entire aggregate
from the non-Hellenes, whom they designated as "barbarians."

Of these states, the first to come into view--post-Homerically--is
Sparta, the head of the Dorian communities, governed under the laws and
discipline attributed to Lycurgus, with its special peculiarity of the
dual kingship designed to make a pure despotism impossible. The
government lay and remained in the hands of the conquering Spartan
race--as for a time with the Normans in England--which formed a close
oligarchy, while within the oligarchical body the organisation was
democratic and communistic. For Sparta, the eighth and seventh centuries
B.C. were characterised by the two Messenian wars; and we note that
while the Hellenes generally recognised her headship, Argos claimed a
titular right to that position. As a general rule, the primitive
monarchi