The Equipment Of The Argonautic Expedition Was Regarded, At The
Period It Took Place, As Something Almost Miraculous; Yet The Ships Sent
Against Troy Seem To Have Excited Little Astonishment, Though, Considering
The State Of Greece At That Period, They Were Very Numerous.
It is foreign to our purpose to regard this expedition in any other light
than as it is illustrative of the maritime skill and attainments of Greece
at this era, and so far connected with our present subject.
The number of
ships employed, according to Homer, amounted to 1186: Thucydides states
them at 1200; and Euripides, Virgil, and some other authors, reduce their
number to 1000. The ships of the Boeotians were the largest; they carried
120 men each; those of the Philoctetae were the smallest, each carrying
only fifty men. Agamemnon had 160 ships; the Athenians fifty; Menelaus,
king of Sparta, sixty; but some of his ships seem to have been furnished by
his allies; whereas all the Athenian vessels belonged to Athens alone. We
have already mentioned that Thucydides is contradicted by Homer, in his
assertion that the Greek ships, at the siege of Troy, had no decks;
perhaps, however, they were only half-decked, as it would appear, from the
descriptions of them, that the fore-part was open to the keel: they had a
mainsail, and were rowed by oars. Greece is so admirably situated for
maritime and commercial enterprize, that it must have been very early
sensible of its advantages in these respects. The inhabitants of the isle
of Egina are represented as the first people in Greece who were
distinguished for their intelligence and success in maritime traffic: soon
after the return of the Heraclidae they possessed considerable commerce, and
for a long time they are said to have held the empire of the adjoining sea.
Their naval power and commerce were not utterly annihilated till the time
of Pericles.
The Corinthians, who are not mentioned by Homer as having engaged in the
Trojan war, seem, however, not long afterwards, to have embarked with great
spirit and success in maritime commerce; their situation was particularly
favourable for it, and equally well situated to be the transit of the land
trade of Greece. Corinth had two ports, one upon each sea. The Corinthians
are said to have first built vessels with three banks of oars, instead of
galleys.
Although the Athenians brought a considerable force against Troy, yet they
did not engage in maritime commerce till long after the period of which we
are at present treating.
Of the knowledge which the Greeks possessed at this time, on the subject of
geography, we must draw our most accurate and fullest account from the
writings of Homer and Hesiod. The former represents the shield of Achilles
as depicting the countries of the globe; on it the earth was figured as a
disk surrounded by the ocean; the centre of Greece was represented as the
centre of the world; the disk included the Mediterranean Sea, much
contracted on the west, and the Egean and part of the Euxine Seas.
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