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* Italics are denoted by underscores as in _italics_. * Small caps are represented in upper case as in SMALL CAPS. * Letter spaced Greek text is enclosed in tildes as in ~καὶ τὰ λοιπά~. * Footnotes have been renumbered and placed at the end of the paragraph that includes their anchor. * Obvious printer errors have been silently corrected, after comparison with a later edition of this work. Greek text has also been corrected after checking with this later edition and with Perseus, when the reference was found. * Original spelling, hyphenation and punctuation have been kept, but variant spellings were made consistent when a predominant usage was found. * Nevertheless, inconsistent rendition of proper nouns (Acrisios and Akrisios, Mycênæ and Mykênæ, Athos and Athôs, Dædalus and Dædalos) have been kept, noting that this edition does not follow completely the rules for transcription of Greek names announced in the Preface, pp. xv-xvi. * In most cross-references, target pages do not correspond with pages in this edition.
II. Grecian History to the Reign of Peisistratus at Athens.
NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 329 AND 331 PEARL STREET. 1880.
Ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων θεῖον γένος, οἳ καλέονται Ἡμίθεοι προτἐρῃ γενέῃ.—HESIOD
The first idea of this History was conceived many years ago, at a time when ancient Hellas was known to the English public chiefly through the pages of Mitford; and my purpose in writing it was to rectify the erroneous statements as to matter of fact which that History contained, as well as to present the general phenomena of the Grecian world under what I thought a juster and more comprehensive point of view. My leisure, however, was not at that time equal to the execution of any large literary undertaking; nor is it until within the last three or four years that I have been able to devote to the work that continuous and exclusive labor, without which, though much may be done to illustrate detached points, no entire or complicated subject can ever be set forth in a manner worthy to meet the public eye.