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! HenceSCIENCES IN CONNEXION WITH THE STATE. 2093y means of the originaland continued division of thenarion into many tribes, the traditions were very much enriched. Each tribe had its heroes and its deeds of valourto employ the bard. To convince ourselves of this, we needbut cast a glance on the tales of the Grecian heroes. Individuals among them, who were more distinguished than therest, as Hercules and Jason, became the heroes of the nation,and therefore the favourites of the poets. And after thefirst great national enterprise, after Troy had fallen, needwe be s&ionished that the historic muse preferred this to allother subjects?All this is too well known to need any more copious exposition. 1But much as Homer and the cyclic poets eclipsedthe succeeding ones, historic poetry kept pace with the political culture of the nation. This union we must not leaveunobserved.That advancement in political culture was, as we observedabove, connected with the rising prosperity of the cities inGreece and of the colonies. The founding of cities(Tre)therefore formed an essential part of the earlier history. Butcities were founded by heroes and;the traditions respectingthese things were therefore intimately connected with therest. Who does not see, how wide a field was here openedfor historic poetry ? Such narrations had always a lastinginterest for the inhabitants ; they were, by their very nature,of a kind to be exaggeratedtillthey became marvellous;and were connected with accounts of the most ancient voyages stories of the wonders of ;foreign and distant countries;the island of the Cyclops, the garden of the Hesperides, theWhat could afford more agreeableWhatrich Iberia, and others.nourishment to the imagination of a youthful people?could be more attractive to the poets?there arose among the Greeks a particularclass ofhistoric poems, which, though in subject and form most intimately connected with other poems-, were yet speciallycommemorative of the founding of the several cities. Theclass embraced, it is true, cities of the mother country; 21 See Heyne, Historise scrlbendse inter Graecos primordia. Comment. See.'Ax. Getting, vol. xiv.1* Especially Athens. Here is the source of the lake Atthides. So too Eujpeltishas celebrated in song the oldest history of Corinth. BMofchek d.alien Litt, mad: Kunst. iL 94. Of narratives respecting colonies, we would