the Minoan civilization but had absorbed it so far as they had use for
it.

They came into this territory in the form of the old tribal government,
with their primitive social customs, and as they settled in different
parts of the territory in tribes, they developed independent
communities of a primitive sort. They had what was known in modern
historical literature as the village community, which was always found
in the primitive life of the Aryans. Their mode of life tended to
develop individualism, and when the group life was established, it
became independent and was lacking in co-operation--that is, it became
a self-sufficient social order. Later in the development of the Greek
life the individual, so far as political organization goes, was
absorbed in the larger state, after it had developed from the old Greek
family life. These primitive Greeks soon had a well-developed
language. They began systematic agriculture, became skilled in the
industrial arts, domesticated animals, and had a pure home life with
religious sentiments of a high order. Wherever they went they carried
with them the characteristics of nation-building and progressive life.
They mastered the earth and its contents by living it down with force
and vigor.

The Greek peninsula was favorably situated for development. Protected
on the north by a mountain range from the rigors of a northern climate
and from the predatory tribes, with a range of mountains through the
centre, with its short spurs cutting the entire country into valleys,
in which were developed independent community states, circumstances
were favorable to local self-government of the several tribes. This
independent social life was of great importance in the development of
Greek thought. In the north the grains and cereals were grown, and in
the south the citrus and the orange. This wide range from a temperate
to a semi-tropical climate {211} furnished a variety of fruits and
diversity of life which gave great opportunity for development. The
variety of scenery caused by mountain and valley and proximity to the
sea, the thousand islands washed by the Aegean Sea, brought a new life
which tended to impress the sensitive mind of the Greek and to develop
his imagination and to advance culture in art.

_Character of the Primitive Greeks_.--The magnificent development of
the Greeks in art, literature, philosophy, and learning, together with
the fortunate circumstance of having po