History of the Peloponnese from the Doric invasion till the 40th Olympiad. 948—620 B.C.

1. Before we begin to collect and arrange the accounts extant concerning the early history of the Peloponnese, it will be first necessary to ascertain what are the sources from which we are to obtain the information we appear to possess respecting the events of this period. For the epic poets, who carried on an uninterrupted series of traditions on the events of the fabulous ages, and have thus thrown over this dark period some faint glimmerings which may in many places be condensed into a distinct and useful light, only touch on a few points of the period whose history we are about to examine. On the other hand, indeed, the art of writing was during this time introduced among the Greeks through their intercourse with Asia; but that it was long before it came into general use, is evident from the almost surprising imperfection of those written documents which have been preserved to us of a date anterior to the 60th Olympiad, in comparison with the great perfection of their art. For this reason writing was long regarded in Greece as a foreign craft, and letters were considered (for example in the Tean curses) as Phœnician symbols. Nevertheless, these few and scanty registers are the first materials for real history and chronology now extant.