From their Aryan ancestors they had received the fatal legacy4 of a mythology5 stained with immoral6 and monstrous7 stories which strove to hide the rational order of nature in a chaos8 of miracles, and to mar9 by imputed10 wickedness the perfection of God’s nature—a very shirt of Nessos in which the Heracles of rationalism barely escaped annihilation. Now while undoubtedly11 the speculations13 of Thales, and the alluring14 analogies of law and order afforded by physical science, were most important forces in encouraging the rise of the spirit of scepticism, yet it was on its ethical15 side that the Greek mythology was chiefly open to attack.
It is difficult to shake the popular belief in miracles, but no man will admit sin and immorality16 as attributes of the Ideal he worships; so the first symptoms of a new order of thought are shown in the passionate17 outcries of Xenophanes and Heraclitos against the evil things said by Homer of the sons of God; and in the story told of Pythagoras, how that he saw tortured in Hell the ‘two founders18 of Greek theology,’ we can recognise the rise of the Aufkl?rung as clearly as we see the Reformation foreshadowed in the Inferno19 of Dante.
Any honest belief, then, in the plain truth of these stories soon succumbed20 before the destructive effects of the a priori ethical criticism of this school; but the orthodox party, as is its custom, found immediately a convenient shelter under the ?gis of the doctrine22 of metaphors24 and concealed25 meanings.
To this allegorical school the tale of the fight around the walls of Troy was a mystery, behind which, as behind a veil, were hidden certain moral and physical truths. The contest between Athena and Ares was that eternal contest between rational thought and the brute26 force of ignorance; the arrows which rattled27 in the quiver of the ‘Far Darter’ were no longer the instruments of vengeance28 shot from the golden bow of the child of God, but the common rays of the sun, which was itself nothing but a mere29 inert30 mass of burning metal.
Modern investigation31, with the ruthlessness of Philistine32 analysis, has ultimately brought Helen of Troy down to a symbol of the dawn. There were Philistines33 among the Greeks also who saw in the ?ναξ ?δρ?ν a mere metaphor23 for atmospheric34 power.
Now while this tendency to look for metaphors and hidden meanings must be ranked as one of the germs of historical criticism, yet it was essentially35 unscientific. Its inherent weakness is clearly pointed36 out by Plato, who showed that while this theory will no doubt explain many of the current legends, yet, if it is to be appealed to at all, it must be as a universal principle; a position he is by no means prepared to admit.
Like many other great principles it suffered from its disciples37, and furnished its own refutation when the web of Penelope was analysed into a metaphor of the rules of formal logic38, the warp39 representing the premises40, and the woof the conclusion.
Rejecting, then, the allegorical interpretation41 of the sacred writings as an essentially dangerous method, proving either too much or too little, Plato himself returns to the earlier mode of attack, and re-writes history with a didactic purpose, laying down certain ethical canons of historical criticism. God is good; God is just; God is true; God is without the common passions of men. These are the tests to which we are to bring the stories of the Greek religion.
‘God predestines no men to ruin, nor sends destruction on innocent cities; He never walks the earth in strange disguise, nor has to mourn for the death of any well-beloved son. Away with the tears for Sarpedon, the lying dream sent to Agamemnon, and the story of the broken covenant42!’ (Plato, Republic, Book ii. 380; iii. 388, 391.)
Similar ethical canons are applied43 to the accounts of the heroes of the days of old, and by the same a priori principles Achilles is rescued from the charges of avarice44 and insolence45 in a passage which may be recited as the earliest instance of that ‘whitewashing of great men,’ as it has been called, which is so popular in our own day, when Catiline and Clodius are represented as honest and far-seeing politicians, when eine edle und gute Natur is claimed for Tiberius, and Nero is rescued from his heritage of infamy46 as an accomplished47 dilettante48 whose moral aberrations49 are more than excused by his exquisite50 artistic51 sense and charming tenor52 voice.
But besides the allegorising principle of interpretation, and the ethical reconstruction53 of history, there was a third theory, which may be called the semi-historical, and which goes by the name of Euhemeros, though he was by no means the first to propound54 it.
Appealing to a fictitious55 monument which he declared that he had discovered in the island of Panchaia, and which purported56 to be a column erected57 by Zeus, and detailing the incidents of his reign58 on earth, this shallow thinker attempted to show that the gods and heroes of ancient Greece were ‘mere ordinary mortals, whose achievements had been a good deal exaggerated and misrepresented,’ and that the proper canon of historical criticism as regards the treatment of myths was to rationalise the incredible, and to present the plausible59 residuum as actual truth.
To him and his school, the centaurs60, for instance, those mythical61 sons of the storm, strange links between the lives of men and animals, were merely some youths from the village of Nephele in Thessaly, distinguished62 for their sporting tastes; the ‘living harvest of panoplied63 knights64,’ which sprang so mystically from the dragon’s teeth, a body of mercenary troops supported by the profits on a successful speculation12 in ivory; and Act?on, an ordinary master of hounds, who, living before the days of subscription65, was eaten out of house and home by the expenses of his kennel66.
Now, that under the glamour67 of myth and legend some substratum of historical fact may lie, is a proposition rendered extremely probable by the modern investigations68 into the workings of the mythop?ic spirit in post-Christian times. Charlemagne and Roland, St. Francis and William Tell, are none the less real personages because their histories are filled with much that is fictitious and incredible, but in all cases what is essentially necessary is some external corroboration69, such as is afforded by the mention of Roland and Roncesvalles in the chronicles of England, or (in the sphere of Greek legend) by the excavations70 of Hissarlik. But to rob a mythical narrative71 of its kernel72 of supernatural elements, and to present the dry husk thus obtained as historical fact, is, as has been well said, to mistake entirely73 the true method of investigation and to identify plausibility74 with truth.
And as regards the critical point urged by Palaiphatos, Strabo, and Polybius, that pure invention on Homer’s part is inconceivable, we may without scruple75 allow it, for myths, like constitutions, grow gradually, and are not formed in a day. But between a poet’s deliberate creation and historical accuracy there is a wide field of the mythop?ic faculty76.
This Euhemeristic theory was welcomed as an essentially philosophical78 and critical method by the unscientific Romans, to whom it was introduced by the poet Ennius, that pioneer of cosmopolitan79 Hellenicism, and it continued to characterise the tone of ancient thought on the question of the treatment of mythology till the rise of Christianity, when it was turned by such writers as Augustine and Minucius Felix into a formidable weapon of attack on Paganism. It was then abandoned by all those who still bent80 the knee to Athena or to Zeus, and a general return, aided by the philosophic77 mystics of Alexandria, to the allegorising principle of interpretation took place, as the only means of saving the deities81 of Olympus from the Titan assaults of the new Galilean God. In what vain defence, the statue of Mary set in the heart of the Pantheon can best tell us.
Religions, however, may be absorbed, but they never are disproved, and the stories of the Greek mythology, spiritualised by the purifying influence of Christianity, reappear in many of the southern parts of Europe in our own day. The old fable82 that the Greek gods took service with the new religion under assumed names has more truth in it than the many care to discover.
Having now traced the progress of historical criticism in the special treatment of myth and legend, I shall proceed to investigate the form in which the same spirit manifested itself as regards what one may term secular83 history and secular historians. The field traversed will be found to be in some respects the same, but the mental attitude, the spirit, the motive84 of investigation are all changed.
There were heroes before the son of Atreus and historians before Herodotus, yet the latter is rightly hailed as the father of history, for in him we discover not merely the empirical connection of cause and effect, but that constant reference to Laws, which is the characteristic of the historian proper.
For all history must be essentially universal; not in the sense of comprising all the synchronous85 events of the past time, but through the universality of the principles employed. And the great conceptions which unify86 the work of Herodotus are such as even modern thought has not yet rejected. The immediate21 government of the world by God, the nemesis87 and punishment which sin and pride invariably bring with them, the revealing of God’s purpose to His people by signs and omens88, by miracles and by prophecy; these are to Herodotus the laws which govern the phenomena89 of history. He is essentially the type of supernatural historian; his eyes are ever strained to discern the Spirit of God moving over the face of the waters of life; he is more concerned with final than with efficient causes.
Yet we can discern in him the rise of that historic sense which is the rational antecedent of the science of historical criticism, the φυσικ?ν κριτ?ριον, to use the words of a Greek writer, as opposed to that which comes either τ?χνη or διδαχ?.
He has passed through the valley of faith and has caught a glimpse of the sunlit heights of Reason; but like all those who, while accepting the supernatural, yet attempt to apply the canons of rationalism, he is essentially inconsistent. For the better apprehension90 of the character of this historic sense in Herodotus it will be necessary to examine at some length the various forms of criticism in which it manifests itself.
Such fabulous91 stories as that of the Phoenix92, of the goat-footed men, of the headless beings with eyes in their breasts, of the men who slept six months in the year (το?το ο?κ ?νδ?χομαι η?ν ?ρχ?ν), of the wer-wolf of the Neuri, and the like, are entirely rejected by him as being opposed to the ordinary experience of life, and to those natural laws whose universal influence the early Greek physical philosophers had already made known to the world of thought. Other legends, such as the suckling of Cyrus by a bitch, or the feather-rain of northern Europe, are rationalised and explained into a woman’s name and a fall of snow. The supernatural origin of the Scythian nation, from the union of Hercules and the monstrous Echidna, is set aside by him for the more probable account that they were a nomad93 tribe driven by the Massaget? from Asia; and he appeals to the local names of their country as proof of the fact that the Kimmerians were the original possessors.
But in the case of Herodotus it will be more instructive to pass on from points like these to those questions of general probability, the true apprehension of which depends rather on a certain quality of mind than on any possibility of formulated94 rules, questions which form no unimportant part of scientific history; for it must be remembered always that the canons of historical criticism are essentially different from those of judicial95 evidence, for they cannot, like the latter, be made plain to every ordinary mind, but appeal to a certain historical faculty founded on the experience of life. Besides, the rules for the reception of evidence in courts of law are purely96 stationary97, while the science of historical probability is essentially progressive, and changes with the advancing spirit of each age.
Now, of all the speculative canons of historical criticism, none is more important than that which rests on psychological probability.
Arguing from his knowledge of human nature, Herodotus rejects the presence of Helen within the walls of Troy. Had she been there, he says, Priam and his kinsmen98 would never have been so mad (φρενοβλαβε??) as not to give her up, when they and their children and their city were in such peril99 (ii. 118); and as regards the authority of Homer, some incidental passages in his poem show that he knew of Helen’s sojourn100 in Egypt during the siege, but selected the other story as being a more suitable motive for an epic101. Similarly he does not believe that the Alcm?onid? family, a family who had always been the haters of tyranny (μισοτ?ραννοι), and to whom, even more than to Harmodios and Aristogeiton, Athens owed its liberty, would ever have been so treacherous102 as to hold up a shield after the battle of Marathon as a signal for the Persian host to fall on the city. A shield, he acknowledges, was held up, but it could not possibly have been done by such friends of liberty as the house of Alcm?on; nor will he believe that a great king like Rhampsinitus would have sent his daughter κατ?σαι ?π’ ο?κ?ματο?.
Elsewhere he argues from more general considerations of probability; a Greek courtesan like Rhodopis would hardly have been rich enough to build a pyramid, and, besides, on chronological103 grounds the story is impossible (ii. 134).
In another passage (ii. 63), after giving an account of the forcible entry of the priests of Ares into the chapel104 of the god’s mother, which seems to have been a sort of religious faction105 fight where sticks were freely used (μ?χη ξ?λοισι καρτερ?), ‘I feel sure,’ he says, ‘that many of them died from getting their heads broken, notwithstanding the assertions of the Egyptian priests to the contrary.’ There is also something charmingly na?ve in the account he gives of the celebrated106 Greek swimmer who dived a distance of eighty stadia to give his countrymen warning of the Persian advance. ‘If, however,’ he says, ‘I may offer an opinion on the subject, I would say that he came in a boat.’
There is, of course, something a little trivial in some of the instances I have quoted; but in a writer like Herodotus, who stands on the borderland between faith and rationalism, one likes to note even the most minute instances of the rise of the critical and sceptical spirit of inquiry107.
How really strange, at base, it was with him may, I think, be shown by a reference to those passages where he applies rationalistic tests to matters connected with religion. He nowhere, indeed, grapples with the moral and scientific difficulties of the Greek Bible; and where he rejects as incredible the marvellous achievements of Hercules in Egypt, he does so on the express grounds that he had not yet been received among the gods, and so was still subject to the ordinary conditions of mortal life (?τι ?νθρωπον ??ντα).
Even within these limits, however, his religious conscience seems to have been troubled at such daring rationalism, and the passage (ii. 45) concludes with a pious108 hope that God will pardon him for having gone so far, the great rationalistic passage being, of course, that in which he rejects the mythical account of the foundation of Dodona. ‘How can a dove speak with a human voice?’ he asks, and rationalises the bird into a foreign princess.
Similarly he seems more inclined to believe that the great storm at the beginning of the Persian War ceased from ordinary atmospheric causes, and not in consequence of the incantations of the Magians. He calls Melampos, whom the majority of the Greeks looked on as an inspired prophet, ‘a clever man who had acquired for himself the art of prophecy’; and as regards the miracle told of the ?ginetan statues of the primeval deities of Damia and Auxesia, that they fell on their knees when the sacrilegious Athenians strove to carry them off, ‘any one may believe it,’ he says, ‘who likes, but as for myself, I place no credence109 in the tale.’
So much then for the rationalistic spirit of historical criticism, as far as it appears explicitly110 in the works of this great and philosophic writer; but for an adequate appreciation111 of his position we must also note how conscious he was of the value of documentary evidence, of the use of inscriptions113, of the importance of the poets as throwing light on manners and customs as well as on historical incidents. No writer of any age has more vividly114 recognised the fact that history is a matter of evidence, and that it is as necessary for the historian to state his authority as it is to produce one’s witnesses in a court of law.
While, however, we can discern in Herodotus the rise of an historic sense, we must not blind ourselves to the large amount of instances where he receives supernatural influences as part of the ordinary forces of life. Compared to Thucydides, who succeeded him in the development of history, he appears almost like a medi?val writer matched with a modern rationalist. For, contemporary though they were, between these two authors there is an infinite chasm115 of thought.
The essential difference of their methods may be best illustrated117 from those passages where they treat of the same subject. The execution of the Spartan118 heralds120, Nicolaos and Aneristos, during the Peloponnesian War is regarded by Herodotus as one of the most supernatural instances of the workings of nemesis and the wrath121 of an outraged122 hero; while the lengthened123 siege and ultimate fall of Troy was brought about by the avenging124 hand of God desiring to manifest unto men the mighty125 penalties which always follow upon mighty sins. But Thucydides either sees not, or desires not to see, in either of these events the finger of Providence126, or the punishment of wicked doers. The death of the heralds is merely an Athenian retaliation127 for similar outrages128 committed by the opposite side; the long agony of the ten years’ siege is due merely to the want of a good commissariat in the Greek army; while the fall of the city is the result of a united military attack consequent on a good supply of provisions.
Now, it is to be observed that in this latter passage, as well as elsewhere, Thucydides is in no sense of the word a sceptic as regards his attitude towards the truth of these ancient legends.
Agamemnon and Atreus, Theseus and Eurystheus, even Minos, about whom Herodotus has some doubts, are to him as real personages as Alcibiades or Gylippus. The points in his historical criticism of the past are, first, his rejection129 of all extra-natural interference, and, secondly130, the attributing to these ancient heroes the motives131 and modes of thought of his own day. The present was to him the key to the explanation of the past, as it was to the prediction of the future.
Now, as regards his attitude towards the supernatural he is at one with modern science. We too know that, just as the primeval coal-beds reveal to us the traces of rain-drops and other atmospheric phenomena similar to those of our own day, so, in estimating the history of the past, the introduction of no force must be allowed whose workings we cannot observe among the phenomena around us. To lay down canons of ultra-historical credibility for the explanation of events which happen to have preceded us by a few thousand years, is as thoroughly132 unscientific as it is to intermingle preternatural in geological theories.
Whatever the canons of art may be, no difficulty in history is so great as to warrant the introduction of a spirit of spirit θε?? ?π? μηχαν??, in the sense of a violation133 of the laws of nature.
Upon the other point, however, Thucydides falls into an anachronism. To refuse to allow the workings of chivalrous134 and self-denying motives among the knights of the Trojan crusade, because he saw none in the faction-loving Athenian of his own day, is to show an entire ignorance of the various characteristics of human nature developing under different circumstances, and to deny to a primitive135 chieftain like Agamemnon that authority founded on opinion, to which we give the name of divine right, is to fall into an historical error quite as gross as attributing to Atreus the courting of the populace (τεθεραπευκ?τα τ?ν δ?μον) with a view to the Mycenean throne.
The general method of historical criticism pursued by Thucydides having been thus indicated, it remains136 to proceed more into detail as regards those particular points where he claims for himself a more rational method of estimating evidence than either the public or his predecessors137 possessed138.
‘So little pains,’ he remarks, ‘do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, satisfied with their preconceived opinions,’ that the majority of the Greeks believe in a Pitanate cohort of the Spartan army and in a double vote being the prerogative139 of the Spartan kings, neither of which opinions has any foundation in fact. But the chief point on which he lays stress as evincing the ‘uncritical way with which men receive legends, even the legends of their own country,’ is the entire baselessness of the common Athenian tradition in which Harmodios and Aristogeiton were represented as the patriotic140 liberators of Athens from the Peisistratid tyranny. So far, he points out, from the love of freedom being their motive, both of them were influenced by merely personal considerations, Aristogeiton being jealous of Hipparchos’ attention to Harmodios, then a beautiful boy in the flower of Greek loveliness, while the latter’s indignation was aroused by an insult offered to his sister by the prince.
Their motives, then, were personal revenge, while the result of their conspiracy141 served only to rivet142 more tightly the chains of servitude which bound Athens to the Peisistratid house, for Hipparchos, whom they killed, was only the tyrant143’s younger brother, and not the tyrant himself.
To prove his theory that Hippias was the elder, he appeals to the evidence afforded by a public inscription112 in which his name occurs immediately after that of his father, a point which he thinks shows that he was the eldest144, and so the heir. This view he further corroborates145 by another inscription, on the altar of Apollo, which mentions the children of Hippias and not those of his brothers; ‘for it was natural for the eldest to be married first’; and besides this, on the score of general probability he points out that, had Hippias been the younger, he would not have so easily obtained the tyranny on the death of Hipparchos.
Now, what is important in Thucydides, as evinced in the treatment of legend generally, is not the results he arrived at, but the method by which he works. The first great rationalistic historian, he may be said to have paved the way for all those who followed after him, though it must always be remembered that, while the total absence in his pages of all the mystical paraphernalia146 of the supernatural theory of life is an advance in the progress of rationalism, and an era in scientific history, whose importance could never be over-estimated, yet we find along with it a total absence of any mention of those various social and economical forces which form such important factors in the evolution of the world, and to which Herodotus rightly gave great prominence147 in his immortal148 work. The history of Thucydides is essentially one-sided and incomplete. The intricate details of sieges and battles, subjects with which the historian proper has really nothing to do except so far as they may throw light on the spirit of the age, we would readily exchange for some notice of the condition of private society in Athens, or the influence and position of women.
There is an advance in the method of historical criticism; there is an advance in the conception and motive of history itself; for in Thucydides we may discern that natural reaction against the intrusion of didactic and theological considerations into the sphere of the pure intellect, the spirit of which may be found in the Euripidean treatment of tragedy and the later schools of art, as well as in the Platonic149 conception of science.
History, no doubt, has splendid lessons for our instruction, just as all good art comes to us as the herald119 of the noblest truth. But, to set before either the painter or the historian the inculcation of moral lessons as an aim to be consciously pursued, is to miss entirely the true motive and characteristic both of art and history, which is in the one case the creation of beauty, in the other the discovery of the laws of the evolution of progress: Il ne faut demander de l’Art que l’Art, du passé que le passé.
Herodotus wrote to illustrate116 the wonderful ways of Providence and the nemesis that falls on sin, and his work is a good example of the truth that nothing can dispense150 with criticism so much as a moral aim. Thucydides has no creed to preach, no doctrine to prove. He analyses the results which follow inevitably151 from certain antecedents, in order that on a recurrence152 of the same crisis men may know how to act.
His object was to discover the laws of the past so as to serve as a light to illumine the future. We must not confuse the recognition of the utility of history with any ideas of a didactic aim. Two points more in Thucydides remain for our consideration: his treatment of the rise of Greek civilisation153, and of the primitive condition of Hellas, as well as the question how far can he be said really to have recognised the existence of laws regulating the complex phenomena of life.
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speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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immoral
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| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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imputed
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| v.把（错误等）归咎于( impute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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immorality
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| n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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founders
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| n.创始人( founder的名词复数 ) | |
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inferno
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| n.火海；地狱般的场所 | |
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succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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metaphor
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| n.隐喻，暗喻 | |
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metaphors
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| 隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 ) | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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philistine
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| n.庸俗的人；adj.市侩的，庸俗的 | |
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philistines
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| n.市侩，庸人( philistine的名词复数 )；庸夫俗子 | |
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atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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warp
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| vt.弄歪，使翘曲，使不正常，歪曲，使有偏见 | |
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40
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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41
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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42
covenant
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| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
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43
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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44
avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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45
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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46
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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47
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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48
dilettante
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| n.半瓶醋，业余爱好者 | |
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49
aberrations
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| n.偏差( aberration的名词复数 )；差错；脱离常规；心理失常 | |
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50
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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51
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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52
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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53
reconstruction
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| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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54
propound
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| v.提出 | |
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55
fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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56
purported
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| adj.传说的，谣传的v.声称是…，（装得）像是…的样子( purport的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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58
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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59
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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60
centaurs
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| n.（希腊神话中）半人半马怪物( centaur的名词复数 ) | |
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61
mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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62
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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63
panoplied
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| adj.全套披甲的，装饰漂亮的 | |
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64
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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65
subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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66
kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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67
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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68
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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69
corroboration
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| n.进一步的证实，进一步的证据 | |
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70
excavations
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| n.挖掘( excavation的名词复数 )；开凿；开凿的洞穴（或山路等）；（发掘出来的）古迹 | |
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71
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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72
kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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73
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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74
plausibility
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| n. 似有道理, 能言善辩 | |
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75
scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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76
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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77
philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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78
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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79
cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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80
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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81
deities
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| n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明 | |
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82
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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83
secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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84
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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85
synchronous
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| adj.同步的 | |
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86
unify
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| vt.使联合，统一；使相同，使一致 | |
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87
nemesis
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| n.给以报应者，复仇者，难以对付的敌手 | |
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88
omens
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| n.前兆，预兆( omen的名词复数 ) | |
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89
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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90
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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91
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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92
phoenix
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| n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生 | |
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93
nomad
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| n.游牧部落的人，流浪者，游牧民 | |
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94
formulated
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| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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95
judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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96
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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97
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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98
kinsmen
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| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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99
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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100
sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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101
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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102
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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103
chronological
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| adj.按年月顺序排列的，年代学的 | |
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104
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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105
faction
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| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
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106
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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107
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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108
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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109
credence
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| n.信用，祭器台，供桌，凭证 | |
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110
explicitly
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| ad.明确地，显然地 | |
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111
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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112
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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113
inscriptions
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| （作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记 | |
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114
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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115
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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116
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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117
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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118
spartan
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| adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人 | |
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119
herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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120
heralds
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| n.使者( herald的名词复数 )；预报者；预兆；传令官v.预示( herald的第三人称单数 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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121
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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122
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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123
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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124
avenging
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| adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复 | |
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125
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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126
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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127
retaliation
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| n.报复，反击 | |
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128
outrages
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| 引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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129
rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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130
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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131
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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132
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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133
violation
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| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
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134
chivalrous
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| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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135
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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136
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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137
predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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138
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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139
prerogative
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| n.特权 | |
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140
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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141
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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142
rivet
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| n.铆钉；vt.铆接，铆牢；集中(目光或注意力) | |
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143
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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144
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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145
corroborates
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| v.证实，支持（某种说法、信仰、理论等）( corroborate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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146
paraphernalia
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| n.装备；随身用品 | |
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147
prominence
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| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
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148
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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149
platonic
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| adj.精神的；柏拉图（哲学）的 | |
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150
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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151
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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152
recurrence
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| n.复发，反复，重现 | |
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153
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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