It is evident, therefore, that from the earliest times there were in Greece two distinct elements, either two different races or two very distinct branches of a common race.  First known as Pelasgians and Hellenes, they afterwards took form as the Ionian and Dorian peoples.  And it is evident also that the Greek character, so strong yet so flexible, so mighty to act and so open to receive, with its stern virtues and its tender sensibilities, was the result of the mingling of these antagonist tendencies.  Two continents may have met in Greece, if to the genius of that wonderful people Asia lent her intellect and Africa her fire.  It was the marriage of soul and body, of nature and spirit, of abstract speculation and passionate interest in this life.  Darkness rests on the period when this national life was being created; the Greeks themselves have preserved no record of it.

That some powerful influence from Egypt was acting on Greece during this forming period, and contributing its share to the great result, there can hardly be a question.  All the legends and traditions hint at such a relation, and if this were otherwise, we might be sure that it must have existed.  Egypt was in all her power and splendor when Greece was being settled by the Aryans from Asia.  They were only a few hundred miles apart, and the ships of Phoenicia were continually sailing to and fro between them.

The testimony of Greek writers to the early influence of Egypt on their country and its religion is very full.  Creuzer[212] says that the Greek writers differed in regard to the connection of Attic and Egyptian culture, only as to How it was, not as to Whether it was.  Herodotus says distinctly and positively[213] that most of the names of the Greek gods came from Egypt, except some whose names came from the Pelasgians.  The Pelasgians themselves, he adds, gave these Egyptian names to the unnamed powers of nature whom they before ignorantly worshipped, being directed by the oracle at Dodona so to do.  By “name” here, Herodotus plainly intends more than a mere appellation.  He includes also something of the personality and character.[214] Before they were impersonal beings, powers of nature; afterwards, under Egyptian influence, they became persons.  He particularly insists on having heard this from the priestesses of Dodona, who also told him a story of the black pigeon from Egypt, who first directed the oracle to be established, which he interpreted, according to what he had heard in Egypt, to be a black Egyptian woman.  He adds that the Greeks received, not only their oracles, but their public processions, festivals, and solemn prayers from the Egyptians.  M. Maury admits the influence of Egypt on the worship and ceremonies of Greece, and thinks it added to their religion a more serious tone and a sentiment of veneration for the gods, which were eminently beneficial.  He doubts the story of Herodotus concerning the derivation of gods from Egypt, giving as a sufficient proof the