Origins of the Question
America. Curtius discussed the Indo-European family of na-
tions at some length, and then went on to deal specifically with
the Greeks. They "were a race of men distinctly marked out by
nature, and combined into a united body by common mental
and physical gifts.... They were freer than other mortal races
from all that hinders and oppresses the motion of the mind."'
Subsequent definitions of who the Greeks were became even
more dogmatic. In K. J. Beloch's Griechiscbe Geschicbte the
opening chapters are devoted to the topography and climate of
Greece. They end with the observation that however beneficent
and stimulating the land and climate may be, those things are
not in themselves enough to produce a great civilization:
Geographical circumstances are only one factor in
the historical process. In vain do the gods lavish
their gifts upon the person who knows not how to
use them; and just as man is the only species to have
raised himself above the level of the beasts, so of all
human communities only one has been able to con-
struct a culture in the full sense: we Aryans. It is
quite likely that if by chance some other Indo-Ger-
manic people had been brought to Greece, it too
would have achieved essentially what the Greeks
achieved. But it is entirely certain that however ad-
vantageous the land and environment, they would
have led to nothing had a people of some other race
come into permanent possession of Greece. 4
- E. Curtius, The History of Greece (New York: Scribner, Arm-
strong and Co., 1876), i: 36—37.
- K. J. Beloch, Griechiiche Geschichte, 2d ed. (Berlin and Leipzig:
De Gruyter, 1924), i: 66: "Aber wir sollen nicht vergessen, dass die geo-
graphischen Verhaltnisse nur der eine Faktor im historischen Werdeprozess
sind. Die Gotter verschwenden ihre Gaben vergebens an den, der sie nicht
zu brauchen versteht; und wenn von alien Lebewesen allein der Mensch
tiber die Beschranktheit des tierischen Zustandes sich zu erheben vermocht
hat, so ist von alien Volkergruppen nur eine imstande gewesen, eine Voll-
kultur hervorzubringen: wir Arier. Es ist sehr wahrscheinlich, dass, wenn ir
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