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PELASGIANS
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PELASGIANS , a name applied by See also:Greek writers to a pre-historic See also:people whose traces were believed to exist in Greek lands. If the statements of See also:ancient authorities are marshalled in See also:order of their date it will be seen that certain beliefs cannot be traced back beyond the See also:age of this or that author. Though this does not prove that the beliefs themselves were not held earlier, it suggests caution in assuming that they were. In the Homeric poems there are Pelasgians among the See also:allies of See also:Troy: in the See also:catalogue, Iliad, ii. 840-843, which is otherwise in strict See also:geographical order, they stand between the Hellespontine towns and the Thracians of See also:south-See also:east See also:Europe, i.e. on the Hellespontine border of See also:Thrace. Their See also:town or See also:district is called See also:Larissa and is fertile, and they are celebrated for their spearmanship. Their chiefs are Hippothous and Pylaeus, sons of Lethus son of Teutamus. Iliad, x. 428–429, describes their camping ground between the town of Troy and the See also:sea; but this obviously proves nothing about their See also:habitat in See also:time of See also:peace. Odyssey, xvii. 175–177, notes Pelasgians in See also:Crete, together with two apparently indigenous and two immigrant peoples (See also:Achaeans and See also:Dorians), but gives no indication to which class the Pelasgians belong. In See also:Lemnos (Iliad, vii. 467; xiv. 230) there are no Pelasgians, but a Minyan See also:dynasty. Two other passages (Iliad, ii. 681–684; xvi. 233–235) apply the epithet " Pelasgic " to a district called See also:Argos about Mt Othrys in south See also:Thessaly, and to See also:Zeus of See also:Dodona. But in neither See also:case are actual Pelasgians mentioned; the Thessalian Argos is the specific See also:home of Hellenes and Achaeans, and Dodona is inhabited by Perrhaebians and Aenianes (Iliad, ii. 750) who are nowhere described as Pelasgian. It looks therefore as if " Pelasgian " were here used connotatively, to mean either " formerly occupied by Pelasgian " or simply " of immemorial age."
See also:Hesiod expands the Homeric phrase and calls Dodona " seat of Pelasgians" (fr. 225); he speaks also of a See also:personal Pelasgus as See also:father of See also:Lycaon, the culture-See also:hero of See also:Arcadia; and a later epic poet, Asius, describes Pelasgus as the first See also:man, whom the See also:earth threw up that there might be a See also:race of men. Hecataeus makes Pelasgus See also: For See also:Aeschylus (Supplices 1, sqq.) Pelasgus is earthborn, as in Asius, and rules a See also:kingdom stretching from Argos to Dodona and the Strymon; but in See also:Prometheus 879, the " Pelasgian " See also:land simply means Argos. See also:Sophocles takes the same view (Inachus, fr. 256) and for the first time introduces the word " Tyrrhenian " into the See also:story, apparently as synonymous with Pelasgian. See also:Herodotus, like See also:Homer, has a denotative as well as a connotative use. He describes actual Pelasgians surviving and mutually intelligible (a) at Placie and Scylace on the See also:Asiatic See also:shore of the See also:Hellespont, and (b) near See also:Creston on the Strymon; in the latter See also:area they have " Tyrrhenian " neighbours. He alludes to other districts where Pelasgian peoples lived on under changed names; See also:Samothrace and Antandrus in Troas are probably instances of this. In Lemnos and See also:Imbros he describes a Pelasgian See also:population who were only conquered by See also:Athens shortly before 50o B.C., and in this connexion he tells a story of earlier raids of these Pelasgians on See also:Attica, and of a temporary See also:xx1. 3settlement there of Hellespontine Pelasgians, all dating from a time " when the Athenians were first beginning to See also:count as Greeks." Elsewhere " Pelasgian " in Herodotus connotes anything typical of, or surviving from, the See also:state of things in See also:Greece before the coming of the Hellenes. In this sense all Greece was once " Pelasgic "; the clearest instances of Pelasgian survival in See also:ritual and customs and antiquities are in Arcadia, the " Ionian " districts of See also:north-See also:west Peloponnese, and Attica, which have suffered least from hellenization. In Athens itself the prehistoric See also:wall of the citadel and a See also:plot of ground See also:close below it were venerated in the 5th See also:century as " Pelasgian "; so too See also:Thucydides (ii. 17). We may See also:note that all Herodotean examples of actual Pelasgi See also:lie See also:round, or near, the actual Pelasgi of Homeric Thrace; that the most distant of these is confirmed by the testimony of Thucydides (iv. ro6) as to the Pelasgian and Tyrrhenian population of the adjacent seaboard: also that Thucydides adopts the same See also:general Pelasgian theory of See also:early Greece, with the refinement that he regards the Pelasgian name as originally specific, and as having come gradually into this generic use. See also:Ephorus, relying on Hesiodic tradition of an aboriginal Pelasgian type in Arcadia, elaborated a theory of the Pelasgians as a See also:warrior-people spreading (like " See also:Aryans ") from a "Pelasgian home," and annexing and colonizing all the parts of Greece where earlier writers had found allusions to them, from Dodona to Crete and the See also:Troad, and even as far as See also:Italy, where again their settlements had been recognized as early as the time of Hellanicus, in close connexion once more with " Tyrrhenians." The copious additional See also:information given by later writers is all by way either of See also:interpretation of See also:local legends in the See also:light of Ephorus's theory, or of explanation of the name " Pelasgoi "; as when See also:Philochorus expands a popular See also:etymology " See also:stork-folk " (7re.avryoi–ireXanal) into a theory of their seasonal migrations; or See also:Apollodorus says that Homer calls Zeus Pelasgian " because he is not far from every one of us," 8n sic -Hs rams iosnv. The connexion with Tyrrhenians which began with Hellanicus, Herodotus and Sophocles becomes confusion with them in the 3rd century, when the Lemnian pirates and their See also:Attic kinsmen are plainly styled Tyrrhenians, and early fortress-walls in Italy (like those on the See also:Palatine in See also:Rome) are quoted as " Arcadian " colonies. See also:Modern writers have either been content to restate or amplify the view, ascribed above to Ephorus, that " Pelasgian " simply means " prehistoric Greek," or have used the name Pelasgian at their See also:pleasure to denote some one See also:element in the mixed population of the See also:Aegean—Thracian, Illyrian (Albanian) or Semitic. G. Sergi (Origine e diffusione della stirpe mcdilerranea, Rome, 1895; Eng. trans. The Mediterranean Race, See also:London, 1901), followed by many anthropologists, describes as " Pelasgian " one See also:branch of the Mediterranean or Eur-See also:African race of mankind, and one See also:group of types of See also:skull within that race. The See also:character of the ancient citadel wall at Athens, already mentioned, has given the name " Pelasgic See also:masonry " to all constructions of large unhewn blocks fitted roughly together without See also:mortar, from See also:Asia See also:Minor to See also:Spain. 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