The Pelasgians in Ancient Greece: Homer, Herodotus, Strabo, Hesiod's Accounts

Hello Croeso Folcher, welcome back to the channel, old boy here, and today we're going to be exploring the Pelasgians. So I've collected a number of sources and I'll be looking at what they have to say on the Pelasgians in Greece, the Aegean, Asia Minor and finally Italy. So with all that being said, let's get into it. Okay so first off, before looking at the sources, let's take a look at what the lexicons have to say about the Pelasgians. First up, the LSJ Greek lexicon tells us that the term is used generally for Greeks, citing a quote from Hesiod, or the Dodonian abode of the Pelasgians. We also find a quote from Euripides which uses the term which seemingly also connects them to the Tyrrhenians. Next, let's take a look at the Lewis and Short Latin lexicon. Here the entry says the Pelasgians were, quote, the oldest inhabitants of Greece who were spread likewise over a part of Asia Minor and over Crete, Latium and Etruria, end quote. Roman numeral number two tells us the term can also be used for Greeks and that the word Pelasgia is used as an old name for the Peloponnesus, is the name of a district of Thessaly as well as the Isle of Lesbos. Okay now we've had a chance to look at what the lexicons have to say, let's now turn our attention to the sources. The earliest mention of the Pelasgians is in Homer, who mentions a contingent of Thessalian tribes who were under the command of Achilles. Among these tribes, Homer mentions those who In addition to this, Achilles also addresses Zeus as thus also connecting the region of Epirus with the Pelasgians. This sentiment is also echoed by a fragment from Hesiod which can be found in Strabo and which has the following to say He came to Dodona and the oak tree, seat of the Pelasgi, end quote. Now in the same section, Strabo also quotes Evorus who states, this oracle was founded by the Pelasgi, and the Pelasgi are called the earliest of all peoples who have held dominion in Greece, end quote. Strabo also tells us of the Pelasgians in Boeotia. Here he says that along with the Thracians they ejected the Boeotians from the region before they returned at a later date along with allies, where they then pushed the Pelasgians out to Athens. Quote, on this occasion they left Thebes for a short time but came back again, and in the same way when they were ejected by the Thracians and the Pelasgians, they established their government in Thessaly along with the Arnai for a long time, so that they were called Boeotians. After adding the Orkomenian country to Boeotia, they with the Orkomenians drove out the Pelasgians to Athens and the Thracians to Parnassus, and it was after these Pelasgians that a part of the city of Athens was named Pelasgikon, though they took up their abode below Haimetus, end quote. In addition to this statement from Strabo, Herodotus also tells us of the Pelasgians settling for a time in Athens, as does Thucydides in the Peloponnesian War. Herodotus even goes as far as to say that the Athenians were once known as Pelasgians, who would later change their name to Athenians as Erechtheus rose to power. Quote, As for the Athenians, in the time when the Pelasgians occupied that which is now called Hellas, they were Pelasgians, being named Kranaoi, and in the time of King Kekrops, they came to be called Kekropidae. Then, when Erechtheus had succeeded to his power, they had their name changed to Athenians. And after Ion, the son of Xuthos, became commander of the Athenians, they got their name from him of Ionians, end quote. In an account of some Phoenicians carrying off two female oracles in order to sell them, Herodotus informs us that Pelasgia was a former name of the place, which was later known as Hellas. Quote, As regards the oracles, both that among the Hellenes and that in Libya, the Egyptians tell the following tale. The priest of the Theban Zeus told me that two women, in the service of the sanctuary, had been carried away from Thebes by Phoenicians, and that they had heard that one of them had been sold to go into Libya, and the other to the Hellenes. I, however, have an opinion about the matter as follows. If the Phoenicians did in truth carry away the consecrated women and sold one of them into Libya and the other into Hellas, I suppose that in the country now called Hellas, which was formerly called Pelasgia, this woman was sold into the land of the Thesprotians. And then, being a slave there, she set up a sanctuary of Zeus under a real oak tree, as indeed it was natural that being an attendant of the sanctuary of Zeus at Thebes, she should there, in the place to which she had come, have a memory of him. And after this, when she had got an understanding of the Hellenic tongue, she established an oracle. And she reported, I suppose, that her sister had been sold in Libya by the same Phoenicians by whom she herself had been sold." End quote. In addition to this, we also get a mention of the Pelasgians in several parts of the Peloponnesus. For example, Herodotus mentions the Pelasgians of Arcadia, and also tells us that the Ionians in Arcadia were formerly called Pelasgians of the coastland. Quote, Now the Ionians, so long time as they dwelt in the Peloponnese, in the land which is now called Arcadia, and before the time when Danaos and Xuthos came to the Peloponnese, were called, as the Hellenes report, Pelasgians of the coastland, and then Ionians after Ion, the son of Xuthos. The islanders furnished seventeen ships, and were armed like Hellenes, this also being a Pelasgian race, though afterwards it came to be called Ionian by the same rule as the Ionians of the twelve cities who came from Athens. The Iolians supplied sixty ships, and these were equipped like Hellenes, and used to be called Pelasgians in the old time, as the Hellenes report. End quote. In the works of Aeschylus, we also find a mention of the Pelasgians. In his play, Hicetides, or The Suppliant Women, Pelasgus, the king of Argos, says that his people are named Pelasgi after him. Quote, For I am Pelasgus, offspring of Pelikathon, whom the earth brought forth, and lord of this land, and after me their king is rightly named the race of the Pelasgi, who harvest the land. Of all the region through which the pure strumon flows, on the side towards the setting sun, I am the lord. There lies within the limits of my rule the land of the Piraevi, and parts beyond Pindus, close to the Pionians, and the mountain ridge of Dodona. The edge of the watery sea borders my kingdom. I rule up to these boundaries. End quote. Similarly, in Prometheus Bound, also by Aeschylus, Argolis is referred to as the Pelasgian land. Likewise, in a fragment from Sophocles, Inachus is addressed as lord of Argos and of the Tyrenae Pelasgi. Quote, O fair flowing Inachus of ocean begot, that sire of all waters, thou rulest with might over the Argai fields and Heras hills, and Tyrenae Pelasgians also. End quote. Strabo also includes the Pelasgians when discussing the tribes which had settled in the Peloponnesus before the time of the Greeks. Quote, Hecataeus of Miletus says of the Peloponnesus, that before the time of the Greeks, it was inhabited by barbarians. Perhaps even the whole of Greece was, anciently, a settlement of barbarians if we judge from former accounts. Phopelops brought colonists from Phrygia into the Peloponnesus, which took his name. Danaus brought colonists from Egypt. Dariopes, Chalcones, Pelasgi, Leleges and other barbarous nations partitioned among themselves the country on this side of the Isthmus. End quote. In addition to this, Strabo tells us that the nations of the Epirus were also Pelasgic, and comments on how Ephorus, in agreement with Hesiod, traces the origin of the Pelasgians to Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus. Quote, Many have likewise asserted that the nations of the Epirus are Pelasgic, because the dominions of the Pelasgi extended so far. And, as many of the heroes have been named Pelasgi, later writers have applied the same name to the nations over which they were the chiefs. Ephorus, when he supposes that they were a tribe of Arcadians, follows Hesiod, who says, the sons born of the divine Lycaon, whom formerly Pelasgus begot. End quote. According to Dionysius, Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, lived 17 generations before the Trojan War, and the migration of the Oinotians under Oinothrus, son of Lycaon in the next generation, is, in the words of Pausanias, quote, the first expedition dispatched from Greece to found a colony. End quote. Dionysius adopts the Achaean legend that the first abode of the Pelasgi was Achaic Argos. There they were autochthons, and took their name from Pelasgus. Six generations afterwards, they left the Peloponnesus and migrated to Hymonia. The leaders of the colony being Achaeus, Amphitheus, and Pelasgus, sons of Larissa and Poseidon. These three gave names to three districts, Achaea, Phitheotis, and Pelasgiotis. Here they lived for five generations, and in the sixth they were driven out of Thessaly by various tribes, including some who inhabited the district of Mount Parnassus, who were led by Duke Hallion. Quote, afterwards some of the Pelasgians who inhabited Thessaly, as it is now called, being obliged to leave their country, settled among the Aborigines, and jointly with them made war upon the Sicels. It is possible that the Aborigines received them partly in the hope of gaining their assistance, but I believe it was chiefly on account of their kinship, for the Pelasgians too were a Greek nation originally from the Peloponnesus. They were unfortunate in many ways, but particularly in wandering much and in having no fix to board. For they first lived in the neighbourhood of the Achaean Argos, as it is now called, being natives of the country, according to most accounts. They received their name originally from Pelasgus, their king. Pelasgus was the son of Zeus, it is said, and of Niobe, the daughter of Theroneus, who as the legend goes, was the first mortal woman Zeus had knowledge of. In the sixth generation afterwards, leaving the Peloponnesus, they removed to the country which was then called Hymonia, and now Thessaly. The leaders of the colony were Achaeus, Phitheus and Pelasgus, the sons of Larissa and Poseidon. When they arrived in Hymonia, they drove out the barbarian inhabitants and divided the country into three parts, calling them after the names of their leaders, Phitheotis, Achaea and Pelasgiotis. After they had remained there five generations, during which they attained to the greatest prosperity while enjoying the produce of the most fertile plains in Thessaly, about the sixth generation, they were driven out of it by the who are now called Aetolians and Locrians, and by many others who lived near Parnassus, their enemies being commanded by Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Clumene, the daughter of Oceanus. And dispersing themselves in their flight, some went to Crete, others occupied some of the called the Cuclades, some settled in the regions called Hestiiotis, near Olympus and Ossa, others crossed into Boeotia, Phokis and Euboea, and some passing over into Asia, occupied many places on the coast along the Hellespont, and many of the adjacent islands, particularly the one now called Lesbos, uniting with those who composed the first colony that was sent there from Greece under Makar, the son of Crinacus. But the greater part of them, turning inland, took refuge among the inhabitants of Dodona, their kinsmen, against whom as a sacred people none would make war, and there they remained for a reasonable time." Okay, so stay tuned for the next couple of episodes, where we will be looking at the sources which talk about the Pelasgians in the islands of the Aegean, Asia Minor, and finally, Italy. Please do let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks again to everyone who supports me and this channel, it's much appreciated. Thanks once again for watching, and as always, I'll catch you on the next one. Old Boy out.