Editing Pelasgians (section)

==== Herodotus ====
In the ''Histories'', the Greek historian [[Herodotus]] of [[Halicarnassus]] made many references to the Pelasgians. In Book 1, the Pelasgians are mentioned within the context of [[Croesus]] seeking to learn who the strongest Greeks were to befriend them.<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D56 1.56.]</ref> Afterwards, Herodotus ambivalently classified the Pelasgian language as "[[Barbarians|barbarian]]" though he thought of the Pelasgians to have been essentially Greek. Herodotus also discussed various areas inhabited (or previously inhabited) by Pelasgians/Pelasgian-speakers along with their different neighbors/co-residents:<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', 1.57. ({{harvnb|Herodotus|Strassler|2009|p=32}}.)</ref>{{Sfn|Georges|1994|p=134: "Herodotus, like other Greeks, instinctively imagined the non-Dorian inhabitants of 'ancient' Greece—Achaeans, Argives, Danaans, Ionians, Pelasgians, Cadmeans, Lapiths, and all the rest of the races of myth and epic—to be essentially "Greek" and ancestral to themselves, as Aeschylus imagined the Pelasgian Argives in the Supplices [...]"}}
{{quote|I am unable to state with certainty what language the Pelasgians spoke, but we could consider the speech of the Pelasgians who still exist in settlements above Tyrrhenia in the city of Kreston, formerly neighbors to the Dorians who at that time lived in the land now called Thessaliotis; also the Pelasgians who once lived with the Athenians and then settled Plakia and Skylake in the Hellespont; and along with those who lived with all the other communities and were once Pelasgian but changed their names. If one can judge by this evidence, the Pelasgians spoke a barbarian language. And so, if the Pelasgian language was spoken in all these places, the people of Attica being originally Pelasgian, must have learned a new language when they became Hellenes. As a matter of fact, the people of Krestonia and Plakia no longer speak the same language, which shows that they continue to use the dialect they brought with them when they migrated to those lands.}}

Furthermore, Herodotus discussed the relationship between the Pelasgians and the (other) Greeks,<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', 1.56–1.58. ({{harvnb|Herodotus|Strassler|2009|pp=32–33}}.)</ref>{{Sfn|Georges|1994|p=131: "Herodotus argues near the very beginning of his work that most of the people who later became Hellenes were Pelasgians, and that these Pelasgians were barbarians and spoke a barbarian language. From these Pelasgians Herodotus derives the descent of the Ionians, as well as that of all the other Greeks of the present day who are not Dorians (1.56.3–58) [...]"}} which, according to Pericles Georges, reflected the {{qi|rivalry within Greece itself between [...] Dorian Sparta and Ionian Athens.}}{{Sfn|Georges|1994|pp=129–130}} Specifically, Herodotus stated that the Hellenes separated from the Pelasgians with the former group surpassing the latter group numerically:<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', 1.58. ({{harvnb|Herodotus|Strassler|2009|p=33}}.)</ref>
{{quote|As for the Hellenes, it seems obvious to me that ever since they came into existence they have always used the same language. They were weak at first, when they were separated from the Pelasgians, but they grew from a small group into a multitude, especially when many peoples, including other barbarians in great numbers, had joined them. Moreover, I do not think the Pelasgian, who remained barbarians, ever grew appreciably in number or power.}}

In Book 2, Herodotus alluded to the Pelasgians as inhabitants of [[Samothrace]], an island located just north of Troy, before coming to Attica.<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=2.51.0 2.51]. The text allows two interpretations, that Pelasgians were indigenous there or that they had been resettled by Athens.</ref> Moreover, Herodotus wrote that the Pelasgians simply called their gods ''theoi'' prior to naming them on the grounds that the gods established all affairs in their order (''thentes''); the author also stated that the gods of the Pelasgians were the [[Cabeiri]].<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D51 2.51.]</ref> Later, Herodotus stated that the entire territory of Greece (i.e., ''Hellas'') was initially called "Pelasgia".<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D56 2.56.]</ref>

In Book 5, Herodotus mentioned the Pelasgians as inhabitants of the islands of [[Lemnos]] and [[Imbros]].<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=5.26.1 5.26].</ref>
[[File:Jean Benner, Athéniennes surprises par des Pélages de Lemnos.jpg|thumb|''Athenian Women Surprised by the Pelasgians of Lemnos'', [[Jean Benner]], {{c.|1876}}]]
In Book 6, the Pelasgians of Lemnos were originally Hellespontine Pelasgians who had been living in Athens but whom the [[Athens|Athenians]] resettled on Lemnos and then found it necessary to reconquer the island.<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', 6.137–6.140.</ref> This expulsion of (non-Athenian) Pelasgians from Athens may reflect, according to the historian Robert Buck, {{qi|a dim memory of forwarding of refugees, closely akin to the Athenians in speech and custom, to the Ionian colonies}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Buck|1979|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5Ada2TbJWM0C&pg=PA79 79]}}.</ref> Also, Herodotus wrote that the Pelasgians on the island of Lemnos opposite Troy once kidnapped the Hellenic women of Athens for wives, but the Athenian wives created a crisis by teaching their children {{qi|the language of Attica}} instead of the Pelasgian.<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D138 6.138.]</ref>

In Book 7, Herodotus mentioned {{qi|the Pelasgian city of [[Antandrus]]}}<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=7.42.1 7.42].</ref> and wrote about the Ionian inhabitants of {{qi|the land now called Achaea}} (i.e., northwestern Peloponnese) being {{qi|called, according to the Greek account, Aegialean Pelasgi, or Pelasgi of the Sea Shore}}; afterwards, they were called ''Ionians''.<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D94%3Asection%3D1 7.94].</ref> Moreover, Herodotus mentioned that the Aegean islanders {{qi|were a Pelasgian race, who in later times took the name Ionians}} and that the [[Aeolians]], according to the Hellenes, were known anciently as "Pelasgians."<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', 7.95. ({{harvnb|Herodotus|Strassler|2009|p=533}}.)</ref>

In Book 8, Herodotus mentioned that the Pelasgians of Athens were previously called ''Cranai''.<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126&query=section%3D%233768&word=Pelasgians 8.44].</ref>