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=== Poets === ==== Homer ==== [[File:Thessaly Plain.jpg|thumb|250px|Plain of [[Thessaly]], to the west of classical [[Pelasgiotis]], but in the original range of the Pelasgians. The [[Pindus Mountains]] are visible in the background. The river is the [[Pineios River (Thessaly)|Peneus]].]] In the ''[[Iliad]]'', there were Pelasgians on both sides of the [[Trojan War]].{{sfn|Gruen|2011|p=241}} In the section known as the ''[[Catalogue of Trojans]]'', they are mentioned between the [[Hellespont]]ine cities and the [[Thracians]] of Southeastern Europe (i.e.,{{nbs}}on the [[Hellespont]]ine border of [[Thrace]]).<ref>Homer. ''Iliad'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D2%3Acard%3D819 2.840–2.843]. The camp at [[Troy]] is mentioned in ''Iliad'', 10.428–10.429.</ref> Homer calls their town or district "Larisa"<ref>Not the same as the [[Larissa]] in [[Thessaly]], Greece. Many towns bearing the same (or similar) name existed. This specific "Larisa" seems to have been located in [[Asia]]. See: {{harvnb|Gruen|2011|p=241}}</ref> and characterises it as fertile, and its inhabitants as celebrated for their spearsmanship. He records their chiefs as [[Hippothous]] and [[Pylaeus]], sons of Lethus, son of [[Teutamides]].<ref>Homer. ''Iliad'' 2.806–12, 17.320–57 (transl. [[Robert Fitzgerald]]). See: {{harvnb|Gruen|2011|p=241}}</ref> The ''Iliad'' also refers to the camp at [[Greece]], specifically at "[[Argos Pelasgikon]]",<ref>Homer. ''Iliad'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D2%3Acard%3D653 2.681–2.684.]</ref>{{sfn|Gruen|2011|p=241}} which is most likely to be the [[plain of Thessaly]],<ref>The location is never explicitly given. Gladstone shows, by process of elimination, that it must be in the north of Thessaly. ({{harvnb|Gladstone|1858|pp=100–105}}.)</ref> and to "Pelasgic [[Zeus]]", living in and ruling over [[Dodona]].<ref>Homer. ''Iliad'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D16%3Acard%3D200 16.233–16.235.]</ref> Additionally, according to the ''Iliad'', Pelasgians were camping out on the shore together with the following tribes: <blockquote>Towards the sea lie the [[Carians]] and the [[Paeonians]], with curved bows, and the [[Leleges]] and [[Caucones]], and the goodly Pelasgi.<ref>Homer. ''Iliad'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.%20Il.%2010.428&lang=original 10.428].</ref></blockquote> In the ''[[Odyssey]]'', they appear among the inhabitants of [[Crete]].{{sfn|Gruen|2011|p=241}} [[Odysseus]], affecting to be Cretan himself, instances Pelasgians among the tribes in the ninety cities of [[Crete]], {{qi|language mixing with language side by side}}.<ref>Homer. ''Odyssey'', 19.175–19.177 ([[Robert Fagles]]'s translation).</ref> Last on his list, Homer distinguishes them from other ethnicities on the island: "Cretans proper", Achaeans, Cydonians (of the city of [[Kydonia|Cydonia]]/modern [[Chania]]), Dorians, and "noble Pelasgians".<ref>Homer. ''Odyssey'', Book 19 (T.E. Lawrence's translation).</ref> ==== Hesiod ==== [[Hesiod]], in a fragment known from [[Strabo]], calls Dodona, identified by reference to "the [[oak]]", the "seat of Pelasgians",<ref>Hesiod, fr. 319 M–W = Strabo. ''Geography'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/7G*.html#ref458 7.7.10].</ref> thus explaining why Homer, in referring to Zeus as he ruled over Dodona, did ''not'' style him "''Dodonic''" but ''Pelasgic'' Zeus. He mentions also that [[Pelasgus]] (Greek: Πελασγός, the [[eponymous]] ancestor of the Pelasgians) was the father of [[Lycaon (king of Arcadia)|King Lycaon]] of [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].<ref>Hesiod. ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'', fr. 161 = Strabo. ''Geography'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/5B*.html#ref88 5.2.4]</ref> ==== Asius of Samos ==== [[Asius of Samos]] ({{langx|grc|Ἄσιος ὁ Σάμιος}}) describes [[Pelasgus]] as the first man, born of the earth.{{Sfn|Prichard|1841|p=489}} This account features centrally in the construction of an enduring autochthonous Arcadian identity into the [[Classical Greece|Classical period]].{{sfn|Lambright|2022|p=39}} In a fragment quoted by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], Asius describes the foundational hero of the Greek ethnic groups as {{qi|godlike Pelasgus [whom the] black earth gave up}}.{{sfn|Lambright|2022|p=33}} ==== Aeschylus ==== [[Aeschylus]] incorporates all the territories that the Archaic tradition identifies as Pelasgian, including [[Thessaly]] (the region of Homer's Pelasgian Argos), [[Dodona]] (the seat of Homer's Pelasgian Zeus), and [[Arcadia (region)|Arcadia]] (the region ruled by autochthonous [[Pelasgus]]'s son [[Lycaon (king of Arcadia)|Lycaon]]) into an Argive-Pelasgian kingdom ruled by Pelasgus. This affirms the ancient Greek origins of the Pelasgians as well as their widespread settlements throughout [[Central Greece (geographic region)|central Greece]] and the [[Peloponnese]].{{sfn|Lambright|2022|pp=80-81}} In Aeschylus's play, ''[[The Suppliants (Aeschylus)|The Suppliants]]'', the [[Danaus|Danaids]] fleeing from [[Egypt]] seek asylum from King Pelasgus of Argos, which he says is on the [[Struma (river)|Strymon]], including [[Perrhaebia]] in the north, the Thessalian Dodona and the slopes of the [[Pindus]] mountains on the west and the shores of the sea on the east;<ref>Aeschylus. ''The Suppliants'', Lines 249–259.</ref> that is, a territory including but somewhat larger than classical [[Pelasgiotis]]. The southern boundary is not mentioned; however, Apis is said to have come to Argos from [[Naupactus]] "across" (''peras''),<ref>Aeschylus. ''The Suppliants'', Lines 262–263.</ref> implying that Argos includes all of east Greece from the north of Thessaly to the Peloponnesian Argos, where the Danaids are probably to be conceived as having landed. He claims to rule the Pelasgians and to be the {{qi|child of Palaichthon (or 'ancient earth') whom the earth brought forth}}. The Danaids call the country the "Apian hills" and claim that it understands the ''karbana audan''<ref>Aeschylus. ''The Suppliants'', Lines 128–129.</ref> ([[accusative case]], and in the Dorian dialect), which many translate as "barbarian speech" but Karba (where the ''Karbanoi'' live) is in fact a non-Greek word. They claim to descend from ancestors in ancient Argos even though they are of a "dark race" (''melanthes{{nbs}}... genos'').<ref>Aeschylus. ''The Suppliants'', Lines 154–155.</ref> Pelasgus admits that the land was once called Apia but compares them to the women of [[Libya]] and [[Egypt]] and wants to know how they can be from Argos on which they cite descent from [[Io (mythology)|Io]].<ref>Aeschylus. ''The Suppliants'', Lines 279–281.</ref> According to Strabo, Aeschylus's ''Suppliants'' defines the original homeland of the Pelasgians as the region around [[Mycenae]].<ref name=":0" /> ==== Sophocles and Euripides ==== Sophocles and Euripides affirm the Greek origins of the Pelasgians while highlighting their relationship to the [[Danaids]], a relationship introduced and explored in depth in [[Aeschylus]]'s ''[[The Suppliants (Aeschylus)|Suppliants]]''.{{sfn|Lambright|2022|pp=80-81}} [[Sophocles]] presents Inachus, in a fragment of a missing play entitled ''Inachus'',{{Sfn|Sophocles|Dindorf|1849|loc=Fragment 256 (p. 352)}} as the elder in the lands of Argos, the [[Hera]]n hills and among the Tyrsenoi Pelasgoi, an unusual hyphenated noun construction, "Tyrsenians-Pelasgians". Interpretation is open, even though translators typically make a decision, but Tyrsenians may well be the ethnonym ''[[Tyrrhenoi]]''. [[Euripides]] uses the term for the inhabitants of [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] in his ''[[Orestes (play)|Orestes]]''<ref>Euripides. ''Orestes'', Lines 857 and 933.</ref> and ''[[The Phoenician Women (play)|The Phoenician Women]]''.<ref>Euripides. ''The Phoenician Women'', Line 107.</ref> In a lost play entitled ''Archelaus'', he says that [[Danaus]], on coming to reside in the city of [[Inachus]] (Argos), formulated a law whereby the Pelasgians were now to be called [[Danaans]].<ref name=":0" /> ==== Ovid ==== The [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] poet [[Ovid]] describes the Greeks of the Trojan War as Pelasgians in his ''[[Metamorphoses]]'':<ref>Ovid. ''Metamorphoses'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D12%3Acard%3D1 12.1].</ref> {{quote|Sadly his father, Priam, mourned for him, not knowing that young Aesacus had assumed wings on his shoulders, and was yet alive. Then also Hector with his brothers made complete but unavailing sacrifice, upon a tomb which bore his carved name. Paris was absent. But soon afterwards, he brought into that land a ravished wife, Helen, the cause of a disastrous war, together with a thousand ships, and all the great Pelasgian nation. [...] Here, when a sacrifice had been prepared to [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jove]], according to the custom of their land, and when the ancient altar glowed with fire, the Greeks observed an azure colored snake crawling up in a plane tree near the place where they had just begun their sacrifice. Among the highest branches was a nest, with twice four birds—and those the serpent seized together with the mother-bird as she was fluttering round her loss. And every bird the serpent buried in his greedy maw. All stood amazed: but Calchas, who perceived the truth, exclaimed, "Rejoice Pelasgian men, for we shall conquer; Troy will fall; although the toil of war must long continue—so the nine birds equal nine long years of war." And while he prophesied, the serpent, coiled about the tree, was transformed to a stone, curled crooked as a snake.}}
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