PREHISTORIC
DACIA
PART
5 –
Ch.XXXII
The
Pelasgians or proto – Latins (Arimii)
The
southern Pelasgians
XXXII.
1. Pelasgians in Hem peninsula.
The Pelasgians, the
extended people of the ancient world, had ruled in ante-historical times not
only over Hellada, but over the entire Hem
peninsula. We shall summarize here the various data regarding this which we
find with the Greek authors.
Thessaly, the most fertile and beautiful territory
of ancient Greece, situated between Olympus, Ossa, Pelion and Pindus mountains,
had once bore the name Pelasgicon Argos
(Homer, Iliad, II. v. 681; Strabo, Geogr. VIII. 6. 5), Pelasgicon pedion (Strabo, Geogr. Ix. 5. 22), meaning the plain of the Pelasgians, and
Pelasgia (Hecateus, Fragm. 334, in Fragm Hist. graec. I. Ed. Didot, p. 25;
Ibid, vol. IV. P. 501; Eustathius,
Comm. In Dionysium v. 427).
The Epirus, Pyrrhus’ country,
a region with deep valleys, wild and partly fertile, had once been inhabited by
the Pelasgians (Strabo, lib. V. 2.
4). Here was Dodona, religious
metropolis of the Pelasgians in the Homeric epoch (Strabo, lib. VII. 7. 10), where the supreme divinity who governed
the sky and the earth was venerated under the national name of “Jove of the Pelasgians”, Zeus
Pelasgikos (Homer, Iliad,
XVI. 233).
The entire Peloponessus, a country covered in vast
woodlands, crisscrossed by numerous rivers and streams, with very favorable
conditions for a pastoral life, had been called in antiquity Pelasgia, as the historians Acusilaus (fragm 11, Frag. Hist. graec.
I. p. 101), and Ephorus
(fragm. 54, ibid. p. 248; Pliny,
lib. IV. 5. 1) tell us.
Arcadia, a region
surrounded by mountains and inhabited by a pastoral people with simple and
patriarchal mores, had once the name “Pelasgia”
(Steph. Byz. ‘Arkadia; Herodotus, lib.I. 146).
Argos, the kingdom of Agamemnon, famous for its
cities Mycenae and Tirynth, where
have been discovered in our time priceless treasures of a buried Pelasgian
civilization, had also been a country of the Pelasgians. Argos is given the name Pelasgia by Eschyl (Prom. v. 860), Euripides
(Orestes, v. 675, 849, 1611; Iphig. in Aulida, v. 1494; Erakles mainomenos, v. 462), Eustathius (Comm. In Dionysium, 347),
and Strabo (lib. VIII. 6. 9).
Beotia also, a country rich in sheep flocks and
herds of cattle and horses, with the famous Parnassus and Helicon mountains,
with their fine valleys dedicated to the divinities, had been inhabited in
ancient times by Pelasgians (Strabo,
lib. IX. 2. 25; Ibid. IX. 2. 3).
The same happened
with Attica, a simple
agricultural province, which appears at the beginning of its history as a
region inhabited by Pelasgians (Herodotus,
lib. I. c. 57; Ibid. IX. 2. 3).
Athens, the center of
intellectual and political life of ancient Greece, had been founded
by Pelasgians. During the time of the rule of the Pelasgians over Greece, writes Herodotus, the Athenians had been Pelasgian (lib. VIII. 24). The strong wall
which once surrounded the acropolis of Athens had been built by
Pelasgians, Pelasgikon teichos (Herodotus,
lib.V.64; Fragm Hist. grace. II. 111. 17; IV. 457. 3). Even in the times of the Roman Empire a part of the city
of Athens was called Palasgicon (Strabo, lib. IX. 2. 3; Ibid. V. 2. 3; V. 2. 8).
The entire Macedonia, a country with
great political ideals and ruler of the world in the times of Alexander the
Great, had had in ancient times a Pelasgian population (Justinus, lib. VII. 1. 1).
Macedo, the
national patriarch of Macedonia, appears in the
ancient genealogy of the peoples from the Hem peninsula, as a descendant of
Pelasg (Apollodorus, Bibl. lib. III.
8. 1). Herodotus also writes that
the Pelasgians who dwelt in the region of Pindus were called Macedoni (lib.I. 56).
The ancient
populations of Illyria were of the same
nationality as the Macedonians (Appianus,
Bell. Mithr. 55). The various tribes of
this region, Liburnii, Dalmatii, Iapozii, Dindarii, Brygii, Byllionii,
Taulantii, Dasaretii, Ardieii, Dardanii, etc, had Pelasgian names, mores and
traditions.
The so-called “barbara” Illyria was called Illyris Romana even since the time of
Augustus.
Finally, the entire
territory of Thrace, which in a remote
antiquity comprised also the populations from the north of the Lower Danube, had also been a
Pelasgian country.
The Trojans and
Mysians, Herodotus tells us, had
undertaken in prehistoric times a great expedition into Europe, and had subjected
the entire Thrace to the Ionic Sea (lib. VII. 20).
This proves that the Thracians were at one time of the same ethnic nationality
as the Pelasgians from Asia Minor [1].
[1. Some traces of the ancient
Pelasgians were mentioned in later times in Athos peninsula (Herodotus,
I. 57; Strabo, VII. 35; Thucydides,
IV. 109). Scymnus of Chios (Orb. Descr. V. 585) also speaks about the Pelasgiotii emigrated from Thrace to the islands Scyros and Schiathos. Strabo (XIII. 1. 31) states on another hand that the Thracians and Trojans had many names in common. The Mysiens (Mysoi) who had emigrated from Thrace to Asia Minor had the same origin and language
with the Moesi or Mysii from between the Danube and the Hem (Strabo, XII. 3. 3; VII. 3. 2; XIII. 1. 8)].
Finally, the poet Eschyl presents the following picture
of the expansion of Pelasgian domination in the south-eastern parts of Europe.
King Pelasg of Argos says the following
to Danaos: “I am Pelasg …..king of this country. The nation of the Pelasgians,
so rightly called after me, their king, occupies this country. I rule over the
entire earth, from which the river Algos
(Altos?) flows down, and Strymon,
which flows from where the sun sets. Inside the borders of my empire there is
also the country of the Perrhebi
(north of Thessaly) and the
lands from beyond Pindus, near the Paeoni and the mountains of Dodona (Epirus). It is true that
the sea breaks off the borders of my country, but my rule also extends beyond the sea, and the name of that country
is Apia (Suppl. v. 250).
The important river
about which Pelasg speaks here, which flew from the end of the world, where the
sun sets, which turned to ice during winter (Eschyl, Persaeus, v. 497) and which was in the region from where
the cold winds blew (Eschyl,
Agamemnon, v. 192), is in no way Strymon of Thrace, but the famous Istru of
Europe (Pindar, Olymp. III.18).
The great rivers,
especially the holy Istru (to which Alexander the Great also brings sacrifices)
served in the official rhetoric of the ancient times, to describe the size,
power and durability of an empire. The ancient kings, as Dinonus tells us (fragm. 16 in Fragm Hist. gr. II. 92), ordered to have
water brought from Istru or Nile, which they preserved in their treasury, in
order to prove the size of their empires, and their power over all. This is
what Pelasg wants to express, and this is the true meaning of the tradition
transmitted by Eschyl.