The name Pelasgians (Ancient Greek: Πελασγοί - Pelasgoí, s. Pelasgós) was used by some ancient Greek writers to refer to groups of people who preceded the Hellenes. Some of these people still dwelt in several locations in mainland Greece, Crete, and other regions of the Aegean, as neighbors of the Hellenes, into the 5th century BC. However, other ancient Greek and Roman writers describe them as Greeks.^[1][2][3] Even though ancient Greek references to the Pelasgians are confusing, many Greek writers agreed that Pelasgians had spoken a "barbaric" or "unsophisticated Greek" language. No secure archaeological connection of Pelasgians with a Late Neolithic site has been made. Note: This article contains special characters. ... The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. ... For other uses, see Greek (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... Look up Aegean Sea in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. ...

Whether the Pelasgian language was pre-Indo-European or not, the distinction between Pelasgians and Tyrrhenians and the extent to which Pelasgian was a single language or not, are modern disputes that are colored by contemporary nationalist issues. There is also a theory suggesting that the Philistines or Peleset of the ancient Levant were connected with the Pelasgians. Scholars have since come to use the term "Pelasgian" somewhat indiscriminately, to indicate all the autochthonous inhabitants of the Aegean lands before the advent of the Greeks; a number of other recent theories as to their nature are also discussed below. The Pelasgian language is the unclassified language of the ancient Pelasgians. ... Map showing the Neolithic expansions from the 7th to the 5th millennium BCE Europe in ca. ... The Tyrrhenians (Attic Greek Turrēnoi) or Tyrsenians (Ionic Tursēnoi, Doric Tursānoi) is an exonym used by Greek authors to refer to a non-Greek people. ... Eugène Delacroixs Liberty Leading the People, symbolising French nationalism during the July Revolution 1830. ... Map showing the location of Philistine land and cities of Gaza, Ashdod, and Ashkelon Map of the southern Levant, c. ... The Levant The Levant (IPA: ) is an imprecise geographical term historically referring to a large area in the Middle East south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and by the northern Arabian Desert and Upper Mesopotamia to the east. ... Indigenous peoples are: Peoples living in an area prior to colonization by a state Peoples living in an area within a nation-state, prior to the formation of a nation-state, but who do not identify with the dominant nation. ...

Classical Greek uses

In Homer

The ethnonym Pelasgoí (Pelasgians) is of unknown etymology. It first occurs in the poems of Homer: the Pelasgians in the Iliad appear among the allies of Troy. In the section known to scholars as the Catalogue of Ships, which otherwise preserves a strict geographical order, they stand between the Hellespontine cities and the Thracians of south-east Europe, i.e. on the Hellespontine border of Thrace (2.840-843). Homer calls their town or district "Larissa" 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 Teutamus. Iliad, 10.428-429, describes their camping ground between the town of Troy and the sea. An ethnonym (Gk. ... Not to be confused with Entomology, the scientific study of insects. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... title page of the Rihel edition of ca. ... For other uses of Troy or Ilion, see Troy (disambiguation) and Ilion (disambiguation). ... The Helespont/Dardanelles, a long narrow strait dividing the Balkans (Europe) along the Gallipoli peninsula from Asia Anatolia (Asia Minor). ... Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak  Thrace (Bulgarian: , Greek: , Attic Greek: ThrāíkÄ“ or ThrēíkÄ“, Latin: , Turkish: ) is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. ... Larissa (Greek: Λάρισα, Lárisa) is the capital city of the Thessaly periphery of Greece, and capital of the Larissa Prefecture. ...

The Odyssey, 17.175-177, places the Pelasgians in Crete, together with two apparently indigenous and two immigrant peoples (Achaeans and Dorians), but gives no indication to which class the Pelasgians belong. Lemnos (Iliad, 7.467; 14. 230) has no Pelasgians, but a Minyan dynasty. Two other passages (Iliad, 2.681-684; 16.233-235) apply the epithet "Pelasgic" to a district called Argos about Mount Othrys in southern Thessaly, and to the temple of Zeus at Dodona, in Epirus. But neither passage mentions actual Pelasgians; Hellenes and Achaeans specifically people the Thessalian Argos, and Dodona hosts Perrhaebians and Aenianes (Iliad, 2.750) who are nowhere described as Pelasgian. It looks therefore as if "Pelasgian" was used in Homeric epic connotatively, to mean either "formerly occupied by Pelasgians" or simply "of immemorial age." Beginning of the Odyssey For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... The Achaeans (in Greek , Achaioi) is the collective name given to the Greek forces in Homers Iliad (used 598 times). ... This article or section should include material from Dorian invasion The Dorians were one of the ancient Hellenic (Greek) races. ... Lemnos (mod. ... In Greek mythology and legendary prehistory of the Aegean region, the Minyans were a group among the autochthonous inhabitants. ... Mount Othrys (Greek: Όρος Όθρυς, Oros-, other transliteration: Othris) is a mountain in Central Greece in the northeastern part of Fthiotis and southern part of Magnesia. ... Map showing Thessaly periphery in Greece Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Dodona (disambiguation). ... Epirus, spanning Greece and Albania. ...

Post-Homeric

Strabo quotes Hesiod as expanding on the Homeric phrase, calling Dodona "seat of Pelasgians" (fragment 225); he speaks also of the eponymous ancestor of the Pelasgians, Pelasgus (Ancient Greek: Πελασγός), the father of the culture-hero of Arcadia, Lycaon. After Hesiod, a number of early authors flesh out his brief statement. An early genealogist, Asius of Samos, describes Pelasgus as the first man, literally born of the earth to create a race of men. An early poet, Hecataeus, makes Pelasgus king of Thessaly (expounding Iliad, 2.681-684); Acusilaus applies this Homeric passage to the Peloponnesian Argos, the Argolid, and engrafts the Hesiodic Pelasgus, father of Lycaon, into a Peloponnesian genealogy. The Greek geographer Strabo in a 16th century engraving. ... Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived... For other uses, see Dodona (disambiguation). ... An eponym is a person (real or fictitious) whose name has become identified with a particular object or activity. ... In Greek mythology, Pelasgus referred to several different people. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Arcadia or Arkadía (Greek Αρκαδία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. ... Lycaon, in Greek mythology, was a son of Priam and Laothoe. ... Genealogy is the study and tracing of family pedigrees. ... Asius may refer to: Asios Hyrtakides. ... Hecataeus (c. ... Acusilaus or Akousilaos of Argos, son of Cabas or Scabras, was a Greek logographer and mythographer who flourished around 500 BC but whose work survives only in fragments and summaries of individual points. ... This article is about the city in Greece. ...

Hellanicus repeats this identification a generation later, and identifies this Argive or Arcadian Pelasgus with the Thessalian Pelasgus of Hecataeus. Aeschylus regards Pelasgus as earthborn (Supplices I, sqq.), as in Asius, and ruler of a kingdom stretching from Argos to Dodona and the Strymon; but in Prometheus 879, the "Pelasgian" land simply means Argos. Sophocles takes the same view (Inachus, fragment. 256) and for the first time introduces the ethnonym Tyrrhenoi, apparently as synonymous with "Pelasgians". Euripedes calls the inhabitants of Argos Pelasgian Orestes 857, and 933, if genuine. Hellanicus of Lesbos (in Ancient Greek ) (born in Mytilene on the isle of Lesbos in 490 BC) was an ancient Greek logographer who flourished during the latter half of the 5th century BC. He is reputed to have lived to the age of 85. ... This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... This article is about the Greek tragedian. ... The Tyrrhenians (Attic Greek Turrēnoi) or Tyrsenians (Ionic Tursēnoi, Doric Tursānoi) is an exonym used by Greek authors to refer to a non-Greek people. ...

In Herodotus

Herodotus, like Homer, has a denotative as well as a connotative use. He describes actual Pelasgians surviving and speaking mutually intelligible dialects Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Hērodotos Halikarnāsseus) was a Greek historian from Ionia who lived in the 5th century BC (ca. ...

• at Placie and Scylace on the Asiatic shore of the Hellespont;
• near Creston on the Strymon; in this area they have "Tyrrhenian" neighbors (Persian Wars 1.57).

Herodotus wrote: Crestonia (Crestonice) was an ancient region immediately north of Mygdonia. ... The Struma (Bulgarian: Струма, Greek: Strimonis, Turkish: Karasu (meaning black water in Turkish)) is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. ...

"What language however the Pelasgians used to speak I am not able with certainty to say. But if one must pronounce judging by those that still remain of the Pelasgians who dwelt in the city of Creston above the Tyrsenians, and who were once neighbours of the race now called Dorian, dwelling then in the land which is now called Thessaliotis, and also by those that remain of the Pelasgians who settled at Plakia and Skylake in the region of the Hellespont, who before that had been settlers with the Athenians, and of the natives of the various other towns which are really Pelasgian, though they have lost the name,--if one must pronounce judging by these, the Pelasgians used to speak a Barbarian language. If therefore all the Pelasgian race was such as these, then the Attic race, being Pelasgian, at the same time when it changed and became Hellenic, unlearnt also its language. For the people of Creston do not speak the same language with any of those who dwell about them, nor yet do the people of Phakia, but they speak the same language one as the other: and by this it is proved that they still keep unchanged the form of language which they brought with them when they migrated to these places." (Book 1, The Histories)

He alludes to other districts where Pelasgian peoples lived on under changed names; Samothrace and Antandrus in the Troad probably provide instances of this. In discussing Lemnos and Imbros he describes a Pelasgian population whom the Athenians conquered only shortly before 500 BC, and in connection with this he tells a story of earlier raids of these Pelasgians on Attica, and of a temporary settlement there of Hellespontine Pelasgians, all dating from a time "when the Athenians were first beginning to count as Greeks." Coordinates 40°29′ N 25°31′ E Country Greece Periphery East Macedonia and Thrace Prefecture Evros Population 2,723 source (2001) Area 178. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Map of the Troas The Troas (Troad) is an ancient region in the northwestern part of Anatolia, bounded by the Hellespont to the northwest, the Aegean Sea to the west, and separated from the rest of Anatolia by the massif that forms Mount Ida. ... Lemnos (mod. ... For the district, see Gökçeada (district). ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC - 450s BC Events and Trends 509 BC - Foundation of the Roman Republic 508 BC - Office of pontifex maximus created...

Contrary to modern understanding, Herodotus was convinced that the Hellenes were not invaders, but descendants of Pelasgians:

"The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech. This at least seems evident to me. It was a branch of the Pelasgic, which separated from the main body, and at first was scanty in numbers and of little power; but it gradually spread and increased to a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as I think, a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied."

That the Athenians were autochthonous was expressed mythically in the stories of Erechtheus and Erichthonius and was emphatically stated by Isocrates in Panegyric 23-5: Erechtheus in Greek Mythology was the name of a king of Athens, and a secondary name for two other characters In Homers Iliad the name is applied to the earth-born son of Hephaestus later mostly called Erichthonius by later writers. ... King Erichthonius (also called Erechtheus I) was, according to some legends, autochthonous (born of the soil), and in other accounts he was the son of Hephaestus and Gaia or Athena or Atthis. ... Isocrates (436–338 BC), Greek rhetorician. ...

"For we did not win the country we dwell in by expelling others from it, or by seizing it when uninhabited, nor are we a mixed race collected together from many nations, but so noble and genuine is our descent, that we have continued for all time in possession of the land from which we sprang, being children of our native soil, and able to address our city by the same titles that we give to our nearest relations, for we alone of all the Hellenes have the right to call our city at once nurse and fatherland and mother."

Elsewhere "Pelasgian" in Herodotus connotes anything typical of, or surviving from, the state of things in Greece before the coming of the Greeks (in this sense one could regard all of Greece as formerly "Pelasgic"). The clearest instances of Pelasgian survivals in ritual and customs and antiquities occur in Arcadia, the "Ionian" districts of the north-west Peloponnese, and Attica, which have suffered least from hellenization. In Athens itself the prehistoric wall of the Acropolis and a plot of ground close below it received veneration in the 5th century as "Pelasgian"; so too in Thucydides (2.17). Arcadia or Arkadía (Greek Αρκαδία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. ... Acropolis (Gr. ... Bust of Thucydides residing in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. ...

We may note that all Herodotus' examples of actual Pelasgi lie round, or near, the actual Pelasgi of Homeric Thrace; that the testimony of Thucydides (4.106) confirms the most distant of these as to the Pelasgian and Tyrrhenian population of the adjacent seaboard: also that Thucydides adopts the same general Pelasgian theory of early Greece, with the refinement that he regards the Pelasgian name as originally specific, and as having come gradually into this generic use.

The historian Ephorus preserves a passage from Hesiod that attests to a tradition of an aboriginal Pelasgian people in Arcadia, and developed a theory of the Pelasgians as a warrior-people spreading 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 Troad, and even as far as Italy, where again their settlements had been recognized as early as the time of Hellanicus, in close connection once more with "Tyrrhenians." Ephorus (c. ...

Nothing in the ancient discussion of the Pelasgians is inconsistent with the Greeks, at least the Athenians, being autochthonous. Greece has been inhabited at least since the Neolithic, and there is no reason to believe that the classical Greeks were not also genetic and cultural descendants from the pre-existing inhabitants, even if the Greek languages originated from an external source. An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. ...

The copious additional information given by later writers either interprets local legends in the light of Ephorus's theory, or explains the name "Pelasgoi"; as when Philochorus expands a popular etymology "stork-folk" into a theory of their seasonal migrations; or Apollodorus says that Homer calls Zeus 'Pelasgian' "because he is not far from every one of us". Philochorus, of Athens, Greek historian during the 3rd century BC, was a member of a priestly family. ... Apollodorus was a common name in ancient Greece. ...

The connection between the Pelasgians and the Tyrrhenians, which began with Hellanicus, Herodotus and Sophocles, becomes confusing in the 3rd century, when the Lemnian pirates and their Attic kinsmen become plainly styled as Tyrrhenians, and early fortress-walls in Italy (like those on the Palatine Hill in Rome) appear as "Arcadian" colonies. The character of the ancient citadel wall at Athens has given the name "Pelasgic masonry" to all constructions of large, unhewn blocks fitted together with mortar, from Asia Minor to Spain, the massive character that has also been called "cyclopean". For other uses, see Athens (disambiguation). ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to... Cyclopean is a descriptor applied to the characteristic wall-building method of the Mycenaean culture. ...

Modern theories

Modern theories about Pelasgians are sometimes colored by myths of national origin, notably (in alphabetical order) Albania, Greece and Turkey. Popularizations tend to be more colorful. The history and character of justifications of present rights to territory by demonstrating the presence of an ancestral population in deep history— Urrecht— are discussed at Revanchism. In all the following theories there is a mainstream, supported by philology, archaeology and toponymy, and there are divergent fringe theories with specific appeals. A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nations past. ... Revanchism (from French revanche, revenge) is a term used since the 1870s to describe political campaigns to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country during previous wars and strifes, sometimes quite distant in time. ... Philology, etymologically, is the love of words. It is most accurately defined as an affinity toward the learning of the backgrounds as well as the current usages of spoken or written methods of human communication. The commonality of studied languages is more important than their origin or age (that is... For referencing in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Citing sources. ... Toponymy is the taxonomic study of toponyms (place-names), their origins and their meanings. ...

Pelasgians as pre-Indo-European people

From an undefined, perhaps tribal name, both Classical historians and archeologists have come to use the name "Pelasgian" to describe the inhabitants in the lands around the Aegean Sea and their descendants before the arrival of the waves of proto-Greek-speaking invaders during the 2nd millennium BC. Though Wilamowitz-Moellendorff wrote them off as mythical, the results of archaeological excavations at Çatalhöyük by James Mellaart (1955) and F. Schachermeyr (1979) led them to conclude that the Pelasgians had migrated from Asia Minor to the Aegean basin in the 4th millennium BC. Further, scholars have attributed a number of non-Indo-European linguistic and cultural features to the Pelasgians: Look up Aegean Sea in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age. ... Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (22 December 1848 - 25 September 1931) was a German classical philologist. ... Excavations at the South Area of Çatal Höyük Çatalhöyük (also Çatal Höyük and Çatal Hüyük, or any of the three without diacritics; çatal is Turkish for fork, höyük for mound) was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern... James Mellaart is an English archaeologist who is responsible for discovering and excavating the Neolithic village of Catalhoyuk in Turkey. ... Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ... The 4th millennium BC saw major changes in human culture. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ...

• Groups of non-Indo-European loan words in the Greek language, borrowed in its prehistoric development
• Non-Indo-European roots for many Greek place names in the region, containing the consonantal strings "-nth-" (e.g. Corinth, Probalinthos), or its equivalent "-ns-" (e.g. Tiryns); "-tt-", e.g. in the peninsula of Attica, Mounts Hymettus and Brilettus/Brilessus, Lycabettus Hill, the deme of Gargettus etc, or its equivalent "-ss-", e.g. Larissa, Mount Parnassus, the rivers Kephissus and Ilissus etc.
• Certain mythological stories or deities (usually goddesses) that have no parallel to the mythologies of other Indo-European peoples like the Germans, Celts or Indians.
• A small number of non-Greek inscriptions, the best-known found on Lemnos (the Lemnos stele). These inscriptions use a version of the western Greek alphabet similar to that used in the Old Italic alphabet employed for Etruscan inscriptions.

Not all of these features belong to the same people. In western Anatolia, many "-ss-" placenames derive from the adjectival suffix also seen in cuneiform Luwian and some Palaic; the classic example is Bronze Age Tarhuntassa (loosely, "City of the Storm God Tarhunta"), and later Parnassus may be related to the Hittite word parna- or "house". Because of insufficient evidence from the 2nd millennium BC, no consensus exists on the relationship of these "Pelasgian" elements to their neighbors – although much speculation has taken place, sometimes fueled by a desire for association with some of the earliest known inhabitants of Europe. Greek ( IPA: or simply IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language in the Indo-European language family. ... Corinth, or Korinth (Greek: Κόρινθος, Kórinthos; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a Greek city-state, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. ... Plan of Tiryns excavations Tiryns (in ancient Greek Τίρυνς and in modern Τίρυνθα) is a Mycenaean archeological site in the Greek nomos of Argolis in the Peloponnese peninsula, some kilometres north of Nauplion. ... Attica (in Greek: Αττική, Attike; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a periphery (subdivision) in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece. ... Hymettus, also Hymettos (Gr. ... Pentéli or Pendeli, (Greek: Πεντέλη, ancient forms: Pentele or Pentelicus, Mendeli in medieval times) is a tall mountain and mountain range situated northeast of Athens and southwest of Marathon. ... Lykavittos ( Greek: Λυκάβηττος) is a Cretaceous limestone hill in Athens, Greece. ... In biology, a deme (rhymes with team) is another word for a local population of organisms of one species that actively interbreed with one another and share a distinct gene pool. ... Alternative meanings: Larissa in mythology was a daughter of Pelasgus; Larrissa is a moon of Neptune; 1162 Larissa is an asteroid; Larissa is also a first name. ... Mount Parnassus (also Mount Parnassos) is a mountain in central Greece that towers above Delphi. ... For other uses, see Mythology (disambiguation). ... Celts, normally pronounced // (see article on pronunciation), is widely used to refer to the members of any of the peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages or descended from those who did. ... Lemnos (mod. ... The Lemnian language is the language of a 6th century BC inscription found on a funerary stela on the island of Lemnos (termed the Lemnos stele, discovered in 1885 near Kaminia). ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Languages in Iron Age Italy, 6th century BC Etruscan was a language spoken and written in the ancient region of Etruria (current Tuscany plus western Umbria and northern Latium) and in parts of what are now Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna (where the Etruscans were displaced by Gauls), in Italy. ... Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is part of the Anatolian branch of the Indo European language family and has been preserved in three forms: (1) Cuneiform Luwian, (2) Hieroglyphic-Luwian and (3), the somewhat later Lycian. ... Palaic was one of the Anatolian languages, and as such a sister language of Hittite. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... Tarhuntassa is an as-yet undiscovered Bronze Age city south of Hattusa. ... Mount Parnassus (also Mount Parnassos) is a mountain in central Greece that towers above Delphi. ... The 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age. ...

But much is not known about the Pelasgians, and may never be known. As Donald A. Mackenzie, wrote in 1917:^[4]

"Before these [Hellenic] invaders entered into possession of the country [of Greece] it had been divided between various 'barbarous tribes', including the Pelasgi and their congeners the Caucones and Leleges. Thirlwall, among others, expressed the view 'that the name Pelasgians was a general one, like that of Saxons, Franks, or Alemanni, and that each of the Pelasgian tribes had also one peculiar to itself'. The Hellenes did not exterminate the aborigines, but constituted a military aristocracy. Aristotle was quoted to show that their original seat was near Dodona, in Epirus, and that they first appeared in Thessaly about 1384 BC. It was believed that the Hellenic conquerors laid the foundation of Greek civilization."

Mackenzie continues, quoting George Grote: A congener (from Latin roots meaning born together or within the same race or kind) has several different meanings depending on the field in which it is used. ... According to brief mentions by Herodotus and some other classical writers, the Caucones (or Kaukones) were an indigenous (autochthonous) tribe of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), who were displaced or absorbed by the immigant Bithynians, who were a group of clans from Thrace that spoke an Indo_European language. ... The Leleges were one of the aboriginal peoples of southwest Anatolia (compare Pelasgians), who were already there when the Indo-European Hellenes arrived. ... Connop Thirlwall (January 11, 1797 - July 27, 1875) was an English bishop and historian. ... George Grote George Grote (November 17, 1794 - June 18, 1871) was an English classical historian. ...

"By what circumstances, or out of what pre-existing elements, the aggregate was brought together and modified, we find no evidence entitled to credit. There are, indeed, various names affirmed to designate the ante-Hellenic inhabitants of many parts of Greece — the Pelasgi, the Leleges, the Curetes, the Kaukones, the Aones, the Temmikes, the Hyantes, the Telchines, the Boeotian Thracians, the Teleboae, the Ephyri, the Phlegyae, &c. These are names belonging to legendary, not to historical Greece — extracted out of a variety of conflicting legends by the logographers and subsequent historians, who strung together out of them a supposed history of the past, at a time when the conditions of historical evidence were very little understood. That these names designated real nations may be true but here our knowledge ends."

The poet and mythologist Robert Graves, in his works on Greek mythology, asserts that certain elements of that mythology originate with the native Pelasgian people — namely the parts related to his concept of the White Goddess, an archetypical Earth Goddess — drawing additional support for his conclusion from his interpretations of other ancient literature: Irish, Welsh, Greek, Biblical, Gnostic, and medieval writings. Mainstream scholarship considers Graves' thesis at best controversial, although certain literary circles and many neo-pagan groups have accepted it. The Leleges were one of the aboriginal peoples of southwest Anatolia (compare Pelasgians), who were already there when the Indo-European Hellenes arrived. ... El t�rmino Curetes puede referirse: * los attrendants que bailan de [ [ Rhea (mitolog�a)|Rhea ] ], tambi�n conocido como [ [ Korybantes ] ] * la tribu hel�nica temprana: [ [ Curetes (tribu)|Curetes ] ] { { disambig } }. Si no fundadores, los curetes fueron ciudadanos tartessos. ... According to brief mentions by Herodotus and some other classical writers, the Caucones (or Kaukones) were an indigenous (autochthonous) tribe of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), who were displaced or absorbed by the immigant Bithynians, who were a group of clans from Thrace that spoke an Indo_European language. ... Hyas, in Greek mythology, was a son of the Titan Atlas by Aethra (one of the Oceanids). ... In Greek mythology, the Telchines were the original inhabitants of the island of Rhodes, and were known in Crete and Cyprus. ... Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak  Thrace (Bulgarian: , Greek: , Attic Greek: ThrāíkÄ“ or ThrēíkÄ“, Latin: , Turkish: ) is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. ... The logographers (from the Ancient Greek λογογράφος, logographos, a compound of λόγος, logos, here meaning story or prose, and γράφω, grapho, write) were the Greek historiographers and chroniclers before Herodotus, the father of... Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, scholar, and novelist. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... The author and poet Robert Graves study of the nature of poetic myth-making, The White Goddess, first published in 1948, and revised, amended and enlarged in 1966, represents a tangential approach to the study of mythology from a decidedly idiosyncratic perspective. ... For other uses, see Archetype (disambiguation). ... Goddess worship is a general description for the veneration of a female Goddess or goddesses. ... The term Welsh literature may be used to refer to any literature originating from Wales or by Welsh writers. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, scholar, and novelist. ... Neopaganism (sometimes Neo-Paganism, meaning New Paganism) is a heterogeneous group of religions which attempt to revive ancient, mainly European pre-Christian religions. ...

A Turkish scholar, Polat Kaya, has recently offered a translation of one of the inscriptions on Lemnos, based on his theory that it reflects a language related to Turkish. However, in the period of the putative date of the inscription the Turkish people lived several thousand miles away in southeastern Siberia. They began to migrate westward only about 300 AD, a fact that has hindered acceptance of Kaya's translation. This theory is almost unanimously ignored by scholars.^[5] The Lemnian language is the language of a 6th century BC inscription found on a funerary stela on the island of Lemnos (termed the Lemnos stele, discovered in 1885 near Kaminia). ... This article is about Siberia as a whole. ... Events Romano-Celtic temple-mausoleum complex is constructed in Lullingstone, and also in Anderida (approximate date). ...

Some Georgian scholars (including M.G. Tseretheli, R.V. Gordeziani, M. Abdushelishvili, and Dr. Zviad Gamsakhurdia) connect the Pelasgian with the Iberian-Caucasian cultures of the prehistoric Caucasus, known to the Greeks as Colchis. This may sound plausible since there were many autochthonic Caucasian peoples dwelling in Anatolia such as the Hattians before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans. Zviad Konstantines dze Gamsakhurdia[1] (Georgian: ზვიად კონსტანტინეს ძე გამსახურდია, IPA: ) (March 31, 1939 — December 31, 1993) was a dissident, scientist and writer, who became the first democratically elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Caucasus Mountains. ... In ancient geography, Colchis (sometimes spelled also as Kolchis) (Greek: Κολχίς, kŏl´kĬs; Georgian: კოლხეთი, Kolkheti) was a nearly triangular district in Caucasus. ... This article is about two nested areas of Turkey, a plateau region within a peninsula. ... The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in Asia Minor in the 3rd to 2nd millennia BC. They spoke a non-Indo-European language of uncertain affiliation called Hattic (now believed by some to be related to the Northwest Caucasian language group). ...

The Bulgarian linguist Vladimir Georgiev claimed that the Pelasgians were Indo-Europeans, with an Indo-European etymology of pelasgoi from pelagos, "sea" as the Sea People, the PRŚT of Egyptian inscriptions,^[6] and related them to the neighbouring Thracians. He even proposed a soundshift model from Indo-European to Pelasgian. Another Bulgarian scholar, Alexander Fol, defends the theory that in fact the name Pelasgians is not just ethnic, but cultural and religious definition for the pre-Hellenic inhabitants of Greece. Sea Peoples is the term used in ancient Egyptian records of a race of ship-faring raiders who drifted into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and attempted to enter Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty, and especially year 5 of Rameses III of the 20th Dynasty. ... Thracian peltast, fifth to fourth century BC. Thracian Roman era heros (Sabazius) stele. ... The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. ...

The French author Zacharie Mayani developed a thesis (The Etruscans Begin to Speak) stating that the Etruscan language had links to the Albanian language. This theory places the Albanian language outside the group of Indo-European languages sharing one branch with Etruscan, as well as with ancient Greek. The theory is supported by other authors such as Guiseppe Catapano, Mathieu Aref (Albanie: Ou l'incroyable odyssée d'un peuple préhellénique; Grèce: Ou la solution d'une énigme), and Robert D'Angely (other supporters include Faverial, Kolias, Marchiano, and Cabej). The overall theory, however, has attracted little general support.^[7] One of the most active supporters of this theory was Austrian linguist Johann Georg von Hahn who attempted to connect the pre-Indo-European Pelasgian language with Albanian.^{[citation needed]} Today, the Albanian language is universally classified as an Indo-European language by linguists. Zacharie or Zecharia Mayani (1899 - ) is a French author who has put forth a thesis according to which Albanian had ancient pre-Indo-European connections with the Etruscan language in The Etruscans Begin to Speak (1961, translated by Patrick Evans 1962). ... Languages in Iron Age Italy, 6th century BC Etruscan was a language spoken and written in the ancient region of Etruria (current Tuscany plus western Umbria and northern Latium) and in parts of what are now Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna (where the Etruscans were displaced by Gauls), in Italy. ... Albanian ( IPA ) is a language spoken by 8 million people, primarily in Albania and Serbia (province of Kosovo-Metohija), but also in other parts of the Balkans with an Albanian population (parts of the Republic of Macedonia, and some parts in Montenegro and Serbia), along the eastern coast of Italy... Johann Georg von Hahn (born 11 July 1811 in Frankfurt am Main; died 23 September 1869 in Jena) was an Austrian diplomat, philologist and specialist in Albanian history, language and culture. ... Map showing the Neolithic expansions from the 7th to the 5th millennium BCE Europe in ca. ... The Pelasgian language is the unclassified language of the ancient Pelasgians. ... Albanian ( IPA ) is a language spoken by 8 million people, primarily in Albania and Serbia (province of Kosovo-Metohija), but also in other parts of the Balkans with an Albanian population (parts of the Republic of Macedonia, and some parts in Montenegro and Serbia), along the eastern coast of Italy... For other uses, see Indo-European. ...

A. J. Van Windekens (1915—1989) offered rules for an unattested hypothetical Indo-European Pelasgian language in Le Pélasgique (1952) and Études pélasgique (1960); selecting vocabulary for which there was no Greek etymology, Van Windekens claimed to find Pelasgian etymologies in many place names and other vocabulary of ancient Greece, in names of heroes, animals, plants, garments, artifacts, social organization.

Pelasgians as Hellenes

According to a number of classical quotes and modern studies, the Pelasgians were Hellenes (Greeks), and the direct ancestors of later Greek tribes. The arguments supporting this connection are as follows:

1. That the term "barbarian" had a dual meaning. Aside from meaning "non-Hellenic," the term "barbarian" has been used by Greek tribes/city-states to deride other Greek tribes/city-states that were deemed unsophisticated in their use of the Hellenic language/culture.^[8] For example, when Athenian orator Demosthenes attacked Philip II of Macedon in the Third Philippic, he deemed the Macedonians as non-Hellenic, unrelated to the Hellenes, and not even worthy of being deemed as "barbarians." This indicates that the utilization of the term "barbarian" in many ancient Greek accounts was reflective of the socio-political competition that existed between various Greek city-states, tribes, and civilizations.
2. From this dual meaning, Herodotus did not imply that the Pelasgians were non-Hellenes when he described them and their language as "barbaric." Support for this argument is found within a passage where Herodotus deemed the Hellenes as a branch of the Pelasgians.^[9] Moreover, it was not an uncommon phenomenon for a Greek tribe to speak Greek crudely to the point where it was difficult for other Greeks to understand.^[10] So, when Herodotus (1.57) concludes that the Athenians changed language when they joined the Hellenic body, it means that they advanced linguistically, socially, and culturally from their Pelasgian forebears. Herodotus (6.137) also discusses the expulsion of Pelasgians by the Athenians from Attica to Lemnos. However, this passage may be derived from an event whereby the Athenians expelled Pelasgian Boeotian refugees (closely related to them culturally and linguistically) to the Ionian colonies.^[11] Herodotus is also known for not distinguishing the difference between linguistically similar dialects and languages that are completely separate from Greek.^[12] As a result of this ambiguity, the language of the Pelasgians was "barbaric" in the sense that it was an unsophisticated form of Hellenic as opposed to being non-Hellenic.^[13]
3. That the autochthonous nature of the Athenians (an ancient belief to which Herodotus, Isocrates, Plutarch and others attest) implies they are descended from the autochthonous Pelasgians. The Athenians deemed themselves "true Hellenes" due to their well-developed society.
4. During the early 20th century, archaeological excavations conducted by the Italian Archaeological Society and by the American Classical School on the Athenian Acropolis and on other sites within Attica revealed Neolithic dwellings, tools, pottery, and sheep skeletons. All of these discoveries showed significant resemblances to the Neolithic discoveries made on the Thessalian acropolises in Sesklo and Dimini. These discoveries helped provide physical confirmation of ancient records that described the Athenians as the descendants of the Pelasgians (who were primarily the Neolithic inhabitants of Thessaly).^[14]
5. During the 1980s, the Skourta Plain project identified Middle Helladic and Late Helladic sites on mountain summits near the plains of Skourta. These fortified mountain settlements were, according to tradition, inhabited by Pelasgians up until the end of the Bronze Age. Moreover, the location of the sites are an indication that the Pelasgian inhabitants sought to "ethnically" (a fluid term according to Foreigners and Barbarians) and economically distinguish themselves from the Mycenean Greeks who controlled the Skourta plain.^[15]

This article is about the capital of Greece. ... Look up orator in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Demosthenes (384–322 BC, Greek: Δημοσθένης, DÄ“mosthénÄ“s) was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. ... Philip II of Macedon: victory medal (niketerion) struck in Tarsus, 2nd c. ... A philippic is a fiery, damning speech delivered to condemn a particular political actor. ... Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: HÄ“rodotos Halikarnāsseus) was a Greek historian from Ionia who lived in the 5th century BC (ca. ... Indigenous peoples are: Peoples living in an area prior to colonization by a state Peoples living in an area within a nation-state, prior to the formation of a nation-state, but who do not identify with the dominant nation. ... Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: HÄ“rodotos Halikarnāsseus) was a Greek historian from Ionia who lived in the 5th century BC (ca. ... Isocrates (436–338 BC), Greek rhetorician. ... Mestrius Plutarchus (Greek: Πλούταρχος; 46 - 127), better known in English as Plutarch, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist. ... Acropolis (Gr. ... Sesklo, rarely Sesclo (Greek: Σέσκλο) was a village nearby the city of Volos, in Thessaly (central Greece), in the prefecture of Magnesia. ... Dimini (Greek: Διμήνι), older forms: Diminio and Diminion was a village nearby the city of Volos, in Thessaly (central Greece), in the prefecture of Magnesia. ... The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... The early history of Greece is commonly divided into three periods: Early Helladic (c. ... The early history of Greece is commonly described as: Early Helladic (c. ... Skourta (Greek: Σκούρτα) is a village in the Boeotia Prefecture, Greece. ...

See also

• Illyrians
• "Barbarian" for the Hellenic usage of the term
• Leleges
• Minyans
• Paleo-Balkan languages
• Pre-Indo-Europeans
• Names of the Greeks
• Philistines
• Pre-Indo-European origin of Albanians
• Thracians
• Pelasgian Creation Myth

Illyria (disambiguation) Illyrians has come to refer to a broad, ill-defined Indo-European[1] group of peoples who inhabited the western Balkans (Illyria, roughly from northern Epirus to southern Pannonia) and even perhaps parts of Southern Italy in classical times into the Common era, and spoke Illyrian languages. ... For other uses, see Barbarian (disambiguation). ... The Leleges were one of the aboriginal peoples of southwest Anatolia (compare Pelasgians), who were already there when the Indo-European Hellenes arrived. ... In Greek mythology and legendary prehistory of the Aegean region, the Minyans were a group among the autochthonous inhabitants. ... The Paleo-Balkan languages were the Indo-European languages which were spoken in the Balkans in ancient times: Dacian language Thracian language Illyrian language Paionian language Ancient Macedonian language The only remnant of them is Albanian, but it is still disputed which language was its ancestor. ... The Pre-Indo-European population of Europe included an unknown number of ethnic groups in Europe before the coming of the speakers of Indo-European languages. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Map showing the location of Philistine land and cities of Gaza, Ashdod, and Ashkelon Map of the southern Levant, c. ... Theories of a Pre-Indo-European origin of Albanians, that the Albanian language descends from a Pre-Indo-European language of southern Europe — Etruscan or Pelasgian — continue to be rejected by mainstream science, because the Albanian language is agreed by mainstream linguists to be an Indo-European language, descending from... Thracian peltast, fifth to fourth century BC. Thracian Roman era heros (Sabazius) stele. ... The Pelasgian Creation Myth [1] is one of the ancient religious stories of the origin of the world. ...

Notes

Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. ... JSTOR®, begun in 1995, is an online system for archiving academic journals. ... is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References