Re: Pelasgian, Tyrrhenian, and Achaean

From: Joseph S Crary
Message: 9493
Date: 2001-09-15

John C

I found it.

It's Strabo, Geography 5.2.3

It seems to be relating a tradition about a group of Pelasgians
migrated from Thessalia in Greece to Italy to found the city state
Agyilla, latter changed to Caere. Caere is the modern Cerveteri which
I believe is about 25 miles northwest of Rome. Its clear that the
Hellenic name was actually Agyila and the Etruscan name Cisra.
However, Caere/Cisra/Agyila is the southern most Etruscan city state.

In light of Herodot's words:

Histories
1.57

hêntina de glôssan hiesan hoi Pelasgoi, ouk echô atrekeôs
eipein. ei de chreon esti tekmairomenon legein toisi nun
eti eousi Pelasgôn tôn huper Tursênôn Krêstôna
polin oikeontôn, hoi homouroi kote êsan toisi nun Dôrieusi
kaleomenoisi (oikeon de tênikauta gên tên nun
Thessaliôtin kaleomenên),

Rendering
Then which tongue began Pelasgoi, [I] can not honestly say.
Weather it was at some time fixed by a boundary yet it is said that
Pelasgôn were settled [at] Krêstôna City above the
Tyrrheni1, they bordered for a time those called Dôrieusi. The
territory they were settled is now called Thessaliôtin.

I'm not sure what it all means. I not sure if it says that the
Tyrrhenil were settled in Thessalia, if this refers to Pelasgians
were once called Tyrrhenil, or if this was a jump in historical
sequence to say that the Pelasgians latter became the Tyrrhenil? It
clearly can not mean that the City Krestona was Cisra as the
Tyrrhenian city states were all situated to the north and not the
south. Thus in Italy the Pelasgians could not be located above the
Tyrrhenians and bordering the Dorians.

In this case the use of huper must imply some type of temporal
setting

JS Crary