"John Croft" adds:
> Regarding the origins of the Pelasgians, thought you people may >like
this:
> Palaechthon and Pelasgus 1.
> Palaechthon is the father of Pelasgus 1, after whom the >Pelasgians,
inhabitants of the Peloponnesus, were called. Pelasgus >1, who some call son
of Zeus & Niobe 1, and others Autochthonous, >(Sons of the Soil) is
remembered as the king of Argos to whom the >first Danaans (Achaeans) came.
{ Aes.Supp.250. Aes.Supp.250 and passim; Apd.2.1.1, 3.8.1; DH.1.11.2;
Pau.8.22.1.}
> Also does anyone know of Phlastia? Apparently it was near Scyron
>(near Corinth). Another PLST word.
Phlastia is a newby but a goodie. Add it to the list with Placia on the
Hellespont, from wence Pelasgi were forced out, moving into Athens.
And you thought there was confusion before? (Wait:-)
Pelasgus: May be an adjective used as a noun by Appollodorus yielding
Aeschylus' story. Compare Hom. Il. 2.842ff., where the poet describes
Hippothus as the son of the Pelasgian "Lethus". Apollodorus,
misunderstanding the passage, has converted the adjective Pelasgian into a
noun Pelasgus. Appollodorus says:
"from Larissa, Hippothus, son of Pelasgus;" Hippothus as "son of Zeus"
"son of the soil" "son of Palaecthon" means: Hippothus was a son of
Pelasgian "Lethus"(father) from Larisa (Greece), of the farming originators
of Zeus/Niobe who spoke through the rustling branches of the Dodonean oracle
Oak Tree (while old priestesses {Peleiades} ate the sacred acorns..and
interpreted.). (Or: he was a son of that stock.) Son of Palaechthon= A son
of the Pelasgian center(city) Larisa, in Pelasgiotis. All that justifying
the name Pelasgia for the Peloponnese (before Pelops..Danaus..et al). :-)
I of course conclude:
1) Hippothus = Pelasgus (lots of fast horses in Argos too! Pegasus?)
2) Pelasgiotis = First major Pelasgic presence in Greece (Thessaly)
centered on Larissa. (Mirrored from Anatolian Larisa!)
3) Pelasgia = Second major presence, colonized from Thessaly into
Argos, eventually consolidating Mycenae and most of the
Peloponnese.
Yes: Aeschylus is one of the strongest spinners of Pelasgic links, along
with Euripides. The former started my "specific" thinking, which was
reinforced in the rest of the classics. Before the analytical reading: I
spent about four years in Turkey...focusing on differences in Anatolian
concepts of pre- history over the prevailing western views. The "general"
point I started with was a Turkish academic resentment of Western
centralization of all ages of Hellas culture inside Greece, when they see
the platform from which EBA Greece grew as broader and not even Aegean, but
Anatolia based. The general and specific melded into "Macro-Pelasgia" after
much reading/thinking.
Also from my buddy Aescylus:
What are you doing? What kind of arrogance has incited you to do such
dishonor to this realm of Pelasgian men? Indeed, do you think you have come
to a land of women? For a barbarian dealing with Hellenes, you act
insolently. (Suppliant Maidens 910)
Son of Palaechthon, lord of the Pelasgians, hear me with a benign heart.
(348)
More Anatolian Pelasgians:
From Lydia the army took its course to the river Caicus and the land of
Mysia; leaving the Caicus, they went through Atarneus to the city of Carene,
keeping the mountain of Cane on the left. From there they journeyed over the
plain of Thebe, passing the city of Adramytteum and the Pelasgian city of
Antandrus. (Herodotus Histories 7.42.1)(Rex: No comment yet on the "Plain of
Thebe" in Anatolia, as part of what I call the "mirror" Larisa's :-), but
Cane is probably modern "Kara Dagh")
Mount Olympus is in Anatolia, near where men practiced on horse back with
the javelin in a "palaestra" before there were "palaces" in Crete, and
before they would build the Palasgicon in Athens. Leaving Pala and
Placia..through Palaepolis (Samothrace), Poliochni (Lemnos)...to Pelasgia
and Pelasgiotis. This long before Danaus was buried in the Palinthus..in the
Argive market, south of the "Pylaic Festive Assembly" of Thessaly.
La Revedere;
Rex H. McTyeire
Bucharest, Romania
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