[242] Herod. iv. 42. [243] i. 13. [244] Inf. Religion and Morals, sect. iii. [245] Sup. p. 148. [246] Od. xiv. 271. [247] Od. v. 278-86. [248] Ibid. ix. 84, 94. [249] Ibid. iv. 220. [250] Ibid. 584. [251] Herod. ii. 54. According to the Egyptian tradition there reported, the Phœnicians carried into Greece the priestess who founded the Dodonæan oracle. This again leads us to view the Phœnicians as the chief medium of intercourse between Egypt and Greece. [252] Mure, Lit. Greece, vol. i. [253] Herod. v. 2. [254] Il. ii. 594-600. [255] Il. ii. 730. [256] Strabo x. p. 471. [257] Il. ii. 844, and x. 434. [258] Il. xx. 485. [259] Il. ii. 841. [260] Hist. Greece, iv. 28. [261] Strabo viii. 7. p. 321, 2. [262] Il. x. 429; xx. 329. [263] Od. iii. 366. [264] Il. xxi. 85. [265] Il. xx. 96. [266] Inf. p. 182. [267] Il. ii. 828-39. [268] Höck’s Creta, ii. p. 7. [269] Thirlwall’s Hist. of Greece. Ch. ii. Vol. i. p. 41. 12mo. [270] Od. passim. [271] Il. ii. 631. [272] Il. ix. 184, and xvi. 196. [273] Od. xix. 175. [274] Il. ii. 645. [275] See supr. p. 126. SECT. III. _Pelasgians continued: and certain States naturalised or akin to Greece._ _a._ Crete. _b._ Lycia. _c._ Cyprus. _Crete and the traditions of Minos._ This appears to be the place for a more full consideration of the testimony of Homer with respect to, probably, the greatest character of early Greek history, and one who cannot be omitted in any inquiry concerning the early Pelasgians of Greece: in as much as they stand in a direct Homeric relation to Crete, of which he was the king. In the poems of Homer, Minos appears to stand forth as the first great and fixed point of Greek nationality and civilization. He is not indeed so remote from the period of Homer himself as others, even as other Europeans, whom the poet mentions, and whom he connects by genealogy with the Trojan period, particularly the Æolids. But the peculiarities meeting in his case, as compared with most of them, are these: 1. That he is expressly traced upwards as well as downwards. 2. That he is connected with a fixed place as its sovereign. 3. That so much is either recounted or suggested of his character and acts. 4. That the Homeric traditions as to Minos are so remarkably supported from without.