The subject of this name will again come into view, when the later name of Ἀργεῖοι is examined. In the mean time, let it be observed, that if the Pelasgi were thus called from being, or if only they in fact were, inhabitants of the plains, we find in this some further explanation of the tradition, which can hardly have been an unmixed error, of their vagrant character. For the plains contained the most fertile soils: and, especially as they were of limited extent, their inhabitants could not but rapidly increase, so as to require more space for the support of their population. Further, these rich tracts offered a prize to all the tribes who were in want of settlements; according to the just observation of Thucydides[414], already quoted, that the most fertile parts of Greece, namely, Bœotia, Thessaly, and much of Peloponnesus, most frequently changed hands. This would be more and more applicable to a given people, in proportion as it might be more addicted to peaceful pursuits. Manifestly, it is as inhabitants of the plains, or the cultivable country, that Homer especially marks the Pelasgi: both by calling the great plain of Thessaly Pelasgic, and by the epithet ἐριβώλαξ which he applies (Il. ii. 841, and xvii. 301), to their Larissa, on the only two occasions when he mentions it. And the etymological inquiry seems, upon the whole, to direct us, although the particular path be somewhat uncertain, towards a similar conclusion. FOOTNOTES: [276] Il. xiv. 321. [277] Od. xix. 178. [278] Od. xi. 568-71. [279] Cf. Il. i. 238. ii. 205. [280] Il. xviii. 501. xxiii. 436. [281] Æn. vi. 566. [282] Il. iii. 365. [283] Nägelsbach, Homerische Theologie, p. 83; and Vid. inf. sect. iv. pp. 120, 124. [284] Höck’s Creta, ii. 142, n. [285] Il. xiii. 450. Od. xix. 179. [286] Od. xix. 181-98. [287] Höck’s Creta, ii. 182. [288] Od. xvii. 523. [289] Od. xiv. 199. Il. xiii. 453. Il. ii. 649. [290] Od. xix. 172. [291] Il. xi. 712. [292] Il. vii. 133, 5. [293] Od. xvii. 442. [294] Od. xi. 321. [295] Il. i. 260-5. [296] Od. xi. 631. [297] Ibid. 322-5. [298] Il. xiii. 450-3. [299] Fragm. xi. Strabo vii. p. 332. [300] Il. xiii. 681. [301] Il. xiv. 322. [302] Od. iv. 564. [303] Od. vii. 317-26. [304] Od. xi. 580. [305] Æsch. Suppl. 262. [306] Thucyd. i. 4. [307] Minos, 16, 17. [308] Pol. ii. 10. 4. [309] For a lucid sketch of the position of Minos as defined by tradition, see Thirlwall’s Greece, vol. i. ch. 5. [310] Herod. iii. 122. [311] Herod. i. 173. [312] Müller’s Dorians, ii. 11. 8; Eurip. Fragm. i. [313] Creta ii. 87. [314] Pol. ii. 10. [315] Ibid. ii. 10. 2. [316] Minos 11-17. [317] Athen. vi. p. 263. [318] Ibid. p. 267. [319] Il. xviii. 592. [320] Paus. x. 17. 4. [321] Ath. vi. p. 263. [322] Höck’s Creta, b. ii. sect. 4. (ii. 222 and seqq.) [323] Il. xii. 397. [324] See particularly his speech Il. xii. 310-28.