_The Pelasgians; and with these_, _a._ Arcadians. _b._ Γραικοὶ or Græci. _c._ Ionians. _d._ Athenians. _e._ Egyptians. _f._ Thraces. _g._ Caucones. _h._ Leleges. It will be most convenient to begin with the case of the Pelasgians: and the questions we shall have to investigate will be substantially reducible to the following heads: 1. Are the Pelasgians essentially Greek? 2. If so, what is their relation to the Hellenes, and to the integral Greek nation? 3. What elements did they contribute to the formation of the composite body thus called? 4. What was their language? 5. What was the derivation of their name? 6. By what route did they come into Greece? The direct evidence of the Homeric poems with respect to the Pelasgians is scattered and faint. It derives however material aid from various branches of tradition, partly conveyed in the Homeric poems, and partly extraneous to them, particularly religion, language, and pursuits. Evidence legitimately drawn from these latter sources, wherever it is in the nature of circumstantial proof, is far superior in authority to such literary traditions as are surrounded, at their visible source, with circumstances of uncertainty. _The Pelasgians._ I. The first passage, with which we have to deal, is that portion of the Catalogue of the Greek armament, where Homer introduces us to the contingent of Achilles in the following lines: Νῦν αὖ τοὺς ὅσσοι τὸ Πελασγικὸν Ἄργος ἔναιον, Οἵ τ’ Ἄλον οἵ τ’ Ἀλόπην οἵ τε Τρηχῖν’ ἐνέμοντο, Οἵ τ’ εἶχον Φθίην ἠδ’ Ἑλλάδα καλλιγύναικα, Μυρμιδόνες δὲ καλεῦντο καὶ Ἕλληνες καὶ Ἀχαιοὶ, Τῶν αὖ πεντήκοντα νεῶν ἦν ἀρχὸς Ἀχιλλεύς[126]. All evidence goes to show, that Thessaly stood in a most important relation to the infant life of the Greek races; whether we consider it as the seat of many most ancient legends; as dignified by the presence of Dodona, the highest seat of religious tradition and authority to the Greeks; as connected with the two ancient names of Helli and Pelasgi: or lastly in regard to the prominence it retained even down to and during the historic age in the constitution of the Amphictyonic Council[127]. All these indications are in harmony with the course of Greek ethnological tradition. Now the Catalogue of the Greek armament is divided into three great sections. The first comprises Continental Greece, with the islands immediately adjacent to the coast, and lying south of Thessaly. The second consists of the Greek islands of the Ægean. The third is wholly Thessalian: and it begins with the lines which have been quoted. _The Pelasgians: Pelasgic Argos._ What then does Homer mean us to understand by the phrase τὸ Πελασγικὸν Ἄργος in this passage? Is it 1. A mere town, or town and district, like Alos, Alope, and others which follow; or is it 2. A country comprising several or many such? And if the latter, does it describe 1. That country only over which Peleus reigned, and which supplied the Myrmidon division; or