Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 1 of 3: I. Prolegomena II. Achæis; or, the Ethnology of the Greek RacesGladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
History
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 1 of 3: I. Prolegomena II. Achæis; or, the Ethnology of the Greek Races
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Civilization, Homeric; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer
In Il. x. 429, where they form part of the Trojan camp, and again in
Od. xix. 177, where they are stated to be found in Crete, they are
δῖοι. Homer never applies this word except to what is preeminent in its
kind: in particular, he never attaches it to any national name besides
the Pelasgi, except Ἀχαιοὶ, which of itself amounts to a presumption
that he regarded his countrymen as in some way standing in the same
class with the Pelasgians.
In the remaining passage where he names the Pelasgians, that in the
Trojan Catalogue (Il. ii. 340), he calls them ἐγχεσίμωροι. He uses this
epithet in only three other places. Of itself it is laudatory, because
it is connected with the proper work of heroes, the σταδίη ὑσμίνη.
In one of the three places he applies it individually to two royal
warriors, one Munes the husband of Briseis, and the other Epistrophus
(Il. ii. 693), a warrior associated with Munes. In the second (Il. vii.
134), he gives it to the Arcadians; whom in the Catalogue (ii. 611), he
has already commended as ἐπιστάμενοι πολεμίζειν. In the third passage
(Od. iii. 188), he applies the epithet to the Myrmidons themselves.
From each of these uses, the last especially, we may draw fresh
presumptions of his high estimate of the Pelasgian name.
V. Again. In the case of a race, unless when it can be traced to
an Eponymus or name-giver, the plural name precedes the singular
in common use. There must be Celts before there can be a Celt, and
Pelasgians before there can be a Pelasgian. The use therefore of the
singular, in the names of nations, is a proof of what is established
and long familiar.
For example, Homer never calls a single Greek Δαναός, nor Ἀργεῖος
(though in the particular cases of Juno and of Helen he uses the
singular feminine, of which more hereafter), but only Ἀχαιός; and we
shall find, that this fact is not without its meaning. It is therefore
worthy of note, that he uses the term Πελασγὸς in the singular. The
chiefs of the Pelasgian ἐπίκουροι at Troy were Hippothous and Pulæus,
(Il. ii. 843,) who were
υἷε δύω Λήθοιο Πελασγοῦ Τευταμίδαο.
And again, (xvii. 288),
Λήθοιο Πελασγοῦ φαίδιμος υἷος.
‘The illustrious son of Lethus the Pelasgian.’ It seems uncertain, from
their place in the Trojan Catalogue, whether these Pelasgians were
European or Asiatic; nor is it material to which region they belonged.
_The Pelasgians and Larissa._
VI. It is further observable, that Homer implies distinctly the
existence of various tribes of Pelasgi under that same name in various
and widely separated places. He says,
Ἱππόθοος δ’ ἄγε φῦλα Πελασγῶν ἐγχεσιμώρων
τῶν, οἱ Λαρίσσην ἐριβώλακα ναιετάουσιν.
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