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 six places of the Iliad we hear of a particular part of the city of
Troy which was built upon a height, and in which the temple of Apollo
was situated (v. 446). This affords us an example of a separate name,
Πέργαμος, affixed to a separate part of a city, that part apparently
being the citadel. In like manner the citadel of Argos (which stood
upon an eminence) had, at a later date, a distinct name, which was
Larissa[145], and was said to have been derived from a daughter of
Pelasgus so called[146]. Now it may have been the general rule to
call the citadels of the Pelasgian towns Larissa. If so, then we can
readily understand that so long as the towns themselves, or rather, it
might be, the scattered hamlets, remained, the name of the citadels
would be rarely heard: but when the former fell into decay, the solid
masonry which the Pelasgi used for walls and for public buildings,
but which did not extend to private dwellings, would remain. Thus the
citadels would naturally retain their own old name, which had been
originally attached to them with reference to their fortifications.
This hypothesis will fully account for the absorption of the particular
and separate names of towns in the original and common name of their
citadels.
Where an agricultural settlement was made upon ground, some particular
spot of which afforded easy means of fortification, convenience would
probably dictate the erection of a citadel for occasional retreat in
time of danger, without any attempt to gather closely into one place
and surround with walls the residences of the settlers: a measure
which, as entailing many disadvantages, was only likely to take place
under the pressure of strong necessity. Such I have presumed to have
been the ordinary history of the Pelasgian Larissas. That which, while
it flourished as a Pelasgian settlement, might be an Argos[147], would,
perhaps, after a conquest, and the changes consequent upon it, become
at last a Larissa.
But cases might arise in which the most fertile lands, lying entirely
open and level, would, on the one hand, offer peculiar temptations
to the spoiler, and, on the other, offer no scarped or elevated spot
suitable for a separate fortification. In such a case the name ἐριβώλαξ
would be best deserved, and in such a case too the probable result
would be, to build a walled town including all the habitations of the
colonists. This walled town would, for the very same reason as the
citadels elsewhere, be itself a Larissa: and thus this Pelasgian name
might be a distinctive one in the time of Homer, and yet might become a
common one afterwards.
All this corresponds with the general belief on the two points, (1)
that the Pelasgians dwelt, as in Attica, κωμηδὸν, and (2) that the
Larissas are Pelasgian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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