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
Again. It will hereafter (I think) be found that the institution of
all gymnastic and martial games was Hellenic and not Pelasgic[157].
In the passage last quoted there is a very remarkable statement, that
there were present at the games Epeans, Pylians, and Ætolians: that is
to say, all the neighbouring tribes, except the Arcadians. Thus we have
a strong presumption established that these games were not congenial
to Arcadian habits: and if the same can be shown from other sources
with respect to the Pelasgians, there is a strong presumption that the
Arcadians were themselves Pelasgian.
Once more. In the sixth book Nestor relates, that in his youth the
Pylians and Arcadians fought near the town of Pheiæ and the river
Iardanos. The Arcadians were commanded by Ereuthalion, who wore the
armour of Areithous. Areithous had met his death by stratagem from
Lycoorgos, who appropriated the armour, and bequeathed it to his
θεραπών, or companion in arms, Ereuthalion. Nestor, on the part of the
Pylians, encountered Ereuthalion, and by the aid of Minerva defeated
him.
From this tale it would appear, first, that Lycoorgus was king of
Arcadia. His name savours of Pelasgian origin, from its relation to
Λυκαών of the later tradition respecting Arcadia, and to Lycaon son
of Priam, descended by the mother’s side from the Leleges; again, to
Lycaon the father of Pandarus; possibly also to the inhabitants of
Lycia. The allusion to his having succeeded by stratagem only, is very
pointed (148),
τὸν Λυκόοργος ἔπεφνε δόλῳ, οὔτι κράτεΐ γε,
and the terms employed appear to indicate a military inferiority: which
accords with the probable relation of the Arcadians, as Pelasgi, to
their Hellenic neighbours. And this again corresponds with the close
of the story; in which Nestor, fighting on the part of the Pylians who
were Achæan, and therefore Hellenic, conquers the Arcadian chieftain
Ereuthalion (Il. vi. 132-56).
It may be remarked once for all, that this military inferiority is not
to be understood as if the Pelasgi were cowards, but simply as implying
that they gave way before tribes of more marked military genius or
habits than themselves; as at Hastings the Saxons did before the
Normans; or as the Russians did in the late war of 1854-6 before the
Western armies.
Lastly, the δῖος applied to Ereuthalion (Il. v. 319), accords with the
use of that epithet for the Pelasgi elsewhere.
Thus a number of indications from Homer, slight when taken separately,
but more considerable when combined, and drawn from _all_ the passages
in which Homer refers to Arcadia, converge upon the supposition that
the Arcadians were a Pelasgian people.
They are supported by the whole stream of later tradition; which placed
Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, in Arcadia, which uniformly represented the
Arcadians as autochthonic[158], and which made them competitors with
the Argives for the honour of having given to the Pelasgians their
original seat in the Peloponnesus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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