8. Now it is within the mountainous barriers above described that we must look for the origin of the nations which in the heroic mythology are always represented as possessing dominion and power, and are always contrasted with an aboriginal population. These, in my opinion, were northern branches of the Grecian nation, which had overrun and subdued the Greeks who dwelt further south. The most ancient abode of the HELLENES Proper (who in mythology are merely a small nation in Phthia(46)) was situated, according to Aristotle, in Epirus, near Dodona, to whose god Achilles(47) prays, as being the ancient protector of his family. In all probability the ACHÆANS, the ruling nation both of Thessaly and of Peloponnesus, in the mythical times, were of the same race and origin as the Hellenes. The MINYANS, Phlegyans, Lapithæ, and Æolians of Corinth and Salmone, came originally from the districts above Pieria, on the frontiers of Macedonia, where the very ancient Orchomenus, Minya, and Salmonia or Halmopia were situated.(48) Nor is there less obscurity with regard to the northern settlements of the IONIANS; they appear, as it were, to have fallen from heaven into Attica and Ægialea: they were not, however, by any means identical with the aboriginal inhabitants of these districts, and had, perhaps, detached themselves from some northern, probably Achæan, race.(49) Lastly, the DORIANS are mentioned in ancient legends and poems as established in one extremity of the great mountain-chain of Upper Greece, viz. at the foot of Olympus; there are, however, reasons for supposing, that at an earlier period they had dwelt at its other northern extremity, at the furthest limit of the Grecian nation.