Be this as it may, it was over the Bosporos and through Thrace that the Pelasgi seem to have made their earliest approaches towards Greece. The Thracians themselves were of Pelasgian origin. Thracians inhabited both sides of the Bosporos; traces of Pelasgian settlements and Pelasgian names are likewise found on both sides. The stream of knowledge unquestionably poured through Thrace into Greece; and it is highly probable that the stream of population had, at a remoter period, flowed in the same channel. Once in Macedonia, the adventurers would be tempted southward by the beauty of the climate and country; so that while some moved up the valley of the Haliacmon, others, perhaps, took possession of the ridge of Olympos, Ossa and Pelion, where they were known under the names of Centaurs and Lapithæ.[14] From these lofty ridges they looked down upon the great lake which in those ages covered the whole plain of Thessaly, and, following the ramifications of the mountains, peopled Pelasgian Argos, Phthiotis, and the roots of Œta, while the lowlands were still under water: thence, too, they crossed over into Eubœa, where they assumed the names of Macrones[15] and Curetes. This latter tribe settling at Chalcis,[16] and having been worsted in a contest for the Lalantian plain, fled across the Euripos, and traversing the whole of Bœotia, founded a new settlement about Pleuron in Ætolia, and gave the name of Curetis to the whole country. Hence, also, in process of time, they were driven by the Ætolians from Pisa in Elis, upon which they took refuge in Acarnania.[17] Footnote 14: Λέλεγας γάρ φασι πρότερον αὐτοὺς προσαγωρευομένους, διὰ τὸ ἀποκεντῆσαι τοὺς ἵππους προσαγορευθῆναι Ἱπποκενταύρους. Sch. Pind. Pyth. ii. 78. Cf. Schœll. Hist. de la Lit. Grecq. i. 4. seq. Footnote 15: Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1024. Cf. Winkel. Hist. de l’Art. i. 317. Footnote 16: Strab. x. 3. p. 349. Footnote 17: Strab. x. 3. p. 349. Sch. Pind. Olymp. iii. 19. Pliny, iv. 2. Eustath. ad Il. β. 637. Certain ancient writers maintained that the Ætolians were called Curetes by Homer; and at a still earlier period Hyantes, and the country Hyantis.—Steph. Byzant. _v._ Αἰτωλ. p. 71. a. Palm. G. Ant. p. 426.—Acarnania itself was formerly called Curetis.—Demet. ap. Steph. _v._ Ἀθῆν. p. 45. a. Hard. ad Plin. iv. 2. p. 7.