DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0180
154 THE COMING OF THE GREEKS
Their story, too, as to the double depopulation and re-
settlement of Crete after the fall of Minos, combined
with the archaeological evidence as to the later foundation
of Prsesos itself, outweighs the implication in Herodotus's
narrative,1 that the city already existed in Minoan days.
If this also is on the authority of its inhabitants, it is
natural, but not decisive, that knowing they were there
before the Greeks, they should claim to have been there
still earlier. It is possible, however, that it is an inference
of Herodotus's own, and that the Praesians' real belief
as to their own origin is contained in the remark directly
attributed to them, that after the fall of Minos Crete
was occupied by Greeks " among other people." 2 Did
they realise that they themselves were these other people ?
If, however, the -nth termination is Eteo-Cretan, as
Professor Conway is inclined to suggest,3 this theory that
Eteo-Cretan was peculiar to Crete, and probably to one
part of Crete, cannot be entertained. Corinth and
Zacynthus, Cerinthus in Eubcea, Caryanda in Caria,
Aspendus in Pamphylia, Laranda in Lycaonia,4 show
that the people who named them first must at one time
or another have occupied both the Greek and the Asiatic
coast. If we believe that these people were Indo-Euro-
peans, we must suppose that, before the coming of the
Greeks, an Indo-European race with Italic affinities
dominated the whole iEgean area. The associations
of some of the names in question, Tirynthian for instance,
and Rhadamanthus, make it improbable that they are
1 viL 17O. Af'yeTai . . . Kprjras . . . Trdvras 7tXi)i> UtiXi^vneav rc Km
Upaurimr imsofiimmt . ■ . es 2uua4q» . . . Into the racial history of
Polichna and its neighbour Cydonia in the west of Crete
(Thuc. ii. 85), we cannot enter in the present state of our
knowledge. Tradition does not call them Eteo-Cretans. See
Strabo, 475.
2 Ibid. lyi. (S oi n)v Ki>t]Tijv ei>i]fiu>8eiiTiw, iis Xe'youin UpaUTUUt
*<ToiKi£«r6ai iIXXouj re av8p&>irovs Ka\ fiaXtOTO TOXXr/rar.
3 B.S.A. viii. pp. 154-6.
* See the imposing list in Kretschmer, E.G.S. pp. 308-11, 402-4.
Their story, too, as to the double depopulation and re-
settlement of Crete after the fall of Minos, combined
with the archaeological evidence as to the later foundation
of Prsesos itself, outweighs the implication in Herodotus's
narrative,1 that the city already existed in Minoan days.
If this also is on the authority of its inhabitants, it is
natural, but not decisive, that knowing they were there
before the Greeks, they should claim to have been there
still earlier. It is possible, however, that it is an inference
of Herodotus's own, and that the Praesians' real belief
as to their own origin is contained in the remark directly
attributed to them, that after the fall of Minos Crete
was occupied by Greeks " among other people." 2 Did
they realise that they themselves were these other people ?
If, however, the -nth termination is Eteo-Cretan, as
Professor Conway is inclined to suggest,3 this theory that
Eteo-Cretan was peculiar to Crete, and probably to one
part of Crete, cannot be entertained. Corinth and
Zacynthus, Cerinthus in Eubcea, Caryanda in Caria,
Aspendus in Pamphylia, Laranda in Lycaonia,4 show
that the people who named them first must at one time
or another have occupied both the Greek and the Asiatic
coast. If we believe that these people were Indo-Euro-
peans, we must suppose that, before the coming of the
Greeks, an Indo-European race with Italic affinities
dominated the whole iEgean area. The associations
of some of the names in question, Tirynthian for instance,
and Rhadamanthus, make it improbable that they are
1 viL 17O. Af'yeTai . . . Kprjras . . . Trdvras 7tXi)i> UtiXi^vneav rc Km
Upaurimr imsofiimmt . ■ . es 2uua4q» . . . Into the racial history of
Polichna and its neighbour Cydonia in the west of Crete
(Thuc. ii. 85), we cannot enter in the present state of our
knowledge. Tradition does not call them Eteo-Cretans. See
Strabo, 475.
2 Ibid. lyi. (S oi n)v Ki>t]Tijv ei>i]fiu>8eiiTiw, iis Xe'youin UpaUTUUt
*<ToiKi£«r6ai iIXXouj re av8p&>irovs Ka\ fiaXtOTO TOXXr/rar.
3 B.S.A. viii. pp. 154-6.
* See the imposing list in Kretschmer, E.G.S. pp. 308-11, 402-4.