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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0229
CHAPTER XII
CRETE AND THE HOMERIC POEMS
It has doubtless already been noticed that the various
tribal names that generally loom so large in these dis-
cussions have been practically not mentioned at all in
the present book. It is not an accident. It is no dis-
paragement of the interesting work done by scholars
who specialise on " Pelasgians " and " Achaeans " to
maintain that what we need at the present moment is
to clear the air of them. There is a danger that facts
are being obscured by names.1
Professor Ridgeway s has done a service in emphasising
the fact that the Greeks, as we know them, came of a
mixed race, and that the word Pelasgian, which they
themselves used of one of the early elements in its
composition, must be connected with at least some
phase of " Mycenaean " civilisation. When, however, he
equates Pelasgian with that civilisation as a whole, he
is going beyond the evidence ; 5 and scholars who follow
him must be puzzled by Dr. Mackenzie's application of
the word to the mainland type of Mycenaean civilisation
that invaded Crete at the end of Late Minoan II.,4 or
Dr. Dorpfeld's application of it to the Carian Cretans who
invaded Attica.5 Achaean, too, is a catch-word whose use
1 J. L. Myres makes the same point in Y.XV.C.S. 1907, p. 18.
2 E.A.G. i. passim.
3 This view, maintained by H. R. Hall in O.C.G. 1901, pp. 79-
86, still holds good.
4 D.S.A. xi. p. 222. This is also practically the view of
P. Kropp, M.M.K. 1905, pp. 36-9.
6 Ath. Mitt, xxxi. 1906, p. 218.
303
CRETE AND THE HOMERIC POEMS
It has doubtless already been noticed that the various
tribal names that generally loom so large in these dis-
cussions have been practically not mentioned at all in
the present book. It is not an accident. It is no dis-
paragement of the interesting work done by scholars
who specialise on " Pelasgians " and " Achaeans " to
maintain that what we need at the present moment is
to clear the air of them. There is a danger that facts
are being obscured by names.1
Professor Ridgeway s has done a service in emphasising
the fact that the Greeks, as we know them, came of a
mixed race, and that the word Pelasgian, which they
themselves used of one of the early elements in its
composition, must be connected with at least some
phase of " Mycenaean " civilisation. When, however, he
equates Pelasgian with that civilisation as a whole, he
is going beyond the evidence ; 5 and scholars who follow
him must be puzzled by Dr. Mackenzie's application of
the word to the mainland type of Mycenaean civilisation
that invaded Crete at the end of Late Minoan II.,4 or
Dr. Dorpfeld's application of it to the Carian Cretans who
invaded Attica.5 Achaean, too, is a catch-word whose use
1 J. L. Myres makes the same point in Y.XV.C.S. 1907, p. 18.
2 E.A.G. i. passim.
3 This view, maintained by H. R. Hall in O.C.G. 1901, pp. 79-
86, still holds good.
4 D.S.A. xi. p. 222. This is also practically the view of
P. Kropp, M.M.K. 1905, pp. 36-9.
6 Ath. Mitt, xxxi. 1906, p. 218.
303