DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0301
284 COSA. [chap, xlvii.
the Pelasgi. Not that, with Sir W. Gell, I would cite the
myth of Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, and founder of Lycosura,
as proof that this masonry was of Pelasgic origin9—I
might even admit that " there is no conclusive evidence in
any one instance of the Pelasgian origin of the monuments
under consideration,"]0—yet the wide-spread existence of
remains of this masonry through the countries of the
ancient world, the equally wide diffusion of the Pelasgic
race,1 and the remarkable correspondence of the lands it
occupied or inhabited with those where these monuments
most abound; to say nothing of the impossibility of
ascribing them with a shadow of reason to any other parti-
cular people mentioned in history—afford satisfactory
evidence to my mind of the Pelasgic origin of the polygonal
masonry. And here it is not necessary to determine the
much vewata qucestio, what and whence was that Pelasgic
race, which was so widely diffused throughout the ancient
world; it is enough to know that in almost every land
which it is said to have occupied, we find remains of this
description.2 In Thessaly, Epirus, and the Peloponnesus,
9 Gell, Rome, II. v. Pelasgi. more widely spread than any other
10 Bunbury, Clas. Mus. V. p. 186. people in Europe, extended from the Po
Yet there is, in most instances, the and the Arno almost to the Bosphorus."
same kind and degree of evidence as I. p. 52, Eng. trans.
lead us to ascribe the walls of Piesole 2 Gerhard (Memor. Inst. IIT. p. 72)
and Volterra to the Etruscans, those of takes these structures of irregular poly-
Peestum to the Greeks, or Stonehenge gons to be Pelasgic. Miiller (Areha-
to the Druids. We find it recorded ologie der Kunst, p. 27) thinks that most
that in very early times the lands or of the so-called Cyclopean walls of
sites were occupied by certain races; Epirus and the Peloponnesus were
and finding local remains, which analogy erected by the Pelasgi. We know that
marks as of high antiquity, and not of they built the ancient wall round the
Roman construction, we feel authorised Acropolis of Athens; and the way in
in ascribing them to the respective which this fact is mentioned by Diony-
people. sijjs (J. p- 22), in connection with their
1 " It is not a mere hypothesis," says wandering habits, favours the opinion
Niebnhr, "but with a full historical of some, that these Pelasgi were the
conviction, that I assert, there was a great fort-builders of antiquity, a migra-
time when the Pelasgians, then perhaps tory race of warlike masons, who went
the Pelasgi. Not that, with Sir W. Gell, I would cite the
myth of Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, and founder of Lycosura,
as proof that this masonry was of Pelasgic origin9—I
might even admit that " there is no conclusive evidence in
any one instance of the Pelasgian origin of the monuments
under consideration,"]0—yet the wide-spread existence of
remains of this masonry through the countries of the
ancient world, the equally wide diffusion of the Pelasgic
race,1 and the remarkable correspondence of the lands it
occupied or inhabited with those where these monuments
most abound; to say nothing of the impossibility of
ascribing them with a shadow of reason to any other parti-
cular people mentioned in history—afford satisfactory
evidence to my mind of the Pelasgic origin of the polygonal
masonry. And here it is not necessary to determine the
much vewata qucestio, what and whence was that Pelasgic
race, which was so widely diffused throughout the ancient
world; it is enough to know that in almost every land
which it is said to have occupied, we find remains of this
description.2 In Thessaly, Epirus, and the Peloponnesus,
9 Gell, Rome, II. v. Pelasgi. more widely spread than any other
10 Bunbury, Clas. Mus. V. p. 186. people in Europe, extended from the Po
Yet there is, in most instances, the and the Arno almost to the Bosphorus."
same kind and degree of evidence as I. p. 52, Eng. trans.
lead us to ascribe the walls of Piesole 2 Gerhard (Memor. Inst. IIT. p. 72)
and Volterra to the Etruscans, those of takes these structures of irregular poly-
Peestum to the Greeks, or Stonehenge gons to be Pelasgic. Miiller (Areha-
to the Druids. We find it recorded ologie der Kunst, p. 27) thinks that most
that in very early times the lands or of the so-called Cyclopean walls of
sites were occupied by certain races; Epirus and the Peloponnesus were
and finding local remains, which analogy erected by the Pelasgi. We know that
marks as of high antiquity, and not of they built the ancient wall round the
Roman construction, we feel authorised Acropolis of Athens; and the way in
in ascribing them to the respective which this fact is mentioned by Diony-
people. sijjs (J. p- 22), in connection with their
1 " It is not a mere hypothesis," says wandering habits, favours the opinion
Niebnhr, "but with a full historical of some, that these Pelasgi were the
conviction, that I assert, there was a great fort-builders of antiquity, a migra-
time when the Pelasgians, then perhaps tory race of warlike masons, who went