DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0473
450 ANCIENT ATHENS.
Cleomenes besieged the Peisistratidse in " the Pelasgic fortress."1 The
Parian Marble uses the same expression concerning the same event.2
We agree with Wachsmnth (loc. cit.) in thinking that these passages
refer to the whole Acropolis, as fortified by the Pelasgians. In this view
it is equivalent to ' Acropolis;' but it further indicates the Acropolis
in its ancient state, as fortified by the Pelasgi. On the other hand, the
term ' Pelasgicum ' denotes either a part of this fortification, preserved
after the remainder had been destroyed, or a tract of enclosed ground
which, according to tradition, had been formerly occupied by the Pelasgi.
The former, perhaps, is the more probable of these two hypotheses;
but however this may be, there can be no doubt that the place so called,
whatever it may have been, was under Pan's grotto, at the north-
western extremity of the Acropolis, as we see it very exactly indicated
in the passage before quoted from Lucian's ' Bis Accusatus' (p. 448).
Strabo says, that part of the city, or rather of the Acropolis (tjj? 7ro\e<os),
was called Pelasgicum after the Pelasgi ;3 and Thucydides adverts to it
in a passage which shows that, in pursuance of an oracle, it was regarded
as sacred ground.4 Aristophanes alludes to it in the following line,
under the form Pelargicum :
t'is Sat Ka8e£a Trjs iroktas to TlfXapyiKov j*
The form TreXapyticbs seems to have been current among the Athenians,
and is said to have been adopted because the wanderings of the Pelasgi
resembled those of the crane (TreXapyos).6 It was not, therefore, alto-
gether a comic invention of Aristophanes, but was naturally employed
by him in a play whose subject was the birds.
After adverting to the cave of Pan, Pausanias proceeds to the
1 KKeopevtjs ... <VoXio'p«e rovsTvpdvvovs ti\s irokfas HeXatryiKov.—lib. ix. 401.
d7r(pyp(vovs(VTG>He\atryiKareix(i.—v.64. * t6 re HekaayiK&v Kakovficvov to imb
2 ii-avi<JT\r)(rav\ Toils n«o-terrpcm'o'as in tt)v aKpmrdkiv, 6 jcai (irdparov t( r\v firj
[rov nf]Xao-[yi]<coO Tii^ovs.—ep. 114. And olxclv kui ti koi HvBikov ptavreiov dicpoTC-
so Aristotle, quoted by the scholiast on \evrwv toiov8c &i(Ku>\vf, \iyov ins to
the' Lysistrata' of Aristophanes, v. 1155 : IIeXa<ry«oj/ dpybv apeiuov.—ii. 17.
KXfo/wvt)s .... thrjkBtv ds ttjv 'Att(kij» 5 " Who will occupy the Pelargicum of
kox tov ' Iirrrlav o-iW(eXt«rev (Is to H(\ap- the Acropolis ? "—Aves, v. 833.
yiKov t(txof. ' Strabo, v. 221 ; Myrsilus ap. Pion.
3 d<f> Z>v (\l(\ao-yu>v) (Kki)6t) pipns ti Hal. loc. cit.
Cleomenes besieged the Peisistratidse in " the Pelasgic fortress."1 The
Parian Marble uses the same expression concerning the same event.2
We agree with Wachsmnth (loc. cit.) in thinking that these passages
refer to the whole Acropolis, as fortified by the Pelasgians. In this view
it is equivalent to ' Acropolis;' but it further indicates the Acropolis
in its ancient state, as fortified by the Pelasgi. On the other hand, the
term ' Pelasgicum ' denotes either a part of this fortification, preserved
after the remainder had been destroyed, or a tract of enclosed ground
which, according to tradition, had been formerly occupied by the Pelasgi.
The former, perhaps, is the more probable of these two hypotheses;
but however this may be, there can be no doubt that the place so called,
whatever it may have been, was under Pan's grotto, at the north-
western extremity of the Acropolis, as we see it very exactly indicated
in the passage before quoted from Lucian's ' Bis Accusatus' (p. 448).
Strabo says, that part of the city, or rather of the Acropolis (tjj? 7ro\e<os),
was called Pelasgicum after the Pelasgi ;3 and Thucydides adverts to it
in a passage which shows that, in pursuance of an oracle, it was regarded
as sacred ground.4 Aristophanes alludes to it in the following line,
under the form Pelargicum :
t'is Sat Ka8e£a Trjs iroktas to TlfXapyiKov j*
The form TreXapyticbs seems to have been current among the Athenians,
and is said to have been adopted because the wanderings of the Pelasgi
resembled those of the crane (TreXapyos).6 It was not, therefore, alto-
gether a comic invention of Aristophanes, but was naturally employed
by him in a play whose subject was the birds.
After adverting to the cave of Pan, Pausanias proceeds to the
1 KKeopevtjs ... <VoXio'p«e rovsTvpdvvovs ti\s irokfas HeXatryiKov.—lib. ix. 401.
d7r(pyp(vovs(VTG>He\atryiKareix(i.—v.64. * t6 re HekaayiK&v Kakovficvov to imb
2 ii-avi<JT\r)(rav\ Toils n«o-terrpcm'o'as in tt)v aKpmrdkiv, 6 jcai (irdparov t( r\v firj
[rov nf]Xao-[yi]<coO Tii^ovs.—ep. 114. And olxclv kui ti koi HvBikov ptavreiov dicpoTC-
so Aristotle, quoted by the scholiast on \evrwv toiov8c &i(Ku>\vf, \iyov ins to
the' Lysistrata' of Aristophanes, v. 1155 : IIeXa<ry«oj/ dpybv apeiuov.—ii. 17.
KXfo/wvt)s .... thrjkBtv ds ttjv 'Att(kij» 5 " Who will occupy the Pelargicum of
kox tov ' Iirrrlav o-iW(eXt«rev (Is to H(\ap- the Acropolis ? "—Aves, v. 833.
yiKov t(txof. ' Strabo, v. 221 ; Myrsilus ap. Pion.
3 d<f> Z>v (\l(\ao-yu>v) (Kki)6t) pipns ti Hal. loc. cit.