DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12654#0206
178
THE PELASGI.
[Part II.
Many writers of modern times have rejected all the
remarkable traditions of the ancient Greeks respecting
their early connexion with Egypt, as undeserving of
the serious consideration of the learned. That there is
much of fable in the early Greek traditions, cannot be
denied ; but it is as certain, in my opinion, that there
is much truth, respecting the colonization of Greece,
contained in those traditions, upon which I must here
remark. All the traditions of a nation are not neces-
sarily false because mixed up with mythological fables.
The origin of the several Greek Kingdoms is in-
volved in great obscurity. It has been supposed that
that of Sicyon commenced in the twenty-first century
B.C.; and that of Argos, about the middle of the nine-
teenth century B.C. About the latter time, we find
traces of the connexion between Greece and Egypt,
which are nowhere more evident than in the legend of
Io, the daughter of Inachus. The most remarkable of
the colonizing tribes were the Pelasgi; whose name,
unfortunately, does not enable us to say what was their
race. Homer makes mention of them as auxiliaries of
the Trojans, coming from Larissa*. With respect to
this and the other tribes which colonized Greece, for
they must have been several tribes, not one, of which
the Greek traditions speak, one thing is certain; that
these traditions make them either Egyptians or a
people intimately connected with Egypt and Palestine.
It is evident, also, that the ancient Greeks made no
distinction between the Egyptians and the Shepherds.
Wealso find that they knew nothing of the previous his-
tory of these tribes ; or rather, nothing more than that
they came from Egypt or Phoenicia. This is shown by
* Iliad, B. II., v. 840, 841.
THE PELASGI.
[Part II.
Many writers of modern times have rejected all the
remarkable traditions of the ancient Greeks respecting
their early connexion with Egypt, as undeserving of
the serious consideration of the learned. That there is
much of fable in the early Greek traditions, cannot be
denied ; but it is as certain, in my opinion, that there
is much truth, respecting the colonization of Greece,
contained in those traditions, upon which I must here
remark. All the traditions of a nation are not neces-
sarily false because mixed up with mythological fables.
The origin of the several Greek Kingdoms is in-
volved in great obscurity. It has been supposed that
that of Sicyon commenced in the twenty-first century
B.C.; and that of Argos, about the middle of the nine-
teenth century B.C. About the latter time, we find
traces of the connexion between Greece and Egypt,
which are nowhere more evident than in the legend of
Io, the daughter of Inachus. The most remarkable of
the colonizing tribes were the Pelasgi; whose name,
unfortunately, does not enable us to say what was their
race. Homer makes mention of them as auxiliaries of
the Trojans, coming from Larissa*. With respect to
this and the other tribes which colonized Greece, for
they must have been several tribes, not one, of which
the Greek traditions speak, one thing is certain; that
these traditions make them either Egyptians or a
people intimately connected with Egypt and Palestine.
It is evident, also, that the ancient Greeks made no
distinction between the Egyptians and the Shepherds.
Wealso find that they knew nothing of the previous his-
tory of these tribes ; or rather, nothing more than that
they came from Egypt or Phoenicia. This is shown by
* Iliad, B. II., v. 840, 841.