Your views on Pelasgoi

[Flipper]

No matter who the Pelasgoi originally were, they became an integral part of what we call Hellenic civilization.

So what do you think they were from the early beggining? I will summarize quickly some things we know about them and their descendants.

1) They were supposed to be autochthonus like the Leleges and the Aperantoi.
2) They probably descended from Pelasgos who seems to be a buddy buddy of Deucalion.
3) Herodotus says that their original language was not easy to understand. However, he classes Greek as a branch of the Pelasgian language. He also states that the Hellenes never changed their speech.
4) According to Herodotus again the Athenians spoke that language that later changed to its known form.
5) Argos had during early ages Pelasgian Kings.
6) The first Arcadians were sons of Pelasgos. In addition to that I've been recently informed by a linguist that the Arcado-Cypriot language is currently classed as the most primitive Greek language. (I will ask for more info on that so stay tuned).
7) Pelasgos could also be son of Zeus.
8) Hellanicus says that Poseidon and Larisa gave birth to Achaios, Phthios and Pelasgos. Just for the record the name Achaios could derive from the Pelasgian word for water "Achai".
9) Known Pelasgian words that have survived and used widely are Alifo (smear), Asti(town), Dynamai (I can), Elaion (olive oil), naos (temple), pyrgos(tower), Thalassa (sea). As you can see those are words we use today and they have a usual Greek phonology with -o and os in the end.
10) The Ionians are mentioned to be Pelasgians.

These are just some points that should be mentioned. The fact that the Athenians have been connected with Pelasgian ancestry have made some linguists to look at another theory that I strongly feel for. The linguistic similarities with the other Greeks and the evolution of their language points that they were not actually autochthonus people but rather people of an earlier migration of primitive Greek speakers. This is were I'm heading my research at this moment. I'm currently collecting as much material I can and I hope to get valuable data from proffetionals.

So what are your views on them? Were they:

1) Greek speaking people of earlier migrations
2) Hellenized non indoeuropeans
3) Cousins of the Greek speaking tribes that were accepted in the Hellenic family.
4) Tyrhenians
5) Luvians
6) Autochthonus as long as history and archeology can trace

In general, I would like to write more in detail but unfortunately I have to live with a modem connection for one more week

[akritas]

Flip you open a big historical issue.This is the reason that we have a lot of fiancé(Albanians,FYROMians,Turks,Slovenians e.t.c.). I will start from the meaning of the Pelasgian , as term of course. Of the various theories concerning the origin of the name Pelasgi the most credible is this of Πελήος Άργος , that mean 'the old residents of the county”', since πέληος means old and ‘Άργος means country. Pelargi or Pelasgi or Pelasgiki was not the name that the residents of the Neolithic and the earlier Bronze Age in Greece used for themselves, but it was the name that was given to them by the invading Achaeanss.. On the contrary, the Pelasgians called the residents of Istros (the river Danube) as 'Hyperboreans(Strabo C, 295), and they had contact with them before they returned to Greece.

The term Hyperborean give a lot of feed to several Hellenecentrics and I want in this phase to ignore it.

Greek mythology constitutes a source of ancient information, despite the fact that it is veiled by the mists of time and the symbolism of the narrative. It can yield precious information if one can understand its descriptions. It is also possible, that some of the names of the ancient Greek gods could have been in the remote past some distinguished personalities in the country. These personages may have lived during that first peak of Hellenism.. The Greek deities. as elaborated by the popular psyche, were finally identified with humanity's several innate natural 'laws' (family, war, love, agriculture. wisdom, navigation, etc).

As Dionysios of Alicarnasus(C,17) points out "and the ancient nation of Pelasgians, which derived from the Peloponnese, was Hellenic". Although Herodotus admits dl that he does not know what the Pelasgian language was, he supposes that it was a barbaric language based on the language that two or three doubtful states spoke in his time. Strangely, however, he does not mention the language of the Lemnians, whom he himself attests were Pelasgians , nor the language of the other islanders fl - more thanlikely because they were speaking the Hellenic 1anguage.g) Herodotus elsewhere attestsh) that the Pelasgians of Attica "had been thought Hellenes", which means that they could not have had a very different language. He also believes that all the names of the gods were Pelasgic, and that the word θεός (god) was given by the Pelasgians because god έθεσε (placed) everything in the world. According to Plato, the Pelasgic names of the ancient Hellenic gods can be interpreted by the Hellenic 1anguage. Εven the dual name of Zeus (Διός Ζηνός) οginated from the Pelasgic expression of 'creating life' (διδούς ζήν) -this name was divided into two different names by later Greek tribes. Herodotus himself accepts the fact that the Ionians, Aeolians,(7-94,95) and Athenians(8-44) were pure descendants of the Pelasgians.

So in my opinion Pelasgians were part of that that we call ancient Hellenic history, they participate in the Greek revolution (specially in the language and mythology) and finally absorbed from the Hellenic tribes.

Some call them as Proto-Greeks

http://alex.eled.duth.gr/Eldoseis/ko...xts/03peri.htm

but we will be sure(if this theory sustain) when we deciphere the Linear A