Pelasgians, the first homo-sapiens in Europe?

[Truth Seeker]

We've all heard about the great Pelasgians, the ancestors of ancient greeks who spoke a "barbaric" language according to many greek historians...people who invented a lot but were destroyed by "civilized" tribes etc etc etc...

The Pelasgians were nothing other than the first humans in Europe. If we look at the migration of Homo Sapiens, about 70,000 years ago the Homo Sapiens entered Europe through today's Turkey and they spread to the rest of Europe in the following millennials. Back then Bosporus and Dardanelles did not exist so entry to Europe was easy, the climate was good. Later the Pelasgians spread in the whole Balkan Peninsula and then they migrated to central Europe, western Europe, GB...and the only ones who stayed behind were the Greeks, Illyrians, Thracians and Dacians. Therefore the Germanic people for example are nothing other than descendants of the Pelasgians who migrated deeper into the continent. The Illyrians, Greeks, Thracians and Dacians are Pelasgians who did not migrate...but every European is a Pelasgian. Ancient Greek writers themselves called the Pelasgians barbarians, just like they called the Illyrians, Dacians and Thracians barbarian...and all 4 of them had similar culture, especially the latter 3. It is obvious they had the same ancestors. Homo Sapiens Migration Map just confirms that. Why has history been manipulated?

 

[Tulius]

Quite and entry for a new thread!

There were already some threads about the Pelagians for instance: http://historum.com/ancient-history/46767-pelasgians.html

But I think that is the first time that I see them pointed as the ancestors of all the European.

Just for curiosity, have you any backup source for such an spontaneous statement?

 

[Moros]

Greek mythology declared the Arcadians (who are identified with the Pelasgians) lived on acorns and were there before the moon existed. Pelasgus had a son, Lycaon, the first king of Arcadia. He and his sons were turned into wolves and his daughter was turned into a bear. So an identification of Pelasgians with the wild and dangerous - much like the centaurs.

 

[Sum of one]

The Pelasgians did not speak a barbarian language. They were a Greek tribe that spoke the Arcado-Cypriot dialect of Greek, also known as Myceanean Greek.

 

[Tulius]

The Pelasgians did not speak a barbarian language. They were a Greek tribe that spoke the Arcado-Cypriot dialect of Greek, also known as Myceanean Greek.

Could you provide sources for this Greek speaking Pelasgians? Since what I always read about them is quite similar to what Moros stated above: "So an identification of Pelasgians with the wild and dangerous - much like the centaurs."

 

[Sum of one]

Could you provide sources for this Greek speaking Pelasgians? Since what I always read about them is quite similar to what Moros stated above: "So an identification of Pelasgians with the wild and dangerous - much like the centaurs."

Before 776 BC, which is the time the various Greek speaking tribes started to call themselves Hellenes, the Greeks were known by their tribal names: Achaeans, Danaans, Ectenes, Pelasgians, Hellenes, Eteocretans etc.

The Pelasgians were just one of those Greek speaking tribes. This Greek tribe spoke Arcado-Cypriot and was the first tribe in Greece to build cities hence their name Pelasgian which means city dwellers. (The oldest city in Europe is in Arcadia). The Hellene tribe was originally a nomadic tribe from PHthia which kept expanding and eventually gave its name to all Greek speaking tribes including the Pelasgians. The Pelasgians lived inland in Arcadia. Those who lived by the coast were called Aegialean-Pelasgi i.e coast dwellers that lived in cities.

In fact the name architect comes the name of their founder Arcas.

 

[Sum of one]

[Herodotus, The History of Herodotus, George Rawlinson, tr., vol. 1 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1885), Book 1; and vol. 2 , book 3].

56. Of all the answers that had reached him, this pleased him far the best, for it seemed incredible that a mule should ever come to be king of the Medes, and so he concluded that the sovereignty would never depart from himself or his seed after him. Afterwards he turned his thoughts to the alliance which he had been recommended to contract, and sought to ascertain by inquiry which was the most powerful of the Grecian states. His inquiries pointed out to him two states as pre-eminent above the rest. These were the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians, the former of Doric the latter of Ionic blood. And indeed these two nations had held from very early times the most distinguished place in Greece, the one being a Pelasgic the other a Hellenic people, and the one having never quitted its original seats, while the other had been excessively migratory; for during the reign of Deucalion, Phthiotis was the country in which the Hellenes dwelt, but under Dorus, the son of Hellen, they moved to the tract at the base of Ossa and Olympus, which is called Histiaeotis; forced to retire from that region by the Cadmeians,[1] they settled, under the name of Macedni, in the chain of Pindus. Hence they once more removed and came to Dryopis; and from Dryopis having entered the Peloponnese in this way, they became known as Dorians.

57. What the language of the Pelasgi was I cannot say with any certainty. If, however, we may form a conjecture from the tongue spoken by the Pelasgi of the present day, - those, for instance, who live at Creston above the Tyrrhenians, who formerly dwelt in the district named Thessaliotis, and were neighbours of the people now called the Dorians, - or those again who founded Placia and Scylace upon the Hellespont, who had previously dwelt for some timewith the Athenians, - or those, in short, of any other of the cities which have dropped the name but are in fact Pelasgian; if, I say, we are to form a conjecture from any of these, we must pronounce that the Pelasgi spoke a barbarous language. If this were really so, and the entire Pelasgic race spoke the same tongue, the Athenians, who were certainly Pelasgi, must have changed their language at the same time that they passed into the Hellenic body; for it is a certain fact that the people of Creston speak a language unlike any of their neighbours, and the same is true of the Placianians, while the language spoken by these two people is the same; which shows that they both retain the idiom which they brought with them into the countries where they are now settled.

58. The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech. This at least seems evident to me. It was a branch of the Pelasgic, which separated from the main body, and at first was scanty in numbers and of little power; but it gradually spread and increased to a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as I think, a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied.

 

[Sum of one]

As you see Herodotus mentions the Hellenes and the Greeks as the most prominent of the Greek-speaking tribes.

Hellenes were the decedents of Hellen the son of Deukalion and was applied by the Greeks to refer to the Dorians, Aeolians, Ionians and Achaeans collectively. The Hellenes spoke the Doric, Aeolic and Attic-Ionic dialects.

The Greeks were the descendants of Graecus, the son of Pelasgus. The Pelasgians spoke the Arcado-Cypriot-Mycenean dialect of Greek.

The Greeks were called Greeks after Graecus the son of Thessalus the son of Haemon the son of Pelasgus, and Pandora the daughter of Deukalion, who Hellene and his sons displaced in the region of Phthia. The Greeks were therefore Pelasgians and the Hellenes were the part of these Greeks (Pelasgians) who were ruled by Dorus around Parnassus, Aeolus around Thessaly and Xuthus in the Peloponnesus. Only when they came under the rulle of kings descended from Hellen did the Greeks, such as the Athenians, enter the Hellenic body.

 

[Sum of one]

The Greeks were Pelasgians and there are plenty of references by historians to Pelasgic script being in use before Cadmian script. Hellene lived at the same time as Cadmus so any reference to Hellenes can't possibly predate Cadmus and the Hellenes can't have had writing before they even existed.

Only the Greeks descended from Dorus, Aeolus and Xuthus or who had kings descended from them were called Hellenes. Their kings were all descended from Hellen. The people and the language was a branch of the Pelasgians as is stated by Herodotus.


Herodotus 1.58.1] "The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech. This at least seems evident to me. It was a branch of the Pelasgic, which separated from the main body, and at first was scanty in numbers and of little power; but it gradually spread and increased to a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as I think, a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied."

The term barbarian was used by Herodotus to refer to people who did not speak the Hellenic dialect of Greek. It was also used by the Athenians to refer to those who did not speak the Attic dialect of Greek including the Spartans and Macedonians who as we know were both Greek tribes who spoke the Doric dialect.

 

[Sum of one]

Herodotus again:

"57. What the language of the Pelasgi was I cannot say with any certainty. If, however, we may form a conjecture from the tongue spoken by the Pelasgi of the present day, - those, for instance, who live at Creston above the Tyrrhenians, who formerly dwelt in the district named Thessaliotis, and were neighbours of the people now called the Dorians, - or those again who founded Placia and Scylace upon the Hellespont, who had previously dwelt for some timewith the Athenians, - or those, in short, of any other of the cities which have dropped the name but are in fact Pelasgian; if, I say, we are to form a conjecture from any of these, we must pronounce that the Pelasgi spoke a barbarous language. If this were really so, and the entire Pelasgic race spoke the same tongue, the Athenians, who were certainly Pelasgi, must have changed their language at the same time that they passed into the Hellenic body; for it is a certain fact that the people of Creston speak a language unlike any of their neighbours, and the same is true of the Placianians, while the language spoken by these two people is the same; which shows that they both retain the idiom which they brought with them into the countries where they are now settled."

In Herodotus time Pelasgians was still spoken by the Pelasgians beside Thrace and in Creston (Italy) above the Tyrrhenians and everywhere else Pelasgians lived. Herodotus heard the language because he visited these places and know that it was common to all Pelasgians and that Greek was descended from it, whereas it bore no relation to any other languages.

Pelasgian was a dialect of Ionic-Arcadian-Cyprian-Mycenaean since the Pelasgians came from Arcadia, and also since Herodotus could recognise it since he spoke the Ionic dialect.

Herodotus had heard Pelsagian and he knew that Greek was directly descended from it but not any of the languages of the people who lived next to the Pelasgians. The only thing he did not know was where Pelasgian came from because there was no one else apart from the Hellenes who spoke anything similar to it, not even the Thracians, Tyrrhenians or Carians.

Herodotus was discussion the origin of the Hellenic race and that race he considered to be a branch of the Pelasgic race. The term Greeks applies to both Hellenes and Palasgains since it was coined by the Romans because the Pelasgians were the first people from Greece that they met. The term barbarian was used by Herodotus to refer to anybody who did not speak the Hellenic dialect of Greek. There were other dialects of Greek and those included Pelasgian. Eteocretan for example.

Herodotus says the Pelasgians "... a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied".

A non-Hellenic race that is, not a non-Greek race. The Pelasgians are Greeks by definition since the Greeks were named after Graecus the son of Thessalus the son of Haemon the son of Pelasgus.