Histories

He found by inquiry that the chief peoples were the Lacedaemonians among those of Doric, and the Athenians among those of Ionic stock. These races, Ionian and Dorian, were the foremost in ancient time, the first a Pelasgian and the second a Hellenic people. The Pelasgian race has never yet left its home; the Hellenic has wandered often and far.

For in the days of king Deucalion [*](Deucalion and Pyrrha were the survivors of the Deluge as known to Greek legend.) it inhabited the land of Phthia [22.75,36.2667] (Perseus) Phthia, then the country called Histiaean, under Ossa and Olympus (mountain), Nomos Larisis, Thessaly, Greece, Europe Olympus, in the time of Dorus son of Hellen; driven from this Histiaean country by the Cadmeans, it settled about Pindus in the territory called Macedonian; from there again it migrated to Dryopia, and at last came from Dryopia into the Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese, where it took the name of Dorian.[*](The localities mentioned in the story of the migration into the Peloponnese [22,37.5] (region), Greece, Europe Peloponnese are all in northern Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeGreece.)

What language the Pelasgians spoke I cannot say definitely. But if one may judge by those that still remain of the Pelasgians who live above the Tyrrheni [*](If these are the Etruscans, then Creston may = Cortona [11.9833,43.2667] (Perseus)Cortona: but the whole matter is doubtful.) in the city of Creston—who were once neighbors of the people now called Dorians, and at that time inhabited the country which now is called Thessalian—

and of the Pelasgians who inhabited Placia and Scylace on the Canakkale Bogazi (strait), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Hellespont, who came to live among the Athenians, and by other towns too which were once Pelasgian and afterwards took a different name: if, as I said, one may judge by these, the Pelasgians spoke a language which was not Greek.

If, then, all the Pelasgian stock spoke so, then the Attic nation, being of Pelasgian blood, must have changed its language too at the time when it became part of the Hellenes. For the people of Creston and Placia have a language of their own in common, which is not the language of their neighbors; and it is plain that they still preserve the manner of speech which they brought with them in their migration into the places where they live.

But the Hellenic stock, it seems clear to me, has always had the same language since its beginning; yet being, when separated from the Pelasgians, few in number, they have grown from a small beginning to comprise a multitude of nations, chiefly because the Pelasgians and many other foreign peoples united themselves with them. Before that, I think, the Pelasgic stock nowhere increased much in number while it was of foreign speech.