John Linton Myres

“ Ephorus, relying on Hesiodic tradition of an aboriginal Pelasgian type in Arcadia, elaborated a theory of the Pelasgians as a warrior people spreading (like “Aryans”) from a “Pelasgian home,” and annexing and colonizing all the parts of Greece where earlier writers had found allusions to them, from Dodona to Crete and the Troad, and even as far as Italy, where again their settlements had been recognized as early as the time of Hellanicus, in close connexion once more with “Tyrrhenians.” ”

“ PELASGIANS, a name applied by Greek writers to a prehistoric people whose traces were believed to exist in Greek lands. If the statements of ancient authorities are marshalled in order of their date it will be seen that certain beliefs cannot be traced back beyond the age of this or that author. ”

“ Pelasgus is earth born, as in Asius, and rules a kingdom stretching from Argos to Dodona and the Strymon; but in Prometheus 879, the “Pelasgian” land simply means Argos. Sophocles takes the same view (Inachus, fr. 256) and for the first time introduces the word “Tyrrhenian” into the story, apparently as synonymous with Pelasgian. ”