THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ? 341
Now Herodotus tells us that the Thessalians proper were
Thesprotians, who crossed the Pindus chain into Thessaly,
settled in that part of it called Aeolis', and finally became the
overlords of the Acheans, Magnetes and Perrhaebians. This
advance of the Thesprotians into Thessaly was the cause, says
Thucydides-, of the movement of the people who in his time
were called Boeotians into Boeotia. For they were driven by
the invading Thesprotians from their ancient home in Arne in
Thessaly, and they came and dwelt in the Cadmean territory
where some of their kindred were already settled.
Now as a tribe of Thesprotians called Thessali actually
crossed Pindus and occupied and subdued the land still called
by their name, so it is not improbable that another tribe from
the same quarter had at an earlier period made a similar
movement into Thessaly, settling principally in that part of it
called Phthiotis, and becoming the overlords of all of it, as did
the Thessali later on.
Moreover our argument in favour of the coming of the
Acheans from Thesprotia, which rests on their veneration for
Dodona, receives confirmation from the fact that these Thesprotian
Thessali, even in their new homes under the shadow of
Olympus, long retained the cult of Dodonean Zeus. For when
in 190 Ji.C. the Thessalians issued a federal coinage, the oakcrowned
head of Dodonean Zeus was the type of that issue'.
Jn the Homeric jxx'ms the Thessali have not yet entered
Thessaly, but the Thesproti
were in full
occupation of southern
Epirus, which i'rom them was named Thesprotia.
That iritercourse between Thesprotia and Thessalv was
(juite (!otnnion is pi-oved by the dream of l^enelo))e. Her sister
ly)hthime, who was wii'e of iMinieliis and dwelt at Pherae in
Thessaly, seemed to visit her. Penelope is sur[)rise(l at the
visit because it was so long a way for hei' sister to come, but at
the same time the j)oet evidently regarded
it as within the
ordinaiT course of life^
The Achean Odysseus
is
supposed
freely as he would anywhei'e thi-ougli
to travel to Dodona as
the rest of the (irei'k
342 WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ?
world*. Telemachus lauds his mother as unrivalled bj' any
woman of her time throughout the Achean land " either in
sacred Pylus, or in Argos, or in Mycenae, or in Ithaca itself, or
in dark Epirus*." The last line has been regarded as a late
addition by modern philologists, but the ancients held it to be
genuine, and indeed to exclude his own Ithaca from his enumeration
would be little in keeping with the character of
Telemachus. If the line is genuine,
it is evident that the writer
regarded the land of the Thesprotians as within the pale of
Achaia.
In classical times the Epirote tribe called Ghaones dwelt
above the Thesproti, and their northern boundary extended to
the Acroceraunia, held by the ancients to be the point where
the Ionian Gulf ended and the Adriatic began. From this spot
tribes who are always termed Illyrians occupied the coast.
Though there is no evidence to show that these tribes differed
in any wise from their southern neighbours, who are called
Thesproti, nevertheless we shall soon see distinct proof that the
population of all the region extending from Macedonia to
Corcyra differed in several important respects from the people
farther south, Strabo puts the southern limit of Illyria
at
the Gulf of Rhizon. But there is reason to believe that the
people who dwelt south of that point were mainly lUyrian in
race.
Epidamnus, which stands considerably to the south, was
planted by Corcyra for the purpose of trading with the Illyrian
tribes, just as Corcyra herself had been planted by Corinth to
tap the trade of the upper coast of the Ionian Gulf, and we
know that it was in consecjuence of their being hai'd pressed
by the neighbouring tribe of Taulantii that the E])idanniians
made that appeal to Corinth, which was one of thv pi'oxiniate
causes of the Peloponnesian war. From this it is certain that
in the fifth century 15. c. the country considerably south of the
Rhizonic bay was ()ccu])ied by tribes chiefly of the lUyi'lau
stock, and there are no grounds for 8U])posing that any
alterations of a serious nature had taken ])laee
in that region.
Any such change would probably have been the lesult of an
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vn. 17