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

THE HOMERIC DIALECT. 641
The first of the criminals is no human malefactor, but one
of the giant brood, the primal fruit of Earth's young womb he
;
suffered for the deed of shame that he wrought on Leto " as
she went up to Pytho through the fair lawns of Panopeus."
This myth then, so far from being Asiatic,
is attached to
Pytho, which, as we have seen, was an immemorial Pelasgian
fane.
Sisyphus was king of Corinth and grandfather of Bellerophon,
whose Pelasgian pedigree has been already proved. This
legend then has no connection with either the Aeolid or Ionia.
Tantalus alone of all the heroes and miscreants is Asiatic.
But as he was the father of Pelops, the leader of the Acheans
into Peloponnesus, his appearance in the list does not prove
that the poem was composed in Asia Minor. It, however, does
show that where the poet was acquainted wnth Asiatic legends,
he had no hesitation in employing them, and therefore, since
lie inserts the father of the conqueror of Peloponnesus, he
would have probably menti(jued many more personages known
in Asiatic legends liad he been living in Ionia or the Aeolid.
Finally, it may be noticed that Theseus and Peirithous,
whom Odysseus hjnged to see, though his wish was not
accomplished, w^ere l)oth Pelasgian and also not Asiatic.
The great majority therefore of the personages beheld by
Odysseus l>elong to the older I'ace, whilst to them is added a
small band of Acliean chiefs.
As the Acheans had introduced new forms of dress, weapons,
and armour, as well as the custom of cremation, a ])ractice
which long strugglecl
for the mastery with the indigenous
method of (lisj)osin'.,'-
of the dead, we may natiu'ally exjieet
lo find blended or in juxtaposition two dift'erent eoueeptions
regai'dmg the abode ot the dead. Such a blending can he seen
in the Nekyia. tor all
hough the ideas of the conciueroi' regai'ding
the