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

WHO WERE THE MAKERS ? 87
88
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XIX. 170 :
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llistiaeolis in upper 'I'hessaly iiefdie the res! df llieir natidii had adxHiieed into
ism or sobei-mindcdiicss no one has vet called
Idwer (ireece. d'his elTecIiiall\ iidses df the asseitidii that this pas-a^'r df
the (i(h/ssii/ must he latei than the Xiebuhi-
I'diian inxa-idii of Thii'luall, (ii-ote and Iv Curtius.
I'eldpdimesus.
m ijUestion
WHO WERE THE MAKERS ?
tribe might at any time descend from Balkan or Alps, but in
Eteocretes or Cyclones ever held such a dominant position on the
the case of Crete only people equipped with ships could enter
mainland of Hellas as to have founded Mycenae and Tiryns, or
it.
Orchomenos, or to have occupied Attica and the Acropolis of
In the Odyssey we got a very explicit account of Crete and
Athens. The voice of history could not have been so completely
its inhabitants' :
hushed, if such had been the case. As it is, all the writers of
" There is a land called Crete in the midst of the wine-dark
antiquity are dumb. VVe may therefore reject both the Truesea,
a fair land and a rich, begirt with water, and therein are
Cretans and Cydoneans. We are therefore left with three races,
many men innumerable, and ninety cities. And all have not
Acheans, Dorians and Pelasgians, from whom to select the
the same speech, but there is confusion of tongues
: there dwell
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engravers of the true Myeenean '
gems and the builders of the
Acheans and there too Cretans of Crete, high of heart, and
great structures of Cnossus and Goulas.
Cydonians there and Dorians of waving plumes and goodly
We have had Acheans and Dorians as two of the three
Pelasgians.
And among these cities is the mighty city Cnossus,
races one of whose number in Peloponnesus must have been
wherein Minos when he was nine years old began to rule, he
the producer of Myeenean remains. The third race I have only
who held converse with great Zeus, and was the father of
my
alluded to as that found surviving in the Helots of Laconia and
father, even of Deucalion, high of heart."
the aboriginal inhabitants of Arcadia. Who were this '.
people
In this most important passage the poet gives us a complete
The ancient authors give us abundant notices of a people who
ethnohjgy of Crete. Most scholars will admit that some one of
dwelt in Peloponnesus before the Achean conquest, and those
the five races here enumerated Acheans, Eteocretes. Cydones,
who hold that in the statements of the ancients there is at
])orians-, Pelasgians has produced the Mycenean remains
least a solid kernel of historical truth will readily admit that a
found in that island. It is absurd to suppose that either the
race of great power once I'cigned
in the chief cities of Argolis
and Laconia before the Achean invasion.
To those who approach the ancient histoi-ians in that peculiaispirit
K/i-^tt; t(s yai' eari. fxiaui tVi polvotrL irbvTifi,
of scepticism which is
ready to declare that certain statements
of Thucydides or Herodotus are false, but who at the same
Ka\ri Kal Trinpa. nefiippvTos'
tv 5 afOptxiTroi.
TToWoi CLTTeLptaiOL Kai ivvi'-jKOVTa TroXi^fs.
&.\\r} h dWwi' time are
ii' yXLCffira /liUiy/xefyy fxlv .\\aLoi,
building theories of the early history
of Gret'ce out of
iv 5" 'VjTibKpr\Ti% fji.f',a\rjTof>es. iv ot Kviwvts,
])assages in tliese very authors, I camiot a))])eal. My immediate
Awptfes Tt oli'i
TpLxdl'i^fs, rf l\f\a(Tyoi.
object is to show tluit in the Pelopoimesus there lived a race antecedent
to the Acheans and Doi'ians. whom tlie ancients knew
To?crc 8' ivi Kvu}a(Jos. p-tydXri ttoXis, luOa ti .McVcjs
ivviiopo'i jiaaiXn't,
TTUTfjOi (/xtio TTaT'qp fX(',aHvpo\i \fvi\a\iij}vo$.
Alos pf^,d\ov oaptaTTji,
under the name Pelasgi.
To venture to write about this race is
Toiai is read hy iMislathiiis aucl a ^^(lod many .mss. : rycrL is tilt; c-iuilliioil
enough to biing down on the wi'iter gi'ave sns])icions that he
Iradilij,', liut tllr icliiinilir j^'clldiT Was icadilv sil;,';4cst('d In tlic is one of those
itopyist l)y p(;d\i]
who deal with Druids, and wh( see in the (!i-eat
TTuXis. It is lint 1 [(iiiiiiic Id lifer liacdi to ii'i'ijKoiiTa 7rij,\?;(s t'diir lines alxive,
Pyramid the k(y to mystic systtMiis of chi-oiiologv and astrology.
especially when tl\e luax-ulille nairies lia\e intervelieil.
The l'',ii;^'lish veisidii ;.';i\en is thai (d' I'lUtrliei and
Accoi'dinyly, with a view to l.ani^.
showing that a man may
-
The
believe in the histdical
l)diiali settlers in Crete liad cdinc not fYdin l'eld|)dnii('siis
at'ler tlie
reality of the and I'elasgi, may with
siiliju^'alidii
safety still dt' lliat it^^ddn. Imt accdiilint.' Id Androii (l''ra^;. .'!) (Slialid ITfi,
])(' allowed to mix with liis nei^hlxmrs, let me say
and Didddnis i\.
ti(l) they had pa-sed thither fidiii iheii aiu-ienl lidine in
that 1 can i|iiote the opinions of foui- histoiians. whose sce])tic-