Thomas Harrison
observation that their language is unlike that
of any of their neighbours,
whereas the peoples of Creston and of Placia and Scylace speak the same
language as one another: this ‘makes clear’ that these peoples imported the
character of their language (
γλώσσης χαρακτῆρα
) when they moved to their
present lands and that they had guarded their common language.
Where does this leave the Pelasgian Athenians? The Attic race (
τὸ
Ἀττικὸν ἔθνος
), being Pelasgian (
ἐὸν Πελασγικόν
),
at the same time as they
changed to become Greeks learnt the language (
ἅµα τῇ µεταβολῇ τῇ ἐς
Ἕλληνας καὶ τὴν γλώσσαν µετέµαθε
,
..). The Greek race (
τὸ Ἑλληνικόν
),
in Herodotus’ opinion, have used the same language ever since they first
came into being (
ἐπείτε ἐγένετο
,
..). When the Greek race
was sepa-
rated off from the Pelasgian (
ἀποσχισθὲν
…
ἀπὸ τοῦ Πελασγικοῦ
), it was
weak and small, but then by the introduction of Pelasgians and other bar-
barians, it grew to a multitude of races (
ἐς πλῆθος τῶν ἐθνέων
). The Pelasgian
race,
on the other hand, being barbarian, never grew greatly (
οὐδαµὰ
µεγάλως αὐξηθῆναι
).
This is a notoriously muddled and
difficult passage of the
Histories
,
crammed with revealing assumptions. (In what sense, for example, do bar-
barian races ‘never grow greatly’? Not, we might suppose, in terms of num-
The further complication of surviving Pelasgians who are no longer called Pelasgian
but have changed their name (
τὸ οὔνοµα µετέβαλε
) clearly opens Herodotus up to a
charge of circularity, and may suggest an interpolation. Cf. the preservation by the Ere-
trians transported to the
Arabian Gulf of their language, .., or Herodotus’ argu-
ment, ., introduced rather late in support of the belief that Colchians are Egyptians,
that their whole way of life and language are similar. Lloyd, ad loc, II.- (cf. I.-)
rationalises Herodotus’ claim as ‘based on nothing more than a similarity of sound be-
tween one or two of the few Egyptian and Colchian words that he or his sources knew’.
Constrast D. Fehling,
Herodotus and his ‘Sources’
, tr. J. G. Howie (Leeds, ) , arguing
that Herodotus’ assertion is ‘merely a secondary consequence of his erroneous theory’,
citing the parallel language proofs of Xanthus,
FGrHist
F - and at D. S. ...
W. K. Pritchett makes no mention of the similarity of language between Colchians and
Egyptians in the course of his violent riposte to Fehling,
The Liar School of Herodotus
(Am-
sterdam, ) -.
Or the Greek part of the Athenians: see A. G. Laird, ‘Herodotus on the Pelasgians
in Attica’,
AJPh
() - (at p.), R. A. McNeal, op. cit. (n. ) -. It is hard to
see, however, in what sense the Athenians could have been said to have grown into a
multitude of races.
See esp. J. L. Myres, ‘A History of the Pelasgian Theory’,
JHS
() -, A.
G. Laird, op. cit. (n. ) -, R. A. McNeal, op. cit. (n. ) -. For a collection of all
ancient
sources on the Pelasgians, see Lochner von Hüttenbach,
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