Pelasgus

Pelasgus in Greek mythology was the eponymous ancestor of the Pelasgians, the mythical inhabitants of Greece who established the worship of the Dodonaean Zeus, Hephaestus, the Cabeiri, and other divinities. In the different parts of the country once occupied by Pelasgians, there existed dif­ferent traditions as to the origin and connection of Pelasgus. The Ancient Greeks used to believe even he was the first man.

Pelasgus of Arcadia

According to the Arcadian tradition, he was either an Autochthon^[1], or a son of Zeus by Niobe ; and the Oceanide Meliboea, the nymph Cyllene, or Deianeira, became by him the mother of Lycaon of Arcadia^[2]. According to others, again, Pelasgus was a son of Arestor, and grandson of lasus, and immigrated into Arcadia, where he founded the town of Parrhasia^[3].

Pelasgus of Argos

In Argos, Pelasgus was believed to have been a son of Triopas and Sois, and a brother of Iasus, Agenor, and Xanthus, or a son of Phoroneus, and to have founded the city of Argos in Peloponnesus, to have taught the people agriculture, and to have received Demeter, on her wanderings, at Argos, where his tomb was shown in later times^[4]

Another was the King of Argos, son of Triopas; also known as Gelanor, he welcomed Danaus and the Danaides when they fled from Aegyptus.

In the Suppliants

In In Aeschylus' play Suppliants^{[5] [6]} the Danaids fleeing from Egypt seek asylum from King Pelasgus of Argos, which he says is on the Strymon including Perrhaebia in the north, Dodona and the slopes of the Pindus mountains on the west and the shores of the sea on the east;^[7] that is, a territory including or north of the Thessalian Pelasgiotis. The southern boundary is not mentioned; however, Apis is said to have come to Argos from Naupactus "across" (peras),^[8] implying that Argos includes all of east Greece from the north of Thessaly to the Peloponnesian Argos, where the Danaids are probably to be conceived as having landed. He claims to rule the Pelasgians and to be the "child of Palaichthon ('ancient earth') whom the earth brought forth."

The Danaids call the country the "Apian hills" and claim that it understands the karbana audan^[9][10], which many translate as "barbarian speech" but Karba (where live the Karbanoi) is in fact a non-Greek word. They claim to descend from ancestors in ancient Argos even though they are of a "dark race" (melanthes ... genos).^[11] Pelasgus admits that the land was once called Apia but compares them to the women of Libya and Egypt^[12] and wants to know how they can be from Argos on which they cite descent from Io.

In a lost play by Aeschylus, Danaan Women, he defines the original homeland of the Pelasgians as the region around Mycenae.^[13]

Pelasgus of Thessaly

In Thessaly, Pelasgus was described as the father of Chlorus, and as the grandfather of Haemon, or as the father of Haemon, and as the grand father of Thessalus^[14], or again as a son of Poseidon and Larissa, and as the founder of the Thessalian Argos^[15].

See also

• Pelasgia
• Pelasgians

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).