“Diverse their language is; Achaians some,
And some indigenous are; Cydonians there,
Crest-shaking Dorians, and Pelasgians dwell.”[1691]
And that portion of Thessaly between the outlets of the Peneius[1692] and the Thermopylæ, as far as the mountains of Pindus, is named Pelasgic Argos, the district having formerly belonged to the Pelasgi. The poet himself also gives to Dodonæan Jupiter, the epithet of Pelasgian:—
“Pelasgian, Dodonæan Jove supreme.”[1693]
Many have likewise asserted that the nations of the Epirus are Pelasgic, because the dominions of the Pelasgi extended so far. And, as many of the heroes have been named Pelasgi, later writers have applied the same name to the nations over which they were the chiefs. Thus Lesbos[1694] has been called Pelasgic, and Homer has called the people bordering on the Cilices in the Troad Pelasgic:—
“Hippothous from Larissa, for her soil
Far-famed, the spear-expert Pelasgians brought.”[1695]
Ephorus, when he supposes that they were a tribe of Arcadians, follows Hesiod, who says,