Konstantinos Konstantinidis – Amphiktyon
The Pelasgians were not only Greeks, but also the first inhabitants of Greece. This is evidenced by the “Orphic” texts, as well as by anthropological findings and archaeological excavations carried out in Greece, Mesopotamia, Southern Russia, Western Europe, and America. Thucydides is precise in stating that the Greeks and the Pelasgians constitute the same nation.
All ancient writers have confused ideas about the origin of our race, because they knew very little about the Aegean peoples and their ancient civilization, just as until recently we knew nothing about Orphic worship.
Nevertheless, today everyone agrees — with the exception of doctrinaire system adherents — that the Pelasgians were a great people who expanded throughout Southeastern Europe, and mainly into the Greek lands, Asia Minor, Crete, Cyprus, Italy, and everywhere where Hellenism later flourished.
Thus, according to Strabo (Geography A), “the Pelasgians were an ancient Greek tribe spread throughout Greece,” meaning they were dispersed and found among the Aeolians of Thessaly; Crete was colonized by them, as Homer calls them; Thessaly is called “Pelasgian Argos”; and many of the peoples of Epirus are called Pelasgian. Homer also calls Zeus Dodonian “Pelasgian”:
“Zeus lord of Dodona, Pelasgian.”
Lesbos and the Peloponnese were also called Pelasgia, according to the historian Ephorus. They first settled in Lemnos and Imbros and from there migrated to Italy as Tyrrhenians; they also settled in Athens, as recorded in the history of the Pelasgians. Strabo, who studied all ancient writers and Homer, provides a general picture of the Pelasgians, in contrast to Herodotus, who allegedly ignores the matter and transmits inaccurate and anti-Hellenic accounts.
The homeland of the Pelasgians is Arcadia, and from there they went to Italy and returned as Tyrrhenians, and also went to Lemnos, Imbros, Crete, and Cyprus; they penetrated Asia Minor and the Near East, and the coastal regions of the Mediterranean.
The comic playwright Aristophanes, referring to their wandering life, calls them “Pelargoi” (storks).
These groups left Greece for Cyprus and Crete, and from Crete went to Asia Minor becoming Eteocretans; from Cyprus they went to the coasts of the Near East as Palestinians and Phoenicians, and also into Europe, moving with their flocks westward and northward in search of food.
Aeschylus in the Suppliants presents the ancient kingdom of Argos, where Danaus and his fifty daughters sought protection from the sons of Aegyptus. He defines the Pelasgian state as extending from the Peloponnese to Macedonia and Epirus.
“Of the earth-born, I am indeed of ancient land…”
“I am the child of the one who once inhabited this land long ago; I, Pelasgus, am the ruler of this country, and from me the race of the Pelasgians takes its name, those who cultivate the land through which flows the impassable Strymon. My kingdom extends to the land of the Perrhaebians, to Pindus, to the land of the Paeonians and the mountains of Dodona, and reaches as far as the sea. Over all these I hold authority.”
Therefore, the Pelasgians have always dominated Greece and appear from antiquity either as permanent inhabitants or as migrating groups who founded colonies everywhere.
Thus, the theory that another people inhabited Greece before the Greeks is false, baseless, ridiculous, and imposed.
The Pelasgian nation, organized into many states, extended far beyond its original limits, something that also happens today with Greeks and our state.
This nation possessed an indigenous and self-generated civilization and organization at a time when no other tribe had appeared in history. Their tendency to travel and love of the sea and ships was the reason for the transmission of Greek civilization, directly or indirectly, to most of the world.
Aristophanes, as mentioned, calls them “Pelargoi” (storks) because they occupied many lands like storks, while Plato in the Phaedo characterizes them as frogs because they loved the watery element and leapt like frogs to islands, opposite coasts, the Aegean, the Mediterranean, and beyond.
Pelasgus was said to be the son of Zeus and Niobe or of Arestor. And since there were many Pelasgian kings in Greece and beyond, Hesiod and other writers state that the first Pelasgian king was Arcas in the Peloponnese, an autochthon, from whom the Pelasgians are descended — the most ancient race of Greece.
Since the Arcadian Pelasgians were among the most ancient inhabitants of Greece, they were considered autochthonous. According to I. Thomopoulos in Pelasgika, numerous Pelasgian inscriptions have been found in Lemnos, Crete, Lycia, Caria, Etruria, the Hittite kingdom, and elsewhere. He writes:
“The Eteocretan inscriptions and the Lemnian inscription, written in the same Helleno-Pelasgian language, are similar to modern Albanian, which is closely related to the Hittite Pelasgian language; also Lydian, Carian, and Etruscan. Therefore, the Minoan civilization of Crete, as well as the Hittite civilization of Asia Minor, the Mitanni, the Elamites, etc., were Pelasgian.”
Therefore, theories that the Greeks were newcomers are unfounded and not supported by evidence, contrary to what has been stated above.
Moreover, the fact that Greeks preserved Pelasgian traditions and place names as their own demonstrates this continuity. It would be unreasonable to assume that an entire people migrated, conquered Greece, and only retained the myths of the conquered people while completely forgetting their own ancestral traditions.
Conclusion: The indigenous peoples of the Mediterranean, especially the Aegean, are primarily the Greeks, and Greek civilization is self-originating and unique. This has been demonstrated by excavations not only in Greece but wherever the ancient world is being uncovered.
(22/4/26)
Amphiktyon – Retired Major General Konstantinos Konstantinidis
Writer, Member of the Society of Greek Writers
http://www.amphiktyon.blogspot.com
https://www.amphiktyon.org