The term Pelasgians (Ancient Greek: Πελασγοί, Pelasgoí) was used by classical Greek authors to describe either the people who lived in Greece before the arrival of the Greeks or, more broadly, the early indigenous populations of the Aegean region. Over time, “Pelasgian” became a general label for ancient native cultures whose identities were unclear or predated recorded Greek history. Historian Peter Green characterized the word as a convenient catch-all term for early, primitive, and supposedly indigenous peoples of the Greek world.
During the classical era, communities identified as Pelasgian still existed in parts of mainland Greece, Crete, and the Aegean islands. Although Greeks often classified Pelasgian speech as “barbarian,” some ancient writers considered them Greek, or at least closely related. A widespread tradition held that much of Greece had once been Pelasgian territory before undergoing Hellenization, particularly in regions later associated with Ionian and Aeolian Greek speakers.
Etymology
The origin of the name Pelasgoi remains highly uncertain. Scholar Michael Sakellariou documented at least fifteen proposed explanations, noting that many are speculative. One ancient interpretation linked the word to pelargos (“stork”), suggesting migratory behavior, an idea later mocked by Aristophanes in his comedy The Birds. Other scholars connected the name to geographic terms meaning “neighboring land,” “flatlands,” or “sea people,” though none of these theories has achieved consensus.
Ancient Literary Evidence
Classical authors extensively debated the Pelasgians, but no definitive conclusions were reached. While philological analysis advanced during the Victorian period, modern progress on the topic relies primarily on archaeology rather than ancient texts alone.
Pelasgians in Ancient Sources
Ancient writers described the Pelasgians inconsistently, labeling them at times as Greek, semi-Greek, foreign, or pre-Greek. Because no Pelasgian self-recorded accounts survive, knowledge of their identity comes entirely from Greek perspectives. Greek authors often used Pelasgian ancestry to emphasize shared origins among Greeks, while at other times portraying Pelasgians as outsiders to reinforce cultural distinctions. Despite these contradictions, Pelasgians consistently appear in literature as figures tied to Greece’s distant past and the formation of Greek identity.
Poetic Traditions
In Homer’s Iliad, Pelasgians appear on both sides of the Trojan War and are associated with regions such as Thessaly and Dodona. Homer also places Pelasgians among the inhabitants of Crete in the Odyssey. Hesiod connects them to Dodona and traces their ancestry to Pelasgus, a legendary progenitor. Other poets, including Asius, portrayed Pelasgus as an earth-born ancestor, reinforcing the idea of Pelasgian autochthony.
Aeschylus expanded the Pelasgian legacy by depicting a vast Pelasgian kingdom centered on Argos. His play The Suppliants links Pelasgian identity to themes of migration, ancestry, and political legitimacy. Sophocles and Euripides continued this tradition, portraying Pelasgians as integral to early Greek history and occasionally renaming them as Danaans through mythic lawmaking.
Roman poet Ovid also referred to the Greeks of the Trojan War as “Pelasgians,” emphasizing their ancient heritage and mythic continuity.
Historical Accounts
Early historians offered competing interpretations. Hecataeus and Acusilaus traced Pelasgian origins to Thessaly and the Peloponnese. Hellanicus suggested that Pelasgians migrated from Greece to Italy, possibly becoming ancestors of the Etruscans. Herodotus acknowledged uncertainty about their language, describing it as non-Greek, yet suggested that early Athenians had Pelasgian roots. He also recorded Pelasgian settlements across the Aegean and Asia Minor.
Thucydides viewed the Pelasgians as the dominant population of Greece before the rise of the Hellenes and described how the Greek identity gradually replaced older tribal names. Later historians such as Ephorus portrayed the Pelasgians as militaristic colonizers who spread their culture across Greece.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus concluded that the Pelasgians were originally Greek and traced their migrations across Thessaly, Crete, the Aegean islands, and Italy. He described them as a wandering people who influenced many regions but were eventually displaced by other groups.
Whether it was built by the Pelasgians, the Cretans, or the Egyptians, Mycenae was famously described as “broad-streeted and golden.” It later became the political center of a powerful civilization that dominated much of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands. The term Mycenaean is therefore sometimes used more broadly to describe the later Bronze Age cultures of the entire Aegean world.
Mainland Greece maintained close contact with Crete, and from this interaction a prosperous culture emerged, strongly influenced by Late Minoan traditions. Around 1450 BC, however, the Mycenaeans gained control of Crete. Between approximately 1375 and 1200 BC, they expanded their power into a vast empire stretching westward to Sicily and southern Italy and eastward to Asia Minor and the Levantine coast.
Unlike their Minoan predecessors, the Mycenaeans showed a strong preference for monumental stone sculpture. Among the few surviving examples, the most famous is the relief known as the Lion Gate at Mycenae (circa 1250 BC), which depicts two lions facing one another across a central architectural column.
Note: Ancient sources often use the terms Pelasgians and Minyans—the founders of Cyrene in Libya—interchangeably. Some scholars suggest this may indicate that both groups were, in fact, the same people or closely related populations.
Beyond the citadel walls of Mycenae lay the burial grounds of the city’s earliest rulers and their families, dating to the beginning of the Late Helladic I period (approximately 1650–1550 BC). These tombs were originally enclosed by a low circular stone wall measuring about 28 meters (92 feet) in diameter. Part of this burial enclosure was later overlain by a tholos tomb, now known as the Tomb of Klytemnestra.
Grave Circle B, dating to the 17th and 16th centuries BC, served as a royal cemetery located outside the Late Bronze Age fortification walls of Mycenae in southern Greece. Together with Grave Circle A, this burial complex represents one of the defining features of the earliest phase of Mycenaean civilization.
Most of the shaft graves were originally marked by stone mounds, and four were further distinguished by upright stone stelae. These stelae reached heights of up to two meters (approximately seven feet). Notably, two of them—associated with Graves Alpha and Gamma—were decorated with engraved hunting scenes, offering rare visual insight into elite symbolism and warrior ideology during the formative period of Mycenaean culture.
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Note below that this stele obviously depicts a Black man.
Now note how the Albinos depict the Greeks.
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