Pelasgians

Pelasgians, a term somewhat variously used for certain inhabitants of ancient Greece. In Homer the Pelasgi seem to have been an unimportant tribe living in Thessaly. Herodotus seems to regard the Pelasgi not as Hellenic, but as barbarians who had occupied Hellas or parts of it ere the Hellenes came thither (see GREECE, Vol. V. p. 386). Modern students have also interpreted the term differently. Some regard the Pelasgians as the pre-Aryan occupants of Greece, others as the Greco-Italians—i.e. the common ancestors of the Greeks and Italians. The truth is that we know little or nothing of the pre-Aryan occupants of Greece, or of the Greco-Italians, or of the builders of Cyclopean works, and that there are no reasons for identifying any of them with the insignificant tribe of Pelasgi. Then 'Cyclopean' (or less frequently 'Pelasgian') is a name applied to certain architectural works in Greece, which probably date from before 1000 B.C., and are wholly unconnected in point of evolution with any style of Greek architecture subsequently developed. The characteristic which distinguishes Cyclopean work from any other form of architecture is that it consists of huge polygonal stones, which may or may not be so arranged as to fit into one another without interstices requiring lesser stones to fill them up, but which are always hewn and are always kept in their places not by means of mortar or any other binding substance, but by their own great weight. On the other hand, work of this kind is not necessarily ancient: other considerations than the nature of the work itself are requisite to date it. Nor is it confined to Greece: similar remains are to be found in Egypt, Asia Minor, Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, &c., as well as in Greece and Italy. The most important ancient Cyclopean works in Greece are the walls of Tiryns, Psophis, and Mycenæ, the Lion Gate and so-called Treasuries (graves) of the latter place, and a (probable) temple on Mount Ocha. These Cyclopean walls (especially at Tiryns) were so thick as to allow galleries to be run lengthwise through them. At Tiryns window-like openings look down from these galleries on to the town. That these galleries served the purposes of fortification in some way is clear, but in what way is not clear. The walls are broken by gates, of which the best known is the celebrated Lion Gate at Mycenæ. In this form of doorway, in order to relieve the pressure on the lintel (which rests horizontally on the perpendicular stone doorposts), a triangular space is left above the lintel, and this space is filled, in the case of the Lion Gate, with a slab, on which are sculptured the figures of two animals (not lions) rampant, one on either side of a pillar. This quasi-heraldic device is undoubtedly of oriental origin, or imitated from some Assyrian model, but proves nothing as to the origin of the architecture or its builders. The same means for relieving the pressure on the lintel is employed in ancient remains in Cornwall. The Treasuries or tombs are underground chambers in the shape of bee-hives, vaulted with overlapping stones, and approached by a narrow passage through the side of the hill in which they are situated. The interior was ornamented with plates of bronze attached to the masonry. The term Cyclopean was applied by the Greeks to this kind of architecture on the strength of the popular etymology of the term: cyclopes = builders of a 'cycle,' or ring-wall. See CYCLOPES.