Pelasgus of Argos

In Greek mythology, Pelasgus (Ancient Greek: Πελασγός, Pelasgós) also known as Gelanor, was an Inachid king of Argos.

Family

Pelasgus was the son of Sthenelas, son of Crotopus, son of Agenor, son of Triopas.^[1] In some accounts, his father was the autochthon Palaechthon.^[2]

Mythology

Pelasgus welcomed Danaus and the Danaïdes when they fled from Aegyptus.

In The Suppliants

In Aeschylus' play The Suppliants^[3]^[4] the Danaïdes fleeing from Egypt seek asylum from King Pelasgus of Argos, who rules a broad territory bordered by the territory of the Paeonians to the north, the Strymon (river) to the east, and Dodona, the slopes of the Pindus mountains, and the sea to the west;,^[5] 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 "on the farther shore," (on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth) ^[6] implying that Pelasgus' kingdom includes all of Greece from the north of Thessaly west of the Strymon to the shores of Peloponnesian Argos where the Danaïdes landed. He claims to rule the Pelasgians and to be the "child of Palaichthon ('ancient earth') whom the earth brought forth."

The Danaïdes call the country the "Apian hills" and claim that it understands the karbana audan,^[7]^[8] 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).^[9] Pelasgus admits that the land was once called Apia but compares them to the women of Libya and Egypt^[10] 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.^[11]

Notes

^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.16.1
^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 340 ff.
^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women (ed. Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D.)
^ I am Pelasgus, offspring of Palaechthon, whom the earth brought forth, and lord of this land; and after me, their king, is rightly named the race of the Pelasgi, who harvest the land.Of all the region through which the pure Strymon flows, on the side toward the setting sun, I am the lord.There lies within the limits of my rule the land of the Perrhaebi, the parts beyond Pindus close to the Paeonians, and the mountain ridge of Dodona; the edge of the watery sea borders my kingdom. I rule up to these boundaries. The ground where we stand is Apian land itself, and has borne that name since antiquity in honor of a healer. For Apis, seer and healer,the son of Apollo, came from Naupactus on the farther shore and purified this land of monsters deadly to man, which Earth, defiled by the pollution of bloody deeds of old, caused to spring up--plagues charged with wrath, an ominous colony of swarming serpents. Of these plagues Apis worked the cure by sorcery and spells to the content of the Argive land, and for reward thereafter earned for himself remembrance in prayers. Now that you have my testimony, declare your lineage and speak further--yet our people do not take pleasure in long discourse. -Greek text- τοῦ γηγενοῦς γάρ εἰμ´ ἐγὼ Παλαίχθονος ἶνις Πελασγός, τῆσδε γῆς ἀρχηγέτης. ἐμοῦ δ´ ἄνακτος εὐλόγως ἐπώνυμον γένος Πελασγῶν τήνδε καρποῦται χθόνα. καὶ πᾶσαν αἶαν, ἧς δί´ ἁγνὸς ἔρχεται Στρυμών, τὸ πρὸς δύνοντος ἡλίου, κρατῶ. ὁρίζομαι δὲ τήν τε Περραιβῶν χθόνα, Πίνδου τε τἀπέκεινα, Παιόνων πέλας, ὄρη τε Δωδωναῖα· συντέμνει δ´ ὅρος ὑγρᾶς θαλάσσης· τῶνδε τἀπὶ τάδε κρατῶ. αὐτῆς δὲ χώρας Ἀπίας πέδον τόδε πάλαι κέκληται φωτὸς ἰατροῦ χάριν. Ἆπις γὰρ ἐλθὼν ἐκ πέρας Ναυπακτίας ἰατρόμαντις παῖς Ἀπόλλωνος χθόνα τήνδ´ ἐκκαθαίρει κνωδάλων βροτοφθόρων, τὰ δὴ παλαιῶν αἱμάτων μιάσμασι χρανθεῖς´ ἀνῆκε γαῖα μηνεῖται ἄκη δρακονθόμιλον δυσμενῆ ξυνοικίαν. τούτων ἄκη τομαῖα καὶ λυτήρια πράξας ἀμέμπτως Ἆπις Ἀργείᾳ χθονὶ μνήμην ποτ´ ἀντίμισθον ηὕρετ´ ἐν λιταῖς. ἔχουσα δ´ ἤδη τἀπ´ ἐμοῦ τεκμήρια γένος τ´ ἂν ἐξεύχοιο καὶ λέγοις πρόσω. μακράν γε μὲν δὴ ῥῆσιν οὐ στέργει πόλις.
^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 249–259; Sandin, Pär. Aeschylus' Supplices: Introduction and Commentary on Vv. 1-523. (Sweden: Symmachus, 2005) 148.
^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 262–263
^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 128–129 Archived 2009-10-02 at the Wayback Machine.
^ (accusative case, and in standard choral Doric dialect)
^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 154–155
^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 279–281
^ Strabo, Geographica 5.2.4

References

Aeschylus, translated in two volumes. 2. Suppliant Women by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

[1] Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.16.1

[2] Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 340 ff.

[3] Aeschylus, Suppliant Women (ed. Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D.)

[4] I am Pelasgus, offspring of Palaechthon, whom the earth brought forth, and lord of this land; and after me, their king, is rightly named the race of the Pelasgi, who harvest the land.Of all the region through which the pure Strymon flows, on the side toward the setting sun, I am the lord.There lies within the limits of my rule the land of the Perrhaebi, the parts beyond Pindus close to the Paeonians, and the mountain ridge of Dodona; the edge of the watery sea borders my kingdom. I rule up to these boundaries. The ground where we stand is Apian land itself, and has borne that name since antiquity in honor of a healer. For Apis, seer and healer,the son of Apollo, came from Naupactus on the farther shore and purified this land of monsters deadly to man, which Earth, defiled by the pollution of bloody deeds of old, caused to spring up--plagues charged with wrath, an ominous colony of swarming serpents. Of these plagues Apis worked the cure by sorcery and spells to the content of the Argive land, and for reward thereafter earned for himself remembrance in prayers. Now that you have my testimony, declare your lineage and speak further--yet our people do not take pleasure in long discourse. -Greek text- τοῦ γηγενοῦς γάρ εἰμ´ ἐγὼ Παλαίχθονος ἶνις Πελασγός, τῆσδε γῆς ἀρχηγέτης. ἐμοῦ δ´ ἄνακτος εὐλόγως ἐπώνυμον γένος Πελασγῶν τήνδε καρποῦται χθόνα. καὶ πᾶσαν αἶαν, ἧς δί´ ἁγνὸς ἔρχεται Στρυμών, τὸ πρὸς δύνοντος ἡλίου, κρατῶ. ὁρίζομαι δὲ τήν τε Περραιβῶν χθόνα, Πίνδου τε τἀπέκεινα, Παιόνων πέλας, ὄρη τε Δωδωναῖα· συντέμνει δ´ ὅρος ὑγρᾶς θαλάσσης· τῶνδε τἀπὶ τάδε κρατῶ. αὐτῆς δὲ χώρας Ἀπίας πέδον τόδε πάλαι κέκληται φωτὸς ἰατροῦ χάριν. Ἆπις γὰρ ἐλθὼν ἐκ πέρας Ναυπακτίας ἰατρόμαντις παῖς Ἀπόλλωνος χθόνα τήνδ´ ἐκκαθαίρει κνωδάλων βροτοφθόρων, τὰ δὴ παλαιῶν αἱμάτων μιάσμασι χρανθεῖς´ ἀνῆκε γαῖα μηνεῖται ἄκη δρακονθόμιλον δυσμενῆ ξυνοικίαν. τούτων ἄκη τομαῖα καὶ λυτήρια πράξας ἀμέμπτως Ἆπις Ἀργείᾳ χθονὶ μνήμην ποτ´ ἀντίμισθον ηὕρετ´ ἐν λιταῖς. ἔχουσα δ´ ἤδη τἀπ´ ἐμοῦ τεκμήρια γένος τ´ ἂν ἐξεύχοιο καὶ λέγοις πρόσω. μακράν γε μὲν δὴ ῥῆσιν οὐ στέργει πόλις.

[5] Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 249–259; Sandin, Pär. Aeschylus' Supplices: Introduction and Commentary on Vv. 1-523. (Sweden: Symmachus, 2005) 148.

[6] Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 262–263

[7] Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 128–129 Archived 2009-10-02 at the Wayback Machine.

[8] (accusative case, and in standard choral Doric dialect)

[9] Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 154–155

[10] Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 279–281

[Strabo5.2.4-11] Strabo, Geographica 5.2.4

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