Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/112

 The People. 91 the Pelasgians established themselves, along the banks of the Achelous and Thyamis, between Pindus and the Hadriatic. It is in this region, where the Pelasgic element commenced its civilized career by settling on the land which it cultivated, that the dual names (Fpaixo/ and "ET^T^rjvss) by which this nation is known to history came into being. The art of this people forms the subject of this study, and its name will often recur in these pages. We are tempted to believe that the name of Graces, Greeks {Tpam, Fpaoi, Tpaixol), assumed the value of a collective name before that of Hellenes, inasmuch as the Italians applied it to those tribes which separated from them, when, going round the head of the Hadriatic, they passed down towards Italy, whilst the others remained on the eastern coast of that sea, and fixed here their abode for all time. The fact that this ethnic appella- tion persisted in Italy, even when for ages past the people — whose art and literature the Latins strove to assimilate — had called themselves Hellenes, proves that the habit dated from a very early date. Modern languages, without exception, those of northern as well as southern nations, have adopted the Roman fashion. Apart from scholars, not many people use the names of Hellenes, Hellas, although strictly speaking such terms should have been incorporated into our idioms. The nation which made the name of Hellenes famous in the world s annals, whose reflected glory their descendants are proud to share, never wholly forgot this primal denomination. It was kept alive by native antiquarians, conscious as they were of its right of primogeniture over all others ; they were conscious of its having been applied at the outset to those tribes dwelling in the vicinity of Dodona. Aristotle with his usual precision tells us— *' Ancient Hellas lies around Dodona and the Achelous, which has several times changed its course ; here dwelt the Selli and the people that were formerly called Grseci, but are now termed Hellenes."^ Side by side with the name which has fallen into desuetude, the text places that which ended in being universally adopted, presenting it in its oldest form ; Selloi, of which EUoi is but a variant, is met elsewhere, as also in its more developed or Kaovfi€r<H Tore fiiy VpaiKol, vvv ^''^EXXijx'fc* (Aristotle).
 * 'EXXac dpxala rrepl AiaSwyrjv koI roy *AiXQov' &kovv yap ot 2eXot ifravda kiu oi