Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/283

 ALLEGED ANTE-HELLENIC COLOMhs. 2G7 Phoenician, Assyrian, Lydian, and other languages, did not know how to distinguish bad Hellenic from non-Hellenic, is, in my judgment, inadmissible ; at any rate, the supposition is not to b adopted without more cogent evidence than any which is here found. As I do not presume to determine what were the antecedent internal elements out of which the Hellenic aggregate was formed, so I confess myself equally uninformed with regard to its external constituents. Kadmus, Danaus, Kekrops, the eponyms of the Kadmeians, of the Danaans, and of the Attic Kekropia, present themselves to my vision as creatures of legend, and in that charac- ter I have already adverted to them. That there may have been very early settlements in continental Greece, from Phoenicia and Egypt, is nowise impossible ; but I see neither positive proof, nor ground for probable inference, that there were any such, though traces of Phoenician settlements in some of the islands may doubt- less be pointed out. And if we examine the character and aptitudes of Greeks, as compared either with Egyptians or Phoeni- cians, it will appear that there is not only no analogy, but an obvious and fundamental contrast : the Greek may occasionally be found as a borrower from these ultramarine contemporaries, but he cannot be looked upon as their offspring or derivative. Nor can I bring myself to accept an hypothesis which implies (unless we are to regard the supposed foreign emigrants as very made of its various dialects and diversities), as .contrasted with Persian. Phoenician, or Latin, and of Italian generally, as contrasted with German or English. It is this comparison which Herodotus is taking, when he describes the language spoken by the people of Kreston and Plakia, and which he notes by the word pdppapov as opposed to 'EW.rjvtKov : it is with reference to this comparison that x a P aKr VP yhuaaTif, in the fifty -seventh chapter, is to be construed. The word fiappapof is the usual and recognized antithesis of "Ehtyv, or 'EAA^vt/coc. It is not the least remarkable part of the statement of Herodotus, that the language spoken at Krestfin and at Plakia was the same, though the places were so far apart from each other. This identity of itself shows that he meant to speak of a substantive language, not of a " strange jargon." I think it, therefore, certain that Herodotus pronounces the Pelasgians of his day to speak a substantive language different from Greek ; bat whether differing from it in a greater or less degree (e, y. in the degree of Latin 01 vf Phoenician), we have no means of deciding.