G R iE C: I A. 



The ancient authors who are to be confiikcJ with regard 

 to the difFfreut periods of the geography of Greece, are 

 Humer, for the more remote times, in his account of the 

 forces collcdled for the fiege and capture of Troy; Strabo, 

 \s ho avails himfelf of ample materials to which he had acceis ; 

 Paufanias, who details the refults >»-f his own travels and 

 obfervations ; and Ptolemy, who furnifhes an ufetul nomen- 

 clature of the ftates and chief towns, with their longitudes 

 and latitudes. 



Gk-TICIA, or /ittdent Greece, h'ljlry of. 'The traditions 

 of the Greeks (fays the learned hiltorian. Dr. Gillies,) agree 

 with the authentic records of facred hiilory in reprelenting 

 the coinitries afterwards known by the names of Thrace, 

 Macedon, and Greece, as peopled at an earlier period than 

 any other portion of the weilern world. The louthern 

 covuee of Europe, comprehended between the 3fith and 

 41 rt degrees of latitude, bordering upon Epii'us and Mace- 

 donia towards the north, and on other fides furrounded by 

 the fea, was inhabited, abo-ve 18 centuries before the Chrif- 

 lian era, by many fmall tribes of hunters and ihepherds, 

 among whom the .Pelafgi and the Hellenes were the 

 moll numerous and powerful. The barbarous Pelafgi vene- 

 rated Inachus, as their founder; and, for a fimilar reafon, 

 the more humane Hellenes refpefted Deucalion. From 

 his fon Helleu, they derived their general appellation, which 

 originally denoted a fmall tribe in Thelfaly, and trom Dorus, 

 Eolus, and Ion, his more remote defcendants, they were 

 difcriminated by the names of Dorians, Eolians, and loni- 

 ans. The Dorians took pofTeffion of that mountainous 

 dillrift of Greece, aft'^rwards called Doris ; the lonians, 

 whofe name was gradually loll in the more illullrious appel- 

 lation of Athenians, fettled in the lefs barren parts of Atti- 

 ca ; and the Eolians peopled Elis and Arcadia, the weftern 

 and inland regions of the Peloponnelus. Notuithllanding 

 many partial emigrations, thefe three original divifions of 

 the Hellenes generally entertained an affection for the efta- 

 bliihments which had been preferred by the wifdom or caprice 

 of their refpeCtive anceftors ; a circumllance which remark- 

 ably diftinguilhed the Hellenic from the Pelafgic race. While 

 the former difcovered a degree of attachment to their native 

 land, feldom found in barbarians, who live by hunting or 

 pafturage, the latter, difdaining fixed habitations, wandered 

 in large bodies over Greece, or tranfported themfelves into 

 the neighbouring idands ; and the moll confiderable portion of 

 them gradually removing to the coafts of Italy and Thrace, 

 thofe that remained melted away into the Doric and Ionic 

 tribes. At the diilance of 12 centuries, obfeure traces of 

 the Pelafgi occurred in feveral Grecian cities ; a diftridl of 

 Tlied'aly always retained their name ; and their colonies con- 

 tinued, in the fifth century B. C, to inhabit the fouthern 

 coaft of Italy, and the fliorcs of the Hellefpont ; and in 

 thofe widely ieparated countries, their ancient afunity was 

 recognized in the uniformity of their rude dialeft and barba- 

 rous manners, extremely diillmilar to the cuftoms and language 

 of their -Grecian neighbours. Such is the account of the 

 ■iril fettlers in Greece, given by Dr. Gillies on the cited au- 

 thorities of Herodotus, Dionyfius Hahcarn., Paufanias, 

 Thucydides, Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo. Modern au- 

 thors, however, have eotertained different opinions on this 

 fubjeCl. Some have fuppofedthat the Pelafgi fucceeded the 

 Hellenes, and others have confidered them as the fame 

 people under different denominations. According to M. 

 de Gebelin, Mofes, the Jewifh legiflator, has given us the 

 primitive origin of the Greeks. In tracing the genealogy 

 of the defcendants of Noah he fays that Japhet, one of the 

 fons of Noah, had feven fons : that the fourth was called 

 Jon, and that he was the father of Elifa, I'harfis or Thra- 



fis, Ketim, and Dodanim ; tliis Ion was the father of the 

 Greeks, and M. de Gebelin labours to find among the 

 .Greeks four nations formed by his four fons. With this 

 ■view, he fays, that Pelafgia comprehended the whole terri- 

 tory between the Danube and the fea of Peloponnefus ; 

 and here we may difcover, as he conceives, tlie refpeftive 

 fituation of each of Ion's four fons. Thrace acknowledges 

 Tiiarfis or Thrafis for its founder ; Ketim poifeffed the 

 country of the Geta;, N. of Macedonia, and Macedonia itfelf; 

 Dodanim had the country that lay between Macedonia 

 and the Pelopoiniefus, inhabited by the Dorians ; and Elifu 

 delignated the inhabitants of the Peloponnefi'.s. This author, 

 in no fmall degree indulging his imaginatioji, and yet exerci- 

 fmg a verv conlidcrable degree of ingenuity f;nd attention to 

 facts, obft-rves, that theliijloryof Deucahon is the founda- 

 tion of the Greek chronology and hillorv : t;his Deucalion 

 is diftinguiihed by his deluge, his ark, and hisj being the fa- 

 ther of the Greeks or Hellenes. All thefe circumftances 

 afford a prefumption that Deucalion and Noah were the 

 fame pcrfon. He alfo fays, that the fable of the Argonauts 

 and tlieir voyage to Colchis is a copy of the navigation of 

 Noah. Phryxus, or the " man faved," in the Grecian mytho- 

 logy, is Noah. He difcovers alio other coincidences, wliicii 

 lead him to conclude, not only that Noah and Deucalion, 

 but that Ion and Hellen, the repute.l father of tlie Greeks, 

 wei'e the f;ime perfons ; and that the Hellenes and Pelafgi 

 were the faine people. According to this writer, the Pelafgi 

 were the fole podelforsof the whole country which extended 

 itfelf from the banks of the Danube, to the fea of the 

 Peloponnefus ; they peopled Thrace, Getia, Macedonia, 

 Illyria, Epirus, Theffaly, the Phocide, Attica, and the 

 Peloponnefus ; they fcnt colonies to the ifie of Crete, 

 to Etruria, and to the fouth of Italy ; and others croffed the 

 Danube, and were denominated Dacians and Geta;. Greece 

 was in this ftate, fays M. de Gebelin, when fome colonies 

 of ftrangers arrived on its coafts, as Cecrops at Athens, 

 DanauB at Argos, and Cadmus in Btcotia. Thefe, he 

 fays, came not from Egypt, but from Phoenicia, a neigh- 

 bouring country. The firil inhabitants of Greece, whence- 

 foever they came, were, in a very confiderable degree, like the 

 anceftors of other people, barbarous and favage; and the Hel- 

 lenes, whcjfe manners were mild andgentle, contributed infome 

 meafure to civilize them ; but their efforts produced effeift 

 very (lowly. At length, however, the happy pofition of 

 tiieir coimtry, forming a kind of frontier between Europe 

 and Afia, and divided only by a narrow fea from Egypt ar.d 

 Syria, and not far remote from thofe eallern regions which 

 were anciently moll populous and fiourirtiiiig, iuvitcd 

 ftrangers firll to vifit, and afterwards to dwell among them. 

 The Greeks were not infenfible of their obligations to 

 ftrangers for the moil important difcoveries, not only in re- 

 ligion, but in agriculture and the arts ; but as they advanced 

 to luperiority in arts and arms, above furrounding nations, 

 they vainlv fancied that their infancy was reai'ed by the gods ; 

 and to the gods they transferred the merit of many ulefnl 

 inventions, that had been communicated to them or their 

 progenitors by their ancient vifitants ; and it mull be acknow- 

 ledged, tliat the worlhip of feveral divinities was introduced 

 at tlie fame time, and by the fame perfons, wlio made known 

 to them the arts moll fubfervient to the purpofes of human 

 life. 



From the middle of the i6th to the middle of the 14th 

 century, B. C. an inundation of Egyptians, Phccnicians, and 

 Phrygians overflowed the Helltiiic coalls. The principal 

 colonies were conduced by Cecrops and Danaus, Egypti- 

 ans, who refpectively fettled in Athens and Argos ; Cad- 

 mus, a Phoenician, who founded Thebes in Bocotia; and Pe. 



lops. 



