The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples - RePub - Erasmus Universiteit ...

salian Gyrtone. 406 On the basis of this evidence, the Pelasgians
referred to by Homeros are likely to be considered as
(a component of) the Late Bronze Age population of the
Mesara plain – a region, by the way, which like the rest of
Crete is characterized by Mycenaean IIIC1b ware in the
period of the upheavals of the Sea Peoples (Fig. 20). 407
Another advantage of the identification of the Biblical
Philistines with the Pelasgians from Greek literary sources
is that we can account for the alternative tradition as recorded
for the Lydian historian Xanthos according to
which the Philistines originated from Lydia. 408 This tradition
has come down to us in two forms, both of which focus
on the Philistine town Askelon. First, Athenaios
remarks that according to Xanthos the Lydian Mopsos captured
Atargatis and sunk her with her son Ikhthys in the
lake of Askelon. 409 Secondly, Stephanos of Byzantion
notes with respect to Askelon that according to Xanthos
this town was founded by Askelos, the son of Hymenaios
and brother of Tantalos, in the reign of the Lydian king
Akiamos. 410
Now, these traditions only make sense if we realize
that the Pelasgians which in Homeros’ Iliad II, 840-3 sided
with the Trojans are plausibly situated by Strabo in the region
of Larisa Phrikonis along the Hermos river – far
406 In casu Proto-Indo-European (= PIE) *g h ord h - “town”, which
is also present in the Italian TN’s, reportedly diffused by the Pelasgians,
Croton and Cortona, Phrygian Gordion, Slavonic grad-,
etc., see Gamkrelidze & Ivanov 1995: 647; Phoenician qrt- as in
Carthago (< qrthdšt “New Town”), see Eisler 1939.
407 Schachermeyr 1979: 122-3 so-called “Nobelware” with “antithetic
horns” and “bird looking backwards” motifs attested for
Hagia Triada, Phaistos, and Gortyn; for Mycenaean IIIC1b examples
of “antithetic horns” from Sinda, Cyprus, and Askelon, Philistia,
see Noort 1994: 122, Abb. 36 and 114, Abb. 37; of “bird
looking backwards” from Geser, Philistia, see Noort 1994: 115,
Abb. 38.
408 Albright 1975: 512.
409 Deipnosophistai VIII, 346e. Note that the personal name Mopsos,
which on the basis of the related geographical name Mopsopia
originates from *Mopsops, belongs to the same type as Phrygian
Pelops, Phainops, and Merops, all showing as second element a
reflex of PIE *h3ek w - “to see”. Hence, the Phrygian place name
Moxoupolis and the ethnonym Moxolanoi, with the breakdown of
the original labiovelar [k w ] (cf. Linear B Moqoso) into velar [k]
like in Luwian hieroglyphic Muksas instead of into labial [p] like
in Greek Mopsos and Phoenician Mpš. For attestations of Mopsos
in the intermediary regions of Pamphylia and Cilicia, see Vanschoonwinkel
1991: 316-22.
410 Ethnica, s.v. Askeln.
98
enough from Troy to justify the use of the word tle “far
away (from his home town Larisa)” in connection with the
death of the Pelasgian leader Hippothoos. 411
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 20. Late Helladic IIIC1b ware with “antithetic horns” and
“bird looking backwards”: (a) Crete, (b) Cyprus, and (c) Philistia
(after Schachermeyr 1979: 160, Abb. 41a; Noort 1994: 122, Abb.
36; 115, Abb. 38).
From an archaeological point of view, it is worth
mentioning in this connection that the region of Larisa
411 Strabo, Geography XIII, 3, 2; Homeros, Iliad XVII, 301.