Doric Race, Its History and Antiquities

The Dorians derived their origin from those districts in which the Grecian nation bordered towards the north upon numerous and dissimilar races of barbarians. As to the tribes which dwelt beyond these boundaries we are indeed wholly destitute of information; nor is there the slightest trace of any memorial or tradition that the Greeks originally came from those quarters. On these frontiers, however, the events took place which effected an entire alteration in the internal condition of the whole Grecian people, and here were given many of those impulses, of which the effects were so long and generally experienced.

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The prevailing character of the events in question, was a perpetual pressing forward of the barbarous races, particularly of the Illyrians, into more southern districts; yet Greece, although harassed, confined, nay even compelled to abandon part of her territory, never attempted to make a united resistance to their encroachments. The cause of this negligence probably was, that all her views being turned to the south, no attention whatever was paid to the above quarters.

§ 2. Northern boundary of Greece.

2. To begin then by laying down a boundary line (which may be afterwards modified for the sake of greater accuracy), we shall suppose this to be the mountain ridge, which stretches from Olympus to the west as far as the Acroceraunian mountains (comprehending the Cambunian ridge and mount Lacmon), and in the middle comes in contact with the Pindus chain, which stretches in a direction from north to south. The western part of this chain separates the furthest Grecian tribes from the great Illyrian nation, which extended back as far as the Celts in the south of Germany. Every clue respecting the connexion, peculiarities, and original language of this people must be interesting, and the dialects of the Albanians, especially of those who inhabit the mountains where the original customs and language have been preserved in greater purity, will afford materials for inquiry. For our present purpose it will be sufficient to state, that they formed the northern boundary of the Grecian nation, from which they were distinguished both by their language and customs.

§ 3. The Macedonians.

3. In the fashion of wearing the mantle and dressing the hair,3 and also in their dialect, the MACEDONIANS bore a great resemblance to the Illyrians; whence it is evident that the Macedonians belonged to the Illyrian nation.4 Notwithstanding which, there can be no doubt that the Greeks were aboriginal5 inhabitants of this district. The plains of Emathia, the most beautiful district of the country, were occupied by the Pelasgians, who, according to Herodotus, also possessed Creston above Chalcidice, to which place they had come from Thessaliotis.

Hence the Macedonian dialect was full of Greek radical words. And that these had not been introduced by the royal family (which was Hellenic by descent or adoption of manners) is evident from the fact, that many signs of the most simple ideas (which no language ever borrows from another) were the same in both, as well as from the circumstance that these words do not appear in their Greek form, but have been modified according to a native dialect. In the Macedonian dialect there occur grammatical forms which are commonly called Æolic, together with many Arcadian and Thessalian words: and what perhaps is still more decisive, several words, which, though not to be found in the Greek, have been preserved in the Latin language.

There does not appear to be any peculiar affinity with the Doric dialect: hence we do not give much credit to the otherwise unsupported assertion of Herodotus, of an original identity of the Doric and Macednian (Macedonian) nations. In other authors Macednus is called the son of Lycaon, from whom the Arcadians were said to be descended; or Macedon is the brother of Magnes, or a son of Æolus, according to Hesiod and Hellanicus, which are merely various attempts to form a genealogical connexion between this semi-barbarian race, and the rest of the Greek nation.

§ 7. The Thracians.

7. The THRACIANS, who settled in Pieria at the foot of mount Olympus, and from thence came down to mount Helicon, as being the originators of the worship of Dionysus and the Muses, and the fathers of Grecian poetry, are a nation of the highest importance in the history of civilization. We cannot but suppose that they spoke a dialect very similar to the Greek, since otherwise they could not have had any considerable influence upon the latter people. They were in all probability derived originally from the country called Thrace in later times, where the Bessians, a tribe of the nation of the Satræ, at the foot of Mount Pangæum, presided over the oracle of Dionysus. Whether the whole of the populous races of Edones, Odomantians, Odrysians, Treres, &c. are to be considered as identical with the Thracians in Pieria, or whether it is not more probable that these barbarous nations received from the Greeks their general name of Thracians, with which they had been familiar from early times, are questions which I shall not attempt to determine. Into these nations, however, a large number of Pæonians subsequently penetrated, who had passed over at the time of a very ancient migration of the Teucrians, together with the Mysians. To this Pæonian race the Pelagonians, on the banks of the Axius, belonged; who also advanced into Thessaly, as will be shown hereafter. Of the Teucrians, however, we know nothing, excepting that in concert with (Pelasgic) Dardanians they founded the city of Troy,-where the language in use was probably allied to the Grecian, and distinct from the Phrygian.

§ 8. The Hellenes, Achæans, Minyans, Ionians, and Dorians.

8. Now it is within the mountainous barriers above described that we must look for the origin of the nations which in the heroic mythology are always represented as possessing dominion and power, and are always contrasted with an aboriginal population. These, in my opinion, were northern branches of the Grecian nation, which had overrun and subdued the Greeks who dwelt further south. The most ancient abode of the HELLENES Proper (who in mythology are merely a small nation in Phthia) was situated, according to Aristotle, in Epirus, near Dodona, to whose god Achilles prays, as being the ancient protector of his family. In all probability the ACHÆANS, the ruling nation both of Thessaly and of Peloponnesus, in the mythical times, were of the same race and origin as the Hellenes. The MINYANS, Phlegyans, Lapithæ, and Æolians of Corinth and Salmone, came originally from the districts above Pieria, on the frontiers of Macedonia, where the very ancient Orchomenus, Minya, and Salmonia or Halmopia were situated. Nor is there less obscurity with regard to the northern settlements of the IONIANS; they appear, as it were, to have fallen from heaven into Attica and Ægialea: they were not, however, by any means identical with the aboriginal inhabitants of these districts, and had, perhaps, detached themselves from some northern, probably Achæan, race. Lastly, the DORIANS are mentioned in ancient legends and poems as established in one extremity of the great mountain-chain of Upper Greece, viz. at the foot of Olympus; there are, however, reasons for supposing, that at an earlier period they had dwelt at its other northern extremity, at the furthest limit of the Grecian nation.