lements by a warlike race, akin,
however, to the Pelasgians. These conquerors were the Hellenes, who were
believed to have issued from the district of Thessaly, north of Mount
Othrys. They gave their name ultimately to the whole country. Divided into
small settlements, they yet were bound together by language and customs,
and cherished the idea of national unity. There were four chief divisions
of this nation, the Dorians, AEolians, Achaeans, and Ionians, traditionally
supposed to be descended from the three sons of Hellen, the son of
Deucalion, Dorus, AEolus, and Xuthus, the last the father of Achaeus, and
Jon. So the Greek poets represented the origin of the Hellenes--a people
fond of adventure, and endowed by nature with vast capacities,
subsequently developed by education.

(M310) Of these four divisions of the Hellenic race, the AEolians spread
over northern Greece, and also occupied the western coast of the
Peloponnesus and the Ionian islands. It continued, to the latest times, to
occupy the greater part of Greece. The Achaeans were the most celebrated in
epic poetry, their name being used by Homer to denote all the Hellenic
tribes which fought at Troy. They were the dominant people of the
Peloponnesus, occupying the south and east, and the Arcadians the centre.
The Dorians and Ionians were of later celebrity; the former occupying a
small patch of territory on the slopes of Mount OEta, north of Delphi; the
latter living on a narrow slip of the country along the northern coast of
the Peloponnesus, and extending eastward into Attica.

(M311) The principal settlements of the AEolians lay around the Pagasaean
Gulf, and were blended with the Minyans, a race of Pelasgian adventurers
known in the Argonautic expedition, under AEolian leaders. In the north of
Boeotia arose the city of Orchomenus, whose treasures were compared by
Homer to those of the Egyptian Thebes. Another seat of the AEolians was
Ephyra, afterward known as Corinth, where the "wily Sisyphus" ruled. He
was the father of Phocus, who gave his name to Phocis. The descendants of
AEolus led also a colony to Elis, and another to Pylus. In general, the
AEolians sought maritime settlements in northern Greece, and the western
side of the Peloponnesus.

(M312) The Achaeans were the dominant race, in very early times, of the
south of Thessaly, and the eastern side of the Peloponnesus, whose chief
seats were Phthia, where Achilles reigned, and Argolis. Thirlwall see