rdance
with that which I have said before), and also of Hera and Hestia and
Themis and the Charites and Nereids, the Egyptians say themselves: but
as for the gods whose names they profess that they do not know, these I
think received their naming from the Pelasgians, except Poiseidon;
but about this god the Hellenes learnt from the Libyans, for no people
except the Libyans have had the name of Poseidon from the first and have
paid honour to this god always. Nor, it may be added, have the Egyptians
any custom of worshipping heroes. These observances then, and others
besides these which I shall mention, the Hellenes have adopted from
the Egyptians; but to make, as they do the images of Hermes with
the _phallos_ they have learnt not from the Egyptians but from the
Pelasgians, the custom having been received by the Athenians first of
all the Hellenes and from these by the rest; for just at the time when
the Athenians were beginning to rank among the Hellenes, the Pelasgians
became dwellers with them in their land, and from this very cause it was
that they began to be counted as Hellenes. Whosoever has been initiated
in the mysteries of the Cabeiroi, which the Samothrakians perform having
received them from the Pelasgians, that man knows the meaning of my
speech; for these very Pelasgians who became dwellers with the Athenians
used to dwell before that time in Samothrake, and from them the
Samothrakians received their mysteries. So then the Athenians were the
first of the Hellenes who made the images of Hermes with the _phallos_,
having learnt from the Pelasgians; and the Pelasgians told a sacred
story about it, which is set forth in the mysteries in Samothrake. Now
the Pelasgians formerly were wont to make all their sacrifices calling
upon the gods in prayer, as I know from that which I heard at Dodona,
but they gave no title or name to any of them, for they had not yet
heard any, but they called them gods from some such notion as this,
that they had set in order all things and so had the distribution of
everything. Afterwards when much time had elapsed, they learnt from
Egypt the names of the gods, all except Dionysos, for his name they
learnt long afterwards; and after a time the Pelasgians consulted the
Oracle at Dodona about the names, for this prophetic seat is accounted
to be the most ancient of the Oracles which are among the Hellenes,
and at that time it was the only one. So when the Pelasgians asked the
Oracle at Do