Book 2
51.2
For the Athenians were then already counted as Greeks when the Pelasgians came to live in the land with them and thereby began to be considered as Greeks. Whoever has been initiated into the rites of the Cabeiri, which the Samothracians learned from the Pelasgians and now practice, understands what my meaning is.
51.3
+Samothrace (island), Nomos Evrou, Western Thrace, Greece, Europe Samothrace was formerly inhabited by those Pelasgians who came to live among the Athenians, and it is from them that the Samothracians take their rites.
51.4
The Athenians, then, were the first Greeks to make ithyphallic images of Hermes, and they did this because the Pelasgians taught them. The Pelasgians told a certain sacred tale about this, which is set forth in the Samothracian mysteries.
52.1
Formerly, in all their sacrifices, the Pelasgians called upon gods without giving name or appellation to any (I know this, because I was told at Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona ); for as yet they had not heard of such. They called them godsOn the supposition that θεός meant “a disposer,” connected with θεσμός, τίθημι, etc. from the fact that, besides setting everything in order, they maintained all the dispositions.
