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ἀποσχισθέν. The sense of this word is shown in iv. 56. 1, where H. uses it of a river separating from another; so in 143. 2, of the ‘separation’ of the Ionians of Asia Minor from the rest of the Ionians. Obviously, therefore, H. thought his ‘barbarian’ Pelasgi closely akin to the Hellenes. In 60. 3 H. says τὸ Ἑλληνικὸν ἀπεκρίθη τοῦ βαρβάρου ἔθνεος, i. e. marked itself off as somewhat superior. Thucydides (i. 3. 2) carries the process a stage further; the development is not ‘spontaneous’, but the result of ‘contact with the φύσις of the genuine Hellene’; T. s' ‘explanation of the transmissibility of culture is to be sought not in physiology but in psychology’ (Myres, A. and C. p. 152). Whether ἀποσχισθέν here implies local or ethnical separation, it is impossible to decide, but probably the latter.

μέντοι: contrasted with μέν, growth as compared to language.

προσκεχωρηκότων. Thucydides (i. 3) also speaks of the ‘Hellenes’ absorbing Pelasgic and other peoples; among these ‘others’ are the Minyans of Orchomenus, the Abantes, the Dryopes (146. 1), &c.

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