Origins
The name Pelasgians was used by some ancient Greek writers to refer to the populations who preceded the Greeks in Greece. In the Iliad, Homer uses this name for the inhabitants of Epirus around Dodona, and the inhabitants of Thessaly. The earliest inhabitants of Boeotia associated with the city of Orchomenus, were called Minyans and the Greeks did not clearly distinguish the Minyan from the Pelasgian culture. Pausanias mentions that they established the maritime Ionian city of Teos, and occupied the islands of Lemnos and Thera. The Argonauts were sometimes referred to as Minyans, and according to legend the citizens of Thebes paid an annual tribute to their king Erginus. The Minyans may have been Proto Greek speaking people; but although most scholars today agree that the Mycenean Greeks descended from the Minyans of the Middle Helladic period, they believe that the progenitors and founders of Minyan culture were an autochthonous group. The early wealth and power of Boeotia is shown by the reputation and visible Mycenean remains of several of its cities, especially Orchomenus and Thebes.
The origin of Boeotians lies in the mountain Boeon in the region of Epirus-West Macedonia, where Aristotle believed that Ancient Hellas existed. In the same region around Dodona, Homer refers to Zeus, god of Pelasgi who ruled over the oracular shrine, and to his prophets the Selloi. Aristotle in his Meteorologica connects the name Graecus with Graii, the native name of a Dorian tribe in Epirus which was used for the Greeks by the Illyrians. However it is more likely that the original homeland of the Greeks was in central Greece.
Some toponyms and the common Aeolic dialect indicate that the Boeotians were related to the Thessalians. The Boeotians originally occupied Thessaly, the largest fertile plain in Greece, and were dispossessed by the north-western Thessalians traditionally two generations after the fall of Troy (1200 BC). They moved south and settled in another rich plain. Others filtered across the Aegean and settled on Lesbos extending from there to the adjacent Aeolis in Asia Minor. Others also stayed but formed an extending populace (perioikis) round the new-comers (perioikoi,"living around"),by withdrawing in the surrounding hill country that is Perrhaebia, Magnesia and Achaea Phthiotis which has been Achilleus country on the south. The name Hellenes was firstly used by Homer for a tribe in this region.
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