Overview
The Eteocretans are mentioned in Homer's Odyssey:
| “ | There is a fair and fruitful island in mid-ocean called Crete; it is thickly peopled and there are ninety cities in it: the people speak many different languages which overlap one another, for there are Achaeans, brave Eteocretans, Dorians of three-fold race, and noble Pelasgi. | ” |
This translation by Samuel Butler is perhaps too loose as it does not mention the Cydonians. Strabo quotes and elucidates this passage, translated by Horace Leonard Jones as follows:
| “ | there dwell Achaeans, there Eteo-Cretans proud of heart, there Cydonians and Dorians, too, of waving plumes, and goodly Pelasgians. | ” |
Where Butler has "of threefold race", which might refer to the three Dorian tribes, Jones has "of waving plumes", which both depend on the etymology of trichaikes, a hapax legomenon ("spoken once", a word which occurs only once in the written records). Strabo, who depends of course on the books available to him, goes on to elaborate:
| “ | Of these peoples, according to Staphylus, the Dorians occupy the part toward the east, the Cydonians the western part, the Eteo-Cretans the southern; and to these last belongs the town Prasus, where is the temple of the Dictaean Zeus; whereas the other peoples, since they were more powerful, dwelt in the plains. Now it is reasonable to suppose that the Eteo-Cretans and the Cydonians were autochthonous (indigenous), and that the others were foreigners ... | ” |
Read more about this topic: Eteocretan Language