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[749] No Peraibian towns in Thessaly are mentioned, as they have been already given to the Lapiths. The explanation of Strabo is that these Peraibians are a portion of the tribe who had been driven out of their old homes in the plain, and lived scattered among the mountains, while the bulk of the tribe lived mixed up with the Lapiths. If this is meant, it would seem that some of them must have crossed into Aitolia, for there can be no question that it is the Aitolian Dodona which is named; though, on the other hand, it is hard to escape the suspicion that the poet of this passage supposed it to lie in Thessaly. The Thessalian Achilles prays to the Pelasgian Zeus of Dodona in 16.233, and this may have caused the mistake. There was indeed a legend that the oracle of Dodona had been transferred there from Skotussa in Thessaly, but of this Strabo, p. 329, in an unfortunately mutilated passage, speaks with marked incredulity. There must, however, have been some early religious connexion between Thessaly and Dodona, which may have led to the legend.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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