Note 438 — Chapter XIII · MYTH IN THE HOMERIC POEMS.

Cf. Meister, Sächs. Ges. d. Wiss. Abhandl. 1906, Nr. 3, summarised p. 96 ff., where it is pointed out that the characteristics commonly described as Dorian belong in reality also to Achaean and that in general they are rather to be ascribed to the latter. At the same time it is to be noted that some of the characteristics here claimed as specifically Dorian are shared also by Cypriot, a fact which rather suggests that they may be indigenous to the south-east of the Peloponnesos. If the Dorians came from the same quarter as the Achaeans—and not very many generations later—it is intelligible enough that the two groups of dialects should be difficult to distinguish, even apart from the fact that an Achaean stratum—however insignificant numerically—underlies the Dorian practically everywhere.