Pelasgus of Argos


In Greek mythology, Pelasgus also known as Gelanor, was an Inachid king of Argos. He was the son of Sthenelas, son of Crotopus, son of Agenor, son of Triopas. Yet according to others, Pelasgus was a son of Arestor, and grandson of Iasus, and immigrated into Arcadia, where he founded the town of Parrhasia. In some accounts his father was the autochthon Palaechthon.

Mythology

Pelasgus welcomed Danaus and the Danaïdes when they fled from Aegyptus.

In ''The Suppliants''

In Aeschylus' play The Suppliants the Danaïdes fleeing from Egypt seek asylum from King Pelasgus of Argos, which he says is on the Strymon including Perrhaebia in the north, Dodona and the slopes of the Pindus mountains on the west and the shores of the sea on the east; that is, a territory including or north of the Thessalian Pelasgiotis. The southern boundary is not mentioned; however, Apis is said to have come to Argos from Naupactus "across", implying that Argos includes all of east Greece from the north of Thessaly to the Peloponnesian Argos, where the Danaïdes are probably to be conceived as having landed. He claims to rule the Pelasgians and to be the "child of Palaichthon whom the earth brought forth."
The Danaïdes call the country the "Apian hills" and claim that it understands the karbana audan, which many translate as "barbarian speech" but Karba is in fact a non-Greek word. They claim to descend from ancestors in ancient Argos even though they are of a "dark race". Pelasgus admits that the land was once called Apia but compares them to the women of Libya and Egypt and wants to know how they can be from Argos on which they cite descent from Io.
In a lost play by Aeschylus, Danaan Women, he defines the original homeland of the Pelasgians as the region around Mycenae.