Conquest 77
ing colonies abroad, and everything that we know of the period suggests that
it was a time when the population of Hellas appears to have grown by leaps
and bounds and to have threatened in many places to exceed the carrying
capacity of the land.^37
Throughout Greece, the situation following the Trojan War and the vio-
lent collapse of the great Mycenaean kingdoms appears to have been exceed-
ingly fluid. Wherever we look, we find evidence for immigration on the part
of families and clans of quite disparate origins. In Laconia, there is reason to
suppose that some, at least, of ancient Achaean stock found their way into the
Spartan ranks—for the dialect spoken at Lacedaemon preserves certain pre-
Dorian elements suggesting an affinity with Arcadian, and at Amyclae in par-
ticular there is clear evidence for a measure of religious continuity between
Mycenaean and Dorian Sparta.
Three stories illustrate the degree to which matters in Laconia were in
flux. The first of these—told in brief by Pindar and Pausanias and in much
greater detail by Herodotus—concerns the Minyans, a people purportedly de-
scended from the crew of the Argo. According to the legend, they sought
refuge in Lacedaemon after being driven from Lemnos by that island’s pre-
Greek Pelasgian population. Because Castor and Pollux, the sons of Tyndareus
and brothers of Helen and Clytemnestra, were thought to have been among
those who sailed with Jason as Argonauts, the Minyans were, we are told, in-
vited to join the Spartans. And when they agreed to do so, they were not only
given land allotments and a share in governance; they were also distributed
into the three tribes found in all the Dorian lands—the Hylleis, the Dymaneis,
and the Pamphyloi. But when these newcomers displayed insolence, de-
manded a share in the kingship, and engaged in putatively impious acts, the
Spartans turned on them and saw to their removal from Lacedaemon. Most
found refuge within the Peloponnesus—in Triphylia along its west coast to
the north of Messenia and to the south of Elis. But one contingent is said to
have joined an expedition already being organized with official sanction by a
Spartan of Theban origin purportedly descended from Cadmus through Oe-
dipus and Polyneices. This notable was, we are told, intent on joining the
Phoenicians said to have been left on the island of Thera by Cadmus some
eight generations before and on founding a colony in that location with their
assistance.^38
The second story is similar and may be a variant of the first. It is told in
two versions set in two different epochs. According to both versions, refugees