The Coming of the GreeksShips, in the second book of the Iliad. In the catalog, which
seems to have been composed when the geography of Myce-
naean Greece was still a living memory, almost one-quarter of
the Achaeans' ships (280 of i, 186) come from Thessaly (in con-
trast, only 50 come from Attica, 40 from Euboea, 80 from
Boeotia, 80 from all of Crete). We may say with some confi-
dence that early in the Dark Age the Greeks recalled that dur-
ing the Age of the Heroes, more warriors had lived in Thessaly
than anywhere else.
In summary, it appears that "the coming of the Greeks" was
to the best lands of the Greek mainland: the plains, which not
only were fertile and thickly settled, but also were unusually
vulnerable to charioteering invaders. By 1450 B.C., the new-
comers had also invaded Crete and are assumed to have taken
over at least the region around Knossos and possibly much of
eastern Crete. The takeover in Crete was evidently secondary—
launched from the Greek mainland rather than from the home-
land of the PIE speakers. Several of the takeovers on the Greek
mainland may have been primary, although it is more likely
that Thessaly served—however briefly—as a staging area for
most of the takeovers further to the south. At any rate, it is
probable that ca. 1600 B.C., speakers of a form of Proto-Indo-
European came to Greece in considerable numbers, breaking
up into smaller groups soon after their arrival in the Aegean,
and taking over choice plains all round the mainland and even-
tually on Crete. Wherever they went, certainly the invaders
would have for several generations maintained close contact
with each other (and especially, I think, with their Thessalian
"base"). It would have been during this time that their form of
Proto-Indo-European, much affected by the pre-Indo-Euro-
pean language(s) of the Aegean, significantly differentiated it-
self from other forms of Proto-Indo-European and evolved into
the language that we may call Common Greek or Proto-
Greek."-*
- If the Linear B tablets found at Knossos were indeed inscribed
194