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See Thumb, Handbuch d. gr. Dialekte , p. 166 f. The Achaioi must have passed through South Thessaly in any case. Also Mayer in Roscher's Lexicon, ii, p. 1508, 50 ff.; Rise of Greek Epic , pp. 40-8; J. A. K. Thomson, Studies in the Odyssey , chap. vii, viii; Chadwick, Heroic Age , pp. 282, 289.
A Palladion consists of two thunder-shields, set one above the other like a figure 8, and we can trace in art-types the development of this 8 into a human figure. It seems clear that the old Achaioi cannot have called their warrior-maiden, daughter of Zeus, by the name Athena or Athenaia.
He had an extraordinary power of ousting or absorbing the various objects of aboriginal worship which he found in his path. Of course, we must not suppose that the Zeus of the actual Achaioi was a figure quite like the Zeus of Pheidias or of Homer. Cook clearly shows. Zeus is the Achaean Sky-god. His son Phoebus Apollo is of more complex make. On one side he is clearly a Northman.
He is no 'Hellene'. In the fighting at Troy he is against the Achaioi: he destroys the Greek host, he champions Hector, he even slays Achilles. In any case, and this is the important point, he is at Delos the chief god of the Ionians. The Ionians are defined by Herodotus as those tribes and cities who were sprung from Athens and kept the Apaturia.
In all probability if a Greek of the fifth century, like Aeschylus or even Pindar, had met a group of the real Hellenes or Achaioi of the Migrations, he would have set them down as so many obvious and flaming barbarians. Let us consider for a moment the dates. It was emphasized by a similar clash in the further colonies in Pontus and in the West. In literature the decisive moment is clear.
Thus the epithets in Homer, although they are often far from describing the essence of the object glankopis Athena enkeides Achaioi seem to recall a sensation, and to give vitality to the narrative.
In the first place why are they called 'Olympian'? Are they the Gods of Mount Olympus, the old sacred mountain of Homer's Achaioi, or do they belong to the great sanctuary of Olympia in which Zeus, the lord of the Olympians, had his greatest festival? The two are at opposite ends of Greece, Olympus in North Thessaly in the north-east, Olympia in Elis in the south-west.
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