Pelasgians () — a Homeric kingdom of the Odyssey, c. 1200 BC

Pelasgians — Pelasgians of deep-soiled Larisa — spearmen of the stock of Ares, who fell dragging Patroklos toward the walls of Troy.

The Hellespontine Pelasgians of Larisa fought for Troy under the brothers Hippothoos and Pylaios. Hippothoos was slain by Telamonian Aias while dragging Patroklos' corpse toward the city, and never returned to his deep-soiled homeland.

Leader at Troy: Hippothoos.

Ruler in the Odyssey's present: Hippothoos.

Role in the Trojan War: Trojan ally. An ancient tribe of Pelasgian spearmen out of Larisa in the Troad, summoned by Hektor to help guard Ilios; their lord Hippothoos was cut down by Telamonian Aias in the desperate struggle over the body of Patroklos.

The homecoming: Their lord fell in the dust before Ilios — no road home to deep-soiled Larisa.

Deep-soiled Larisa, hard by the Hellespont in the Troad, was the home of an ancient people: the Pelasgians "that fight with spears," a tribe reckoned among the oldest stocks of men. Two brothers led them to the war for Troy — Hippothoos and Pylaios, "of the stock of Ares," twin sons of Pelasgian Lethos son of Teutamos. (These are not the men of the Pelasgian Argos of Thessaly, Achilles' northern country, but the Hellespontine Pelasgians of the Troad's own Larisa, near neighbours of Ilios itself.)\n\nThey came to the fight as allies of Priam. In the great muster of the Trojan host they stand in the roll of the far-called allies — set beside Pandaros' bowmen out of Zeleia (ZEL) beneath Ida, beside Asios son of Hyrtacus who came from Arisbe and the river Selleeis to rule at Perkote (PER), and just before Akamas and hero Peiroos who led the Thracians (THR) whom the strong stream of Hellespont shuts in. Hektor of the Trojans (TRO) had gathered these "countless tribes of allies that dwell round about" not for mere numbers, he told them, but that they might guard the Trojans' wives and infant little ones from the war-loving Achaians; and in the day of his greatest fury, arming in the stripped armour of Achilles, he sped among the noble allies and named Hippothoos among the chosen chiefs — Mesthles and Glaukos and Medon and Asteropaios and the rest — whom he encouraged with winged words.\n\nHippothoos earned his death in the cruellest press of the whole war: the long, blind struggle over the corpse of Patroklos (MYR), Achilles' gentle squire, whom man-slaying Hektor had slain and stripped. Round the dead man the two hosts hauled like men stretching a bull's hide, Trojans straining to drag him to Ilios and win renown, Achaians to bear him back to the ships. It was here, greedy for that glory, that Hippothoos looped a thong about the tendon of Patroklos' ankle to haul him toward the city — and Telamonian Aias (SAL), first of the Danaans after Peleus' son, drove his spear through the bronze-cheeked helmet so that the brain burst forth all bloody, and the Pelasgian let fall the foot and pitched down dead upon the corpse, far from deep-soiled Larisa, and rendered not to his dear parents the recompense of his nurture.\n\nSo the nostos of Larisa is a nostos denied. In the tenth year of the war and the returns, the lord of the Pelasgians lies in the dust before Ilios and will never look again on his own rich ploughland; his brother Pylaios, co-captain "of the stock of Ares," is left to lead what remains of the spearmen home. And the fate of a Trojan ally is the fate of Troy: with sacred Ilios doomed to fall, the Pelasgian towns beneath the Hellespont face fire and the fate of the vanquished, while the Achaian lords sail off — some to their own bloody homecomings — leaving Larisa to mourn a son who marched to guard another people's walls and died dragging their enemy's dead.

“And Hippothoos led the tribes of the Pelasgians that fight with spears, them that inhabited deep-soiled Larisa.” — Iliad 2.840-841