oric
times was spoken also in Doris; Locris and Elis present similar northern
"Achaean-Doric" dialects. Arcadia, on the other hand, in the heart of
Peloponnese, retained till a late date a quite different dialect, akin
to the ancient dialect of Cyprus, and more remotely to Aeolic. This
distribution makes it clear (1) that the Doric dialects of Peloponnese
represent a superstratum, more recent than the speech of Arcadia; (2)
that Laconia and its colonies preserve features alike, [Greek: -e] and
[Greek: -o] which are common to southern Doric and Aeolic; (3) that
those parts of "Dorian" Greece in which tradition makes the pre-Dorian
population "Ionic," and in which the political structure shows that the
conquered were less completely subjugated, exhibit the Ionic [Greek:
-ei] and [Greek: -ou]; (4) that as we go north, similar though more
barbaric dialects extend far up the western side of central-northern
Greece, and survive also locally in the highlands of south Thessaly; (5)
that east of the watershed Aeolic has prevailed over the area which has
legends of a Boeotian and Thessalian migration, and replaces Doric in
the northern Doris. All this points on the one hand to an intrusion of
Doric dialect into an Arcadian-and-Ionic-speaking area; on the other
hand to a subsequent expansion of Aeolic over the north-eastern edge of
an area which once was Dorian. But this distribution does not by itself
prove that Doric speech was the language of the Dorian invaders. Its
area coincides also approximately with that of the previous Achaean
conquests; and if the Dorians were as backward culturally as traditions
and archaeology suggest, it is not improbable that they soon adopted the
language of the conquered, as the Norman conquerors did in England. As
evidence of an intrusion of northerly folk, however, the distribution of
dialects remains important. See GREEK LANGUAGE.

_The common calendar and cycle of festivals_, observed by all Dorians
(of which the Carneia was chief), and the distribution in Greece of the
worships of Apollo and Heracles, which attained pre-eminence mainly in
or near districts historically "Dorian," suggest that these cults, or an
important element in them, were introduced comparatively late, and
represent the beliefs of a fresh ethnic superstratum. The steady
dependence of Sparta on the Delphic oracle, for example, is best
explained as an observance inherited from Parnassian ancestors.

_The social and politica