l irruption of the Dorians and
their associates.

The nationality of these invaders is disputed. Survival of fair hair and
complexion and light eyes among the upper classes in Thebes and some
other localities shows that the blonde type of mankind which is
characteristic of north-western Europe had already penetrated into Greek
lands before classical times; but the ascription of the same physical
traits to the Achaeans of Homer forbids us to regard them as peculiar to
that latest wave of pre-classical immigrants to which the Dorians
belong; and there is no satisfactory evidence as to the coloration of
the Spartans, who alone were reputed to be pure-blooded Dorians in
historic times.

Language is no better guide, for it is not clear that the Dorian dialect
is that of the most recent conquerors, and not rather that of the
conquered Achaean inhabitants of southern Greece; in any case it
presents no such affinities with any non-Hellenic speech as would serve
to trace its origin. Even in northern and west-central Greece, all
vestige of any former prevalence has been obliterated by the spread of
"Aeolic" dialects akin to those of Thessaly and Boeotia; even the
northern Doris, for example, spoke "Aeolic" in historic times.

The doubt already suggested as to language applies still more to such
characteristics as Dorian music and other forms of art, and to Dorian
customs generally. It is clear from the traditions about Lycurgus
(q.v.), for example, that even the Spartans had been a long while in
Laconia before their state was rescued from disorder by his reforms; and
if there be truth in the legend that the new institutions were borrowed
from Crete, we perhaps have here too a late echo of the legislative fame
of the land of Minos. Certainly the Spartans adopted, together with the
political traditions of the Heracleids, many old Laconian cults and
observances such as those connected with the Tyndaridae.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--K. O. Muller, _Die Dorier_ (ed. F. W. Schneidewin,
Breslau, 1844); G. Gilbert, _Studien zur altspartanischen Geschichte_
(Gottingen, 1872); H. Gelzer, "Die Wanderzuge der lakedamonischen
Dorier," in _Rhein. Museum_, xxxii. (1877), p. 259; G. Busolt, _Die
Lakedaimonier und ihre Bundesgenossen_, i. (Leipzig, 1878); S. Beloch,
"Die dorische Wanderung," in _Rhein. Mus._ xlv. (1890). 555 ff.; H.
Collitz, _Sammlung der gr. Dialekt-Inschriften_, iii. (Gottingen,
1899-1905); R. Meister, "Dorier und Achae