PELASGIOTIS, a third part of Thessaly, (Strabo); so called from a very ancient people, the Pelasgi, called Pelasgiota (Ptolemy); who formerly, together with the Æolians, occupied Thessaly, and thence that part was called Pelasgicum Argos; besides many other parts of Greece. Their name Pelasgi, or Pelargi, denoting storks, was given them from their waandering roving life (Strabo). The poets extend the appellation to Greeks in general. Pelasgius, the epithet. Some of the inhabitants of Crete were called Pelasgi (Homer); who thus also calls the neighbouring people to the Cilicians in Troas. The Pelasgi were originally of Arcadia, (Hesiod); but Æschylus makes Argos, near Mycenæ, their country. The Pelasgiotis was situated between Pieria and Macedonia to the north and west, Thessaliotis to the south, and Magnesia to the east, (Strabo, Pliny.)