Proselenos
Proselenos is the concept referring to the belief that the ancient Arcadians were a group of people older than the Moon itself. This aspect of the Arcadian identity was in opposition to the other groups inhabiting the Peloponnese, who claimed to be descended from the Dorians. There were some other exceptions, however, such as the Eleans, the Cynurians, and the Achaeans.
The antiquity of the Arcadians was also shown in their mythical ancestry, claiming that they descended from the hero Pelasgus, who sprung from the earth to become their ancestor and whose son was Lycaon, the grandfather of the region's eponymous hero, Arcas.
The oldest reference to the story of the Arcadians pre-dating the moon is attested in the Classical period of Greek history from the fifth century BCE historian, Hippys of Rhegium. The fragment from Hippys is preserved in the later work of Stephanus of Byzantium. The term is also applied by the fourth century BCE philosopher Aristotle, as well as Eudoxos of Cnidus, a fourth century BCE astronomer and mathematician. An unknown fifth century poet also mentioned proselenaios as an epithet of Pelasgus, the ancestor of the Arcadians; Borgeaud and Nielsen proposes that this may have been the fifth century Theban lyric poet, Pindar.
The idea that the Arcadians were older than the moon is also referenced in the work of later writers, such as Apollonius of Rhodes, Statius and Lucian. It is also worth noting that Plutarch mentions that the Arcadians shared a kinship with oak trees, as they were believed to be the first men who sprung from the earth, already when the first oak was planted, further illustrating the great antiquity of the Arcadians as the people who preceded the moon.