High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Leleges were one of the aboriginal peoples of southwest Anatolia (compare "Pelasgians"), who were already there when the Indo-European Hellenes emerged. The distinction between the Leleges and the Carians (another peoples living in south west Anatolia) is unclear. According to Homer the Leleges were a distinct Anatolian tribe Homer. According to Herodotus the Leleges were an early name for the Carians, Herodotus; and according to the fourth-century BCE historian Philippus of Theangela they were overcome by the Carians, On Carians and Leleges, who suggested the Leleges had connections to Messenia, in mainland Greece.