Names of the Greeks
The twelve founders enumerated by Aeschines[10] were the Aenianes or Oetaeans (Αἰνιᾶνες, Οἰταῖοι), the Boeotians (Βοιωτοί) of Thebes, the Dolopes (Δόλοπες), the Dorians (Δωριείς) of Sparta, the Ionians (Ἴωνες) of Athens, the Phthian Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί), the Locrians (Λοκροί) (Opuntians, Ὀπούντιοι and Ozolians, Ὀζολαί), the Magnesians (Μάγνητες), the Malians (Μαλιεῖς), the Perrhaebians (Περραιβοί), the Phocians (Φωκεῖς), the Pythians (Πύθιοι) of Delphi, and the Thessalians (Θεσσαλοί).
Late Bronze Age Hittite texts mention a nation called Ahhiya[11] and subsequently Ahhiyawa[12] which have been identified in scholarship[13][14][15] as part of the Mycenaean world.
Some scholars assert that the name of the priests of Zeus in Dodona, Selloi (Σελλοί; also Ἑλλοί Helloi), changed to Sellanes (by analogy with Akarnanes) and then to Hellanes and Hellenes.
[22] This theory is based on Aristotle's comments in Meteorologica where he places archaic Hellas in Epirus between Dodona and the Achelous river, where in his opinion the great deluge of Deucalion must have occurred.
[24] It is possible that the extension of a particular cult of Zeus in Dodona (a tendency among the Greeks to form ever-larger cultic communities or amphictionies) caused the name to further extend to the rest of the peninsula.
A Greek myth mentions an earlier deluge of Ogyges in the region of Boeotia which was occupied by the Minyans a group of autochthonous or Proto-Greek speaking people.
The region (situated next to Attica) was called Graïke in ancient times probably after the old city of Graea (Γραῖα Graîa, from Proto-Greek grau-j-, "old lady") on the coast.
This was an ancient association of Greek tribes with twelve founders which was organized to protect the great temples of Apollo in Delphi (Phocis) and of Demeter near Thermopylae (Locris).
Hellenes in the wider meaning of the word appears in writing for the first time in an inscription by Echembrotus, dedicated to Heracles for his victory in the Amphictyonic Games,[41] and refers to the 48th Olympiad (584 BC).
[44] The development of mythological genealogies of descent from eponymous founder-figures, long after the actual southward migration of the four tribal groups recognized by the Greeks, affected how the identity of northern tribes was perceived.
At the time of the Trojan War, the Epirotes (Molossians, Thesprotians and Chaonians) were not considered Hellenes, for the people so named were then limited to a small tribe in Thessaly of which Achilles was a member.
[46] The fact that each of these northern peoples at this time continued to live as an ethnos, or collection of tribes, under an archaic monarchial political system – as opposed to the democratic or oligarchic polis (city state) of the south–also contributed to this view of them as "barbaric".
Herodotus, Polybius, Strabo and a large number of other Greek and Roman writers regard the tribes of western Hellas, Epirus, and Macedonia as Hellenic in every respect.
The Greek tribes quickly noticed that they did not speak the same tongue as their neighbors, and used the term "βάρβαρος" ("barbarian") for them, with the meanings "uncultured", "uncivilized" or "speaker of a foreign language".
The ancient people of the Middle East referred to the Hellenes as Yunan, deriving from Persian Yauna[citation needed], itself a loan of Greek Ιωνία (Ionia), the western coast of Asia Minor.
The Dàyuān were probably the descendants of the Greek colonies that were established by Alexander the Great and prospered within the Hellenistic realm of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians, until they were isolated by the migrations of the Yueh-Chih around 160 BC.
A broadly similar terminology is found in John 12:20–23: "And there were certain Hellenes among them that came up to worship at the feast ... Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified".
The development towards a purely religious meaning was slow, and complete by approximately the 2nd or 3rd century AD: Athenian statesman Aristeides, in his written Apology to the Emperor Hadrian, picked out the Hellenes as one of the representative pagan peoples of the world along with the Egyptians and the Chaldæans.
Emperor Julian's attempt to restore paganism failed, and according to Pope Gregory I, "matters moved in favor of Christianity and the position of the Hellenes was severely aggravated".
The Corpus Juris Civilis contained two statutes which decreed the total destruction of Hellenism, even in civic life, and were zealously enforced even against men in high position.
The influential Archbishop of Constantinople Gregory of Nazianzus, for example, took offence at imperial efforts to suppress Hellenic culture (especially concerning spoken and written Greek) and he openly criticized the emperor.
Notably, during the reign of Constantine the Great, who is regarded as the first Byzantine Emperor, the Diocese of Macedonia was established, comprising principally the area that is modern Greece, with Thessalonica as its capital.
Later Byzantine authors such as Nikephoros Basilakes,[74] Michael Attaleiates, Theodore Prodromos, Patriarch Germanus II, Niketas Choniates and Nicaean Emperor Theodore II Laskaris also used the classicizing term Ausones to refer to the people of the Eastern Roman Empire,[75] although, as John Tzetzes points out (in his Scholia to Lycophron's "Alexandra", attributed to himself and his brother Isaac), that should be understood in its proper context as a literary device.
With the demise of paganism and the revival of learning in the Byzantine Empire it had regained its cultural meaning, and finally, by the 11th century it had returned to its ancient national form of an "ethnic Greek", synonymous at the time to "Roman".
Eustathius of Thessalonica disambiguates the distinction in his account of the sack of Thessaloniki in 1185 by referring to the invaders with the generic term "Latins", encompassing all adherents to the Roman Catholic Church, and the "Hellenes" as the dominant population of the empire.
[87] Nikephoros Blemmydes referred to the Byzantine emperors as Hellenes,[88] and Theodore Alanias wrote in a letter to his brother that "the homeland may have been captured, but Hellas still exists within every wise man".
Constantine states that the Slavs who revolted first proceeded to sack the dwellings of their neighbors, the Greeks (ton Graikon) and then moved against the inhabitants of the city of Patras.
In short, the Greek inhabitants of the Eastern Roman Empire were very conscious of their ancient Hellenic heritage and could preserve their identity while they adapted to the changes that the world was undergoing.
The struggle reflected the diverging view of history between classicists and medievalists (katharevousa and demotic) in their attempt to define Greek nationality at a time without a Byzantine state to foster the movement.
Eyewitness historian Ambrosius Phrantzes [el] writes that while the Turkish authorities and colonists in Niokastro had surrendered to the advancing Greek army, reportedly, shouts of defiance were made that led to their massacre by the mob: "They spoke to the petty and small Hellenes as 'Romans'.
