Graecians
Graecians
Ancient Hellenic tribe
The Graecians (/ˈɡriːʃənz/; also Graei and Graeci; Ancient Greek: Γραῖοι, Graȋoi and Γραικοί, Graikoí), were an ancient Hellenic tribe. Their name is the origin of the Latin (and English) name of the Greeks as a whole.[1][2]
It is possible that their name is derived from the toponym of Graea (Γραία), a city in Boeotia identical with Tanagra according to Pausanias.[3] The word means "old" based on the adjective γραῖα "old (feminine)".[4]
According to the historian Georg Busolt, the Graecians were among the first to colonize Italy (i.e., Magna Graecia) in the 9th century BC when they established the city of Cumae; they were the first Greeks with whom the Latins came into contact, which then made them adopt the name of Graeci by synecdoche as the name of the Hellenes.[2] Aristotle (4th-century BC) records that during the deluge of Deucalion, the Graecians were the inhabitants of Hellas (i.e., "the country about Dodona and the Achelous [river]") who were also known as Hellenes.[5] In the Parian Chronicle, the Hellenes were originally called Graecians and established the Panathenean Games in 1522–1521 BC.[6]
Hesiod stated that the eponymous ancestor of the Graecians was Graecus (Γραικός), the son of Deucalion's daughter Pandora, who also had a brother, Latinus.[7] Other sources have Graecus as the son of Thessalus.[8]
Citations
- Harper, Douglas (2001–2020). "Greek (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Pausanias. Description of Greece, 9.20.2.
- Beekes 2009, p. 285: The adjective derives ultimately from the PIE root *ǵerh2-/*ǵreh2-, "to grow old" via Proto-Greek *gera-/grau-iu.
- Robertson 1788, p. 24.
- Hesiod. Catalogue of Women, Fragment 5.
- Smith 1856, pp. 1010–1011.
Sources
- Beekes, Robert (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4.
- Hard, Robin (2004). The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology. London and New York: Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group). ISBN 0-415-18636-6.
- Robertson, Joseph (1788). The Parian Chronicle, or The Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles; with a Dissertation Concerning its Authenticity. London: J. Walter.
- Smith, William (1856). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: Walter and Maberly.