What Happened To The Greeks...

[Andrew Dalby]

Do you mean that today's Hellas and Ellines are "invented" by the West ?

 

By the Greeks themselves, rather (if I understand correctly). In the same sense in which practically all other nations are 'inventions' too. And all the inventions rest on a basis that is partly truth and partly fiction.

 

You might gather that I'm not much of a nationalist.

[athenian1977]

The modern English word Greek derives from Latin Graecus, which in turn comes from Greek Γραικός (Graikos), the name of a Boeotian tribe that migrated to Italy in the 8th century BC, and it is by that name the Hellenes were known by in the West. Homer, while reciting the Boeotian forces in the Iliad's Catalogue of Ships, provides the first known reference to a Boeotian city named Graea,and Pausanias mentions that Graea was the name of the ancient city of Tanagra.Cumae, a city lying to the west of Neapolis and south of Rome, was founded by Cymaeans and Chalkideans as well as Graeans who by coming into contact with Romans may very well be responsible for naming all Hellenic speaking tribes Graeci. The modern Italian city of Grai was also founded in antiquity by Graeans.

 

Aristotle, our oldest source mentioning the word, states that a natural cataclysm swept across central Epirus, a land where its inhabitants used to be called γραικοί (Graeci) (Γραικοί) and were later named Hellenes (Έλληνες).In mythology, Graecus is a cousin of Latinus, and the word seems to be related with γηραιός (geraius, anile), which was the title given to the priests of Dodona. They were also named Σελλοί (Selloi)