View source for Names of the Greeks

{{Short description|Ethnonyms for the Greeks}}
{{redirect|Rhomaioi|the Byzantines who called themselves Rhomaioi and Graikoi|Byzantine Greeks}}
{{History of Greece}}
{{SpecialChars}}
The '''Greeks''' ({{langx|el|Έλληνες}}) have been identified by many [[ethnonym]]s. The most common native ethnonym is ''Hellene'' ({{langx|grc|Ἕλλην}}), pl. ''[[Greeks|Hellenes]]'' ({{lang|grc|Ἕλληνες}}); the name ''Greeks'' ({{langx|la|Graeci}}) was used by the [[Ancient Rome|ancient Romans]] and gradually entered the [[European languages]] through its use in Latin. The mythological patriarch [[Hellen]] is the named progenitor of the [[Greeks|Greek peoples]]; his descendants the [[Aeolians]], [[Dorians]], [[Achaeans (tribe)|Achaeans]] and [[Ionians]] correspond to the main Greek tribes and to the main dialects spoken in [[Greece]] and [[Asia Minor|Asia Minor (Anatolia)]].

The first [[Greek language|Greek-speaking]] people, called [[Mycenean Greece|Myceneans]] or Mycenean-Achaeans by historians, entered present-day Greece sometime in the [[Neolithic]] era or the [[Bronze Age]]. [[Homer]] refers to "[[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaeans]]" as the dominant [[tribe]] during the [[Trojan War]] period usually dated to the 12th–11th centuries BC,<ref>C. Mossé. (1984). ''La Grèce archaïque d'Homère à Eschyle''. Editions du Seuil, Paris, p. 12.</ref><ref>Those who believe that the stories of the Trojan War are derived from a specific historical conflict usually date it to the 12th or 11th centuries BC, often preferring the dates given by Eratosthenes, 1194–1184 BC, which roughly corresponds with archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy VIIa.</ref> using ''Hellenes'' to describe a relatively small tribe in [[Thessaly]]. The [[Dorians]], an important Greek-speaking group, appeared roughly at that time. According to the Greek tradition, the ''Graeci'' (Latin; {{langx|grc|Γραικοί|link=no}}, ''Graikoi'', "Greeks") were renamed ''Hellenes'' probably with the establishment of the [[Amphictyonic League|Great Amphictyonic League]] after the Trojan War.

When the Romans first encountered Greek colonists in [[Southern Italy]], they used the name Graeci for the colonists and then for all Greeks; this became the root of all relevant terms in [[Europe]]an languages. The [[Persia]]ns used the name ''[[Ionia (satrapy)|Yaunas]]'' (''Yunans'') after the [[Ionians]], a Greek tribe who colonized part of the coasts of western Asia Minor.<ref>Johannes Engels (2010). "Macedonians and Greeks". In Joseph Roisman and Ian Worthington's ''A Companion to Ancient Macedonia'', Oxford, Chichester & Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 81–98.</ref> The term was used later in [[Hebrew]] (''Yevanim'', {{Script/Hebrew|יוונים}}), [[Arabic language|Arabic]], and also by the [[Turkic peoples|Turks]]. The word entered the languages of the Indian subcontinent as the ''[[Yona]]''. A unique form is used in [[Georgian language|Georgian]], where the Greeks are called ''[[Saberdzneti|Berdzeni]]'' (ბერძენი).

By [[Late Antiquity]] (c. 3rd–7th centuries), the Greeks referred to themselves as ''Graikoi'' ({{lang|grc|Γραικοί}}, "Greeks") and ''[[Rhomaioi]]''/''Romioi'' ({{lang|el|{{lang|grc|Ῥωμαῖοι}}}}/{{lang|el|Ῥωμηοί}}/{{lang|el|Ρωμιοί}}, "Romans") the latter of which was used since virtually all [[Roman Greece|Greeks were Roman citizens]] after 212 AD. The term ''Hellene'' started to be applied to the followers of the [[Ancient Greek religion|polytheistic]] ("[[Paganism|pagan]]") religion after the establishment of [[Christianity]] by [[Theodosius I]].

==General names of Greece==
{{Main|Name of Greece}}

Most European languages, as well as other languages that have borrowed the name from one of them, use names for Greece that come from the Latin ''Graecia'' and ''Graecus'', the name the Romans used for the Greeks, itself from the Greek {{lang|grc|[[#Greeks (Γραικοί)|Γραικός]]}}:

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
*{{langx|af|Griekeland}} 
*{{langx|sq|Greqia}}
*{{langx|rup|Gãrtsia}}
*{{langx|be|Грэцыя}} (Hrecyja)
*{{langx|bg|Гърция}} (Gǎrcija); the alternative historical name Елада (Elada) for [[ancient Greece]] is also used sometimes.
*{{langx|bs|Grčka}}
*{{langx|ca|Grècia}}
*{{langx|ce|Греци}} (Gretsi)
*{{langx|chr|ᎪᎢᎯ}} (Goihi)
*{{langx|cs|Řecko}}
*{{langx|cy|Groeg}}
*{{langx|da|Grækenland}}
*{{langx|nl|Griekenland}}
*{{langx|eo|Grekujo}}
*{{langx|de|Griechenland}}
*{{langx|el|Γραικία}} (rare or obsolete use)
*{{langx|en|Greece}}
*{{langx|es|Grecia}}
*{{langx|et|Kreeka}}
*{{langx|eu|Grezia}}
*{{langx|fi|Kreikka}}
*{{langx|fil|Gresiya}}
*{{langx|fr|Grèce}}
*{{langx|fy|Grikelân}}
*{{langx|ga|An Ghréig}}
*{{langx|hr|Grčka}}
*{{langx|hu|Görögország}}
*{{langx|is|Grikkland}}
*{{langx|it|Grecia}}
*{{langx|ja|ギリシャ}} (Girisha)
*{{langx|km|ក្រិច}} (Krech)
*{{langx|ko|그리스}} (Geuriseu)
*{{langx|kw|Pow Grek}}
*{{langx|lt|Graikija}}
*{{langx|lv|Grieķija}}
*{{langx|mk|Грција}} (Grcija)
*{{langx|mt|Greċja}}
*{{langx|nah|Grecia}}
*{{langx|pl|Grecja}}
*{{langx|pt|Grécia}}
*{{langx|ro|Grecia}}
*{{langx|ru|Греция }} (Grecija)
*{{lang-sh-Latn-Cyrl|separator=" / "|Grčka|Грчка}}
*{{langx|si|ග්රීසිය}} (Grisiya)
*{{langx|sk|Grécko}}
*{{langx|sl|Grčija}}
*{{langx|so|Giriiga}}
*{{lang-sr-Cyrl-Latn|separator=" / "|Грчка|Grčka}}
*{{langx|sv|Grekland}}
*{{langx|th|กรีซ}} (Krīt)
*{{langx|uk|Греція }} (Hrecija)

{{div col end}}

In languages of Middle East and South and Central Asia, the common root is "yun" or "ywn". It is borrowed from the Greek name ''[[Ionia]]'', a once Greek region of Asia Minor, and the [[Ionians]]:<ref>{{Cambridge Ancient History|volume=3c|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0qAoqP4g1fEC&lpg=PA1&pg=PA1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false|first=T.F.R.G.|last=Braun|chapter=The Greeks in the Near East|page=1}}</ref>
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
*{{langx|ar|يونان}} (Yūnān)
*{{langx|arc|ܝܘܢ}} or {{lang|arc|יון}} (Yawān, Yawon)
*{{langx|hy|[[wikt:Հունաստան|Հունաստան]]}} (Hunastan)
**{{langx|xcl|[[wikt:Յունաստան|Յունաստան]]}} (Yunastan)
*{{langx|pra|𑀬𑁄𑀦}} (Yona)
**{{langx|pli|𑀬𑁄𑀦}} (Yona)
*{{langx|hbo|יָוָן}} (Yāwān)
*{{langx|he|יוון}} (Yavan)
*{{langx|az|Yunanıstan}}
*{{langx|id|Yunani}}
*{{langx|hi|यूनान}} (Yūnān)
*{{langx|ms|Yunani}}
*{{langx|fa|یونان}} (Yūnān)
**{{langx|peo|𐎹𐎢𐎴}} (Yauna)
*{{langx|ku|Yewnanistan}}
*{{langx|ne|यूनान}} (Yūnān)
*{{langx|ur|یونانی}} (Yūnān)
*{{langx|sa|यवन}} (Yavana)
*{{langx|tg|Юнон}} (Yunon)
*{{langx|tr|Yunanistan}} 
{{div col end}}

The third form is "Hellas", used by a few languages around the world, including Greek:

{{col-begin}}
{{col-3}}
*Greek: {{lang|el|Hellas}} or {{lang|el|Hellada}}
**[[Polytonic orthography|Polytonic]]: {{lang|grc|Ἑλλάς}} or {{lang|grc|Ἑλλάδα}}
**[[Monotonic orthography|Monotonic]]: {{lang|grc|Ελλάς}} or {{lang|grc|Ελλάδα}}
*{{langx|rup|Elladhã}}
{{col-3}}
*{{langx|no|Hellas}}
*{{langx|vi|Hy Lạp}}
*{{langx|it|Ellade}} (rare usage)
*{{langx|sq|Elladhë}} (used for Ancient Greece)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Newmark |first=Leonard |date=2005 |title=Albanian-English Dictionary |url=http://www.seelrc.org:8080/albdict/detail.jsp?nWordID=1196219 |website=Slavic and Eurasian Language Resource Center (Duke University) |quote=Ella'dhë ''nf (Old)'' Greece = Greqi'}}</ref>
{{col-3}}
*{{lang-zh|希臘/希腊}} ([[Hanyu Pinyin]]: Xīlà; [[Jyutping]]: hei1 laap6)
*{{langx|es|Hélade}} (rare usage)
*{{langx|haw|Helene}}
{{col-end}}

Other forms:
*{{langx|pal|𐭧𐭫𐭥𐭬𐭠𐭣𐭩𐭪𐭩}} (Hrōmāyīg)
*[[Laz language|Laz]]: Xorumona (ხორუმონა)
*{{lang-ka|საბერძნეთი}} (''[[Saberdzneti]]'')

==Brief history==
The first people speaking an ancient [[Proto-Greek language]] entered mainland Greece during the Neolithic period or the [[Bronze Age]].<ref>A comprehensive overview in J. T. Hooker. ''Mycenean Greece'' (1976, <sup>2</sup>2014), especially Chapter 2, "Before the Mycenenan Age", pp. 11–33 and passim; for a different hypothesis excluding massive migrations and favoring an autochthonous scenario see, C. Renfrew. "Problems in the General Correlation of Archaeological and Linguistic Strata in Prehistoric Greece: The Authochous origin" in: R. A. Crossland & A. Birchall (eds.). ''Bronze age Migrations'' (1974), pp. 263–275, especially p. 267.</ref> From the [[Ancient Greek dialects]] as they presented themselves centuries later, it seems that at least two migrations of Greeks occurred overall, the first of the Ionians and the Aeolians probably in the 19th century BC and the second of the Dorians probably in the 13th century BC. The first migration resulted in [[Mycenean Greek]], an archaic Greek language which appears in [[Linear B]] syllabic inscriptions and the second resulted in the Dorian dialect which displaced the [[Arcadocypriot Greek|Arcadocypriot dialect]] that seems to be closest to the Mycenean Greek.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chadwick |first=John |author-link=John Chadwick |title=The Mycenaean world |url=https://archive.org/details/mycenaeanworld00chad |url-access=registration |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1976 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mycenaeanworld00chad/page/n20 1]–3 |isbn=0-521-29037-6}}</ref>

The tribes later called Aeolians and Ionians established several feudal kingdoms around Greece, and the historians called them [[Myceneans]] after their most powerful kingdom [[Mycenea]] in [[Peloponnese]], or [[Myceneans]]-[[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaeans]] because in [[Homer]] the ''Achaeans'' were the dominating tribe in Greece and the name ''Achiyawa'' that appears in [[Hittites|Hittite]] texts seems to correspond to a thalassocratic country which might be ''Mycenea''.<ref name=Gurney>O. R. Gurney (1975). ''The Hittites''. Oxford University Press, p. 15.</ref>

Although Homer referred to a union of the Greek kingdoms under the leadership of the king of ''Mycenae'' during the [[Trojan War]], there is no evidence that these kingdoms were dominated by a central power. Most of the Mycenaean palaces were destroyed at the end of the 13th century BC. The Greek tradition relates this destruction to the Dorians, but it is suggested that the [[Dorian invasion]] was only one of the causes of the Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern [[Mediterranean]], as there is no evidence that the newcomers established a different civilization.<ref>C. Mossé. (1984). ''La Grèce archaïque d'Homère à Eschyle''. Editions du Seuil, Paris, pp. 16, 18.</ref> The destruction was followed by the [[Greek Dark Ages]] with very poor archaeological findings, when most occupied areas were deserted, but some areas like [[Attica]] occupied by the ''Ionians'' remained untouched by the invaders. Several Greek tribes moved to regions of Greece where they acquired different names, and population groups moved through the islands to the western coasts of Asia Minor where they kept their native names ''Aeolians'', ''Ionians'' and ''Dorians''.

It seems that the myth of [[Hellen]], the [[progenitor]] of the ''Hellenes'', was invented when the Greek tribes started to separate from each other, and stressed their common origin. The name "Hellenes" was probably used by the Greeks with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League, an ancient association of Greek tribes. According to legend it was founded after the Trojan War, by the eponymous [[Amphictyon]], brother of Hellen. It had twelve founders and was organized to protect the great temples of [[Apollo]] in [[Delphi]] ([[Phocis]]) and of [[Demeter]] near [[Thermopylae]] ([[Locris]]). The twelve founders enumerated by [[Aeschines]]<ref>Aeschines, II (''On the Embassy''), 115; see also [[Strabo]], IX.3.7, and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], X.8.2–5.</ref> were the [[Aenianes]] or [[Oetaeans]] (Αἰνιᾶνες, Οἰταῖοι), the [[Boeotians]] (Βοιωτοί) of [[Thebes (Greece)|Thebes]], the [[Dolopes]] (Δόλοπες), the Dorians (Δωριείς) of [[Sparta]], the Ionians (Ἴωνες) of [[Athens]], the [[Phthia]]n Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί), the [[Locrians]] (Λοκροί) (''Opuntians'', Ὀπούντιοι and ''Ozolians'', Ὀζολαί), the [[Magnesia Prefecture|Magnesians]] (Μάγνητες), the [[Malians (Greek tribe)|Malians]] (Μαλιεῖς), the [[Perrhaebians]] (Περραιβοί), the [[Phocians]] (Φωκεῖς), the [[Pythia]]ns (Πύθιοι) of Delphi, and the [[Thessalians]] (Θεσσαλοί). Among the descendants of ''Hellen'' are mentioned [[Aeolus]], [[Ion (mythology)|Ion]], [[Achaeus (son of Xuthus)|Achaeus]], [[Dorus]], [[Graecus]] and [[Makedon (mythology)|Makedon]]. It seems that the [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonians]] were a Dorian tribe that stayed behind in Macedonia when the main Dorian tribes moved to the south.

==Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί)==
{{Main|Achaeans (Homer)}}
Late Bronze Age [[Hittite language|Hittite]] texts mention a nation called ''Ahhiya''<ref>[http://www.hittites.info/translations.aspx?text=translations/historical%2fCTH147_Madduwatta.html Translation of the Sins of Madduwatta]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070228042849/http://www.hittites.info/translations.aspx?text=translations%2Fhistorical%2FCTH147_Madduwatta.html |date=February 28, 2007 }}</ref> and subsequently ''Ahhiyawa''<ref>[http://www.hittites.info/translations.aspx?text=translations/historical%2fPiyama-radu+Letter.html Translation of the Tawagalawa Letter] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021192729/http://www.hittites.info/translations.aspx?text=translations%2Fhistorical%2FPiyama-radu+Letter.html |date=2013-10-21 }}</ref> which have been identified in scholarship<ref>{{cite book|last=Huxley|first=George Leonard|title=Achaeans and Hittites|year=1960|location=Oxford|publisher=Vincent Baxter Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RXEfAAAAMAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Güterbock|first=Hans G.|title=The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part 1. The Ahhiyawa Problem Reconsidered|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|volume=87|number=2|date=April 1983|publisher=Archaeological Institute of America|pages=133–138|doi=10.2307/504928|jstor=504928|s2cid=191376388 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Mellink|first=Machteld J.|title=The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part 2. Archaeological Comments on Ahhiyawa-Achaians in Western Anatolia|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|volume=87|number=2|date=April 1983|publisher=Archaeological Institute of America|pages=138–141|doi=10.2307/504929|jstor=504929|s2cid=194070218 }}</ref> as part of the Mycenaean world.<ref>{{cite book|last=Windle|first=Joachim Latacz|title=Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery|year=2004|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-926308-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ccQIyA9CW-wC}}</ref> Egyptian records mention peoples known as ''Ekwesh'', [[Denyen]] and ''Tanaju'' that have been also linked to the Mycenaean world.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kelder|first=Jorrit M.|title=The Egyptian Interest in Mycenaean Greece|year=2010|journal=Jaarbericht "Ex Oriente Lux" |volume=42|pages=125–140|url=https://www.academia.edu/221955}}</ref>

In [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'', the Greek allied forces are described under three different [[list of traditional Greek place names|names]]; [[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaeans]] (Ἀχαιοί, ''Akhaioí'', used 598 times), [[Danaans]] (Δαναοί, ''Danaoí'', used 138 times) and [[Argives]] (Ἀργεῖοι, ''Argeîoi'', used 29 times).<ref name = Cartlege2011p23>[[Paul Cartledge]]. ''Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 23: "The late Bronze Age in Greece is also called conventionally 'Mycenaean', as we saw in the last chapter. But it might in principle have been called 'Argive', 'Achaean', or 'Danaan', since the three names that Homer does in fact apply to Greeks collectively were 'Argives', 'Achaeans', and 'Danaans'." Counted, excluding his [[Catalogue of Ships]].</ref><ref>Homer. ''Iliad'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+2.155&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134 2.155–175], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.%20Il.%204.8&lang=original 4.8]; ''Odyssey'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.%20Od.%208.578&lang=original 8.578], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+4.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0218 4.6].</ref> All of the aforementioned terms were used synonymously to denote a common Greek identity.<ref name = Cartlege2011p23/>

A fourth term – "Panhellenes" – ({{lang|grc|Πανέλληνες}} "All of the Greeks") and "Hellenes'" ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ɛ|l|iː|n|z}}; {{lang|grc|Ἕλληνες}}) – both [[hapax legomenon|appear only once]];<ref>See ''Iliad'', II.2.530 for "Panhellenes" and ''Iliad'' II.2.684 for "Hellenes".</ref> implying it was not a central concept in Homer's work.<ref>{{harvnb|Nagy|2014|loc=Texts and Commentaries – Introduction #2: "Panhellenism is the least common denominator of ancient Greek civilization...}}</ref> In some [[English translations of Homer|English translations of the ''Iliad'']], the Achaeans are simply called "the Greeks" throughout.

==Hellenes (Ἕλληνες)==
{{anchor|Hellenes}}
[[File:Dodona location.svg|thumb|left|300px|The main Greek sanctuaries and localization of the [[sanctuary]] of Dodona.]]

There is currently no satisfactory etymology for the name Hellenes. Some scholars assert that the name of the priests of [[Zeus]] in [[Dodona]], ''[[Selloi]]'' (Σελλοί; also Ἑλλοί ''Helloi''), changed to ''Sellanes'' (by analogy with [[Acarnania|''Akarnanes'']]) and then to ''Hellanes'' and ''Hellenes''.<ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes]] (2009). ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek''. [http://www.ieed.nl/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=leiden&morpho=0&basename=\data\ie\greek+&first=6701 Entry "Selloi"]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.</ref> 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. The land was inhabited by Selloi and Graeci, who later came to be known as ''Hellenes''.<ref>Aristotle, ''[[Meteorologica]]'', I, 352b.</ref> [[Homer]] mentions that the ''Selloi'' were the prophets of [[Zeus]] at Dodona, but he is referring to Zeus of Dodona as god of the [[Pelasgians]] who belonged to a Pre-[[Dorians|Dorian]] population.<ref>Homer (''[[Iliad]]'', 16.233–235) writes of [[Achilles]] praying to the Dodonian [[Zeus]]: '"King Zeus", he cried, "lord of Dodona, god of the [[Pelasgians|Pelasgi]], who dwellest afar, you who hold wintry Dodona in your sway, where your prophets the Selloi dwell around you with their feet unwashed and their couches made upon the ground"'.</ref> 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 [[amphictiony|amphictionies]]) caused the name to further extend to the rest of the peninsula.

This theory connects the name ''Hellenes'' with the [[Dorians]] (and the substrate of Pelasgians) who occupied Epirus in the extreme north of Greece, rendering uncertain the relation with the name ''Graeci'' used by the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]]. Some toponyms, especially an ancient city ''Hellas'' in southern [[Thessaly]], and the Greek tradition seem to indicate that the name ''Hellenes'' was Pre-Dorian itself and that the homeland of the ''Graikoi'', who were later called ''Hellenes'', was in [[Central Greece (geographic region)|central Greece]]. 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 language|Proto-Greek]] ''grau-j-'', "old lady") on the coast. The name ''Ogyges'' (or ''Ogenos'') is related with [[Okeanos]] (Ὠκεανός), the great river-ocean that Greeks believed to surround the Earth.<ref>Compare Fontenrose, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA236 p. 236].</ref> The adjective derived from the name, ''Ogygios'' (Ὠγύγιος "Ogygian") came to mean "primeval, primal," or "from earliest days" and also "gigantic".<ref>See [[Liddell & Scott]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=*)wgu/gios "Ὠγύγιος"].</ref>

Homer refers to ''Hellenes'' as an originally relatively small tribe settled in [[Thessaly|Thessalic]] [[Phthia]]. During the era of the [[Trojan War]] they were centered along the settlements of [[Alos, Greece|Alos]], [[Alope]], [[Trachis]], and the Pelasgian Argos.<ref>Homer. ''[[Iliad]]'', [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.653-2.694 2.681–685].</ref> This Homeric ''Hellas'' is described as "καλλιγύναικος", ''kalligýnaikos'', "of beautiful women", and its warriors, the Hellenes, along with the feared [[Myrmidons]], were under the command of [[Achilles]]. The [[Parian Chronicle]] mentions that Phthia was the homeland of the Hellenes and that this name was given to those previously called Greeks ({{lang|grc|Γραικοί}}).<ref name="ashmolean.org">The Parian Marble, Entry No. 6: "From when Hellen ({{lang|grc|Έλλην}}) [son of] Deuc[alion] became king of [Phthi]otis and those previously called ''Graikoi'' were named Hellenes" ([http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/faqs/q004/q004008.html online text]).</ref> [[Alcman]] (7th century BC) also refers that the mothers of ''Hellenes'' were ''Graikoi''. In [[Greek mythology]], [[Hellen]], the patriarch of Hellenes, was son of [[Deucalion]], who ruled around Phthia with [[Pyrrha]], the only survivors after the great deluge.<ref name="Apollodorus">Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.7.2 1.7.2].</ref> It seems that the myth was invented when the Greek tribes started to separate from each other in certain areas of Greece and it indicates their common origin. The name ''Hellenes'' was probably used by the Greeks with the establishment of the [[Great Amphictyonic League]]. 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]]).<ref>[[Aeschines]], II (''On the Embassy''), 115. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]. ''Description of Greece'', 8.2–5.</ref> According to legend it was founded after the Trojan War, by the eponymous [[Amphictyon]], brother of [[Hellen]].

==Greeks (Γραικοί)==
{{anchor|Greeks}}{{further|Graecians|Graecus|Graea}}
[[File:Soleto.jpg|thumb|[[Soleto]] is one of the nine [[Griko language|Greek]]-speaking towns in the province of [[Apulia]], Italy. Their inhabitants are descendants of the first wave of Greek settlers in Italy and [[Sicily]] in the 8th century BC. The dialect they speak evolved separately from [[Koine Greek|Hellenistic Greek]]. The people of these towns call themselves ''Griki'', from the [[Latin]] ''Graecus''.]]

The modern English noun ''Greek'' ([[Old English]] ''Grecas'' or ''Crecas'') is derived from the [[Latin]] ''Graeci'', which in turn originates from [[Ancient Greek]] {{lang|grc|Γραικός}} (''Graikós''). It seems that the word is related to the Greek word {{lang|grc|γέρων}} ''[[Indo-European vocabulary#ǵerh₂-|geron]]'' "old man" (from the [[PIE]] base ''*ǵerh<sub>2</sub>-'' "to grow old") via [[Proto-Greek language|Proto-Greek]] ''*gera-'' "old age", also related to [[Mycenean Greek]] ''kera'' /geras/, "gift of honour".<ref name=Beekes>[[Robert S. P. Beekes]] (2009). ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek''. Leiden: Brill, p. 267.</ref> The [[Germanic languages]] borrowed the name with an initial ''k'' sound, which was probably their initial sound closest to the Latin ''g'' ([[Gothic language|Gothic]] ''Kreks'').<ref name=OED>''[https://www.etymonline.com/word/Greek#etymonline_v_11949 Greek]'' entry in Douglas Harper's ''[[Online Etymology Dictionary]]''.</ref>

The first use of ''Graikos'' as equivalent to ''Hellenes'' is found in Aristotle<ref>Aristotle. ''Meteorologica'', I.XIV.</ref> for the Dorians in [[Epirus]] from ''Graii,'' a native name of the people of Epirus.<ref name=OED /> He places the seat of these most ancient "Greeks" in the region of the [[Achelous]] river around [[Dodona]], where in his opinion the great deluge of [[Deucalion]] must have occurred. The priests of Zeus in Dodona were called ''Selloi,'' which could lead to ''Sellanes'' (like ''Akarnanes''), and then to ''Hellanes'' and ''Hellenes''.

[[Homer]] is referring to ''Hellenes'' as a relatively small tribe in [[Phthia]] in central Greece (''Achaea Pthiotis''). In the [[Parian Chronicle]] it is mentioned that Phthia was the homeland of Hellenes and that this name was given to those previously called ''Graikoi'' ({{lang|grc|Γραικοί}}).<ref name="ashmolean.org"/> In [[Greek mythology]], [[Hellen]], the patriarch of Hellenes, was son of [[Deucalion]] (who ruled around Phthia) and [[Pyrrha]], the only survivors after the great deluge.<ref name="Apollodorus"/> [[Hesiod]] is referring to [[Graecus]], son of [[Pandora]], who was sister of [[Hellen]]. [[Alcman]] mentions that the mothers of ''Hellenes'' were ''Graikoi''.

The German classical historian [[Georg Busolt]] (1850–1920) derives the name from ''Graikos'', "inhabitant of [[Graea]], a town on the coast of Boeotia.<ref name=OED /> The name ''Graea'' (γραῖα) is derived from [[Proto-Greek language|Proto-Greek]] ''grau-j-'', "old lady".<ref name=Beekes /> [[Homer]], while reciting the Boeotian forces in the ''Iliad''{{'s}} [[Catalogue of Ships]], provides the first known reference to a region named [[Graea]],<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'', II, 498.</ref> and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] mentions that the ancient city of [[Tanagra]] was for a time called Graea, adding that "no one knows where this Graia really was; Aristotle thought it was near [[Oropus]], further east on the same coast as [[Delion]]."<ref>Pausanias, ''Periegesis'', book 5, p. 136.</ref> Busolt claimed that the name was given by the Romans originally to the Greek colonists from Graea who helped to found [[Cumae]] the important city in southern [[Italy]] where the [[Italic peoples]] first encountered the Greeks and then to all Greeks.<ref name=OED />

According to Irad Malkin, ''Graikoi'' could have also been an [[Endonym and exonym|exonym]] for the Greeks, used by neighboring [[Illyrians]] and [[Messapians]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Malkin |first=Irad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8eORbgLB6a4C |title=The Returns of Odysseus: Colonization and Ethnicity |date=1998 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-92026-2 |pages=148–149 |language=en}}</ref> It has been suggested that the name ''Graeci'' was possibly an [[Illyrian language|Illyrian]] name for a Greek tribe with whom they were in contact in north [[Epirus]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Leonard Robert|title=The Latin Language |date=1988|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=0-8061-2136-X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O7z4Sl-SgFEC&pg=PA40|page=40}}</ref> [[N. G. L. Hammond]] has pointed out that the names ''Graeci'' and ''Hellenes'' spread from contact with small tribes or with Graia, a defunct Greek ''polis'' in the Gulf of Euboea.<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Campbell|first=Duncan R. J.|title=The so-called Galatae, Celts, and Gauls in the Early Hellenistic Balkans and the Attack on Delphi in 280–279 BC|publisher=University of Leicester|year=2009|url=https://leicester.figshare.com/articles/thesis/The_so-called_Galatae_Celts_and_Gauls_in_the_Early_Hellenistic_Balkans_and_the_Attack_on_Delphi_in_280_279_BC_/10087985|page=120 including footnote 59}}</ref><ref>N. G. L. Hammond (1966). "The Kingdoms in Illyria circa 400–167 BC", ''Annual of the British School at Athens'', 61: 239–253}}</ref>

According to Rene Olivier,<ref>Rene Olivier. ''Wörterbuch Französisch–Deutsch'' (12th Edition), Leipzig, 1985, p. 258, cited in [http://www.kathimerini.gr/893845/opinion/epikairothta/politikh/to-kairio-kai-diaforetiko]</ref> in the French language the word ''grec'' ("Greek") is sometimes also used as an [[ethnic slur]] meaning "fraudster" (in contrast with ''hellénique'' which has no negative connotations).

==Spread of the use of the term "Hellenes"==
''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 League|Amphictyonic]] Games,<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]. [[:el:s:Ελλάδος περιήγησις/Φωκικά, Λοκρών Οζόλων#p7.6|"Description of Greece", 10.7.6]]:<br />
{|
|-
|{{lang|grc|...μαρτυρεῖ δέ μοι καὶ τοῦ Ἐχεμβρότου τὸ ἀνάθημα, τρίπους χαλκοῦς ἀνατεθεὶς τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ τῷ ἐν Θήβαις: ἐπίγραμμα δὲ ὁ τρίπους εἶχεν:}}||...testimony of the dedication of Echembrotus, a copper [[tripod]], dedicated to Hercules the Thebean; this tripod had this [[epigram]]:
|-
|{{lang|grc|"Ἐχέμβροτος Ἀρκὰς θῆκε τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ}}||"[[Echembrotus]] from [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]], dedicated (this) to [[Hercules]],
|-
|{{lang|grc|νικήσας τόδ' ἄγαλμ' Ἀμφικτυόνων ἐν ἀέθλοις,}}||having won this statue in the Amphictyonic Games,
|-
|{{lang|grc|'''Ἕλλησι''' δ' ἀείδων μέλεα καὶ ἐλέγους."}}||singing '''to the Greeks''' tunes and lamentations."
|}</ref> and refers to the 48th [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympiad]] (584 BC). [[Simonides of Ceos]] in his [[epigram]] on the tomb of the Athenians who were killed in the [[Battle of Marathon]] (490 BC) wrote "Ἑλλήνων προμαχοῦντες Ἀθηναῖοι Μαραθῶνι […]" "Fighting at the forefront of the Hellenes, the Athenians at Marathon […]" 
<ref>Lycurgus. ''Against Leocrates'', Speech 1, Section 109.</ref> 
and after the [[Greco-Persian Wars]], an inscription was written in Delphi celebrating victory over the [[Persia]]ns and calling [[Pausanias (general)|Pausanias]] the leading general of the Hellenes.<ref>Thucydides. ''Histories'', I.132.</ref> Awareness of a Pan-Hellenic unity was promoted by religious festivals, most significantly in the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], in which prospective initiates had to speak [[Greek language|Greek]], and almost as importantly through participation in the four [[Panhellenic Games]], including the Olympic Games, in which participants were exclusively Greek and recognized by tribal affiliation.<ref>Jacob Burckhardt (1999) [1872]. ''The Greeks and Greek Civilization''. New York: St. Martin's Press, p. 168.</ref>

==The tribal societies of the north==
The development of mythological genealogies of descent from [[eponym]]ous 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. According to the most prevailing legend, [[Hellen]], son of [[Deucalion]] and [[Pyrrha]], received from the nymph [[Orseis]] three sons, [[Aeolus]], [[Dorus]], and [[Xuthus]], each of whom founded a primary tribe of Hellas–the [[Aeolians]], [[Dorians]], [[Achaeans (tribe)|Achaeans]] and [[Ionians]].

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. After the name was extended to all peoples south of [[Mount Olympus]], however, it still left out those of common origin living in the north. One factor contributing to this was their non-participation in the [[Greco-Persian Wars|Persian Wars]],<ref>The Macedonians were Persian subjects at this time but their King, Alexander I, secretly pursued a pro-Hellenic policy. See Herodotus, ''Histories'', IX.45.</ref> which were considered a vital affair for all Hellenes; subsequent to the Persian Wars, representatives of these tribes were accepted in the Olympic Games and competed alongside other Hellenes.<ref>In respect to the kingdom of Macedon, participation was originally limited to the Argead kings such as Alexander I, Archelaus I and Philip II. Onwards from the age of Alexander I, participation of ordinary Macedonians in the Olympic Games became common.
</ref> The fact that each of these northern peoples at this time continued to live as an ''[[Ethnic group|ethnos]]'', or collection of tribes, under an archaic [[monarchy|monarchial]] political system&nbsp;– as opposed to the [[democracy|democratic]] or [[oligarchic]] ''[[polis]]'' (city state) of the south–also contributed to this view of them as "barbaric".<ref>N. G. L. Hammond. ''A History of Greece to 322 BC'' (3rd Edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.</ref>

[[Thucydides]] calls the [[Acarnania]]ns, [[Aetolia]]ns,<ref>Thucydides. ''History'', II.68.5 and III.97.5.</ref> Epirotes<ref>Thucydides. ''History'', II.68.9, II.80.5 and I.47.3.</ref> and Upper Macedonians<ref>Thucydides. ''History'', II.80.5.</ref> [[barbarian]]s, but does so in a strictly linguistic sense&nbsp;– these peoples were considered ''barbarophone'' to the extent that their dialects of Greek were sufficiently different and archaic so as to sound crude and barely understandable to a southern [[Attic Greek|Attic]] speaker such as Thucydides.<ref>See discussion in Chapter 5 of Jonathan Hall's ''Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.</ref> Similarly, when the Athenian orator [[Demosthenes]] called [[Philip II of Macedon]] worse than a barbarian in his ''[[Philippic|Third Philippic]]'', he did so with respect to the culture they demonstrated as foreigners not adhering to proper Hellenic standards, and did not raise the issue of their origin: "not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honors, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent slave." [[Herodotus]], [[Polybius]], [[Strabo]] and a large number of other Greek and Roman writers regard the tribes of [[West Greece|western Hellas]], Epirus, and Macedonia as Hellenic in every respect.<ref>J. Juthner. ''Hellenen and Barbaren''. Leipzig 1928, p. 4.</ref> Both Thucydides and Demosthenes were themselves of partial non-Attic origins and for Demosthenes it seems of non-Greek origins altogether while notably both of them held strong opposing political positions against Macedonians.

==Hellenes and barbarians==
In the following centuries, ''Hellene'' typically contrasted with ''[[barbarian]]'', representing the uncivilized.

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 term βάρβαρος is thought to be [[onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] in origin: "bar-bar"—i.e. [[stuttering|stammering]]—may have been how the speech of foreign peoples sounded to Greek-speakers.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'' (2nd Edition), 1989, "barbarous" (entry)</ref> This was also the case for the [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]], who, according to [[Herodotus]], "named barbarians all those who spoke a different tongue",<ref>Polybius. ''History'', 9.38.5; see also Strabo, ''Geographica'', 7.7.4; see also Herodotus, ''Histories'', I.56, VI.127 and VIII.43.</ref><ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', II.158.</ref> and in later years for the [[Slavic peoples|Slavs]], who gave the [[Germans]] the name ''němec'', which means "mute", while calling themselves ''slověnski'' or "people of the word". In his play ''[[The Birds (play)|The Birds]]'', [[Aristophanes]] calls the illiterate supervisor a "barbarian" who nevertheless taught the birds how to talk.<ref>Aristophanes, ''"The Birds", 199''</ref> The term eventually picked up a derogatory use and was extended to indicate the entire lifestyle of foreigners, and finally coming to mean "illiterate" or "uncivilized" in general. Thus "an illiterate man is also a barbarian".<ref>Aristophanes. ''The Clouds'', 492.</ref> According to [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], a Hellene differed from a barbarian in four ways: refined language, education, religion, and the rule of law.<ref>Dionysius of Halicarnassus. ''Roman Archaeology'', 1.89.4.</ref> Greek education became identified with noble upbringing. [[Paul of Tarsus]] considered it his obligation to preach the [[Gospel]] to all men, "Hellenes and barbarians, both wise and foolish".<ref>Saint Paul. ''Epistle to the Romans'', 1.14.</ref>

Discrimination between Hellenes and barbarians lasted until the 4th century BC. [[Euripides]] thought it plausible that Hellenes should rule over barbarians, because the first were destined for [[Freedom (political)|freedom]] and the other for [[slavery]].<ref>Euripides. ''Iphigeneia at Aulis'', 1400.</ref> [[Aristotle]] came to the conclusion that "the nature of a barbarian and a slave is one and the same".<ref>Aristotle. ''Republic'', I.5.</ref>

[[Alexander the Great]]'s conquests consolidated Greek influence in the East by exporting Greek culture into Asia and permanently transformed education and society in the region. [[Isocrates]] declared in his speech ''Panegyricus'', speaking about Athens and Greece: "And so far has our city distanced the rest of mankind in thought and in speech that her pupils have become the teachers of the rest of the world; and she has brought it about that the name Hellenes suggests no longer a race but an intelligence, and that the title Hellenes is applied rather to those who share our culture than to those who share a common blood".<ref>{{cite book|title=Panegyricus|chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0144%3Aspeech%3D4%3Asection%3D50|author=Isocrates |translator=George Norlin |chapter=50}}</ref> With a small reformation, the [[Hellenistic civilization]] is the evolution of classical Greek civilization into a civilization with global proportions, this time open to everybody. Similarly, ''Hellene'' evolved from a national name signifying an [[ethnic]] Greek to a cultural term signifying anybody who conducted his life according to Greek [[mores]].

=={{anchor|Ionians}}Ionians (Ἴωνες), Yunani, and Yavan (יָוָן)==
{{Main|Yona}}
A wholly different term came to establish itself in the [[Eastern world|East]]. The ancient people of the Middle East referred to the Hellenes as ''Yunan'', deriving from [[Old Persian language|Persian]] ''Yauna''{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}, itself a loan of [[Greek language|Greek]] Ιωνία ([[Ionia]]), the western coast of [[Asia Minor]]. It is by affiliation with the Ionian tribe the [[Persia]]ns conquered in the late 6th century BC that their name extended to all Hellenes. All peoples under Persian influence adopted the term, and it is from this root that [[Sanskrit]] ''[[Yona|Yavana]]'' derives, which one encounters in ancient Sanskrit sources, first attested in [[Pāṇini|Pāṇini's]] grammar, and later referring, together with [[Pāli|Pali]] ''[[Yona]]'', ''Yonaka'' to the [[Indo-Greek Kingdom|Indo-Greeks]]. The term ''Yunan'' is used in current [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]] ({{lang|ar|يوناني}}), [[Azerbaijani language|Azeri]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Hindi]] (यूनान), [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] and [[Malay language|Malay]].

The related [[Hebrew]] name, ''Yavan'' or ''Javan'' ({{lang|he|יָוָן}}), was used to refer to the Greek nation in the Eastern Mediterranean in early [[Biblical]] times. There was an eponymous character [[Javan]] mentioned in ''[[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]'' 10:2. In later times it was used for all [[Hellenistic]] kingdoms (for example, the [[Maccabean]]s applied it to their [[Seleucid]] foes). "Yavan" is still the name used for modern Greece in contemporary [[Israel]].

Although the contemporary [[Chinese language|Chinese]] term for Greece (希臘 ''Xīlà'') is based on ''Hellas'', Chinese previously used what was likely a version of the ''Yunan'' or ''Yona'' root when referring to the [[Dayuan|Dàyuān]] (大宛). 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. It has been suggested that the name ''Yuan'' was simply a transliteration of the words ''Yunan'', ''Yona'', or Ionians, so that Dàyuān (literally "Great Yuan") would mean "Great Yunans" or "Great Ionians."

==Hellene comes to mean "pagan"<!--'Hellenes (religion)' redirects here-->==
{{Main|Hellenism (modern religion)}}

The name ''Hellene'' was given the meaning "pagan" by the [[early Christian]] church, and retained that meaning until the end of the millennium. It is believed that contact with Christian [[Jews]] led some [[Christians]] to use ''Hellene'' as a means of religious differentiation. Jews, like [[Greeks]], distinguished themselves from foreigners, but unlike Greeks, did so according to religious rather than cultural standards.

Roman domination of the Greek world enhanced the prestige of the religious institutions that remained intact. Early Christians differentiated people according to religion, so the sense of the word ''Hellene'' as a cultural attribute became marginalized and then supplanted by its religious element. Eventually, Christians came to refer to all pagans as ''Hellenes''.

[[Paul of Tarsus|St. Paul]] in his Epistles uses ''Hellene'' almost always juxtaposed to ''Hebrew'', and in disregard of all other ethnicities (Romans, Syrians, Egyptians, etc.) living in the area at the time. A possible exception to this being [[Colossians 3]]:11 ("Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." [[King James Version]]). The aim was probably to represent the aggregate of the [[polytheistic]] and the [[monotheistic]] religious communities, who respectively believed in many gods or one god.<ref>Saint Paul, ''[[Acts of the Apostles]]'', 13:48, 15:3 and 7:12, ''[[Epistle to the Galatians|Galatians]]'' 3:28.</ref> ''Hellene'' is used in a religious sense for the first time in the [[New Testament]]. In [[Mark 7]]:26, a woman arrives before [[Jesus]], and kneeling before him: "The woman was a Hellene, a Syrophœnician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter."<ref>New Testament. ''Gospel of Mark'', 7.26.</ref> Since the nationality or ethnicity of the woman is stated to be Syrophœnician, "Greek" (translated as such into the English of the [[King James Version]], but as ''haiþno'' "{{linktext|heathen}}" in [[Ulfilas]]'s [[Gothic language|Gothic]]; [[John Wycliffe|Wycliffe]] and [[Myles Coverdale|Coverdale]] likewise have ''heathen'') must therefore signify her polytheistic religion. Nevertheless, it is important to mention that phrases in koine Greek similar to the one in Mark 7:26 ("ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἦν Ἑλληνίς, Συροφοινίκισσα τῷ γένει·") can be found in the new testament being applied to Jewish people ([[Acts 18]]:2 "καὶ εὑρών τινα Ἰουδαῖον ὀνόματι Ἀκύλαν, Ποντικὸν τῷ γένει,")(Acts 18:24 "Ἰουδαῖος δέ τις Ἀπολλὼς ὀνόματι, Ἀλεξανδρεὺς τῷ γένει,") and the Levite Barnabas ([[Acts 4]]:36, "Λευΐτης, Κύπριος τῷ γένει"). In all those cases the terms Hellene/Jew/Levite are mentioned, eventually followed by a comma, a designation such as Syrophoenician/Pontic/Alexandrian/Cypriot and after that the words "τῷ γένει", with the last words tending to have differing translations. 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". This could have one of two interpretations: either that Jesus meant that the time had come for his religion to spread to the ''pagans'' (in which case the term "Hellenes" is religious), or that it would spread by using the ''[[Greek language]]'' (in which case the term "Hellenes" is meant to be linguistic). The development towards a purely religious meaning was slow, and complete by approximately the 2nd or 3rd century AD: Athenian statesman [[Apology of Aristides|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 [[Chaldea|Chaldæans]].<ref>Aristides, ''Apology''.</ref> Later, [[Clement of Alexandria]] reports an unknown Christian writer who named all of the above ''Hellenes'' and spoke of two old nations and one new: the Christian nation.<ref>Clement of Alexandria. ''Miscellanies'', 6.5.41.</ref>

Several books written at this time demonstrate clearly the [[semantic]] shift. For example, [[Athanasius]]' ''Against Hellenes'' was originally titled ''Against the Gentiles'' (Greek: ''ethnikoi'') according to older manuscripts. From then on, ''Hellene'' no longer meant an ethnic Greek or an adherent to Greek culture, but pagans in general, regardless of race. Emperor [[Julian the Apostate|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".<ref>Pope Gregory. ''Against Julian'', 1.88.</ref> Half a century later Christians protested against the [[Eparchy|Eparch]] of [[Alexandria]], whom they accused of being a Hellene.<ref>Suda Dictionary, entry τ (t)</ref> [[Theodosius I]] initiated the first ''legal'' steps against paganism, but it was [[Justinian I|Justinian's]] legal reforms that triggered pagan persecutions on a massive scale. 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 official suppression of paganism made non-Christians a public threat, which further derogated the meaning of ''Hellene''. Paradoxically, [[Tribonian]], Justinian's own legal commissioner, according to the ''[[Suda]]'' dictionary, was a ''Hellene'' (pagan).<ref>Socrates. ''Ecclesiastical History'', 7.14.</ref>

The usage of Hellene as a religious term was initially part of an exclusively Christian nomenclature, but some pagans began to defiantly call themselves Hellenes. Other pagans even preferred the narrow meaning of the word from a broad cultural sphere to a more specific religious grouping. However, there were many Christians and pagans alike who strongly objected to the evolution of the terminology. 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.<ref name="Cameron93">{{cite book|last1=Cameron|first1=Alan G.|last2=Long|first2=Jacqueline|last3=Sherry|first3=Lee|title=Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius|year=1993|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|isbn=978-0-520-06550-5|pages=66–67|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=9780520065505|chapter=2: Synesius of Cyrene; VI: The ''Dion''}}</ref>

The name Hellene meaning "pagan" has persisted into modern times. Many groups advocating a revival or reconstruction of the worship of the Olympian Gods call themselves Hellenists or Hellenic Polytheists and the religion Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism or [[Hellenismos]]. Such groups outside of Greece are careful not to imply that, by calling themselves ''Hellenes'', they consider themselves Greek nationals.

==Macedonians (Μακεδόνες)==
The name "Macedonians", in order to colloquially mean the Greek soldiers (etc) that [[Alexander the Great]] was first the [[hegemon]] of, is being used by&nbsp;– at least&nbsp;– contemporary sources when referring to the [[Hellenistic period]], as the [[ancient Macedonian army]], including the famous [[somatophylakes]] (e.&nbsp;g. [[Lysimachus]]) and, later, the [[diadochi]]<ref>E.&nbsp;g. Nearchus, who was from Crete, became a satrap of Lycia and Pamphylia. [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nearchus Entry"Nearchus'], in ''Britannica''.</ref> of Alexander, consisted of warriors from numerous and diverse [[Greek tribes]]. Thus, as the [[Spartans]] (Lacedaemonians) did not take part in Alexander's campaign, Alexander once ordered for an inscription to be sent, along with some war spoils, to Athens saying "Alexander, son of Philip, and all the Greeks except the [[Lacedaemonians]] [...]".<ref>Arrian. ''Anabasis Alexandri'', 2.7.4.</ref> Likewise, the term "Macedonian", while referring here to Greek dialects, also ended up meaning the [[Koine Greek]] in classical sources,<ref>C. Brixhe, A. Panayotou, 1994, «Le Macédonien» in ''Langues indo-européennes'', p. 208.</ref> whereas diverse major Ancient Greek dialects were natively spoken in the later/expanded [[Macedonian Kingdom]], and even though the Koine dialect was mostly based on [[Attic Greek]] that was natively spoken around [[Athens]]. 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.

==Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι)==
{{See also|Rum (endonym)|Rumelia}}
<!-- This section is linked from [[Roman]] and from various redirects -->
{{anchor|Rhomaioi}}
[[File:Hieronymus wolf2.JPG|thumb|[[Hieronymus Wolf]] was a 16th-century German historian. After coming into contact with the works of [[Laonicus Chalcondyles]], he also went ahead with identifying [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] historiography for the purpose of distinguishing medieval Greek from ancient Roman history.]]

Romans or ''Rhomaioi'' (Ῥωμαῖοι; sg. Ῥωμαῖος ''Rhomaios'') and ''Romioi'' (Ρωμιοί; sg. Ρωμιός ''Romios''), is the name by which the Greeks were known in the Middle Ages and during [[Ottoman Greece|Ottoman rule]]. The name in antiquity originally signified the inhabitants of the city of Rome in Italy, but with the increasing grants of [[Roman citizenship]] to the Greeks and other nations of the Roman Empire, it soon lost its connection with the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]]. This process culminated in 212 AD, when Emperor Caracalla's ''[[Constitutio Antoniniana]]'' granted the citizenship to all free-born men of the Empire. Later Byzantine authors such as Nikephoros Basilakes,<ref name="Basilaca1984">{{cite book|author=Nicephorus Basilaca|title=Nicephori Basilacae orationes et epistolae|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0nZkIeqWz8C|date=1984|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-096405-9}}</ref> [[Michael Attaleiates]], [[Theodore Prodromos]], [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch]] [[Patriarch Germanus II of Constantinople|Germanus II]], [[Niketas Choniates]] and [[Empire of Nicaea|Nicaean Emperor]] [[Theodore II Laskaris]] also used the classicizing term [[Ausones]] to refer to the people of the Eastern Roman Empire,<ref name="Kaldellis">{{cite book|author=Kaldellis, Anthony|title=Hellenism in Byzantium|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iWs0Lh57NvwC|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-46842-8|pages=63, 374, 355 |date=2008}}</ref> 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.<ref name="TzetzesTzetzes1811">{{cite book|author1=Isaac Tzetzes|author2=John Tzetzes|author3=Lycophron|author4=Christian Gottfried Müller|title=Isaakiou kai Iōannou tou Tzetzou Scholia eis Lykophrona|url=https://archive.org/details/isaakioukaiiann00mlgoog|year=1811|publisher=Sumtibus F.C.G. Vogelii|page=[https://archive.org/details/isaakioukaiiann00mlgoog/page/n265 179]}}</ref> Overall, the word ''Rhomaios'' came to represent the Hellenized inhabitants of the East Roman Empire.

Initially, the foreign borrowed name (Romans) had a more political than national meaning, which went hand in hand with the universalizing ideology of Rome that aspired to encompass all nations of the world under one true God. Up until the early 7th century, when the Empire still extended over large areas and many peoples, the use of the name "Roman" always indicated [[citizenship]] and never descent. Various ethnicities could apply their own [[ethnonyms]] or [[toponyms]] to disambiguate citizenship from genealogy, which is why the historian [[Procopius]] prefers to call the Byzantines as ''Hellenized Romans'',<ref>Procopius. ''Gothic War'', III.1 and ''Vandal War'', I.21.</ref> while other authors use ''Romhellenes'' and ''Graecoromans'',<ref>Lambru. ''Palaeologeia and Peloponnesiaka'', 3.152.</ref> aiming to indicate descent and citizenship simultaneously. The [[Lombards|Lombard]] and [[Arab]] invasions in the same century resulted in the loss of most of the provinces including Italy and all of the Middle East, save for [[Anatolia]]. The areas that did remain were mostly Greek-speaking, thereby turning the empire into a much more cohesive unit that eventually developed a fairly self-conscious Greek identity.

The Byzantines' failure to protect the [[Pope]] from the [[Lombards]] forced the Pope to search for help elsewhere. The man who answered his call was [[Pepin III]], whom he had named "Patrician", a title that caused a serious conflict. In 772, Rome ceased commemorating the emperor that first ruled from [[Constantinople]], and in 800 [[Charlemagne]] was crowned Roman Emperor by the Pope himself, officially rejecting the Eastern Roman Empire as true Romans. According to the [[Franks|Frankish]] interpretation of events, the [[papacy]] appropriately "transferred Roman imperial authority from the Greeks to the [[Germans]], in the name of His Greatness, Charles".<ref>Pope Innocent. ''Decretalium'', ''Romanourm imperium in persona magnifici Caroli a Grecis transtuli in Germanos''.</ref> From then on, a war of names about the [[New Rome]] revolved around Roman imperial rights. Unable to deny that an emperor did exist in Constantinople, they sufficed in renouncing him as a successor of Roman heritage on the grounds that [[Greeks]] have nothing to do with the Roman legacy. In 865, [[Pope Nicholas I]] wrote to the Emperor [[Michael III]]: "You ceased to be called 'Emperor of the Romans' since the Romans, of whom you claim to be Emperor, are in fact according to you barbarians."<ref>''Epistola'' 86, of year 865, ''PL'' 119, 926.</ref>

Henceforth, the emperor in the East was known and referred to in the West as ''Emperor of the Greeks'' and their land as ''Greek Empire'', reserving both "Roman" titles for the Frankish king. The interests of both sides were nominal rather than actual. No land areas were ever claimed, but the insult the Byzantines took on the accusation demonstrates how close at heart the Roman name (Ῥωμαῖος) had become to them. In fact, Bishop [[Liutprand of Cremona]], a delegate of the Frankish court, was briefly imprisoned in Constantinople for not referring to the Roman emperor, [[Nikephoros II Phokas]], by his appropriate title,<ref>Liutprand, ''Antapodosis''</ref> and in reprisal for his king, [[Otto I]], claiming the "Roman" title by styling himself as ''[[Holy Roman Emperor]]''.

==Revival in the meaning of "Hellene"==
[[File:Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix 012.jpg|thumb|The Entry of the [[Fourth Crusade|Crusaders]] into [[Constantinople]], by [[Eugène Delacroix]], 1840. The sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the Crusaders acerbated [[Byzantine Empire|Greek]] nationalism and created disdain for the Latins which is well illustrated in the documents of the era. [[Niketas Choniates]] portrays an especially lively account of the sack and its aftermath.]]

The secular use of ''Hellene'' revived in the 9th century, after paganism had been eclipsed and was no longer a threat to [[Christianity]]'s dominance. The revival followed the same track as its disappearance. The name had originally declined from a national term in [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]], to a cultural term in the Hellenistic years, to a religious term in the early [[Christianity|Christian]] years. 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". After 1204, when the Empire consisted purely of Hellenic provinces, the term "Hellenes" was increasingly used instead.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nicol |first=Donald M. |date=30 December 1967 |title=The Byzantine View of Western Europe |url=https://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/view/11101 |journal=Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies |language=en |volume=8 |issue=4 |page=318 |issn=2159-3159 |access-date=10 September 2018 |archive-date=30 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430125324/http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/view/11101 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Accounts from the 11th century onward (from [[Anna Komnene]], [[Michael Psellos]], [[John III Vatatzes]], [[George Gemistos Plethon]] and several others) prove that the revival of the term Hellene (as a potential replacement for ethnic terms like Graikos and Romaios) did occur. For example, Anna Komnene writes of her contemporaries as Hellenes, but does not use the word as a synonym for a pagan worshiper. Moreover, Anna boasts about her Hellenic classical education, and she speaks as a native Greek and not as an outsider/foreigner who learned Greek.

The refounding of the [[University of Constantinople]] in the palaces of [[Magnaura]] promoted an interest in learning, particularly in Greek studies. [[Photius I of Constantinople|Patriarch Photius]] was irritated because "Hellenic studies are preferred over spiritual works". Michael Psellos thought it a compliment when Emperor [[Romanos III]] praised him for being raised "in the Hellenic way" and a weakness for Emperor [[Michael IV the Paphlagonian|Michael IV]] for being completely devoid of a Hellenic education,<ref>Romanus III. ''Towards the son of Romanus himself'', p. 49.</ref> while Anna Komnene claimed that she had "carried the study of Hellenic to the highest pitch".<ref>Anna Komnene, ''Alexiad'', prologue 1.</ref> Also, commenting on the orphanage her father founded, she stated that "there could be seen a Latin being trained, and a [[Scythian]] studying Hellenic, and a Roman handling Hellenic texts and an illiterate Hellene speaking Hellenic correctly".<ref>Anna Komnene. ''Alexiad'', 15.7.</ref> In this case we reach a point where the Byzantines are Romans on the political level but Hellenic by descent. [[Eustathius of Thessalonica]] disambiguates the distinction in his account of the [[Sack of Thessalonica (1185)|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.<ref>''Espugnazione di Thessalonica'', Palermo 1961, p. 32.</ref>

After the fall of Constantinople to the [[Fourth Crusade|Crusaders]], Greek nationalism accentuated. [[Niketas Choniates]] insisted on using the name "Hellenes", stressing the outrages of the "Latins" against the "Hellenes" in the [[Peloponnese]] and how the [[Alfeios River]] might carry the news to the barbarians in [[Sicily]], the [[Normans]].<ref>Niketas Choniates. ''The Sack of Constantinople'', Bonn, p. 806.</ref> [[Nikephoros Blemmydes]] referred to the [[Byzantine emperor]]s as Hellenes,<ref>Nikephoros Blemmydes. ''Partial Narration'', 1.4.</ref> 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".<ref>Theodore Alanias, ''PG'' 140, 414.</ref> The second Emperor of Nicaea, [[John III Doukas Vatatzes]], wrote in a letter to [[Pope Gregory IX]] about the wisdom that "rains upon the Hellenic nation". He maintained that the transfer of the imperial authority from Rome to Constantinople was national and not geographic, and therefore did not belong to the [[Latin Empire|Latins]] occupying Constantinople: [[Constantine the Great|Constantine's]] heritage was passed on to the Hellenes, so he argued, and they alone were its inheritors and successors.<ref>John Vatatzes. ''Ανέκδοτος επιστολή του Αυτοκράτορος Ιωάννου Δούκα Βατάτση προς τον Πάπαν Γρηγόριον, ανεβρεθείσα εν Πάτμω'' (= "Unpublished Letters of Emperor John Vatatzes to Pope Gregory, discovered in Patmos"), in ''Athenaion'' I (1872), pp. 369–378 (in Greek).</ref> His son, [[Theodore II Laskaris]], was eager to project the name of the Greeks with true nationalistic zeal. He made it a point that "the Hellenic race looms over all other languages" and that "every kind of philosophy and form of knowledge is a discovery of Hellenes […]. What do you, O Italian, have to display?"<ref>Theodore Laskaris. ''Christian Theology'', 7f.</ref>

The evolution of the name was slow and did not replace the "Roman" name completely. [[Nikephoros Gregoras]] named his historical work ''Roman History''.<ref>Nikephoros Gregoras, ''Roman History''.</ref> Emperor [[John VI Kantakouzenos]], a great supporter of Greek education, in his own memoirs always refers to the Byzantines as "Romans",<ref>John Kantakouzenos. ''History'', 4.14.</ref> yet, in a letter sent by the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk sultan]], [[An-Nasir Hasan]], referred to him as "Emperor of the Hellenes, [[Bulgars]], [[Sassanians]], [[Vlachs]], [[Russians]], [[Alans|Alanians]]" but not of the "Romans".<ref>Similar texts were composed by the scribes of the kings in the north such as Russia, Poland, Lithuania, etc.</ref> Over the next century, George Gemistos Plethon pointed out to [[Constantine XI Palaiologos]] that the people he leads are "Hellenes, as their race and language and education testifies",<ref>George Gemistos Plethon in ''Palaiologeia kai Peloponnesiaka'', p. 247.</ref> while [[Laonicus Chalcondyles]] was a proponent of completely substituting "Roman" terminology for "Greek" terminology.<ref>Laonicus Chalcondyles, ''History'' I.</ref> Constantine Palaiologos himself in the end proclaimed [[Constantinople]] the "refuge for Christians, hope and delight of all Hellenes".<ref>George Phrantzes. ''History'', 3.6.</ref> On the other hand, the same Emperor in his final speech before the Empire's demise called upon his audience to rally to the defenses by characteristically referring to them as "descendants of Hellenes and Romans", most possibly as an attempt to combine Greek national sentiment with the Roman tradition of the Byzantine crown and Empire, both highly respected elements in his subjects' psyche at that moment.

==Byzantines (Βυζαντινοί)==
By the time of the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]] most easterners had come to think of themselves as Christians and, more than ever before, as Romans. Although they may not have liked their government any more than they had previously, the Greeks among them could no longer consider it foreign, run by Latins from Italy. The word ''Hellene'' itself had already begun to mean a pagan rather than a person of Greek race or culture. Instead eastern Greeks overwhelmingly used the self-identifying term ''Rhomaios'', "Roman".<ref>Warren Treadgold (1997). ''History of the Byzantine State and Society''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, p. 136.</ref><ref>Gill Page (2008). ''Being Byzantine: Greek Identity Before the Ottomans''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 6.</ref>

As early as the 7th century, "Byzantine" was occasionally used to refer to monastic communities associated but outside of the east-Roman capital in Constantinople.<ref name="Panagiotis">{{Cite journal |last=Theodoropoulos |first=Panagiotis |date=April 2021 |title=Did the Byzantines call themselves Byzantines? Elements of Eastern Roman identity in the imperial discourse of the seventh century |journal=Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies |language=en |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=25–41 |doi=10.1017/byz.2020.28 |s2cid=232344683 |issn=0307-0131|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The term "Byzantine Empire" is commonly understood to have been introduced in 1557, about a century after the [[Fall of Constantinople]], by German historian [[Hieronymus Wolf]], who introduced a system of Byzantine [[historiography]] in his work ''Corpus Historiae Byzantinae'' in order to distinguish ancient Roman from medieval Greek history without drawing attention to their ancient predecessors. According to [[Anthony Kaldellis]], an Athenian [[Laonikos Chalkokondyles]] in the mid 15th century who advocated a neo-Hellenic identity of the Romans, was the first to use the term in this way.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kaldellis|first=Anthony|title=The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2022|isbn=978-0-88402-484-2|editor-last=Ransohoff|editor-first=Jake|pages=349–367|language=English|chapter=From "Empire of the Greeks" to "Byzantium"|editor-last2=Aschenbrenner|editor-first2=Nathanael}}</ref> Several authors adopted his terminology, but it remained relatively unknown. English historians preferred to use Roman terminology ([[Edward Gibbon]] used it in a particularly belittling manner), while French historians preferred to call it Greek.<ref>Edward Gibbon, ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''; Alexandre Rambeau, ''L'empire Grecque au X<sup>e</sup> siecle''.</ref> The term reappeared in the mid-19th century and has since dominated completely in historiography, even in Greece, despite objections from [[Constantine Paparregopoulus|Constantine Paparregopoulos]], Gibbon's influential Greek counterpart, that the empire should be called Greek. Few Greek scholars adopted the terminology at that time, but it became popular in the second half of the 20th century.<ref>Ῥωμαῖος (Roman) remained a popular name for a Greek in Greece even after the foundation of the modern Greek state in 1829. ''Argyris Eftaliotis'' published his history of Greece series in 1901 under the title "History of Romanity", reflecting how well rooted Roman heritage still was in Greeks.</ref>

==Hellenic continuity and Byzantine consciousness==
{{Main|Byzantine Greeks}}
[[File:Greek Community of Trieste, 1787.JPG|thumb|The first printed [[Charter]] of the Greek Community of [[Trieste]], Italy 1787&nbsp;– Archives of the Community of Trieste.]]

The "Byzantines" referred to themselves as ''Rhomaioi'' to retain both their Roman citizenship and their ancient Hellenic heritage. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the "Byzantines" themselves were also very conscious of their uninterrupted continuity with the ancient Greeks. Even though the ancient Greeks were not Christians, the "Byzantines" still regarded them as their ancestors. A common substitute for the term ''Hellene'', other than ''Rhomaios'', was the term ''Graikos'' (Γραικός), a term that was used often by the "Byzantines" (along with ''Rhomaios'') for ethnic self-identification. Evidence of the use of the term ''Graikos'' can be found in the works of [[Priscus]], a historian of the 5th century AD. He stated in one of his accounts that on an unofficial embassy to Attila the Hun, he had met at Attila's court someone who dressed like a [[Scythian]] but spoke Greek. When Priskos asked the person where he had learned the language, the man smiled and said that he was a Graekos by birth. Many other "Byzantine" authors speak of the Empire's natives as Greeks [''Graikoi''] or Hellenes such as Constantine Porphyrogennitos of the 10th century. His accounts discuss about the revolt of a Slavic tribe in the district of Patras in the Peloponnese. 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. Overall, ancient Hellenic continuity was evident throughout the history of the Eastern Roman Empire. The "Byzantines" were not merely a general Orthodox Christian populace that referred to themselves as merely "Romans". They used the term for legal and administrative purposes, but other terms were used to distinguish themselves ethnically. 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.<ref name=Constantelos2008>{{cite news
|first = Demetrios J. |last=Constantelos |title=Christian Hellenism and How the Byzantines Saw Themselves
|url = http://www.orthodoxnews.netfirms.com/137/How.htm |work=Orthodox News |publisher=The National Herald
|date = 12 September 2004 |access-date=19 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525203525/http://www.orthodoxnews.netfirms.com/137/How.htm |archive-date=25 May 2006}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|sure=y|reason=[[WP:QUESTIONABLE]]|date=July 2022}}

==Contest between the names ''Hellene'', ''Roman'', and ''Greek''==
Following the [[Fall of Constantinople|Ottoman conquest of Constantinople]] and during [[Ottoman Greece]] a fierce ideological battle ensued regarding the three rival national names of the Greeks. This struggle may have settled down after the [[Greek War of Independence]] but was permanently resolved only recently in the 20th century after the loss of [[Asia Minor]] to the [[Turkey|Turks]].

The struggle reflected the diverging view of history between [[classicist]]s and [[medievalist]]s ([[katharevousa]] and [[Demotic Greek|demotic]]) in their attempt to define Greek [[nationality]] at a time without a [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] state to foster the movement. The concept of ''Hellene'' for a person of Greek origin was already well established from the late [[Middle Ages]]. However, for the majority of the population, especially those in rural areas away from urban centers, the dominant self-perception was still that of ''Romaioi'' and ''Graikoi''.<ref>Kakavas, George (2002). ''Post-Byzantium: The Greek Renaissance 15th–18th Century Treasures from the Byzantine & Christian Museum'', Athens. Athens, Greece: Hellenic Ministry of Culture, p. 29.</ref> Scholar [[Rigas Feraios]] called "Bulgars and [[Arvanites]], [[Armenians]] and Romans" to rise in arms against the Ottomans.<ref>Rigas Feraios, ''Thurius'', Line 45.</ref> General [[Ioannis Makrygiannis|Makrygiannis]] recalled a friend asking him: "What say you, is the Roman State far away from coming? Are we to sleep with the Turks and awaken with the Romans?"<ref>Strategus Makrygiannis, ''Memoirs'', Book 1, Athens 1849, p. 117.</ref>

Preference for the term ''Greek'' (Γραικός) was exhibited by scholars such as [[Adamantios Korais]], a renowned Greek classicist, who justified his selection in ''A Dialogue between Two Greeks'': "Our ancestors used to call themselves Greeks but adopted afterwards the name Hellenes by a Greek who called himself [[Hellen]]. One of the above two, therefore, is our true name. I approved 'Greece' because that is what all the enlightened nations of Europe call us."<ref>Adamantios Korais. ''Dialogue between two Greeks'', Venice, 1805, p. 37.</ref> ''Hellenes'' for Korais are the pre-Christian inhabitants of Greece.

The absence of a Byzantine state gradually led to the marginalization of the Roman name and allowed ''Hellene'' (Ἕλλην) to resurface as the primary national name. {{Interlanguage link|Dionysius Pyrrhus|el|3=Διονύσιος Πύρρος}} requests the exclusive use of Hellene in his ''Cheiragogy'': "Never desire to call yourselves Romans, but Hellenes, for the Romans from ancient Rome enslaved and destroyed Hellas".<ref>Dionysius Pyrrhus. ''Cheiragogy'', Venice, 1810.</ref> The anonymous author of ''The Hellenic Realm of Law'', published in 1806 in [[Pavia]], Italy, speaks of Hellenes: "The time has come, O Hellenes, to liberate our home".<ref>''Hellenic Prefecture'', Athens, 1948, p. 191.</ref> The leader of the [[Greek War of Independence]] began his ''Declaration'' with a phrase similar to the above: "The time has come, O men, Hellenes".<ref>Ioannes Philemon (Ιωάννης Φιλήμων, 1799–1874). ''Δοκίμιον ιστορικόν περί της ελληνικής Επαναστάσεως'' (= "Historical Essay on the Greek Revolution"), Vol. 2. Athens 1859, p. 79 (in Greek; [http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/5/4/9/metadata-02-0000171.tkl digitized versions]).</ref> After the name was accepted by the spiritual and political leadership of the land, it rapidly spread to the population, especially with the onset of the Greek War of Independence where many naïve leaders and war figures distinguished between idle Romans and rebellious Hellenes.<ref>Ioannis Kakrides. ''Ancient Greeks and Greeks of 1821'', Thessalonike, 1956.</ref> General [[Theodoros Kolokotronis]] in particular made a point of always addressing his revolutionary troops as Hellenes and invariably wore a [[helmet]] of ancient Greek style.

General [[Makrygiannis]] tells of a priest who performed his duty in front of the "Romans" (civilians) but secretly spied on the "Hellenes" (fighters). "Roman" almost came to be associated with passiveness and enslavement, and "Hellene" brought back the memory of ancient glories and the fight for freedom. Eyewitness historian {{Interlanguage link|Ambrosius Phrantzes|el|3=Αμβρόσιος Φραντζής (νεότερος)}} writes that while the Turkish authorities and colonists in [[Pylos|Niokastro]] had surrendered to the advancing Greek army, reportedly, shouts of defiance were made that led to their [[Navarino Massacre|massacre by the mob]]: "They spoke to the petty and small Hellenes as 'Romans'. It was as if they called them 'slaves'! The Hellenes not bearing to hear the word, for it reminded of their situation and the outcome of tyranny […]"<ref>Ambrosius Phrantzes (Αμβρόσιος Φραντζής, 1778–1851). ''Επιτομή της Ιστορίας της Αναγεννηθείσης Ελλάδος'' (= "Abridged history of the Revived Greece"), vol. 1. Athens 1839, p. 398 ([http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/2/5/9/metadata-39-0000531.tkl]).</ref>

The citizens of the newly independent state were called "Hellenes" making the connection with ancient Greece all the more clear. That in turn also fostered a fixation on antiquity and negligence for the other periods of history, especially the [[Byzantine Empire]], for an age that bore different names and was a devisor to different and in many ways more important legacies. The classicist trend was soon balanced by the [[Megali Idea|Greek Great Idea]] that sought to recover [[Constantinople]] and reestablish the Byzantine Empire for all Greeks. As the Prime Minister, [[Ioannis Kolettis]], proclaimed in front of Parliament in 1844, "The [[Kingdom of Greece]] is not Greece; it is only part of it, a small and poor part of Greece […]. There are two great centers of [[Hellenism (neoclassicism)|Hellenism]]. Athens is the capital of the Kingdom. Constantinople is the great capital, the City, dream and hope of all Greeks."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hamilakis |first=Yannis |title=The Nation and Its Ruins: Antiquity, Archaeology, and National Imagination in Greece |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |pages=114–115}}</ref>

On 8 October 1912, during the [[First Balkan War]], the island of [[Lemnos]] became part of [[Greece]]. The Greek navy under Rear Admiral [[Pavlos Kountouriotis]] captured it [[Capture of Lemnos (1912)|after a brief action]] without any casualties from the Ottoman garrison, who were returned to Anatolia. [[Peter Charanis]], born on the island in 1908, and later a professor of [[History of the Byzantine Empire|Byzantine history]] at [[Rutgers University]], recounts when the island was liberated and Greek soldiers were sent to the villages and stationed themselves in the public squares. Some of the children ran to see what Greek soldiers looked like; "What are you looking at?", one of them asked; "At Hellenes", the children replied; "Are you not Hellenes yourselves?", a soldier retorted; "No, we are [[Byzantine Greeks|Romans]]", the children replied; which might seem odd at a first glance, but indicates that in parts of Greece the locals self-identified as a continuation of the Eastern, Greek-speaking part of the Roman Empire ([[Names of the Greeks#Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι)|Ρωμιοί]]), along with their Greek identity.<ref>Kaldellis, Anthony (2008). Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0521876885}}. pp. 42–43.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Greeks]]
* [[Gringo]], a Spanish derivation of ''griego'' that came to mean "Anglophone North American" and related concepts
* [[Hellen]]
* [[List of adjectival and demonymic forms of place names#Regions in Greco-Roman antiquity|Adjectival and demonymic forms of place names in Greco-Roman antiquity]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
* {{cite web|last=Nagy|first=Gregory|title=The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization|year=2014|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=President and Fellows of Harvard College|url=http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/ancient-greek-civilization|access-date=2014-02-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160520202801/https://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/ancient-greek-civilization|archive-date=2016-05-20}}

==Bibliography==

===In English===
*John Romanides, ''"Romanity, Romania, Rum", Thessalonike, 1974''
*Steven Runciman, ''"Byzantine and Hellene in the 14th century"''

===In other languages===
*Panagiotis Christou, ''The Adventures of the National Names of the Greeks'', Thessalonike, 1964
*Antonios Hatzis, ''Elle, Hellas, Hellene'', Athens, 1935–1936
*J. Juthner, ''Hellenen und Barbaren'', Leipzig, 1923
*Basileios A. Mystakides, ''Αι λέξεις Έλλην, Γραικός (Γραικύλος), Ρωμαίος (Γραικορρωμαίος), Βυζαντινός, Μωαμεθανός, Τούρκος'', Istanbul, 1920
*Ioannis Kakrides, ''Ancient Greeks and Greeks of 1821'', Athens, 1956
*A. Rambeau, ''"L'empire Grecque au X' siecle"''

==External links==
{{wiktionary|Greek|Γραικός}}
*[http://www.romanity.org/htm/fox.01.en.what_if_anything_is_a_byzantine.01.htm Clifton R. Fox, ''"What, if anything, is a Byzantine?"'']
*[http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.21.en.the_ethnic_cleaning_of_roman_history.01.htm John S. Romanides, ''"Example of the science of the ethnic cleaning of Roman history."'']
*[http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.16.en.romanity_romania_roumeli.01.htm John S. Romanides, ''"Introduction to Romanity, Romania, Roumeli."'']
*[http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.e.05.kostis_palamas_kai_romiosini.01.htm John S. Romanides, "''Kostis Palamas and Romiosini''"] {{in lang|el}}

{{Greece topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Names Of The Greeks}}
[[Category:History of Greece]]
[[Category:Culture of Greece]]
[[Category:Ethnonyms|Greeks]]