Achaeans (Homer)
Trojan War |
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The Achaeans or Akhaians (
The term "Achaean" is believed to be related to the
In the historical period, the term fell into disuse as a general term for Greek people, and was generally reserved for inhabitants of the region of Achaea, a region in the north-central part of the Peloponnese. The city-states of this region later formed a confederation known as the Achaean League, which was influential during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.
Etymology
According to
Homeric versus later use
In Homer, the term Achaeans is one of the primary terms used to refer to the Greeks as a whole. It is used 598 times in the Iliad, often accompanied by the epithet "long-haired". Other common names used in Homer are Danaans (/ˈdæneɪ.ənz/; Δαναοί Danaoi; used 138 times in the Iliad) and Argives (/ˈɑːrɡaɪvz/; Ἀργεῖοι Argeioi; used 182 times in the Iliad) while Panhellenes (Πανέλληνες Panhellenes, "All of the Greeks") and Hellenes (/ˈhɛliːnz/;[4] Ἕλληνες Hellenes) both appear only once;[5] All of the aforementioned terms were used synonymously to denote a common Greek identity.[6][7] In some English translations of the Iliad, the Achaeans are simply called the Greeks throughout.
Later, by the Archaic and Classical periods, the term "Achaeans" referred to inhabitants of the much smaller region of Achaea. Herodotus identified the Achaeans of the northern Peloponnese as descendants of the earlier, Homeric Achaeans. According to Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century AD, the term "Achaean" was originally given to those Greeks inhabiting the Argolis and Laconia.[8]
Pausanias and Herodotus both recount the legend that the Achaeans were forced from their homelands by the Dorians, during the legendary Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese. They then moved into the region later called Achaea.
A scholarly consensus has not yet been reached on the origin of the historic Achaeans relative to the Homeric Achaeans and is still hotly debated. Former emphasis on presumed race, such as John A. Scott's article about the blond locks of the Achaeans as compared to the dark locks of "Mediterranean" Poseidon,[9] on the basis of hints in Homer, has been rejected by some. The contrasting belief that "Achaeans", as understood through Homer, is "a name without a country", an ethnos created in the Epic tradition,[10] has modern supporters among those who conclude that "Achaeans" were redefined in the 5th century BC, as contemporary speakers of Aeolic Greek.
Hittite documents
Some Hittite texts mention a nation to the west called Ahhiyawa (
Scholarship up to 2011 was reviewed by Gary M. Beckman et al. In this review, the increasing acceptance of the Ahhiyawa-Mycenaeans hypothesis was noted. As to the exact location of Ahhiyawa:[20]
It now seems most reasonable to identify Ahhiyawa primarily with the Greek mainland, although in some contexts the term "Ahhiyawa" may have had broader connotations, perhaps covering all regions that were settled by Mycenaeans or came under Mycenaean control.
In fact, the authors state that "there is now little doubt that Ahhiyawa was a reference by the Hittites to some or all of the Bronze Age Mycenaean world", and that Forrer was "largely correct after all".[20]
Egyptian sources
It has been proposed that Ekwesh of the Egyptian records may relate to Achaea (compared to Hittite Ahhiyawa), whereas
During the 5th year of Pharaoh
Greek mythology
In
Cadmus from Phoenicia, Danaus from Egypt, and Pelops from Anatolia each gained a foothold in mainland Greece and were assimilated and Hellenized. Hellen, Graikos, Magnes, and Macedon were sons of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only people who survived the Great Flood;[23] the ethne were said to have originally been named Graikoi after the elder son but later renamed Hellenes after Hellen who was proved to be the strongest.[24] Sons of Hellen and the nymph Orseis were Dorus, Xuthos, and Aeolus.[25] Sons of Xuthos and Kreousa, daughter of Erechthea, were Ion and Achaeus.[25]
According to
Genealogy of the Argives
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See also
- Achaea (modern province)
- Achaea (Roman province)
- Achaean League
- Aegean civilization
- Denyen
- Historicity of the Iliad
- Homer
- Mycenaean Greece
- Mycenaean language
- Military of Mycenaean Greece
- Troy
References
Citations
- ^ Margalit Finkelberg, "From Ahhiyawa to Ἀχαιοί", Glotta 66 (1988): 127–134.
- ^ According to Finkelberg, this derivation does not necessitate an ultimate Greek and Indo-european origin of the word: "Obviously, this deduction cannot supply conclusive proof that Ahhiyawa presents a Greek word, the more so as neither the etymology of this word nor its cognates are known to us".
- R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 181.
- ^ "Hellene" entry in Collins English Dictionary.
- ^ See Iliad, II.2.530 for "Panhellenes" and Iliad II.2.653 for "Hellenes".
- ^ Cartledge 2011, Chapter 4: Argos, 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 apply to Greeks collectively were 'Argives', 'Achaeans', and 'Danaans'."
- ^ Nagy 2014, Texts and Commentaries – Introduction #2: "Panhellenism is the least common denominator of ancient Greek civilization...The impulse of Panhellenism is already at work in Homeric and Hesiodic poetry. In the Iliad, the names "Achaeans" and "Danaans" and "Argives" are used synonymously in the sense of Panhellenes = "all Hellenes" = "all Greeks.""
- ^ Pausanias. Description of Greece, VII.1.
- ^ Scott 1925, pp. 366–367.
- ^ As William K. Prentice expressed this long-standing skepticism of a genuine Achaean ethnicity in the distant past, at the outset of his article "The Achaeans" (see Prentice 1929, p. 206).
- ^ Beloch 1893, Volume I, pp. 88 (Note #1) and 92.
- ^ Meyer 1884–1902, Volume II, Part 1: Die Zeit der ägyptischen Großmacht – V. Das griechische Festland und die mykenische Kultur.
- ^ Prentice 1929, pp. 206–218.
- ^ Huxley 1960, p. 22; Güterbock 1983, pp. 133–138; Mellink 1983, pp. 138–141.
- ^ Translation of the Sins of Madduwatta Archived February 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Translation of the Tawagalawa Letter Archived 2013-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Güterbock 1984, p. 114.
- ^ Güterbock 1984, pp. 114–122.
- ^ Windle 2004, pp. 121–122; Bryce 1999, p. 60.
- ^ a b The Ahhiyawa Texts. Editors: Gary M. Beckman, Trevor Bryce, Eric H. Cline; Society of Biblical Literature, 2011; ISBN 158983268X
- ^ a b c Kelder 2010, pp. 125–126.
- ^ For example, in Euripides, Stesichorus, and Herodotus; HELEN wsu.edu
- ^ Hesiod. Catalogue of Women, Fragments.
- ^ Aristotle. Meteorologica, I.14.
- ^ a b Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, I.7.3.
- Fabulae, 114.
- ^ In particular: Achilles 72, Antilochus 2, Protesilaus 4, Peneleos 2, Eurypylus 1, Ajax 14, Thoas 2, Leitus 20, Thrasymedes 2, Agamemnon 16, Diomedes 18, Menelaus 8, Philoctetes 3, Meriones 7, Odysseus 12, Idomeneus 13, Leonteus 5, Ajax 28, Patroclus 54, Polypoetes 1, Teucer 30, Neoptolemus 6; a total of 362 Trojans.
Sources
- Beekes, Roberts Stephen Paul (2010). Etymological Dictionary of Greek: The Pre-Greek Loanwords in Greek. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004174184.
- Beloch, Karl Julius (1893). Griechische Geschichte (Volume I). Strassburg and Berlin.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Bryce, Trevor (1999). The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-924010-4.
- ISBN 978-0-19-960134-9.
- Finkelberg, Margalit (1988). "From Ahhiyawa to Ἀχαιοί". Glotta. 66: 127–134.
- Güterbock, Hans G. (April 1983). "The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part 1. The Ahhiyawa Problem Reconsidered". American Journal of Archaeology. 87 (2). Archaeological Institute of America: 133–138. S2CID 191376388.
- Güterbock, Hans G. (June 1984). "Hittites and Akhaeans: A New Look". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 128 (2). American Philosophical Society: 114–122. JSTOR 986225.
- Huxley, George Leonard (1960). Achaeans and Hittites. Oxford: Vincent Baxter Press.
- Kelder, Jorrit M. (2010). "The Egyptian Interest in Mycenaean Greece". Jaarbericht "Ex Oriente Lux" (JEOL). 42: 125–140.
- Mellink, Machteld J. (April 1983). "The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part 2. Archaeological Comments on Ahhiyawa-Achaians in Western Anatolia". American Journal of Archaeology. 87 (2). Archaeological Institute of America: 138–141. S2CID 194070218.
- Meyer, Eduard (1884–1902). Geschichte des Altertums (Volume 1–5). Stuttgart-Berlin.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Nagy, Gregory (2014). "The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization". Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College. Archived from the original on 2016-05-20. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- Prentice, William K. (April–June 1929). "The Achaeans". American Journal of Archaeology. 33 (2). Archaeological Institute of America: 206–218. S2CID 245265139.
- Scott, John A. (March 1925). "The Complexion of the Achaeans". The Classical Journal. 20 (6). The Classical Association of the Middle West and South: 366–367. JSTOR 3288466.
- Windle, Joachim Latacz (2004). Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926308-0.
External links
- Jordan, Herbert (2009–2012). "The Iliad of Homer (Translated by Herbert Jordan): The Achaeans, Argives, Danaans, or Greeks?".
- Salimbetti, Andrea (30 September 2013). "The Greek Age of Bronze".