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]
Etymology
editIt 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] Another proposal is that the word enter Greek from Ancient Macedonian through Phrygian or Illyrian having negative connotations and it meant child.[5]
History
editAccording 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.[6] In the Parian Chronicle, the Hellenes were originally called Graecians and established the Panathenean Games in 1522–1521 BC.[7]
Eponymous ancestor
editSee also
editReferences
editCitations
edit- ↑ Hard 2004, pp. 401–436.
- 1 2 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.
- ↑ Čašule, Ilija. "A NEW ETYMOLOGY OF THE ETHNONYM Greek, Graikos, Γραικός". Ziva Antika.
It is possible that the word entered Greek from Ancient Macedonian or directly from Brygian, hence g- and not kh- (there is a Paleobalkan pattern of alternation k:g (like in Krastonia: Grastonia, also in Thracian names...). As noted above some linguists have suggested an Illyrian origin or rather Illyrian as an intermediary and Thracian cannot be excluded, but with the scarce attestation of these languages it would amount to speculation. However, one point that has been made clear and which we should note on the margins of this paper is that there is (a strong?) (persistent) pejorative component (which would have been present since the outstart, the creation of the term?) in graikos and a secondary sound-symbolic one (words with gr- kr-etc seem to evoke generally something undesirable). So perhaps the initial semantic load was [+negative, +defective, +human] ...etc like in the Greek example above: kheiron 'worse'.[...] The Phrygian form (continued in Burushaski) gives strong support to our proposal that graikos derives from PIE *gher- with the meaning 'child'.
- ↑ Aristotle. Meteorology, I.14.
- ↑ Robertson 1788, p. 24.
- ↑ Hesiod. Catalogue of Women, Fragment 5.
- ↑ Smith 1856, pp. 1010–1011.
Sources
edit- 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.