How the Hellenes appeared

Ancient historians believed that to the Trojan War (that occurred in the XIII-XII centuries BC) Hellas, apparently, did not do anything significant.

So Fukidid He wrote that the whole country did not wear this name then. According to myths, this name went from Ellin, the son of Devcalion and Pyrrhus, the only people who were saved from the Great Flood.

Before that, individual nations (Pelasgians, Leleges and Karios) They gave the south of the Balkans their name. From Ellin and nymphs Oryns, children Dor, Ksuf and Eol were born. Dorians came from Dora, and the Eolians (Eolans) from Eola. The sons of Ksuf, Ion and Achaea became the ancestors of the Greek tribes of the Ionians and Achaeans. Over time, Ellin with his sons seized power in Ftiotid (district north-east of modern Lamia), and his name spread to local residents.

Greece map of the VI century BC

Then the other cities began to call them for help, and individual tribes one after another already, due to close communication with each other, began to be called the Hellenes little by little. The Greeks were gradually replaced by part, and partly assimilated their predecessors from the south of the peninsula, and then from the X-VIII century BC. They began to withdraw colonies throughout the Mediterranean.

Devkalion and Pyrrhus, by the will of Zeus, throwing stones behind his back, create people.

The best evidence of this is given by Homer, who lived much later than the Trojan War^. It does not mean all tribes anywhere with one common name of the Hellenes, and does not call anyone that, except for the soldiers of the squad of Achilles from the fluorine-they were the first Hellenes. Homer calls the rest of the Greeks in his poems Danais, Argivans or Achaeans; He does not use the words “barbarians” – obviously, because the Hellenes then had not yet separated from them and did not unite under the same name. Be that as it may, individual tribes, who accepted the name of the Hellenes and spoke the language generally perplexed for them. Before the Trojan War, the Greeks, due to the weakness and lack of mutual ties, did nothing together. In this campaign, they were able to perform together only after they gained more experience in the naval business.

Homer

Fukidid notes that in universal use this name has only recently been included. Herodotus, who wrote long before him, does not report anything about it. It can be concluded that from the VIII century BC, when the Olympic Games arise, the name of the Hellenes is often found in written sources, since under the conditions of games, only the Hellenes were allowed to them. That is, the tribes of the south of the Balkans and their evicts consider themselves one people – the Hellenes.

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