Anyway: Hellas (Ἑλλάς) or the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία)--which is written 'Ellada' by modern Hellenes themselves. Back in mythical times, there lived Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha of flood fame, although Zeus is also said to have been his father--as many kings did. Thucydides (Thoukudídēs, Θουκυδίδης), who lived from 460 BC to 395 BC, was an Athenian historian, political philosopher and military general. He is best known for his 'History of the Peloponnesian War', which recounts in great detail the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens in the year 411 BC, but he also wrote a text called 'On The Early History of the Hellenes' in 395 BC. In it, he says some rather beautiful things about Hellas as a man, and Hellas as a country:
"The country which is now called Hellas was not regularly settled in ancient times. The people were migratory, and readily left their homes whenever they were overpowered by numbers. There was no commerce, and they could not safely hold intercourse with one another either by land or sea. The several tribes cultivated their own soil just enough to obtain a maintenance from it. But they had no accumulation of wealth, and did not plant the ground; for, being without walls, they were never sure that an invaded might not come and despoil them. Living in this manner and knowing that they could anywhere obtain a bare subsistence, they were always ready to migrate; so that they had neither great cities nor any considerable resources. The richest districts were most constantly changing their inhabitants; for example, the countries which are now called Thessaly and Boeotia, the greater part of the Peloponnesus with the exception of Arcadia, and all the best parts of Hellas. For the productiveness of the land increased the power of individuals; this in turn was a source of quarrels by which communities were ruined, while at the same time they were more exposed to attacks from without. Certainly Attica, of which the soil was poor and thin, enjoyed a long freedom from civil strife, and therefore retained its original inhabitants [the Pelasgians].
The feebleness of antiquity is further proved to me by the circumstance that there appears to have been no common action in Hellas before the Trojan War. And I am inclined to think that the very name was not as yet given to the whole country, and in fact did not exist at all before the time of Hellen, the son of Deucalion; the different tribes, of which the Pelasgian was the most widely spread, gave their own names to different districts. But when Hellen and his sons became powerful in Phthiotis, their aid was invoked by other cities, and those who associated with them gradually began to be called Hellenes, though a long time elapsed before the name was prevalent over the whole country. Of this, Homer affords the best evidence; for he, although he lived long after the Trojan War, nowhere uses this name collectively, but confines it to the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes; when speaking of the entire host, he calls them Danäans, or Argives, or Achaeans."
'Greece' stems from the Latin 'Graecia', which in turn is said to stem from 'Graeci'/'Graecus' with the letter 'G' pronounced 'Y' as in 'Yard'. In short: the name of 'Greece' is 'Hellas', and the adjective 'Greek' is 'Hellenic', at least according to the inhabitants of Hellas, who are themselves Hellenes. Given that most modern European languages originate from Latin, the word 'Graecus' became the root for all other respective names for the Hellenic Republic--including 'Greece', or as we call it in my country: 'Griekenland' ('country of the Greeks').In the beginning of this blog, I used 'Greek' quite a bit. That's what I thought was the proper term for the country, even in olden days. It's not. There is a big pride issue surrounding the word 'Hellas', or 'Hellenic Republic'. It's the preferred term by the people of the country, and the official name of the country itself. That is why I use it.
No comments:
Post a Comment