The Graecians (; also Graei and Graeci; , Graȋoi and Γραικοί, Graikoí) were an Ancient Greece tribe. Their name is the origin of the Latin language (and English language) name of the Greeks as a whole.[.]
Etymology
It is possible that their name is derived from the toponym of
Graea (Γραία), a city in
Boeotia identical with
Tanagra according to Pausanias.
[Pausanias. Description of Greece, 9.20.2.] The word means "old" based on the adjective γραῖα "old (feminine)".
[: The adjective derives ultimately from the PIE root *ǵerh2-/*ǵreh2-, "to grow old" via Proto-Greek *gera-/grau-iu.]
History
According 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.
(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.
[Aristotle. Meteorology, I.14.] In the
Parian Chronicle, the
Hellenes were originally called
Graecians and established the Panathenean Games in 1522–1521 BC.
[.]
Eponymous ancestor
Hesiod stated that the eponymous ancestor of the Graecians was
Graecus (Γραικός), the son of
Deucalion's daughter Pandora, who also had a brother,
Latinus.
[Hesiod. Catalogue of Women, Fragment 5.] Other sources have Graecus as the son of
Thessalus.
[.]
See also
-
List of ancient Greek tribes
Citations
Sources
