Greeks: Difference between revisions
rv - you give information and let the reader decide who modern greeks are, you are trying to influence their opinion with that sentence. These are POV additions to articles, I won't rv again though |
NikoSilver (talk | contribs) It says "inheritors". It doesn't say "offsprings"! It allows the user to consider that Greeks may be bastards (if that was your point). |
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==Identity of the Greek people== |
==Identity of the Greek people== |
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The modern Greek state and its people are |
The modern Greek state and its people are the inheritor of the [[ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] civilizations and cultures. From ancient Greece the modern people inherited a sophisticated culture and a language that has been documented for almost three millennia. <!-- "History Of Greece, Britannica 2006 --> |
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The Greek language has an unbroken literary history which makes it one of the oldest surviving branches of the Indo-European family of languages.The language of [[History of Athens|Athens]] under [[Pericles]] in the [[5th century BC]] and the present-day language of the Greeks are recognizably one and the same; few languages can demonstrate such continuity. The language has been spoken in the Greek peninsula for over 3500 years (and in western [[Asia Minor]] for a little less). <!-- "Greece, World Book 2005 --> |
The Greek language has an unbroken literary history which makes it one of the oldest surviving branches of the Indo-European family of languages.The language of [[History of Athens|Athens]] under [[Pericles]] in the [[5th century BC]] and the present-day language of the Greeks are recognizably one and the same; few languages can demonstrate such continuity. The language has been spoken in the Greek peninsula for over 3500 years (and in western [[Asia Minor]] for a little less). <!-- "Greece, World Book 2005 --> |
Revision as of 16:04, 31 March 2006
File:GREEKS.JPG | |
Regions with significant populations | |
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Greece: 11.275.420 [World Gazetteer 2006 est] Cyprus: Germany: Canada: United Kingdom: Russian Federation: Ukraine: | |
Languages | |
Greek | |
Religion | |
Greek Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Other Indo-European ethnic groups |
The Greeks (Hellenes) are an ethnic group found in the southern Balkan peninsula of southeastern Europe and are speakers of the Greek language. Despite frequent colonisations, Greeks have lived in Greece and Cyprus for over 3500 years. There are also native Greek minorities from Southern Italy to the Caucasus and Diaspora communities in a number of other countries.
Identity of the Greek people
The modern Greek state and its people are the inheritor of the ancient Greek and Byzantine civilizations and cultures. From ancient Greece the modern people inherited a sophisticated culture and a language that has been documented for almost three millennia.
The Greek language has an unbroken literary history which makes it one of the oldest surviving branches of the Indo-European family of languages.The language of Athens under Pericles in the 5th century BC and the present-day language of the Greeks are recognizably one and the same; few languages can demonstrate such continuity. The language has been spoken in the Greek peninsula for over 3500 years (and in western Asia Minor for a little less). Through history, the definition of Greekness has varied, although by modern standards, the term "Greeks" has traditionally referred to any native speakers of the Greek language (whether Mycenaean, Byzantine or modern Greeks). Byzantine Greeks valued the classical tradition and regarded themselves as the Orthodox heirs of Greece and Rome. The use of the older self-descriptive ethnic term "Hellenes" revived during the era of the neo-platonic philosopher Gemistus Pletho and the work of Cyriac of Ancona. It became fairly common with the emergence, in the late 18th century, of the nation-state and its gradual consolidation, but it was not until the early 20th century that its popular use was firmly re-established.
Greece became the first country in the Balkans to come into being, both as a nation-state and breaking away from the Ottoman Empire. The Greek revolutionary movement formed its own definition of Greekness out of the Byzantine and ancient Greek cultural heritage along with the influences of western nationalism. This attracted foreign support from the Philhellenes.
Classical and Hellenistic
Herodotus states that the Athenians declared, before the battle of Plataea, that they would not go over to Mardonius, because in the first place, they were bound to avenge the burning of the Acropolis; and, secondly, they would not betray their fellow Greeks, to whom they were bound by:
- A common language1 (the use of one of the dialects of the Greek language)
- Common blood2 (descent from Hellen, son of Deucalion)
- Common shrines, statues and sacrifices (practice of the ancient Greek religion)3 and
- Common habits and customs.
As Thucydides observes the name of Hellas spread from a valley in Thessaly to the Greek-speaking peoples after the formation of the text of Homer (the Panellenes of Il. 2.530 are the troops of Thessaly, contrasting with the Achaeans), not long before his own time. This places the idea in the Archaic period, when Greeks discovered that the world was wider, wealthier, and more cultured than they had hitherto imagined. Homer's Trojan War is, indeed, a conflict among Greeks: the Trojans speak Greek (although most modern historians believe they were more likely an Anatolian people), bear Greek names, and worship the Greek gods; and Priam is descended from Zeus (see Alaksandus). The Carians are the only people Homer considers barbarophonoi.
Nor did the late and schematic myth of the sons of Hellen ever convince other mythographers to comply with it. Theseus is descended from Erechtheus, son of the Earth; Oedipus from the Phoenician Cadmus; Agamemnon from Phrygian Pelops; Heracles and Perseus from Egyptian Danaus. Whole cities were not descended from Hellen: Athens, Lemnos, and the Cretans were Pelasgian; and 1 Maccabees 12:21 asserts that the Spartans are children of Abraham.
The myth of Hellen combined into one group the smaller tribes that participated in the Delphic Amphictyon, such as the Aeolians, the Achaeans, and the Dorians. Traces of the older distinctions remained; Dorians were forbidden in the Parthenon; although the Spartan king Cleomenes I claimed this did not apply to him — as a descendant of Heracles, he was an Achaean. As in this example, the Greeks almost always reckoned descent through the male line.
So the exact nature of Greek identity has been an open question since ancient times. It has not become clearer with time: descent is at best a matter of tradition, and the Greeks have altered their language, religion, and customs since Herodotus. Nevertheless, there has been, in practice, a continuous Greek identity since ancient times, containing at least those who were born Greek and who had citizenship in a Greek city, or membership of a Greek community.
As early as the 5th century BC, Isocrates, after speaking of common origin and worship, says: "the name Hellenes suggests no longer a race but an intelligence, and... the title Hellenes is applied rather to those who share our culture than to those who share a common blood". Panegyric 4.50.
After the 4th century BC and Alexander the Great's conquest of the East, Greek became the lingua franca of the East Mediterranean region and was widely spoken by educated non-Greeks.
Byzantine Greeks
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Trapezunt_gospel.jpg/220px-Trapezunt_gospel.jpg)
After the creation of the Byzantine Empire, Greek culture shifted from Hellenic (Greek pagan) to Eastern Roman (Greek paganism fused with Christianity), and the word "Hellene" became associated with the pagan past. Distinctions between nationalities among the citizens of the empire did not become extinct, but became secondary to religious considerations as the renewed Empire used Christianity to maintain its cohesion. However, the ByzantineEmpire was dominated by the Greek element to such an extend that Emperor Heraclius (575-641AD) decided to make Greek the official language. From this point thereafter the Roman and Greek cultures were virtually fused in the East. Thanks to the settlements that resulted from such policies, many a name, seemingly Greek, disguises another of different ethnic origin: Slavic, perhaps, or Turkish. By that time it was common policy by the Latin West to refer to Byzantium strictly as "Empire of the Greeks" (Imperium Graecorum), or even "Greece" (Graecia).
Nonetheless, it was religion that divided the Empire from the Muslims; and, along different lines, it came to divide the Empire from the Franks, Armenians, Copts, and Syrians.
Pure Greek nationalism re-emerged in the 11th century within specific circles and became more forcefull after the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and the establishment of a number of Greek kingdoms (such as the Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus). When the empire was revived in 1261, it became essentially a Greek national state. Adherence to Greek Orthodox rites and the Greek language, became the defining characteristic of the Greek people.
Greeks in the Ottoman Empire
Under the Ottoman Empire, religion was the defining characteristic of "national" groups (millet), so "Greeks" ("Rum") were defined by the Ottomans as members of the Greek Orthodox Church, regardless of their language or origin. Conversely, those who adopted Islam during that period were considered 'Turks', regardless of their language or origin. Thus Alexander Ypsilanti expected the Moldavians and Wallachians, being Greek Orthodox, to rise for Greek independence; but they did not.
Modern independence
This strong relation between Greek national identity and Greek Orthodox religion continued after the creation of the modern Greek state in 1830, and when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed between Greece and Turkey in 1923, the two countries agreed to use religion as the determinant for ethnic identity. However, in many important respects, the Greek state adhered from its founding to remarkably secular principles. For instance, Jews were granted full citizens rights in 1830, the year Greece's independence was formally recognized, thus making Greece the second state in Europe (after France) with an emancipated Jewish community.
Today, the deeper integration of Greece into the Western strategic system and the effects of migration (both emigration from Greece in the 1950s and 1960s, and immigration into Greece in more recent years) have led to a perception of multiculturalism similar to that of other Western European nations.
Names used for the Greek people
Main Article: Names of the Greeks.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Ac.funeral.jpg/300px-Ac.funeral.jpg)
Throughout the centuries, the Greeks have been known by a number of names, including:
- Hellenes (Έλληνες) - In mythology, Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, received from the nymph Orseis three sons, Aeolus, Dorus and Xuthus, each of which founded a primary tribe of Hellas; Aeolians, Dorians, Achaeans and Ionians. Originally, only a small tribe in Thessaly were called Hellenes, but the word soon extended to the rest of the peninsula and came to represent all Greek people. In early Christian times it was sometimes used to mean "pagans". It remains in Greece today, the primary national name.
- Greeks (Γραικοί) - In mythology, Graecus was the brother of Latinus and nephew to Hellen. It was the name of a Boeotian tribe that migrated to the Italian peninsula in the 8th century BC and probably through contact with natives there brought the term to represent all Hellenes, which then established itself in Italy and in the West in general.
![]() | This section's factual accuracy is disputed. |
- Romioi (Ρωμιοί) - Romans is the political name by which the Byzantine Greeks called themselves during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In parts of mainland Greece and Asia Minor, the use of this name survived well in the 20th century. The name in antiquity signified the inhabitants of the city of Rome in Italy, but with the elevation of the Greeks in the Roman Empire, it soon lost its connection with the Latins and acquired a completely different definition. Roman Emperor Caracalla with his Constitutio Antoniniana (212) granted all free people in the Roman Empire citizenship. The term Roman (Romaios) represented for the Greeks their Roman citizenship and their Hellenic ancestry. The word Romaioi came to represent the Greek inhabitants of the Byzantine Empire. It remains still in use today in Greece, being the most popular national name after Hellene.
- Yunani (Ίωνες) - Yunani, from the Persian Yauna, itself a transliteration of the Greek Ionia, is the name by which the Greeks are known in the East today. The term became established in the ancient Middle East from the Persians, who in contact with the Ionian tribes in western Asia Minor in the 6th century BC, extended the name to all Hellenes.
- Achaeans, Argives, and Danaans are names used interchangeably by Homer, to signify the Greek allied forces.
History of the Greeks
The history of the Greek people is closely associated with the history of Greece, Constantinople, and Asia Minor. By the late 19th century, over half of the Greek-speaking populations were settled in Asia Minor (now Turkey). It is only in the middle 20th century that Greek-speaking populations are almost exclusively confined within the borders of the Greek state.
During the Ottoman rule of Greece, a number of Greek enclaves around the Mediterranean were cut off from the core, notably in Southern Italy, the Caucasus, Syria,and Egypt.
During the 20th century, a huge wave of migration to the United States, Australia, Canada,and elsewhere created a Greek diaspora.
Modern and ancient Greeks
Most modern ethnologists believe that there is a strong and continuous tradition linking ancient and modern Greeks genetically, linguistically and culturally over the millennia, though, of course, there have also been significant contributions to Greek culture from other peoples. The facial recostruction of skeletons found in ancient tombs, combined with genetic and anthropological studies shows that the ethnic elements of ancient Greece (which, apropos, proved to be highly heterogeneous), remain in the modern population.
Greeks around the world
Apart from Greece and Cyprus there is a large Greek diaspora. Large Greek communities can be found in a number of countries:
- United States: 1,153,295 (2000 Census). See Greek-Americans.
- Germany: 316,000 (2004, foreign population)
- Canada: 215.105 [2001 Census] See Greek Canadians
- Australia: 375.703 [2001 Census] 260,000 speak Greek at home (1996 Census); 336,782 self-reported Greek origin (1996} Census[5]). See Greek-Australians
- United Kingdom: 200.000 BBC 2001, 77.156 born in Cyprus,30.000 born in Greece [2001 UK Census]. See Greeks in Great Britain.
- Albania: 106.000 [World Almanac Book of Facts 2001] 36,000-280,000 by different estimates: 36,000 (Albanian Institute of Statistics, reported by US Dept. of State, 2005); 62,500 (Albanian census, ibid., 1989); 100,000 (CIA World Factbook, 1989); 150,000 (Greek Helsinki Monitor estimate, 1994); 280,000 (Greek estimate reported by Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, 2004).
- Former Soviet Union: Approx. 200,000 remain; 1989 Soviet Union Census 358.000 Greeks in all Republics.
Significant Greek communities can also be found in: Argentina (c.30,000), Austria (c.12,000[[6]]), Italy (c.50.000 in "Grecia Salentina" speaking a Greco-italian dialect called Griko), Belgium (c.25,000), Brazil (c.25,000),Argentina {c.20.000}, Bulgaria (c.25,000), Egypt (c.42,000[[7]]), France (c.20,000), Hungary (c.5,000), Kazakhstan (c.12,000), Netherlands (c.4.000), New Zealand (c.4,500), Romania (c.6,500), Sweden (c.50,000[[8]]), Switzerland (c.11,000), South Africa (c.50,000), Turkey (2.000 Christian Orthodox in Istanbul), Uzbekistan (c.9,000) and Zambia (c.1,000).
Timeline of Greek migrations
Various events in this timeline are disputed by one theory or another. Some key historical events have also been included for context, but this timeline is not intended to cover history not related to migrations. There is more information on the historical context of these migrations in History of Greece.
- Pre-20th century BC — Greek tribes migrate into the Balkans.
- 20th century BC — Settlement into Macedonia, establishment of some settlements in peninsular Greece.
- 17th century BC — Decline of Minoan civilization, possibly due to the eruption of Thera. Settlement of Achaeans and Ionians in the Greek peninsula (Mycenaean civilization).
- 13th century BC — First colonies established in Asia Minor.
- 11th century BC — Doric tribes move into peninsular Greece.
- 9th century BC — Major colonization of Asia Minor.
- 8th century BC — First major colonies established in Sicily and Southern Italy.
- 6th century BC — Colonies established across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea
- 4th century BC — Campaign of Alexander the Great; colonies established in Egypt (mainly Alexandria) and the Middle East.
- 2nd century BC — Conquest of Greece by the Roman Republic. Migrations of Greeks to Rome.
- 4th century — Establishment of Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Migrations of Greeks throughout the Empire, mainly towards Constantinople.
- 13th century — Byzantine Empire dissolves, Constantinople taken by the Fourth Crusade; becoming the capital of the Latin Empire. Reconquered after a long struggle by the Empire of Nicaea, but fragments remain separated. Migrations between Asia Minor, Constantinople and mainland Greece.
- 15th century — Conquest of Byzantium by the Ottoman Empire. Greek diaspora into Europe begins. Turkish settlements in Greece. For the next 3 centuries, large scale migrations of Greeks into Europe and Asia takes place. Phanariot Greeks occupy high posts in Eastern European millets.
- 1830s — Creation of the Modern Greek State. Immigration to the New World begins. Large-scale migrations from Constantinople and Asia Minor to Greece take place.
- 1913 — Macedonia partitioned; Unorganized migrations of Greeks, Bulgarians and Turks towards their respective states.
- 1910s — approximately 350,000 Pontian Greeks killed [9] [10].
- 1919 — Treaty of Neuilly; Greece and Bulgaria exchange populations, with some exceptions.
- 1923 — Treaty of Lausanne; Greece and Turkey agree to exchange populations with limited exceptions of the Greeks in Constantinople, Imbros, Tenedos and the Turks of Eastern Thrace. 1,5 million of Asian and Pontic Greeks settle in Greece, and some 450 thousands of Turks settle in Turkey.
- 1947 — Communist regime in Romania begins evictions of the Greek community, approx. 75,000 migrate.
- 1948 — Greek Civil War. Tens of thousands of Greek communists and their families flee into Eastern Bloc nations. Thousands settle in Tashkent.
- 1950s — Massive emigration of Greeks to West Germany, the United States, Australia, Canada, and other countries.
- 1955 — Istanbul Pogrom against Greeks. Exodus of Greeks from the city accelerates; less than 2000 remain today.
- 1958 — Large Greek community in Alexandria flees Nasser's regime in Egypt.
- 1960s — Republic of Cyprus created, as an independent Greek state, under Greek, Turkish and British protection. Economic emigration continues.
- 1974 — Turkish invasion of Northern Cyprus. Almost all Greeks living in northern Cyprus flee to the south and the United Kingdom.
- 1980s — Many civil war refugees allowed to remigrate to Greece. Reverse migration of Greeks from Germany also begins.
- 1990s — Collapse of Soviet Union. Approx. 100,000 ethnic Greeks migrate from Georgia, Armenia and southern Russia to Greece.
- 2000 — Greece fully implements the Schengen Treaty.
- 2000s — Some statistics indicate the beginning of a trend of reverse migration of Greeks from the United States and Australia.
Other languages
- Yunan (from the ancient Persian 'Yauna', from the Greek 'Ionian'), derives from Ionian Greeks established in Bactria.
- "Rum" (from the Greek "Romaioi"), one of the self-descriptive ethnic terms of the Byzantine and modern Greeks.
Footnotes
1In Greek: homoglosson (ὁμόγλωσσον)
2In Greek: homaimon (ὅμαιμον)
3Compare the Christian Greek and Demotic term omothriskon (ὁμόθρησκον).
4Includes non-Greeks born in Greece; excludes Greeks not born in Greece; excludes second-generation Greek-Canadians.
Miscellaneous topics
- Greece
- History of Greece
- Ancient Greece
- Greek mythology
- Hellenistic civilization
- Byzantine Empire
- Byzantium
- Pontian Greeks
- Pontus
- Philhellenism
- List of Greeks
- Greek Cypriots
- Greek American
- Greek Canadians
- Greek Australian
- Greeks in Great Britain
- Greeks in Romania
- Cyprus
- Macedonia
Bibliography
- Peter Mackridge, Eleni Yannakakis, eds., Ourselves and Others : The Development of a Greek Macedonian Cultural Identity since 1912, 1997, ISBN 1859731333.
- Peter Bien, "Inventing Greece", Journal of Modern Greek Studies 23:2 (October 2005), pp. 217-234.
- Michael Herzfeld, Ours Once More: Folklore, Ideology, and the making of Modern Greece, 1982, ISBN 918618320.
- Victor Roudometof, "From Rum Millet to Greek Nation: Enlightenment, Secularization, and National Identity in Ottoman Balkan Society, 1453-1821", Journal of Modern Greek Studies 16:1 (May 1998), pp. 11-48.
- Stephen Xydis, "Medieval Origins of Modern Greek Nationalism", Balkan Studies, 9 (1968), 1-20.
External links
- Greeks on Greekness: The Construction and Uses of the Greek Past among Greeks under the Roman Empire, a conference on how Greeks imagined Greekness in relation to the past during the first two centuries of the Roman Empire.
- Racial Type of the Ancient Hellenes a critical evaluation of the extant evidence about the racial type of the Ancient Greeks. It is in part an anthropological study in its own right, and in part a response to those, especially of the Nordicist school, who claim that the Ancient Greeks were physically different from the modern ones.
- Greek people
- Ethnic groups in Europe
- Ethnic groups in Greece
- Ethnic groups in Albania
- Ethnic groups in Australasia
- Ethnic groups in Brazil
- Ethnic groups in Bulgaria
- Ethnic groups in Hungary
- Ethnic groups in Macedonia
- Ethnic groups in Russia
- Ethnic groups in South Africa
- Ethnic groups in Turkey
- Ethnic groups in Ukraine
- Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom
- Ethnic groups in the United States
- Ethnic groups in Uzbekistan
- Indo-European peoples