Who are the Hellenes in ancient Greece. Jaeger O

But in this regard, the East is just a different model, a different model of life, a different model of behavior, and it is not known which is better. After all, even modern European civilization is not so old, it is not so ancient. But, for example, Chinese civilization has four thousand years of continuous development - continuous, without upheavals, without changes in the ethnic composition. And here Europe, which in fact will begin its history, ethnic history, from the era of the migration of peoples, does not look so ancient. Not to mention the Americans, who have this whole history for 200 years, because they did not consider the history of the people that they exterminated - the history of the Indians - as part of their history.

Do not forget that in addition to Europe there is a huge world around, which is just as interesting and original. And if he is incomprehensible, this does not mean that he is worse. In this regard, again, you need to imagine what the attitude of the Greeks was (the first lectures will be on Greece, so we will talk about the Greeks) to the outside world. I wonder if they considered themselves Europeans and did they think that they would be considered the basis on which European civilization would arise? So, for the Greeks, and later for the Romans (well, with a certain modification), there will be a very clear idea of ​​the division into “us” and “them”: Hellenes and barbarians.

Who are the Hellenes?

Hellenes- those that belong to the circle of Greek culture. They are not of Greek origin. It doesn't matter who you are from. Hellene is a person who speaks the Greek language, who worships the Greek gods, who leads the Greek way of life. And in this regard, again, it was significant that the Greeks had no concept of nationality. Then we will say that for the first time they develop the concept of a citizen, the concept of civil status, but again, not the concept of nationality.

In this respect the Greeks were a very receptive people. That is why such a rapid and dynamic development of their culture can be explained. Many of the so-called Greeks are ethnically non-Greek. Thales is traditionally a Phoenician, that is, a quarter, at least, a representative of the Asia Minor Carian people, Thucydides is a Thracian by mother. And many other remarkable representatives of Greek culture were not Greek by origin. Or here is one of the seven wise men (seven wise men, the selection was tough), a purely Scythian, Anacharsis, and it is believed that he belongs to the circle of Greek culture. And, by the way, it is he who owns one saying that is so relevant, say, in our country, in our world. It was he who said that the law is like a web: the weak and poor will get stuck, while the strong and rich will break through. Well, why is this not Hellenic wisdom, Hellenic, but he is a Scythian.

So for the Greeks (and they will then settle throughout the Mediterranean and the Black Sea), a Greek Hellenic was considered a person of their culture and that's it, regardless of nationality. And all those who are not related to culture do not speak Greek, they are all barbarians. Moreover, at that moment the word “barbarus” (this is a purely Greek word) did not have a negative character, it was just a person of a different culture. And that's it. And again, any barbarian can become a representative of the Hellenic culture, can become a Hellene. There is nothing permanent in this.

That is why they did not have such problems in the world as, for example, religious strife or strife on a national character, although the Greeks fought all the time, they were a very restless people. They fought for completely different reasons.

Herodotus, Thucydides, Parian Marble, Apollodorus also placed them there. However, Aristotle transfers ancient Hellas to Epirus. According to Ed. Meyer, expressed in the work "Geschichte des Altertums" (II vol., Stuttgart, 1893), in the prehistoric period, the Greeks who occupied Epirus were driven out from there to Thessaly and transferred with them to new lands and former tribal and regional names.

Later genealogical poetry (beginning with Hesiod) created the eponym of the Hellenic tribe of Hellenes, making him the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who survived the great local flood and were considered the ancestors of the Greek people. The same genealogical poetry created, in the person of Hellenus' brother, Amphictyon, the eponym of the Thermopylae-Delphic Amphictyony. The members of the Amphictyony, linking themselves by origin with the Phthiotians, got used to calling themselves Hellenes and spread this name throughout Northern and Central Greece, and the Dorians transferred it to the Peloponnese.

In the 7th century BC, the correlative concepts of barbarians and panhellenes arose mainly in the east, but this last name was supplanted by the name of the Hellenes, which had already come into use, which united all the tribes who spoke the Greek language, with the exception of the Macedonians, who lived an isolated life.

As a nationwide name name Hellenes is found for the first time in the 8th century BC at Archilochus and in the Hesiodian Catalogue.

Links

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

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See what "Hellenes" is in other dictionaries:

Greeks. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov AN, 1910. ELLINS Ancient Greeks, as they called themselves. A complete dictionary of foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language. Popov M., 1907 ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (Greek Hellenes), the self-name of the Greeks ... Modern Encyclopedia

- (Greek Hellenes) the self-name of the Greeks ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

ELLINS, ov, unit in, a, m. The self-name of the Greeks (often the classical era). Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

- (in EllenV). For the first time with the name of the Hellenes of a small tribe that lived in southern Thessaly in the valley of the Enipeus, Apidan and other tributaries of the Peneus, we meet in Homer: E., together with the Achaeans and Myrmidons, are mentioned here as subjects of Achilles, inhabiting ... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

Hellenes- Hellenes, ov, unit. h. Hellenes, and ... Russian spelling dictionary

Hellenes- (Greek Hellenes), the self-name of the Greeks. … Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Ov; pl. [Greek Hellenes] 1. Self-designation of the Greeks. ● For the first time, the term Hellenes for the Greeks is found in the poet Archilochus (7th century BC). 2. Ancient Greeks. ◁ Ellin, a; m. Ellinka, and; pl. genus. nok, date nkam; and. Hellenic, oh, oh. Oh speech. E... encyclopedic Dictionary

Hellenes- (Greek Hellenes) the self-name of the Greeks, which spread in antiquity. For the first time this word is found in Homer, however, in relation to only one tribe that inhabited a small area in southern Thessaly Hellas; Aristotle locates it in ... ... Antique world. Dictionary reference.

Hellenes- ov; pl. (Greek Héllēnes) see also. Hellene, Hellenic, Hellenic 1) The self-name of the Greeks. For the first time, the term Hellenes for the Greeks is found in the poet Archilochus (7th century BC). 2) Ancient Greeks... Dictionary of many expressions

Books

• Hellenes and Jews, Yuri Gert. For Yuri Gert, the most important topics have always been anti-Semitism, overcoming assimilation facelessness, understanding one’s own destiny as part of one’s destiny…
• King Herod the Great. The Embodiment of the Impossible (Rome, Judea, Hellenes), V.L. Vikhnovich The book of the famous St. Petersburg scientist V. L. Vikhnovich is dedicated to the life and work of the last Jewish king Herod the Great (73–4 BC), whose name in connection with the mention in ...

Flood, Deucalion, Hellenic. People who lived in ancient times passed on a tragic tradition from fathers to children. As if many thousands of years ago, a global flood happened on Earth: for several days a terrible downpour was incessantly, raging streams flooded fields, forests, roads, villages, cities. Everything was hidden under water. People died. The only person who managed to escape was Deucalion. He had a son, who received the beautiful and sonorous name of Ellin. It was he who chose the rocky land for settlement in those parts where the country of Greece is now located. By the name of its first inhabitant, it was called Hellas, and its population - Hellenes.

Hellas. It was an amazing country. A lot of work had to be spent on growing bread in its fields, olives in its gardens, and grapes on the slopes of the mountains. Each patch of land was watered with the sweat of grandfathers and great-grandfathers. A clear blue sky stretched over Hellas, mountain ranges crossed the whole country from end to end. The tops of the mountains were lost in the clouds, and how could one not believe that in the heights, hidden from human eyes, eternal spring reigns and immortal gods live!

On all sides, the beautiful country was surrounded by the sea, and there was no place in Hellas from which it would not be possible to reach its shores in one day's journey. The sea was visible from everywhere, it was only necessary to climb some hill. The sea attracted the Hellenes, and even more attracted their unknown overseas countries. From the stories of the brave sailors who visited there, wonderful stories were born. The ancient Hellenes were very fond of listening to them, having gathered around a hot fire after a day's work.

Homer, Hesiod and Myths. This is how myths and legends were born in ancient times, into the fascinating world of which we entered. The Greeks were cheerful, courageous, knew how to find the good in every day, knew how to cry and laugh, get angry and admire. All this was reflected in their myths, which, fortunately, have not been lost for centuries. Ancient writers beautifully presented ancient legends in their works - some in verse, some in prose. The wise blind poet Homer, who lived almost three thousand years ago, was the first to take up the retelling of myths. His famous poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" tell about the Greek heroes, their battles and victories, as well as about the Greek gods, their lives on the top of the impregnable Mount Olympus, feasts and adventures, quarrels and reconciliations.

And about where the world itself and all the gods came from, the poet Hesiod, who lived a little later than Homer, wrote beautifully. His poem is called "Theogony", which means "The Origin of the Gods". The ancient Greeks were very fond of watching plays about the lives of gods and heroes. They were written by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. Until now, these plays (the Greeks called them "tragedies") are in many theaters around the world. Of course, they have long been translated from ancient Greek into modern languages, including Russian. From them you can also learn a lot of interesting things about the heroes of Greek myths.

The myths of ancient Hellas are beautiful, as the country itself is beautiful; the gods of Greek myths are in many ways similar to humans, only more powerful. They are beautiful and eternally young, for them there is no hard work and illness...

On the land of ancient Hellas, many ancient sculptures depicting gods and heroes are found. Look at them in the illustrations of the book - they are as if alive. True, not all statues are intact, because they have lain for many centuries in the ground, and therefore their arm or leg may be broken off, sometimes even their heads are beaten off, sometimes only the torso remains, but still they are beautiful, like the immortal gods of Hellenic myths themselves.

Ancient Hellas lives in works of art. And it is connected with many threads with mythology.

Read also other topics chapter I "Space, world, gods" of the section "Gods and heroes of the ancient Greeks":

• 1. Hellas and Hellenes

At the heart of worldview ancient greeks lay beauty. They considered themselves a beautiful people and did not hesitate to prove this to their neighbors, who most often believed the Hellenes and over time, sometimes not without a struggle, adopted their ideas of beauty. The poets of the classical period, beginning with Homer and Euripides, depict heroes as tall and fair-haired. But that was the ideal. In addition, what is high growth in the understanding of a person of that time? What curls were considered golden? Red, chestnut, blonde? All these questions are not easy to answer.

When the geographer Dikearchus from Messene in the GU c. BC e. admired the fair-haired Thebans and praised the courage of the blond Spartans, he only emphasized the rarity of fair-haired and fair-skinned people. From numerous images of warriors on ceramics or wall paintings from Pylos and Mycenae, bearded men with black curly hair look at the viewer. Also, the dark hair of the priestesses and court ladies on the palace frescoes of Tiryns. On Egyptian paintings, where the peoples living "on the islands of the Great Green" are depicted, people appear small in stature, slender, with skin lighter than that of the Egyptians, with large, wide-open dark eyes, with thin noses, thin lips and black curly hair.

This is an ancient Mediterranean type, which is still found in this region. The golden masks from Mycenae show some faces of the Asia Minor type - wide, with close-set eyes, fleshy noses and eyebrows converging at the bridge of the nose. During excavations, the bones of warriors of the Balkan type are also found - with an elongated torso, round head and large eyes. All these types moved across the territory of Hellas and mixed with each other, until, finally, the image of the Hellene was formed, which was recorded by the Roman writer Polemon in the 2nd century BC. n. e: “Those who managed to preserve the Ionian race in all its purity are men rather tall and broad-shouldered, stately and rather light-skinned. Their hair is not quite light, relatively soft and slightly wavy. The faces are broad, high cheekbones, the lips are thin, the nose is straight and the eyes are shining, full of fire.

The study of the skeletons allows us to say that average height of Hellenic men was 1.67-1.82 m, and women 1.50-1.57 m. The teeth of almost all the buried were perfectly preserved, which should not be surprising, since in those times people ate "environmentally friendly" food and died relatively young, rarely stepping over the 40th anniversary.

Psychologically, the Hellenes were quite an interesting guy. In addition to the traits inherent in all Mediterranean peoples: individualism, irascibility, love of disputes, competitions and circuses, the Greeks were endowed with curiosity, a flexible mind, a passion for adventure. They were distinguished by a taste for risk and a craving for travel. They set off on the road for her own sake. Hospitality, sociability and pugnacity were also their properties. However, this is only a bright emotional cover that hides the deep inner dissatisfaction and pessimism inherent in the Hellenes.

Split of the Greek soul has long been noted by historians of art and religion. The craving for fun, the desire to taste life in all its fullness and transience were intended only to drown out the melancholy and emptiness that opened up in the chest of the Greeks at the thought of the non-material world. The horror of understanding that earthly life is the best that awaits a person was unconsciously great. Further, the path of a person lay in Tartarus, where shadows dried up by thirst roam the fields and only for a moment acquire a semblance of speech and reason, when relatives bring funeral hecatombs, pouring out sacrificial blood. But even in the sunny world, where a person could still enjoy while walking the earth, hard work, epidemics, wars, wanderings, homesickness and loss of loved ones awaited him. The wisdom gained over the years of struggles told the Hellene that only the gods taste eternal bliss, they also pre-determine the fate of mortals, their sentence cannot be changed, no matter how hard you try. This is the conclusion of the most popular myth of Oedipus endowed with philosophical significance.

Oedipus was predicted that he would kill his own father and marry his mother. Separated from his family, the young man returned to his homeland after many years and unknowingly committed both crimes. Neither his piety before the gods nor his just reign as king of Thebes abolished predestination. The fateful hour has come, and everything destined by fate has come true. Oedipus gouged out his eyes as a sign of blindness, to which man is doomed by the immortal gods, and went to wander.

Nothing can be done, and therefore rejoice while you can, and taste the fullness of life that flows between your fingers - such is the inner pathos of the Greek worldview. The Hellenes were fully aware of themselves as participants in a huge tragedy unfolding on the stage of the world. The civil liberties of the city-states did not compensate the soul for the lack of freedom from predestination.

So, Hellene- laughing pessimist. He becomes sad at a merry feast, in a fit of momentary gloom he can kill a comrade or a loved one, or, by the will of the immortals, go on a journey, not expecting anything other than the tricks of the celestials for the accomplished feats. If a person is lucky to live near his native hearth with a nice family, he will hide happiness without showing it off, for the gods are envious.