AncientGreek History Page 2

A lot of people, including myself, thought that the name derived from Helen of Troy. Since the Greeks call themselves: "Hellenes", and apparently united for the 1st time in history to avenge her abduction, its understandable if one mistakenly thinks this was the defining point of their national identity.

(Even so, I have done a bit of research, called in some heavy guns and still find that these origins are shrouded in the midst of antiquity).

In fact after months of searching I still can't find out exactly how the name came about! I doubt I would believe anyone if they told me at this point too but I would like to hear your theory if you have one.

OK major update! I was breezing through my 1851, 8 volume History of Greece by George Grote Esq. and on page 136 of vol.1 found this:

'The offspring of Deukalion and Pyrrha were two sons, Hellen and Amphiktyon, and a daughter Protogeneia (literally meaning: 1st generation) whose son by Zeus was Aethlius: it was maintained by many however, that Hellen was the son of Zeus and not of Deukalion. Hellen had, by a nymph, three sons, Dorus, Xuthus and Aeolus. He gave to those who had been before, the name of "Hellenes" and partitioned his territory among his three children. Aeolus reigned in Thessaly; Xuthus received Peloponnesus; while Dorus occupied the country lying opposite the Peloponnesus on the northern side of the Corinthian Gulf."

Now George claims that this genealogy is according to Apollodorus and that Euripideis and others contradict him with their own genealogies. He goes on to say, that as far as he knows, this is "the first fraternal aggregation of Hellenic men together with their territorial distributions and the institutions which they collectively venerated"

So there you go! Its finally settled! We can source the qualities of the Greek Race to a nymph of no known address or attributes. Was she a water nymph or a tree nymph or what? Could she have been a dryad perhaps? Or even a a muse? In modern Greece, many nymphs have survived to this day, particularly in the summer.

The good news is, that none of the nymphs have last names so you only have to remember their first names!! The bad news men, is that they always have formidable family around every corner and under every rock and will use your name to found any new race that you are responsible for. Stick to the many foreign women visiting Greece.

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