Syros
Syros, or Siros or Syra is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is located 78 nautical miles south-east of Athens, the area of the island is 83.6 km2 and it has 21,507 inhabitants. The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, and Vari, Ermoupoli is the capital of the island and of the Cyclades. It has always been a significant port town, and during the 19th century it was more significant than Piraeus. Other villages are Galissas, Pagos, Kini, Syros refers to USS LST-325, which is an American made World War II-era tank landing ship that was sent to Greece on 1 September 1964, as part of the grant-in-aid program. She served in the Hellenic Navy as RHS Syros from 1964 to 1999 and it is now decommissioned and docked in Evansville, Indiana. Ermoupoli stands on a naturally amphitheatrical site, with buildings, old mansions. The City Hall, where Miaoulis Square lies ringed with cafes, the City of Hermes has numerous churches, including Metamorphosis, Koimisis, St. Demetrius, Three Hierarchs, Evangelistria and St.
Nicolas. The Archaeological Museum has many finds and the Municipal Library contains numerous editions, the quarter of the town known as Vaporia is where the sea captains lived. Along its narrow streets, stand numerous neo-classical mansions, Ano Syros is the second town of Syros and was built by the Venetians at the beginning of the 13th century on the hill of San Giorgio, north-west of Hermoupolis. Ano Syros maintains a medieval atmosphere, innumerable steps between narrow streets and houses with coloured doors lead to the top of the town. The medieval settlement of Ano Syros is accessible by car, the town is served mostly by marble steps, the distance from the harbour up to the main entry point of the town is approximately 1000 metres. The Catholic cathedral of Saint George dominates Ano Syros, the cathedral church was constructed during the 13th century. From the cathedral visitors have a view of the neighbouring islands of Tinos, Mykonos, Paros and Naxos. The history of settlement on Syros goes back at least 5,000 years and this is when the hill-top settlement of Kastri began.
Archaeologists describe Early Cycladic III culture as Kastri culture, dated by archaeologists to 2800-2300 BC, was one of the earliest settlements in Greece that were protected by stone walls with rounded bastions. Also the cemetery of Chalandriani is associated with Kastri, inside the fortification, the houses shared party walls and were packed close together. It is estimated that the town was home to up to 300 people
Greek art
Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art in the subsequent Geometric and Classical periods. Greek art is mainly five forms, sculpture, artistic production in Greece began in the prehistoric pre-Greek Cycladic and the Minoan civilizations, both of which were influenced by local traditions and the art of ancient Egypt. There are three divisions of the stages of ancient Greek art that correspond roughly with historical periods of the same names. These are the Archaic, the Classical and the Hellenistic, the Archaic period is usually dated from 1000 BC. Of course, different forms of art developed at different speeds in different parts of the Greek world, there was no sharp transition from one artistic period to another. The art of ancient Greece has exercised an influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the present. In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek models, following the Renaissance in Europe, the humanist aesthetic and the high technical standards of Greek art inspired generations of European artists.
Pottery was either red with black designs or black with red designs, Byzantine art is the term created for the Eastern Roman Empire from about the 5th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1452. It can be used for the art of people of the former Byzantine Empire under the rule of Ottoman Empire after 1453, in some respects the Byzantine artistic tradition has continued in Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day. Byzantine art grew from the art of ancient Greece and, at least before 1453, never lost sight of its classical heritage, the most profound of these was that the humanist ethic of ancient Greek art was replaced by the Christian ethic. If the purpose of art was the glorification of man. One of the most important forms of Byzantine art was, and still is, like the Cretan school it combined Byzantine traditions with an increasing Western European artistic influence, and saw the first signiand the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C. The Heptanese School of painting succeeded the Cretan School as the school of Greek post-Byzantine painting after Crete fell to the Ottomans in 1669.
Like the Cretan school it combined Byzantine traditions with an increasing Western European artistic influence, the school was based in the Ionian Islands, which were not part of Ottoman Greece, from the middle of the 17th century until the middle of the 19th century. Modern Greek art, after the establishment of the Greek Kingdom, after centuries of Ottoman rule, few opportunities for an education in the arts existed in the newly independent Greece, so studying abroad was imperative for artists. Munich, as an important international center for the arts at that time, was the place where the majority of the Greek artists of the 19th century chose to study, on, they would return to Greece and pass on their knowledge. Both academic and personal bonds developed between early Greek painters and Munich artistry giving birth to the Greek Munich School, nikolaos Gysis was an important teacher and artist at the Munich Academy and he soon became a leading figure among Greek artists. Many of these Munich School artists chose subjects such as everyday Greek life, local customs, several important painters emerged at this time
Pelasgians
The name Pelasgians was used by classical Greek writers to either refer to populations that were the ancestors of the Greeks, or to signify all pre-classical indigenes of Greece. During the classical period, enclaves under that name survived in several locations of mainland Greece, populations identified as Pelasgian spoke a language or languages that at the time Greeks identified as barbaric, though some ancient writers nonetheless described the Pelasgians as Greeks. A tradition survived that large parts of Greece had once been Pelasgian before being Hellenized and these parts fell largely, though far from exclusively, within the territory which by the 5th century BC was inhabited by those speakers of ancient Greek who were identified as Ionians and Aeolians. Much like all aspects of the Pelasgians, their ethnonym is of extremely uncertain provenance. Michel Sakellariou collects fifteen different etymologies proposed for it by philologists and linguists during the last 200 years, an ancient etymology based on mere similarity of sounds linked pelasgos to pelargos and postulates that the Pelasgians were migrants like storks, possibly from Egypt, where they nest.
Aristophanes deals effectively with this etymology in his comedy The Birds, julius Pokorny derives Pelasgoi from *pelag-skoi, specifically Inhabitants of the Thessalian plain. He details a previous derivation, which appears in English at least as early as William Gladstones Studies on Homer, if the Pelasgians were not Indo-Europeans, the name in this derivation must have been assigned by the Hellenes. Ernest Klein argued that the ancient Greek word for sea and the Doric word plagos, side shared the same root, *plāk-, and that *pelag-skoi therefore meant the sea men, where the sea is flat. This could be connected to the maritime marauders referred to as the Sea People in Egyptian records, subsequent scholarship shows that the connection between the two roots is phonetically impossible. Literary analysis has been going on since classical Greece, when the writers of those times read previous works on the subject, no definitive answers were ever forthcoming by this method, it rather served to better define the problems.
The method perhaps reached a peak in the Victorian era when new methods of systematic comparison began to be applied in philology, typical of the era is the long and detailed study of William Ewart Gladstone, who among his many talents was a trained classicist. Until further ancient texts come to light, advances on the subject cannot be made, the most likely source of progress regarding the Pelasgians continues to be archaeology and related sciences. The Pelasgians first appear in the poems of Homer, those who are stated to be Pelasgians in the Iliad are among the allies of Troy. In the section known as the Catalogue of Trojans, they are mentioned between mentions of the Hellespontine cities and the Thracians of south-eastern Europe, Homer calls their town or district Larisa and characterises it as fertile, and its inhabitants as celebrated for their spearsmanship. He records their chiefs as Hippothous and Pylaeus, sons of Lethus son of Teutamus, thus giving all of them names that were Greek or so thoroughly Hellenized that any foreign element has been effaced.
In the Odyssey, affecting to be Cretan himself, instances Pelasgians among the tribes in the ninety cities of Crete, last on his list, Homer distinguishes them from other ethnicities on the island, Cretans proper, Cydonians and noble Pelasgians. The Iliad refers to Pelasgic Argos, which is most likely to be the plain of Thessaly, and to Pelasgic Zeus, living in and ruling over Dodona, which must be the oracular one in Epirus. However, neither passage mentions actual Pelasgians, Myrmidons and Achaeans specifically inhabit Thessaly and they all fought on the Greek side
Phylakopi
Phylakopi, located at the northern coast of the island of Milos, is one of the most important Bronze Age settlements in the Aegean and especially in the Cyclades. The importance of Phylakopi is in its continuity throughout the Bronze Age and because of this, Phylakopi was first excavated between 1896 and 1899 under the British School at Athens. The excavation was remarkably ahead of its time, with Duncan MacKenzie recording detailed stratigraphic information, the excavation revealed a hitherto unknown Bronze Age Cycladic settlement with continuity throughout the Early Bronze Age to the very end of the Late Bronze Age. It was from this excavation that the three phase stratigraphy was suggested, the second and third phases relating to periods of Minoan and Mycenaean influence respectively, the settlement was re-excavated in 1910-11 with a focus on refining ceramic chronology. The most recent excavation at the site was conducted by Professor Colin Renfrew, the excavations were covered in two monographs and revealed a previously unknown Sanctuary.
The first phase of the dates from the middle of the Early Bronze Age to the middle of the Middle Bronze Age. Architecture is first found in Phylakopi I and settlement grew throughout the Phylakopi I phase and it is during the second phase that the settlement flourishes and becomes a major player in the Cyclades. Phylakopi II was densely occupied, with blocks of houses separated by long and this phase is famous for the Cycladic artistic flair as seen on several pottery styles, such as Dark Burnished ware and Cycladic white. The vessels often contain stylised plant and animal motifs in black and red matt paint, though most famous are the Melian bird jugs exported to Knossos. Towards the end of the increasing amounts of Minoan pottery were found at the site, marking the start of a period of Minoanisation. The Phylakopi III city was constructed after the destruction of Phylakopi II. The phase can be divided into three sub-phases, Phylakopi III-i sees Minoan forms begin to become more popular. Research suggests several architectural features can be ascribed to this phase, one structure, called the Pillar Room, was constructed with pillars and ashlar blocks.
The interior contained traces of a fresco, which depicted a delightful flying fish. The so-called Mansion likely served as a centre for the settlement. The settlement appears to have been walled during this period, though it may be possible that Minoan ideas and culture became popular within elite circles in the Aegean and were adopted as a marker of social differentiation and prestige. Phylakopi III, ii sees a regression of Minoan influence after the eruption of the Thera volcano in LM IA, the phase is lacking in identifiable architectural features, though much of the pottery discovered during the 1896-99 excavations was from this phase. Mycenaean influence first becomes perceptible, primarily through Mycenaean pottery, the construction of a megaron, a feature of the Mycenaean palaces of the Greek mainland, has led to the suggestion that the Mycenaeans conquered and administered the settlement
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1832 against the Ottoman Empire. Even several decades before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, during this time, there were several revolt attempts by Greeks to gain independence from Ottoman control. In 1814, an organization called the Filiki Eteria was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities, the first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but it was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north urged the Greeks in the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821 and this declaration was the start of a spring of revolutionary actions from other controlled states against the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in revolt against the Turks and by October 1821. The Peloponnesian revolt was followed by revolts in Crete and Central Greece.
Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea, tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. In the meantime, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt, although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese, and Athens had been retaken. Following years of negotiation, three Great Powers—Russia and France—decided to intervene in the conflict and each sent a navy to Greece. Following news that combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of Hydra, the battle began after a tense week-long standoff, ending in the destruction of the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet. As a result of years of negotiation, Greece was finally recognized as an independent nation in the Treaty of Constantinople of May 1832, the Revolution is celebrated by the modern Greek state as a national day on 25 March. The Fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453 and the subsequent fall of the states of the Byzantine Empire marked the end of Byzantine sovereignty.
After that, the Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans and Anatolia, Orthodox Christians were granted some political rights under Ottoman rule, but they were considered inferior subjects. The majority of Greeks were called Rayah by the Turks, a name referred to the large mass of non-Muslim subjects under the Ottoman ruling class. Demetrius Chalcondyles called on Venice and all of the Latins to aid the Greeks against the abominable, however, Greece was to remain under Ottoman rule for several more centuries. The Greek Revolution was not an event, numerous failed attempts at regaining independence took place throughout the history of the Ottoman era. Throughout the 17th century there was resistance to the Ottomans in the Morea and elsewhere
Hellenistic Greece
During the Hellenistic period the importance of Greece proper within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt, cities such as Pergamon, Ephesus and Seleucia were important, and increasing urbanization of the Eastern Mediterranean was characteristic of the time. The quests of Alexander had a number of consequences for the Greek city-states and it greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks, making the endless conflicts between the cities which had marked the 5th and 4th centuries BC seem petty and unimportant. It led to a steady emigration, particularly of the young and ambitious, the Greeks valued their local independence too much to consider actual unification, but they made several attempts to form federations through which they could hope to reassert their independence. Following Alexanders death a struggle for power broke out among his generals, which resulted in the break-up of his empire, Macedon fell to Cassander, son of Alexanders leading general Antipater, who after several years of warfare made himself master of most of the rest of Greece.
He founded a new Macedonian capital at Thessaloniki and was generally a constructive ruler, Cassanders power was challenged by Antigonus, ruler of Anatolia, who promised the Greek cities that he would restore their freedom if they supported him. This led to successful revolts against Cassanders local rulers, in 307 BC, Antigonuss son Demetrius captured Athens and restored its democratic system, which had been suppressed by Alexander. But in 301 BC a coalition of Cassander and the other Hellenistic kings defeated Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus, after Cassanders death in 298 BC, Demetrius seized the Macedonian throne and gained control of most of Greece. He was defeated by a coalition of Greek rulers in 285 BC. Lysimachus was in turn defeated and killed in 280 BC, the Macedonian throne passed to Demetriuss son Antigonus II, who defeated an invasion of the Greek lands by the Gauls, who at this time were living in the Balkans. The battle against the Gauls united the Antigonids of Macedon and the Seleucids of Antioch, an alliance which was directed against the wealthiest Hellenistic power.
Antigonus II ruled until his death in 239 BC, and his family retained the Macedonian throne until it was abolished by the Romans in 146 BC. Their control over the Greek city states was intermittent, since other rulers, particularly the Ptolemies, Sparta remained independent, but generally refused to join any league. In 267 BC, Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against Antigonus, in became the Chremonidian War. The cities were defeated and Athens lost her independence and her democratic institutions, the Aetolian League was restricted to the Peloponnese, but on being allowed to gain control of Thebes in 245 BC became a Macedonian ally. This marked the end of Athens as a actor, although it remained the largest and most cultivated city in Greece. In 255 BC, Antigonus defeated the Egyptian fleet at Cos and brought the Aegean islands, except Rhodes, in spite of their decreased political power and autonomy, the Greek city state or polis continued to be the basic form of political and social organization in Greece.
Classical city states such as Athens and Ephesus grew and even thrived in this period, the Aetolians and the Achaeans developed strong federal states or leagues, which were governed by councils of city representatives and assemblies of league citizens
Septinsular Republic
The Septinsular Republic was an island republic that existed from 1800 to 1807 under nominal Russian and Ottoman sovereignty in the Ionian Islands. It succeeded the previous French departments of Greece and it was the first time Greeks had been granted even limited self-government since the fall of the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in 1460. In 1807, the republic was ceded to Napoleons First French Empire, the British gradually took control of the islands, and following the Treaty of Paris, the islands were formally organised into the United States of the Ionian Islands under British protection. The seven islands constituting the Republic were, Corfu Paxi Lefkada Cefalonia Ithaca Zakynthos Kythira By the late 18th century, with the Treaty of Leoben, the French Republic gained the islands, a move finalised with the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio, which formally abolished the Venetian state. The islands now formed part of the départements Mer-Égée, the French proceeded to strengthen the defences of Corfu.
By the end of the 18th century, it was the strongest fort in Europe, despite several progressive measures adopted by the French administration, heavy taxation and the undisciplined behaviour of French soldiers soon alienated the population. This discontent was used by a joint Russo-Ottoman force under Admiral Ushakov to evict the French from the islands, in March 1799, the city of Corfu fell after a four-month siege, ending French rule. This was the beginning of the Septinsular Republic, in 1800, the so-called Byzantine Constitution was approved in Constantinople by the Sultan, establishing the Septinsular Republic as a tributary state to the Ottoman Empire. The winged Lion of St. Mark on its flag indicated that it was supposed to be a state to the Venetian Republic. The Republic, according to the first article of the constitution, is one and aristocratic, La Repubblica delle Sette Isole Unite è una, the Republic existed practically as a Russian protectorate largely because the population saw the Russians as their Orthodox co-religionists.
Jervis gives a copy of the constitution in his book, the franchise was restricted to males of legitimate Christian birth on the islands, who did not keep a shop or practise any mechanical art and could read and write. They required a yearly income which varied between the islands from 1800 ducats on Corfu to 315 ducats on Ithaca. People with the franchise are normally referred to as nobles, the official language was at first the Italian language and in 1803 Greek became, along with Italian, one of the two official languages of the Republic. During the Venetian period, Italian was used for purposes in the islands but it was widely spoken in the cities. The only island in which Italian had a wider spread was Cefalonia, the constitution of the Septinsular Republic was printed in Greek by the patriarchal press in Constantinople, using many loanwords from Italian for technical terms. However, the new constitution approved in 1803 was drafted in Italian and this issue was considered to be so important that it was even given a separate article in the constitution.
According to the article, Greek was scheduled to replace Italian as the language in public acts by the year 1820. Most of the people on these islands during this period were Christians, with a number of Jews on Corfu, Zante
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea.
Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages and cultures.
The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
Cyclades
The Cyclades are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around the island of Delos. The Cyclades is where the native Greek breed of cat originated, the largest island of the Cyclades is Naxos. Interest lagged, picked up in the century, as collectors competed for the modern-looking figures that seemed so similar to sculpture by Jean Arp or Constantin Brâncuși. Sites were looted and a trade in forgeries arose. The context for many of these Cycladic figurines has been mostly destroyed, another intriguing and mysterious object is that of the Cycladic frying pans. More accurate archaeology has revealed the outlines of a farming and seafaring culture that had immigrated from Anatolia c.5000 BCE. Early Cycladic culture evolved in three phases, between c.3300 –2000 BCE, when it was swamped in the rising influence of Minoan Crete. The culture of mainland Greece contemporary with Cycladic culture is known as the Helladic period, in recent decades the Cyclades have become popular with European and other tourists, and as a result there have been problems with erosion and water shortages.
There are many islands including Donousa, Gyaros, Koufonisia, Makronisos. The name Cyclades refers to the forming a circle around the sacred island of Delos. Most of the islands are uninhabited. Ermoupoli on Syros is the town and administrative center of the former prefecture. The islands are peaks of a mountainous terrain, with the exception of two volcanic islands and Santorini. The climate is dry and mild, but with the exception of Naxos the soil is not very fertile, agricultural produce includes wine, wheat, olive oil. Cooler temperatures are in higher elevations and mainly do not receive wintry weather, the Cyclades are bounded to the south by the Sea of Crete. The Cyclades Prefecture was one of the prefectures of Greece and these have been reorganised at the 2011 Kallikratis reform as well
Names of the Greeks
The Greeks have been identified by many ethnonyms. The most common native ethnonym is Hellen, pl. Hellenes, among his descendants are mentioned the Graeci and the Makedones. The first Greek-speaking people, called Myceneans or Mycenean-Achaeans by historians, Homer refers to Achaeans as the dominant tribe during the Trojan war period usually dated to the 12th-11th centuries BC, using Hellenes to describe a relatively small tribe in Thessaly. The Dorians, an important Greek-speaking group appeared roughly at that time, according to the Greek tradition, the Graeci were renamed Hellenes probably with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League after the Trojan war. The Persians used the name Yaunas after the Ionians, a Greek tribe who occupied areas on the coasts of western Asia Minor and the term was used in Hebrew, Arabic. The word entered the languages of the Indian subcontinent as the Yona, a unique form is used in Georgian, where the Greeks are called Berdzeni. By Late Antiquity, the Greeks referred to themselves as Graikoi and Rhomaioi/Romioi the latter of which was used virtually all Greeks were Roman citizens after 212 CE.
The term Hellene became applied to the followers of the religion after the establishment of Christianity by Theodosius I. Although Homer refers to a union of the Greek kingdoms under the leadership of the king of Mycenea during the Trojan War, most of the Mycenean palaces were destroyed at the end of the 13th century BC. It seems that the myth of Hellen, the patriarch of Hellenes was invented when the Greek tribes started to separate from each other, the name Hellenes was probably used by the Greeks with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League, an ancient association of Greek tribes. According to legend it was founded after the Trojan War, by the eponymous Amphictyon and it had twelve founders and was organized to protect the great temples of Apollo in Delphi and of Demeter near Thermopylae. Among the descendants of Hellen are mentioned Aeolus, Achaeus, Graecos and it seems that the Macedonians were a Dorian tribe which stayed behind in Macedonia when the main Dorian tribes moved to the south.
The Greek cultural tradition has been continuous for centuries, it has always centered on those who were wealthy. They have defined the Greeks as those being in some similar to themselves, by descent, culture. The evidence from before this period, such as it is, in Homers Iliad, the Greek allied forces are described under three different names, often used interchangeably, Argives and Achaeans. Argives is an annotation drawn from the most prominent city of the Achaeans, danaos is the name attributed to a Greek mythological character, twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe and Belus. There is currently no satisfactory etymology for the name Hellenes, some scholars assert that the name of the priests of Zeus in Dodona, changed to Sellanes and to Hellanes and Hellenes. The land was inhabited by Selloi and Graeci, who came to be known as Hellenes
Mycenaean Greece
Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece. It represents the first advanced civilization in mainland Greece, with its states, urban organization, works of art. Among the centers of power emerged, the most notable were those of Pylos, Midea in the Peloponnese, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece. The most prominent site was Mycenae, in Argolid, to which the culture of this era owes its name. Mycenaean and Mycenaean-influenced settlements appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant and Italy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Greek language, Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace states that developed rigid hierarchical, political and economic systems. At the head of society was the king, known as wanax. Various theories have proposed for the end of this civilization. Additional theories such as natural disasters and climatic changes have suggested.
The Mycenaean period became the setting of much ancient Greek literature and mythology. The Bronze Age in mainland Greece is generally termed as the Helladic period by modern archaeologists, after Hellas, the Greek name for Greece. This period is divided into three subperiods, The Early Helladic period was a time of prosperity with the use of metals, the Middle Helladic period faced a slower pace of development, as well as the evolution of megaron-type dwellings and cist grave burials. Finally, the Late Helladic period roughly coincides with Mycenaean Greece, the transition period from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in Greece is known as Sub-Mycenaean. Moreover, it revealed that the bearers of Mycenaean culture were ethnically connected with the populations that resided in the Greek peninsula after the end of this cultural period. Various collective terms for the inhabitants of Mycenaean Greece were used by Homer in his 8th century BC epic, the Iliad, in reference to the Trojan War. The latter was supposed to have happened in the late 13th – early 12th century BC, Homer used the ethnonyms Achaeans and Argives, to refer to the besiegers.
These names appear to have passed down from the time they were in use to the time when Homer applied them as terms in his Iliad. There is an reference to a-ka-wi-ja-de in the Linear B records in Knossos, Crete dated to c.1400 BC
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