Not to be confused with
Graeae
.
Map of ancient Boeotia, indicating the city
Tanagra
, which could be the place of Graia
Graea
or
Graia
(
Ancient Greek
:
Γρα?α
,
romanized
:
Graia
) was a city on the coast of
Boeotia
in
ancient Greece
. Its site is located near modern Dramesi in
Paralia Avlidas
.
[1]
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Graea is listed under
Boeotia
in
Homer
's
Catalogue of Ships
in the
Iliad
.
[3]
It seems to have included the city of
Oropus
, though by the fifth century BCE it was probably a
kome
(district) of that city.
[4]
According to
Pausanias
the name was a shortcut of the original name
Tanagraia
, who was daughter of the river-god
Asopos
. Graea was a greater area including
Aulis
,
Mycalessus
,
Harma
etc.
[5]
It is also described by some sources as a city; Fossey argues for its identification with the hill of Dhramesi 8 km from
Tanagra
,
[6]
while others suggest it is identical with Oropus itself.
[7]
Graea was sometimes said to be the oldest city of Greece.
Aristotle
said that this city was created before the
deluge
. The same assertion about the origins of Graea is found in an ancient marble, the
Parian Chronicle
, discovered in 1687 and dated to 267?263 BCE, that is currently kept in
Oxford
and on
Paros
.
Reports about this ancient city can be also found in Homer, in Pausanias, in
Thucydides
, etc. The name
Graike
(
Ancient Greek
:
Γρα?κ?
[?ra.ik??ː]
) was used of the
Oropus
area, which was dependent on
Athens
during the
Peloponnesian War
, by Thucydides, and the term was also used by
Stephanus of Byzantium
.
[8]
[9]
At some point, the whole of Oropus, including Graea, was incorporated into
ancient Attica
and became a
deme
of the
phyle
of
Pandionis
, as evidenced from a surviving inscription.
[10]
[11]
The word
Γραικ??
(
Graecus
,
Greek
) is interpreted as "inhabitant of Graia" by some authors.
[12]
The German historian
Georg Busolt
suggested that the name Graeci was given initially by the Romans to the colonists from
Graia
who helped the
Euboeans
to establish
Cumae
in southern
Italy
, and was then used for all Greeks.
[13]
The classicist
Robin Lane Fox
states that Oropus was either located in or identical with the city
Graia
, and writes:
If men from Oropos-Graia were among the early Greek visitors to
Capua
or
Veii
and even early Rome, we can better understand an age-old puzzle: why Greeks were called "Greeks" in the
Latin West
. Such people told their first contacts in the Latin region that they were "Graikoi," that is, people from Graia. They were thus called "Graeci" by the people whom they met.
[14]
The ethnonym comes from the adjective γρα?α
graia
"old woman", derived from the
PIE
root
*?erh
2
-/*?reh
2
-
, "to grow old" via
Proto-Greek
*gera-/grau-iu
;
[15]
the same root later gave γ?ρα?
geras
(/?e.ras/), "gift of honour" in
Mycenean Greek
.
[16]
Graikos
(
Γραικ??
) may be interpreted "inhabitant of Graia". Aristotle uses
Graikos
as equivalent to
Hellenes
, and believes that it was the name originally used for the
Dorians
of
Dodona
in
Epirus
.
[17]
[18]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Richard Talbert
, ed. (2000).
Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World
. Princeton University Press. p. 55, and directory notes accompanying.
ISBN
978-0-691-03169-9
.
- ^
Lund University
.
Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire
.
- ^
Homer
.
Iliad
. Vol. 2.498.
- ^
G. S. Kirk,
The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 1, Books 1-4
. Cambridge University Press, 1985,
ISBN
0-521-28171-7
, p. 191.
- ^
Pausanias: Boeotica 20?24
- ^
John M. Fossey, "The Identification of Graia,"
Euphrosyne
4 (1970), pp. 3?22.
- ^
Simon Hornblower and
Elaine Matthews
,
Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence
. Oxford University Press, 2000,
ISBN
0-19-726216-3
, p. 95; similarly Maria Stamatopoulou and Marina Yeroulanou,
Excavating Classical Culture: Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Greece
. Archaeopress, 2002,
ISBN
1-84171-411-9
, p. 151.
- ^
Thucydides
.
History of the Peloponnesian War
. Vol. 2.23.3.
- ^
Stephanus of Byzantium
.
Ethnica
. Vol.
s.v.
Ορωπ??.
- ^
Ross & Meier, Die Demen von Attika, p. 6,
et seq.
- ^
Smith, William
, ed. (1854?1857). "Oropus".
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography
. London: John Murray.
- ^
Hatzidakis, 1977, quoted in Babiniotis Dictionary
- ^
Online Etymology Dictionary
.
[1]
- ^
Robin Lane Fox,
Travelling Heroes: In the Epic Age of Homer
. Random House, 2009:
ISBN
0-679-44431-9
, p. 61/161; see also John Nicolas Coldstream,
Geometric Greece: 900-700 BC
. Routledge, 2003,
ISBN
0-415-29899-7
, p. 403 (note 7).
- ^
R. S. P. Beekes
,
Etymological Dictionary of Greek
, Brill, 2009, p. 285.
- ^
R. S. P. Beekes,
Etymological Dictionary of Greek
, Brill, 2009, p. 267.
- ^
Online Etymology Dictionary
.
- ^
Aristotle,
Meteorologica
I.xiv
38°23′10″N
23°37′44″E
/
38.386°N 23.629°E
/
38.386; 23.629