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TheIonians (/aɪˈoʊniənz/;Greek:Ἴωνες,Íōnes,singularἼων,Íōn) were one of the traditionalfour major tribes ofAncient Greece, alongside theDorians,Aeolians, andAchaeans.[2] TheIonian dialect was one of thethree major linguistic divisions of theHellenic world, together with theDorian andAeolian dialects.
When referring to populations, "Ionian" defines several groups inClassical Greece. In its narrowest sense, the term referred to the region ofIonia inAsia Minor. In a broader sense, it could be used to describe all speakers of the Ionic dialect, which in addition to those in Ionia proper also included the Greek populations ofEuboea, theCyclades, and many cities founded by Ioniancolonists. Finally, in the broadest sense it could be used to describe all those who spoke languages of theEast Greek group, which includedAttic.
Thefoundation myth which was current in theClassical period suggested that the Ionians were named afterIon, son ofXuthus, who lived in the northPeloponnesian region ofAigialeia. When theDorians invaded the Peloponnese they expelled the Achaeans from theArgolid andLacedaemonia. The displaced Achaeans moved into Aigialeia (thereafter known asAchaea), in turn expelling the Ionians from Aigialeia.[3] The Ionians moved to Attica and mingled with the local population of Attica, and many years later emigrated to the coast of Asia Minor founding the historical region ofIonia.
Unlike the austere and militaristic Dorians, the Ionians are renowned for their love ofphilosophy,art,democracy, and pleasure – Ionian traits that were most famously expressed by theAthenians.[4][page needed] The Ionian school of philosophy, centered onMiletus, was characterized by a focus on non-supernatural explanations for natural phenomena and a search for rational explanations of the universe, thereby laying the foundation for scientific inquiry and rational thought in Western philosophy.
Theetymology of the wordἼωνες orἸᾱ́ϝoνες is uncertain.[5]Frisk isolates an unknown root,*Ia-, pronounced*ya-.[6] There are, however, some theories:
Unlike "Aeolians" and "Dorians", "Ionians" appears in the languages of different civilizations around theeastern Mediterranean and as far east asHan China. They are not the earliest Greeks to appear in the records; that distinction belongs to theDanaans and theAchaeans. The trail of the Ionians begins in theMycenaean Greek records ofCrete.
A fragmentaryLinear B tablet fromKnossos (tablet Xd 146) bears the namei-ja-wo-ne, interpreted byVentris andChadwick[10] as possibly thedative ornominative plural case of *Iāwones, an ethnic name. The Knossos tablets are dated to 1400 or 1200 B.C. and thus pre-date the Dorian dominance inCrete, if the name refers toCretans.
The name first appears inGreek literature inHomer asἸάονες,iāones,[11] used on a single occasion of some long-robed Greeks attacked byHector and apparently identified with Athenians, and this Homeric form appears to be identical with the Mycenaean form but without the*-w-. This name also appears in a fragment of the other early poet,Hesiod, in the singularἸάων,iāōn.[12]
In theBook of Genesis[13] of theEnglish Bible,Javan, known inHebrew asYāwān and in pluralYəwānīm, is a son ofJapheth. Javan, meaning 'Greek',[14] is believed nearly universally by Bible scholars to represent the Ionians, corresponding to the GreekIon, and to serve as a name for theGreeks andMacedonians.[15] The term is also found in other ancient literature; theYevana (Ionians) aligned with theHittites against Egypt, while theYauna of thePersian records corresponds to the Ionians of Asia Minor.[15]
Additionally, though less surely, Japheth may be related linguistically to the Greek mythological figureIapetus.[16] The locations of the biblical tribal countries have been the subjects of centuries of scholarship and yet remain open questions to various degrees. The final chapter of theBook ofIsaiah, who lived in the 8th century BC, contains what may be a hint by listing "the nations ... that have not heard my fame" including Javan immediately after "the isles afar off".[17] These isles may be considered as anapposition to Javan or the last item in the series. If the former, the expression is typically used of the population of the islands in theAegean Sea.[citation needed]
Some letters of theNeo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BC record attacks by what appear to be Ionians on the cities ofPhoenicia:
For example, a raid by the Ionians (ia-u-na-a-a) on the Phoenician coast is reported toTiglath-Pileser III in a letter from the 730s BC discovered atNimrud.[18]
The Assyrian word, which is preceded by the country determinative, has been reconstructed as *Iaunaia.[19] More common is ia-a-ma-nu, ia-ma-nu and ia-am-na-a-a with the country determinative, reconstructed as Iamānu.[20]Sargon II related that he took the latter from the sea like fish and that they were from "the sea of the setting sun."[21] If the identification of Assyrian names is correct, at least some of the Ionian marauders came fromCyprus:[22]
Sargon's Annals for 709, claiming that tribute was sent to him by 'seven kings of Ya (ya-a'), a district of Yadnana whose distant abodes are situated a seven-days' journey in the sea of the setting sun', is confirmed by astele set up atCitium in Cyprus 'at the base of a mountain ravine ... of Yadnana.'
Ionians appear in a number ofOld Persian inscriptions of theAchaemenid Empire asYaunā (𐎹𐎢𐎴𐎠),[23] anominative plural masculine, singular Yauna;[24] for example, an inscription ofDarius on the south wall of the palace atPersepolis includes in the provinces of the empire "Ionians who are of the mainland and (those) who are by the sea, and countries which are across the sea; ...."[25] At that time the empire probably extended around the Aegean to northern Greece.
Inspired by Achaemenid Iranians, Ionians appear inIndic literature and documents as Yavana and Yona. In documents, these names refer to theIndo-Greek Kingdoms: the states formed by the MacedonianAlexander the Great and his successors on theIndian subcontinent. The earliest such documentation is theEdicts of Ashoka. The Thirteenth Edict is dated to 260–258 BC and directly refers to the "Yonas".[26]
Dayuan' (or Tayuan;Chinese:大宛;pinyin:Dàyuān;lit. 'Great Ionians';Middle ChinesedâiC-jwɐn <LHC:dɑh-ʔyɑn[28]) is the Chineseexonym for a country that existed inFerghana valley inCentral Asia, described in theChinese historical works ofRecords of the Grand Historian and theBook of Han. It is mentioned in the accounts of the ChineseexplorerZhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to theFerghana Valley, controlled by theHellenisticpolisAlexandria Eschate (modernKhujand,Tajikistan), which can probably be understood as "Greco-Fergana city-state" in English language.
Most modernWestern Asian languages use the terms "Ionia" and "Ionian" to refer to Greece and Greeks. That is true ofHebrew (Yavan 'Greece' / Yevani fem. Yevania 'a Greek'),[29]Armenian (Hunastan 'Greece'[30] / Huyn 'a Greek'[citation needed]), and theClassical Arabic words (al-Yūnān 'Greece' / Yūnānī fem. Yūnāniyya pl. Yūnān 'a Greek',[31] probably from Aramaic Yawnānā[32]) are used in most modernArabic dialects including Egyptian[citation needed] and Palestinian[33] as well as being used in modernPersian (Yūnānestān 'Greece' / Yūnānī pl. Yūnānīhā/Yūnānīyān 'Greeks')[34] andTurkish too via Persian (Yunanistan 'Greece' / Yunan 'a Greek person' pl. Yunanlar 'Greek people').[35]
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Ionic Greek was asubdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group ofAncient Greek. The Ionic group traditionally comprises three dialectal varieties that were spoken inEuboea (West Ionic), the northernCyclades (Central Ionic), and fromc. 1000 BC onward inAsiatic Ionia (East Ionic), where Ioniancolonists fromAthens founded their cities. Ionic was the base of several literary language forms of theArchaic andClassical periods, both in poetry and prose. The works ofHomer (The Iliad,The Odyssey,Homeric Hymns) and ofHesiod were written in a literary form of the Ionic dialect calledHomeric Greek orEpic Greek. Ionic was eventually supplanted by theAttic dialect which had become the dominant dialect of the Greek world by the 5th century BC.
The literary evidence of the Ionians leads back to mainland Greece in Mycenaean times before there was anIonia. The classical sources seem determined that they were to be called Ionians along with other names even then. This cannot be documented with inscriptional evidence, and yet the literary evidence, which is manifestly at least partially legendary, seems to reflect a general verbal tradition.
Herodotus ofHalicarnassus asserts:[36]
all are Ionians who are ofAthenian descent and keep the feastApaturia.
He further explains:[37]
The whole Hellenic stock was then small, and the last of all its branches and the least regarded was the Ionian; for it had no considerable city exceptAthens.
The Ionians spread from Athens to other places in theAegean Sea:Sifnos andSerifos,[38]Naxos,[39]Kea[40] andSamos.[41] But they were not just from Athens:[42]
These Ionians, as long as they were in thePeloponnesus, dwelt in what is now calledAchaea, and beforeDanaus andXuthus came to the Peloponnesus, as the Greeks say, they were calledAegialianPelasgians. They were named Ionians afterIon the son ofXuthus.
Achaea was divided into 12 communities originally Ionian:[43]Pellene,Aegira,Aegae,Bura,Helice,Aegion, Rhype,Patrae, Phareae,Olenus,Dyme and Tritaeae. The most aboriginal Ionians were of Cynuria:[44]
TheCynurians are aboriginal and seem to be the only Ionians, but they have been Dorianized by time and by Argive rule.
InStrabo's account of the origin of the Ionians,Hellen, son ofDeucalion, ancestor of theHellenes, king ofPhthia, arranged a marriage between his sonXuthus and the daughter of kingErechtheus ofAthens. Xuthus then founded theTetrapolis ("Four Cities") ofAttica, a rural district. His son,Achaeus, went into exile in a land subsequently called Achaea after him. Another son of Xuthus,Ion, conqueredThrace, after which the Athenians made him king of Athens. Attica was called Ionia after his death. Those Ionians colonizedAigialia changing its name to Ionia also. When theHeracleidae returned the Achaeans drove the Ionians back to Athens. Under theCodridae they set forth forAnatolia and founded 12 cities inCaria andLydia following the model of the 12 cities of Achaea, formerly Ionian.[45]
During the 6th century BC, Ionian coastal towns, such asMiletus andEphesus, became the focus of a revolution in traditional thinking about Nature. Instead of explaining natural phenomena by recourse to traditional religion/myth, the cultural climate was such that men began to form hypotheses about the natural world based on ideas gained from both personal experience and deep reflection.[46] These men—Thales andhis successors—were calledphysiologoi, those who discoursed onNature. They were skeptical of religious explanations for natural phenomena and instead sought purely mechanical and physical explanations. They are credited as being of critical importance to the development of the 'scientific attitude' towards the study of Nature. According to physicistCarlo Rovelli, the work of the Ionian school produced the "first great scientific revolution" and the earliest example of critical thinking, which would come to define Greek, and subsequently modern, thought.[46]
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