Thename of Greece differs inGreek compared with the names used for the country in other languages and cultures, just like thenames of the Greeks. The ancient and modern name of the country isHellas orHellada (Greek:Ελλάς, Ελλάδα; inpolytonic:Ἑλλάς, Ἑλλάδα), and its official name is the Hellenic Republic,Helliniki Dimokratia (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία[eliniˈciðimokraˈti.a]). InEnglish, however, the country is usually called Greece, which comes from theLatinGraecia (as used by theRomans).
The civilization and its associated territory and people, which is referred to in English as "Greece", have never referred to themselves in that term. They have rather called themselves 'Hellenes', adopting the traditional appellation of theHellas region. This name has its origins in the mythological figure ofHellen, the son ofDeucalion andPyrrha, in an origin myth which has parallels to parts of theBook of Genesis. Hellen's father survived a great flood whichZeus caused to happen in order to wipe out humanity. Hellen himself became the founding father to all Greek tribes, begetting one from each of his sons:Aeolus theAeolians,Dorus theDorians, andXuthus theAchaeans andIonians through his sonIon.[1]
Of those, the Ionians largely lived inAnatolia, akaAsia Minor, ergo the most in contact with theAsian world, so their ethnonym became commonly used for all of the Hellenes, to civilizations to east of Greece.
The nameYūnān (Persian:یونان) came throughOld Persian during theAchaemenid Empire (550-333 BC). It was derived from the Old PersianYauna for theIonian Greeks (Ancient Greek:Ἰάονες,iāones), on the western coast ofAsia Minor,[2][3] who were the first Greeks to come into contact with the Persians. The term would eventually be applied to all the Greeks.[4] Today, words derived fromYūnān can be found in Persian, Pashto, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Uzbek,Kurdish, Malay, Indonesian, Armenian (asYūnānistan "land of Yūnān"; -istan "land" in Persian), Arabic, Hebrew (Biblical and Modern) (Yavan יָוָן), Aramaic (identical to Hebrew, but in Syriac abjad ܝܘܢYaw'n).
Similarly, ancientChina referred to theHellenisticGreco-Bactrian Kingdom inCentral Asia asDaxia (Tokhara, orBactria), and the variouscity-stateconfederations around theFerghana Valley asDayuan, meaning "Great Ionians". Chinese contact was made first byHan Dynasty diplomatZhang Qian in 139 BC during his mission to seek an anti-Xiongnu alliance withGreater Yuezhi. Zhang's report of the famousFerghana horse led toEmperor Wu of Han sending further emissaries seeking trade, though frictions between the envoy and the rulers atAlexandria Eschate led to theWar of the Heavenly Horses between the Chinese and the Ferghana confederations, and the eventual Chinese victory led to the establishment of theProtectorate of the Western Regions. The Hellenistic dominance was pushed out of Central Asia and remained further south as theIndo-Greek Kingdom, until eventually replaced by the expansion ofIndo-Scythians and theKushans.
TheEnglish nameGreece and the similar adaptations in other languages derive from theLatin nameGraecia (Greek:Γραικία), literally meaning 'the land of the Greeks', which was used byAncient Romans to denote the area of modern-day Greece. Similarly, the Latin name of the nation wasGraeci, which is the origin of the English nameGreeks.Those names, in turn, trace their origin fromGraecus, the Latin adaptation of the Greek nameΓραικός (pl.Γραικοί), which means 'Greek'.
The Romans most likely called the countryGraecia and its peopleGraeci after encountering the ancient tribeGraecians from the area of Boeotia, but the Greeks called their landHellas and themselvesHellenes. Several other speculations have been made.William Smith notes in hisDictionary of Greek and Roman Geography that foreigners frequently refer to people by a different name (anexonym) from their native one (anendonym).[5]Aristotle had the first surviving written use of the nameGraeci (Γραικοί), in hisMeteorology. He wrote that the area aroundDodona and theAchelous River was inhabited by the Selli and a people, who had been calledGraeci but were calledHellenes by his time.[6]From that statement, it is asserted that the name of Graeci was once widely used inEpirus and the rest of the western coast of Greece. It thus became the name by which the Hellenes were known to theItalic peoples, who were on the opposite side of theIonian Sea.[5]
According toHesiod, in hisCatalogue of Women,Graecus was the son ofPandora andZeus and gave his name to the people who followed the Hellenic customs. His brotherLatinus gave his name to theLatins.[7] Similarly, theeponymousHellenis supposed to have given his name to the Greeks, or Hellenes.
In hisEthnica,Stephanus of Byzantium also states that Graecus, the son ofThessalus, was the origin of the nameGraeci for the Hellenes.[8][9]
The eastern part of theRoman Empire, which was predominantly Greek-speaking, gave rise to the nameῬωμανία (Rhomania orRomania). In fact, for a long time that started inLate Antiquity, the Greeks called themselvesῬωμαῖοι (sg.Ῥωμαῖος:Romans). Those terms or related ones are still sometimes used even inModern Greek:Ρωμιός (fromῬωμαῖος), Ρωμιοσύνη.
There was tension withWestern Europe on how Roman the western and the eastern parts of theRoman Empire really were. The historianHieronymus Wolf, after the Eastern Roman Empire had ceased to exist, was the first to call it theByzantine Empire, the term that later became usual in the West. However, because it lasted almost 1000 years longer than theWestern Roman Empire, Persians, Arabs, and Turks, all in the East, used and sometimes still use terms fromRhomania orRome, such asRûm, to refer to its land or people.
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Name of Greece" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The first major form, "Hellas" and its derivatives, is used by a few languages around the world, including Greek itself. In several European languages in which the normal term is derived fromGraecia, names derived fromHellas exist as rare or poetic alternatives.
The second major form, used in many languages and in which the common root isyun orywn, is borrowed from the Greek nameIonia, theIonian tribe region ofAsia Minor, derived from Old Persian and meant for people with youthful appearances.[11] In Greek, these forms have never normally been used to denote the whole Greek nation or Greece.
InSanskrit literature in India, the word यवनyavana is derived from this origin and meant the people with youthful appearances. It was used specifically for Greek people until 250 BCE while Indian kingdoms often traded with Greece. AfterAlexander's invasion on western borders of India, the word took a new meaning as foreigner or invader. The word यवनyawan, meaning 'foreigner,' is still in use in languages likeHindi,Marathi andMalayalam.
The third major form of names derives from theLatinGraecus andGraecia or their equivalent forms in Greek whence the former derive themselves. These terms have fallen out of use in Greek.
The Georgian name for Greece is coined from the Georgian word "wise"brdzeni (Georgian: ბრძენი), thussaberdzneti would literally mean "land of the wise men", possibly referring to theAncient Greek philosophy.[13]
From its establishment after the outbreak of theGreek War of Liberation in 1821, themodern Greek state has used a variety of official names, most often designating changes of regime. Internally, the country was called Hellas, not Greece, even in the cases below where the name was translated internationally as Greece.
The name "Yunan" comes from Ionia; cf. Old Persian "Yauna" (...)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Primary sources
Secondary sources
