Graea orGraia (Ancient Greek:Γραῖα,romanized: Graîa) was a city on the coast ofBoeotia inancient Greece. Its site is located near modern Dramesi inParalia Avlidas.[1][2]
Graea is listed underBoeotia inHomer'sCatalogue of Ships in theIliad.[3] It seems to have included the city ofOropus, though by the fifth century BCE it was probably akome (district) of that city.[4] According toPausanias the name was a shortcut of the original nameTanagraia, who was daughter of the river-godAsopos. Graea was a greater area includingAulis,Mycalessus,Harma etc.[5] It is also described by some sources as a city; Fossey argues for its identification with the hill of Dhrámesi 8 km fromTanagra,[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 thedeluge. The same assertion about the origins of Graea is found in an ancient marble, theParian Chronicle, discovered in 1687 and dated to 267–263 BCE, that is currently kept inOxford and onParos.
Reports about this ancient city can be also found in Homer, in Pausanias, inThucydides, etc. The nameGraïke (Ancient Greek:Γραϊκή[ɡra.ikɛ̌ː]) was used of theOropus area, which was dependent onAthens during thePeloponnesian War, by Thucydides, and the term was also used byStephanus of Byzantium.[8][9] At some point, the whole of Oropus, including Graea, was incorporated intoancient Attica and became ademe of thephyle ofPandionis, as evidenced from a surviving inscription.[10][11]
The word Γραικός (Graecus,Greek) may be interpreted as "inhabitant of Graia".[12] Aristotle usesGraikoi as equivalent toHellenes, and believes that it was the name originally used for theDorians ofDodona inEpirus.[13][14] The German historianGeorg Busolt suggested that the name Graeci was given initially by the Romans to the colonists fromGraia who helped theEuboeans to establishCumae in southernItaly, and was then used for all Greeks.[15] The classicistRobin Lane Fox states that Oropus was either located in or identical with the city of Graia, and writes:
If men from Oropos-Graia were among the early Greek visitors toCapua orVeii and even early Rome, we can better understand an age-old puzzle: why Greeks were called "Greeks" in theLatin 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.[16]
Others state that the ethnonym may come from the adjective γραῖαgraia "old woman", derived from thePIE root '*ǵerh2-/*ǵreh2-, "to grow old" viaProto-Greek*gera-/grau-iu;[17] the same root later gave γέραςgeras (/ɡé.ras/), "gift of honour" inMycenean Greek.[18]
Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Oropus".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.