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The Greeks (''Hellenes'') are an Ethnic Group found in the southern Balkan Peninsula of southeastern Europe and are speakers of the Greek Language . Despite frequent colonisations, Greeks have lived in Greece and Cyprus for over 3500 years. There are also native Greek minorities from Southern Italy to the Caucasus and Diaspora communities in a number of other countries. IDENTITY OF THE GREEK PEOPLE The modern Greek state and its people are the inheritor of the Ancient Greek and Byzantine civilizations and cultures. From ancient Greece the modern people inherited a sophisticated culture and a language that has been documented for almost three millennia. The Greek language has an unbroken literary history which makes it one of the oldest surviving branches of the Indo-European family of languages. Modern Greek is recognizably the same as the language of Athens under Pericles in the 5th Century BC . Few languages can demonstrate such continuity. It has been spoken in the Greek peninsula for over 3500 years (and in western Asia Minor for a little less). The definition of Greekness has varied through history, but by modern standards, the term "Greeks" has traditionally referred to any native speakers of the Greek language (whether Mycenaean, Byzantine or modern Greeks). Byzantine Greeks valued the classical tradition and considered themselves the Orthodox heirs of Ancient Greece and Rome . The use of the older self-descriptive ethnic term "Hellenes" revived during the era of the neo-platonic philosopher Gemistus Pletho and the work of Cyriac Of Ancona . It became fairly common with the emergence, in the late 18th Century , of the nation-state and its gradual consolidation, but it was not until the early 20th Century that its popular use was firmly re-established. Greece became the first country in the Balkans to come into being, both as a nation-state and breaking away from the Ottoman Empire . The Greek revolutionary movement formed its own definition of Greekness out of the Byzantine and ancient Greek cultural heritage along with the influences of western nationalism. This attracted foreign support from the Philhellenes . Classical and Hellenistic Herodotus states that the Athenians declared, before the Battle Of Plataea , that they would not go over to Mardonius , because in the first place, they were bound to avenge the burning of the Acropolis ; and, secondly, they would not betray their fellow Greeks, to whom they were bound by:
As speak Greek (although most modern historians believe they were more likely an Anatolian people), bear Greek names, and worship the Greek gods; and Priam is descended from Zeus (see Alaksandus ). The Caria ns are the only people Homer considers ''barbarophonoi''. Nor did the late and schematic myth of the sons of Hellen ever convince other , Lemnos , and the Cretans were Pelasgian . The myth of Hellen combined into one group the smaller tribes that participated in the Delphic Amphictyon , such as the Aeolians , the Achaean s, and the Dorian s. Traces of the older distinctions remained; Dorians were forbidden in the Parthenon ; although the Spartan king Cleomenes I claimed this did not apply to him — as a descendant of Heracles , ''he'' was an Achaean. As in this example, the Greeks almost always reckoned descent through the male line. So the exact nature of Greek identity has been an open question since ancient times. It has not become clearer with time: descent is at best a matter of tradition, and the Greeks have altered their language, religion, and customs since Herodotus. Nevertheless, there has been, in practice, a continuous Greek identity since ancient times, containing at least those who were born Greek and who had citizenship in a Greek city, or membership of a Greek community. |