Graea or Graia ( grc, Γραῖα, Graîa) was a city on the coast of

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its ...

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...

. Its site is located near modern Dramesi in Paralia Avlidas.

History

Graea is listed under

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

's Catalogue of Ships in the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...

''. It seems to have included the city of

Oropus Oropus or Oropos ( grc, ὁ Ὠρωπός, or rarely ἡ Ὠρωπός) was a town on the borders of ancient Attica and Boeotia, and the capital of a district, called after it Oropia (ἡ Ὠρωπία.) This district is a maritime plain, through ...

, though by the fifth century BCE it was probably a ''kome'' (district) of that city. According to

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

the name was a shortcut of the original name ''Tanagraia'', who was daughter of the river-god

Asopos Asopos ( el, Ασωπός; also Latinised as Asopus) is a village and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Monemvasia Monemvasia ( el, Μονεμβασιά, ...

. Graea was a greater area including Aulis,

Mycalessus Mycalessus or Mykalessos ( grc, Μυκαλησσός) was a town of ancient Boeotia, mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the ''Iliad''. It was said to have been so called, because the cow, which was guiding Cadmus and his comrades to T ...

, Harma etc. It is also described by some sources as a city; Fossey argues for its identification with the hill of Dhrámesi 8 km from

Tanagra Tanagra ( el, Τανάγρα) is a town and a municipality north of Athens in Boeotia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Schimatari. It is not far from Thebes, and it was noted in antiquity for the figurines named after it. The ...

, while others suggest it is identical with Oropus itself. Graea was sometimes said to be the oldest city of Greece.

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

said that this city was created before the

deluge A deluge is a large downpour of rain, often a flood. The Deluge refers to the flood narrative in the Biblical book of Genesis. Deluge may also refer to: History *Deluge (history), the Swedish and Russian invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Com ...

. The same assertion about the origins of Graea is found in an ancient marble, the

Parian Chronicle The Parian Chronicle or Parian Marble ( la, Marmor Parium, Mar. Par.) is a Greek chronology, covering the years from 1582 BC to 299 BC, inscribed on a stele. Found on the island of Paros in two sections, and sold in Smyrna in the early 17 ...

, discovered in 1687 and dated to 267–263 BCE, that is currently kept in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and on

Paros Paros (; el, Πάρος; Venetian: ''Paro'') is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of ...

. Reports about this ancient city can be also found in Homer, in Pausanias, in

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...

, etc. The name Graïke ( grc, Γραϊκή ) was used of the

area, which was dependent on

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

during the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, and the term was also used by Stephanus of Byzantium. At some point, the whole of Oropus, including Graea, was incorporated into ancient Attica and became a

deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...

of the ''

phyle ''Phyle'' ( gr, φυλή, phulē, "tribe, clan"; pl. ''phylai'', φυλαί; derived from ancient Greek φύεσθαι "to descend, to originate") is an ancient Greek term for tribe or clan. Members of the same ''phyle'' were known as ''symphylet ...

'' of

Pandionis Pandionis is a phyle (tribe or clan) of ancient Attica, which had eleven demes at the time of its creation, which is when the phyle was created as part of a group of ten phylai. The names of the demes of Pandionis are Angele, Konthyle, Kydathenaio ...

, as evidenced from a surviving inscription. The word Γραικός (''Graecus'', ''Greek'') is interpreted as "inhabitant of Graia" by some authors. The German historian

Georg Busolt Georg Busolt (13 November 1850 – 2 September 1920) was a German historian of Classical history. Busolt, born at Gut Kepurren near Insterburg, was the son of the East Prussian landowner Adolf Julius Busolt (1818–1900). He attended the Gymnasium ...

suggested that the name Graeci was given initially by the Romans to the colonists from ''

Graia Graea or Graia ( grc, Γραῖα, Graîa) was a city on the coast of Boeotia in ancient Greece. Its site is located near modern Dramesi in Paralia Avlidas. History Graea is listed under Boeotia in Homer's Catalogue of Ships in the ''Iliad''. ...

'' who helped the

Euboea Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest poin ...

ns to establish

Cumae Cumae ( grc, Κύμη, (Kumē) or or ; it, Cuma) was the first ancient Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, founded by settlers from Euboea in the 8th century BC and soon becoming one of the strongest colonies. It later became a rich Ro ...

in southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, and was then used for all Greeks. The classicist

Robin Lane Fox Robin James Lane Fox, (born 5 October 1946) is an English classicist, ancient historian, and gardening writer known for his works on Alexander the Great. Lane Fox is an Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford and Reader in Ancient History, Un ...

states that Oropus was either located in or identical with the city

, and writes:

If men from Oropos-Graia were among the early Greek visitors to
Capua Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etrus ...
or
Veii Veii (also Veius; it, Veio) was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome. Many other sites associated with and in the ...
and even early Rome, we can better understand an age-old puzzle: why Greeks were called "Greeks" in the
Latin West Greek East and Latin West are terms used to distinguish between the two parts of the Greco-Roman world and of Medieval Christendom, specifically the eastern regions where Greek was the '' lingua franca'' (Greece, Anatolia, the southern Balkans, t ...
. 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.

The ethnonym comes from the adjective γραῖα ''graia'' "old woman", derived from the PIE root ''*ǵerh₂-/*ǵreh₂-'', "to grow old" via

Proto-Greek The Proto-Greek language (also known as Proto-Hellenic) is the Indo-European language which was the last common ancestor of all varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean Greek, the subsequent ancient Greek dialects (i.e., Attic, Ionic, Aeo ...

''*gera-/grau-iu''; the same root later gave γέρας ''geras'' (/keras/), "gift of honour" in

Mycenean Greek Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece (16th to 12th centuries BC), before the hypothesised Dorian invasion, often cited as the ''terminus ad quem'' for the ...

. ' () may be interpreted "inhabitant of Graia". Aristotle uses ' as equivalent to

Hellenes The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, other ...

, and believes that it was the name originally used for the

Dorians The Dorians (; el, Δωριεῖς, ''Dōrieîs'', singular , ''Dōrieús'') were one of the four major ethnic groups into which the Hellenes (or Greeks) of Classical Greece divided themselves (along with the Aeolians, Achaeans, and Ionian ...

Dodona Dodona (; Doric Greek: Δωδώνα, ''Dōdṓnā'', Ionic and Attic Greek: Δωδώνη, ''Dōdṓnē'') in Epirus in northwestern Greece was the oldest Hellenic oracle, possibly dating to the second millennium BCE according to Herodotus. Th ...

Epirus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinri ...

.Aristotle, ''Meteorologica'' I.xiv

References

{{coord, 38.386, N, 23.629, E, display=title, format=dms, source:http://dare.ht.lu.se/places/29348.html Cities in ancient Boeotia Populated places in ancient Boeotia Populated places in ancient Attica Former populated places in Greece Locations in the Iliad Demoi

History

See also

References