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 ...
in
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cu ...
. Its site is located near modern Dramesi in
Paralia Avlidas.
History
Graea is listed under
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 ...
in
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 ''Ody ...
''. It seems to have included the city of
Oropus, though by the fifth century BCE it was probably a ''kome'' (district) of that city. According to
Pausanias the name was a shortcut of the original name ''Tanagraia'', who was daughter of the river-god
Asopos. Graea was a greater area including
Aulis,
Mycalessus,
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 T ...
, 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 ...
said that this city was created before the
deluge. The same assertion about the origins of Graea is found in an ancient marble, the
Parian Chronicle, 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.
Reports about this ancient city can be also found in Homer, in Pausanias, in
Thucydides, etc. The name Graïke ( grc, Γραϊκή ) was used of the
Oropus 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 a ...
during the
Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, and the term was also used by
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethn ...
. 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'' of
Pandionis, 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 suggested that the name Graeci was given initially by the Romans to the colonists from ''
Graia'' 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 poi ...
ns to establish
Cumae 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, U ...
states that Oropus was either located in or identical with the city
Graia, and writes:
If men from Oropos-Graia were among the early Greek visitors to Capua or Veii
Veii (also Veius; it, Veio) was an important ancient Etruscan civilization, Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the Comuni of the Province of Rome, comune ...
and even early Rome, we can better understand an age-old puzzle: why Greeks were called "Greeks" in the Latin 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.
The ethnonym comes from the adjective γραῖα ''graia'' "old woman", derived from the
PIE
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts (pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweete ...
root ''*ǵerh
2-/*ǵreh
2-'', "to grow old" via
Proto-Greek ''*gera-/grau-iu''; the same root later gave γέρας ''geras'' (/keras/), "gift of honour" in
Mycenean Greek.
' () may be interpreted "inhabitant of Graia". Aristotle uses ' as equivalent to
Hellenes, 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 Ioni ...
of
Dodona in
Epirus.
[Aristotle, ''Meteorologica'' I.xiv]
See also
*
Names of the Greeks
*
Ogyges
*
Minyans
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