Greeks
42056
226011712
2008-07-16T12:57:10Z
Halmstad
2943221
Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/82.110.216.82|82.110.216.82]] ([[User talk:82.110.216.82|talk]]) to last version by DumbBOT
{{otheruses2|Greek}}
{{Infobox Ethnic group
|group = Greeks<br>(Έλληνες)
|image = [[Image:Greeks.JPG|300px]]<div style="background:#fee8ab;"><small><small>[[Ioannis Kapodistrias]] • [[Pericles]] • [[El Greco]] • </small>[[Alexander the Great]]</small></div>
|population = approx. '''16,000,000'''
|region1 = {{flagcountry|Greece}}
|pop1 = 10,196,539 <small>(2001 census)</small>
|ref1 = {{lower|<ref name=Greece>According to the [http://www.statistics.gr/gr_tables/S1101_SAP_09_TB_DC_01_01_Y.pdf 2001 census], the total population of Greece was 10,964,020 out of which [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gr.html#People 93%] (or 10,196,539) were Greeks.</ref>}}
|region2 = {{flagcountry|United States}}
|pop2 = 1,380,258{{smallsup|a}} <small>(2006 estimate)</small>
|ref2 = {{lower|<ref>{{cite web |work=United States of America: Census Bureau |url=http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-reg=ACS_2006_EST_G00_S0201:536;ACS_2006_EST_G00_S0201PR:536;ACS_2006_EST_G00_S0201T:536;ACS_2006_EST_G00_S0201TPR:536&-qr_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-TABLE_NAMEX=&-ci_type=A&-redoLog=true&-geo_id=01000US&-geo_id=NBSP&-format=&-_lang=en |date=2006 |accessdate=2008-04-13 |title=Selected Population Profile in the United States: Greek}}</ref>}}
|region3 = {{flagcountry|Cyprus}}
|pop3 = 624,754 <small>(2001 census)</small>
|ref3 = {{lower|<ref name=Cyprus>[http://www.pio.gov.cy/mof/cystat/statistics.nsf/All/805CB6E0CF012914C2257122003F3A84/$file/MAIN%20RESULTS-EN.xls?OpenElement 2001 census], in the Cypriot government-controlled area.</ref>}}
|region4 = {{flagcountry|United Kingdom}}
|pop4 = 400,000 <small>(estimated)</small>
|ref4 = {{lower|<ref>United Kingdom: [http://www.lgr.co.uk/lgr/ Greek population in the UK] No exact figure available, this is the figure for London alone.</ref>}}
|region5 = {{flagcountry|Australia}}
|pop5 = 365,147 <small>(2006 census)</small>
|ref5 = {{lower|<ref>2006 Census Tables by Topic: {{PDFlink|1=[http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/PopularAreas?ReadForm&prenavtabname=Popular%20Locations&type=popular&&navmapdisplayed=true&javascript=true&textversion=false&collection=Census&period=2006&producttype=Census%20Tables&method=Place%20of%20Usual%20Residence&productlabel=Ancestry%20by%20Country%20of%20Birth%20of%20Parents&breadcrumb=POTL&topic=Ancestry&]|2=56.3 KB}}</ref>}}
|region6 = {{flagcountry|Germany}}
|pop6 = 304,607 <small>(2008 estimate)</small>
|ref6 = {{lower|<ref>{{cite web |work=Statistics of Germany|url=http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/Sites/destatis/Internet/DE/Content/Statistiken/Bevoelkerung/AuslaendischeBevoelkerung/Tabellen/Content100/AlterAufenthaltsdauer,property=file.xls |title= Population by Country of Birth, Combination of Greece & Cyprus figures |date=March 2008 |accessdate=2008-05-03}}</ref>}}
|region7 = {{flagcountry|Canada}}
|pop7 = 242,685{{smallsup|b}} <small>(2006 census)</small>
|ref7 = {{lower|<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/highlights/ethnic/pages/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo=PR&Code=01&Data=Count&Table=2&StartRec=1&Sort=3&Display=All&CSDFilter=5000 |title=Ethnic origins, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories - 20% sample data |work=Statistics Canada |accessdate=2008-04-13}}</ref>}}
|region8 = {{flagcountry|Albania}}
|pop8 = 105,000 <small>(2008 estimate)</small>
|ref8 = {{lower|<ref name=Albania>{{cite web |publisher=[[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol]] |url=http://www.regione.taa.it/biblioteca/minoranze/Albania_d.aspx |title=Official site of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol-Report of the minorities in Albania}}</ref>}}
|region9 = {{flagcountry|Russia}}
|pop9 = 97,827 <small>(2002 census)</small>
|ref9 = {{lower|<ref>Norwegian Institute of International Affairs: Centre for Russian Studies: [http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/etnisk.exe?total 2002 census]</ref>}}
|region10 = {{flagcountry|Ukraine}}
|pop10 = 91,500 <small>(2001 census)</small>
|ref10 = {{lower|<ref>{{cite web |work=State Statistics Committee of Ukraine |url=http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/ |title=2001 census |accessdate=2008-04-13}}</ref>}}
|region11 = {{Flagcountry|South Africa}}
|pop11 = 55,000 <small>(2008 estimate)</small>
|ref11 = {{lower|<ref>{{cite web|url=http://old.mfa.gr/english/foreign_policy/sub_saharan/|title=Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Greece and sub-Saharan African Countries Bilateral Relations}}</ref>}}
|region12 = {{Flagcountry|Brazil}}
|pop12 = 40,000 <small>(2008 estimate)</small>
|ref12 = {{lower|<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/en-US/Policy/Geographic+Regions/Latin+America+-+Caribbean/Bilateral+Relations/Brazil/|title=Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazil, The Greek Community}}</ref>}}
|region13 = {{Flagcountry|Belgium}}
|pop13 = 15,742 <small>(2007)</small>
|ref13 = {{lower|<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ecodata.mineco.fgov.be/mdn/Vreemde_bevolking.jsp|title=Ecodata, Belgian Statistics}}</ref>}}
|region14 = {{Flagcountry|Argentina}}
|pop14 = 30,000 <small>(2008 estimate)</small>
|ref14 = {{lower|<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/en-US/Policy/Geographic+Regions/Latin+America+-+Caribbean/Bilateral+Relations/Argentina/ |title=Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Argentina, The Greek Community}}</ref>}}
|region15 = {{flagcountry|Sweden}}
|pop15 = 12,000 - 15,000
|ref15 = {{lower|<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/en-US/Policy/Geographic+Regions/Europe/Relationships+with+EU+Member+States/Sweden/|title=Greek community of Sweden}}</ref>}}
|region16 = Elsewhere
|pop16 = ''see [[Greek diaspora]]''
|ref16 =
|religions = Predominantly [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]]<ref name=CIA>[[CIA World Factbook]] on Greece: Greek Orthodox 98%, [[Greek Muslims|Greek Muslim]] 1.3%, other 0.7%.</ref>
|languages = [[Greek language|Greek]]
|footnotes = {{smallsup|a}} An estimated 3,000,000 claim Greek descent.<ref>[[United States Department of State]]: [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3395.htm Background Note: Greece]</ref><br>
{{smallsup|b}} An additional 3,395 Cypriots live in Canada of undeclared ethnicity.
}}
The '''Greeks''' ([[Greek language|Greek]]: Έλληνες, {{IPA2|ˈelines}}) are a [[nation]] and [[ethnic group]], which historically populates [[Greece]], the nearby regions of the [[Balkans]] and [[Cyprus]]. Additionally, there are significant Greek populations throughout various countries due to the [[Greek diaspora]].<ref name=Roberts1/>
Greek colonies and communities have been historically established in most corners of the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] but Greeks have always been centered around the [[Aegean Sea]], where [[Greek language|Greek]] has been spoken since antiquity.<ref name=BritTheGreeks>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''The Greeks'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref> Until the early 20th century Greeks were uniformly distributed between the Greek peninsula, the western coast of [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]], [[Pontus]], Cyprus and [[Istanbul|Constantinople]], regions which coincided to a large extent with the borders of the [[Byzantine Empire]] of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of the ancient [[Colonies in antiquity#Greek colonies (apoikiai)|Greek colonization]].<ref>R. Beaton, ''The Medieval Greek Romance'',1996,Routledge, ISBN 0415120322</ref>
In the aftermath of the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]], a large-scale [[population exchange between Greece and Turkey]] transferred and confined ethnic Greeks almost entirely into the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. Other ethnic Greek populations can be found from [[Southern Italy]] to the [[Caucasus]] and in diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, the vast majority of Greeks are at least nominally adherents of [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodoxy]].<ref>{{cite web |work=Encarta |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572872_3/Greece.html |title=Greece}}</ref><ref name=CIA/>
==History==
{{Greek people}}
Greek has been spoken on the Greek peninsula (i.e. the southern [[Balkans|Balkan region]]) for over 3,500 years and in western Asia Minor for a little less.<ref>[[World Book]] 2005, "Greece"</ref> It has an almost unbroken literary history which makes it one of the oldest surviving branches of the [[Indo-European languages]]. From [[Ancient Greece]] the Greeks have inherited a sophisticated culture and language documented over three millennia.<ref name="Browning"/>
[[Greece]] was the first modern state to be created in the Balkans when the Greeks liberated a part of their historic homelands from the [[Ottoman Empire]]. The large Greek Diaspora and merchant class were instrumental in transmitting the ideas of western [[Romantic nationalism]] and [[Philhellenism]]. These, together with the conception of Hellenism formulated during the last centuries of the Eastern Roman Empire, formed the basis of the [[Greek Enlightenment]].<ref name=Mazower/>
===Mycenaean===
{{see|Mycenaean Greece}}
{|
|[[Image:Thebeskouros.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Kouros]],Archaic period]]
The proto-Greeks arrived in the area now referred to as 'Greece' (the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula) at the end of the third millennium BCE. There they mingled with the native pre-Hellenic populations and by the 16th century BCE this fusion had created the civilization we call Mycenaean today.<ref name=BritGreeks>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''The Greeks'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref> The Mycenaeans were the first Greek speaking people, as attested by the [[Iliad]] and [[Odyssey]] and later the deciphering of their [[Linear B]] script. The language behind the script was found to be an early form of Greek.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica,''Mycenaean language'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
The Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the [[Aegean civilization|Aegean]] and by the 15th century BCE had reached Rhodes, Crete, Cyprus and the shores of [[Asia Minor]]. From 1,200 BCE the [[Dorians]], another Greek speaking people, followed from [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]]. The Dorian Migration was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the [[Greek Dark Ages]], but by 800 BCE the landscape of Classical Greece was discernible.{{Fact|date=April 2008}}
There are some elements of cultural continuity between the Greek Dark Ages or Early Iron Age (1100 BCE - 750 BCE), and the Archaic and [[Classical Greece]] (750 BCE onwards) of the [[Polis]]. In the Odyssey and the Iliad, the Greeks of [[Prehistory]] are viewed as the forefathers of the early classical civilization of Homer's own time.<ref>Podzuweit, Christian (1982). "Die mykenische Welt und [[Troy|Troja]]". In: B. Hänsel (ed.), ''Südosteuropa zwischen 1600 und 1000 v. Chr.'', 65–88</ref> [[Achilles]] and [[Odysseus]] were viewed by Greeks as examples of the ideal citizen of a Polis.{{Fact|date=April 2008}}
The Mycenaean pantheon included many of the divinities attested in later [[Religion in ancient Greece|Greek religion]] including [[Zeus]], [[Poseidon]], [[Athena]], [[Artemis]], [[Ares]]-"Enyalios", [[Hermes]], [[Dionysus]] and Eilithyia. It was also influenced by the [[Minoan religion|Minoan pantheon]]. There was some continuity of religion and cult from the [[Late Bronze Age]] into later Greek times.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Aegean civilizations, Religion'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
|}
===Classical===
{{Main|Ancient Greece}}
{{see|Ancient Greek dialects|Greek tribes}}
[[Image:Ac.nike.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Nike of Samothrace]], [[Louvre]] (220-190 BC).]]The [[classical antiquity|classical]] period of Greek civilization covers a time span from the early fifth century BCE to the death of [[Alexander the Great]], in 323 BCE. It is so named because it set the standards by which Greek civilization would be judged in later eras. In that time Greeks contributed to the future development of arts and sciences by creating a legacy of influence upon Western civilization.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''ancient Greek civilization'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref> The ethnogenessis of the Greek nation is marked by the first Olympic Games in 776 BCE when the idea of a common Hellenism amongst the Greek speaking tribes was first translated into a shared cultural experience.<ref name=Roberts1/> Hellenism was supremely a matter of common culture.<ref name=Roberts1>J.M.Roberts, ''The New Penguin History of the World, The Greeks,'' Fifth Edition, 2007, p.p.171-172, ISBN 9780141030425</ref>
[[Herodotus]] writes 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:<ref>Herodotus, [[s:History of Herodotus/Book 8#8:144|8.144]]. Quote: "τὸ Ἑλληνικόν, ἐὸν ὅμαιμόν τε καὶ ὁμόγλωσσον, καὶ θεῶν ἱδρύματά τε κοινὰ καὶ θυσίαι ἤθεά τε ὁμότροπα ("Again, there is our common brotherhood with the Greeks: our common language, the altars and the sacrifices of which we all partake, the common character which we bear")".</ref>
* A common language ({{polytonic|ομόγλωσσον}} ''homoglosson'' – the use of one of the dialects of the Greek language),
* Common blood ({{polytonic|όμαιμον}} ''homaimon'' – descent from [[Hellen]], son of [[Deucalion]]),
* Common [[shrine]]s, [[statue]]s and [[sacrifice]]s (practice of the [[ancient Greek religion]])
* Common habits and customs.
As [[Thucydides]] observes the name of Hellas spread from a valley in [[Thessaly]] to the Greek-speaking populations sometime after the compositions of [[Homer]] (the ''Panellenes'' of Iliad 2.530 are the troops of Thessaly,<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'', 2.530</ref> contrasting with the [[Achaeans]]) and not long before his own time.<ref>Thucydides, ''Histories'', I, 132</ref> Hellen, combined into one group the smaller tribes that participated
in the [[Amphictyonic League|Delphic Amphictyon]], such as the [[Aeolians]], the Achaeans, and the Dorians.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Hellen'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
[[Image:Perikles altes Museum.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Bust of [[Pericles]] after [[Kresilas]], [[Altes Museum]], [[Berlin]]]]
As early as the 5th century BCE, [[Isocrates]], after speaking of common origin and religion, says: "''the name Hellenes suggests no longer a race but a culture and education,... the title Hellenes is applied best to those who share our culture rather than to those who share our common blood''".<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0144:speech=4:section=50 Isocrates,''Panegyric'' 4.50]</ref> Following Alexander the Great's conquests, Greek became the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of the Eastern Mediterranean and was widely spoken by educated non-Greeks.
However, while the Greeks of the Classical era understood themselves to belong to a common Greek ethnicity their first loyalty was to their [[city-state|city]] and they saw nothing incongruous about warring, often brutally, with other Greek [[Polis]]'. The [[Peloponnesian War]], a large scale Greek "civil" war between Athens and Sparta and their allies, is a notable such incident which highlights the lack of a common national (as opposed to ethnic) identity among Greeks. This local patriotism, (''topikismos'') remains a part of Greek culture.<ref name=BritMerchant>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''history of Greece, Ottoman Empire, The merchant middle class'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
The feuding Greek city states were only united under the banner of Alexander the Great's Panhellenic ideals, though some might contend that [[Macedon]]’s overwhelming military strength might have played a role. Regardless, the combined armies of Greece were pointed at the Greek's nemesis, the Persian Empire.<ref name=ColAlex>The Columbia Encyclopedia, ''Alexander the Great'', Sixth Edition, 2001-07, O.Ed.</ref> Following victories at the battles of [[Battle of Granicus|Granicus]], [[Battle of Issus|Issus]] and [[Battle of Gaugamela|Gaugamela]] the Greeks toppled the world's largest empire. Greek armies advanced as far as modern day [[India]] and [[Tajikistan]], setting up colonies and trade routes along the way. While the empire created did not survive Alexander’s death, the cultural implications of the spread of Hellenism across most of the known world were to prove long lived. Two thousand years later there are still communities like the [[Kalash]] in Pakistan and the [[Nuristani]] in Afghanistan who claim to be descended from Greek settlers.<ref name=ColAlex/><ref>Michael Wood, ''In the Footsteps of Alexander The Great: A Journey from Greece to Asia'', 2001, University of California Press, p.8, ISBN 0520231929</ref>
===Hellenistic===
{|
|[[Image:Cleopatra Bust.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Bust (sculpture)|Bust]] of the queen [[Cleopatra VII|Cleopatra Thea Philopator]] [[Ptolemaic Egypt|of Egypt]]]]
{{see|Hellenistic civilization}}
When [[Alexander the Great]]'s armies overthrew the [[Persian Empire]] and spread Greek culture from the Adriatic to the Indian Ocean they were laying the foundations for a new era. The beginning of the [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic age]] is usually placed at Alexander's death. This Hellenistic age, so called because it witnessed the partial [[hellenization]] of many non-Greek cultures and a combination of Greek, Middle Eastern and Indian elements, lasted until the conquest of [[Ptolemaic Egypt|Egypt]] by Rome in 30 BCE.
This age saw the Greeks move towards larger cities and a reduction in the importance of the city-state. These larger cities were parts of the still larger [[Diadochi|Kingdoms of the Diadochi]]. Greeks however remained aware of their past, chiefly through the study of the works of Homer and the Classical authors.<ref>Michael Grant, ''The Hellenistic Greeks: From Alexander to Cleopatra'', 1990, ISBN 0297820575</ref> An important factor in maintaining Greek identity was contact with ''[[barbarian]]'' (non-Greek) peoples which was deepened in the new cosmopolitan environment of the multi ethnic Hellenistic Kingdoms. This led to a strong desire among Greeks to organize the transmission of Hellenic ''[[paideia]]'' to the next generation.<ref>William Vernon Harris, ''Ancient Literacy'', 1989, p.136, ISBN 0674033817</ref>
In the religious sphere, this was a period of profound change. The spiritual revolution that took place saw a waning of the old Greek religion, whose decline beginning in the 3rd century BCE continued with the introduction of new religious movements from the East.<ref name=Robers2>J.M.Roberts, ''The New Penguin History of the World, The Hellenistic World'', Fifth Ed., 2007, p.222, ISBN 9780141030425</ref> The cults of deities like [[Isis]] and [[Mithra]] were introduced into the Greek world.<ref name=BritHelRel>Encyclopedia Britannica, Hellenistic age, Hellenistic religion, 2008, O.Ed.</ref> In the [[Indo-Greek]] kingdoms of the East and the [[Greco-Bactrian]] a new Hellenized form of a local religion was spreading, [[Greco-Buddhism]] and Greco-Buddhist missionaries would play an important role in propagating it to China.<ref>Richard C. Foltz, ''Religions and the Silk Road'', 1999, St. Martin's Press, p.46, ISBN 0312233388</ref> Further East, the Greeks of [[Alexandria Eschate]] who introduced the cultivation of grapes to the Far East, became known to the Chinese as the [[Dayuan]].<ref>Watson, Burton (transl.), ''Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, Han Dynasty II (Revised Edition)'', Columbia University Press, pp. 244-245, ISBN 0231081669 </ref>
|}
{{clear}}
===Roman===
{{main|Byzantine Greeks}}
{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 300px; font-size: 90%; float: right;" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0"
| [[Image:Trapezunt gospel.jpg|120px]]
| [[Image:Family marriage.jpg|170px]]
|-
|The 11th century [[Trebizond Gospel]] was commissioned by the [[Komnenoi]].
|Scenes of marriage and family life. Left illumination is a scene of marriage. The right illumination depicts a conversation among family members.
|}
The new Eastern Religions introduced into the Greek world paved the way for the expansion of Christianity among Roman era Greeks. [[Early Christianity]] was profoundly shaped by the Greek world of ideas and the Greek speaking Christians (the so called ''εξ ελλήνων χριστιανοί'' or ''Hellenists'') formed the majority of the [[Early Church]] and provided most of the [[Greek Fathers]].<ref name=BritHelRel/> Eventually the word ''Hellene'' came to mean a Hellenic polytheist or a pagan in general and Greek speakers referred to themselves as [[Rhomaioi]] (Romans in Greek, an ethnonym still in use today). Distinctions of ethnicity still existed in the [[Roman empire]], but became secondary to religious considerations. The renewed empire used Christianity as a tool to maintain its cohesion and promoted a robust Roman national identity.<ref>Anthony Kaldellis , ''Hellenism in Byzantium The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition'', Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 9780521876889</ref>
The [[Eastern Roman Empire]] (which was later misnamed by Western historians as the Byzantine Empire, a name that would have meant nothing to Greek speakers of the era<ref name=BritByz>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Byzantine Empire, Introduction'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>), although continuing [[Roman culture|Roman cultural tradtitions]] for first centuries of the Empire's existence and being largely undiffirent from the [[Western Roman Empire]] in this issue, the Empire became largely influenced by Greek culture following 7th century when Emperor [[Heraclius]] (575 CE - 641 CE) decided to make Greek the Roman Empire's official language. <ref name=Her>{{cite book|last=Haldon|first=John|title=Byzantium in the Seventh Century: the Transformation of a Culture|publisher=Cambridge|year=1997|isbn=0-521-31917-X|pages=50}}<br>* {{cite journal |last=Shahid |first=Irfan |year=1972|title=The Iranian Factor in Byzantium during the Reign of Heraclius|journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers |volume=26|pages=295–296, 305|doi=10.2307/1291324}}</ref> From then on, the Roman and Greek cultures were virtually fused in the East into a single [[Greco-Roman]] world. Although the Latin West recognized the Empire's Roman legacy for several centuries despite religious differences, after [[Pope Leo III]] crowned [[Frankish king|King of Franks]] [[Charlemagne]] as the "[[Holy Roman Emperor|Roman Emperor]]" on [[25 December]] [[800]], (an act which eventually led to the formation of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]) the Latin West started to favor the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Franks]] and also began to refer the Eastern Roman Empire largely as the Empire of the Greeks (Imperium Graecorum).<ref>{{cite book |title=Transactions of the Royal Historical Society: Sixth Series |last=Royal Historical Society |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location= |isbn=0-521-79352-1 |pages=75}}</ref> Greek speakers at the time however referred to themselves as Rhomaioi (Romans) and were conscious and proud of their Roman Imperial and Christian religious heritages.<ref name=BritByz/>
{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
| style="text-align: left;" | "At least three quarters of the ancient Greek classics that survived did so through Byzantine manuscripts."
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | '''''Michael H. Harris'''<ref>Michael H. Harris, ''History of Libraries in the Western World'', Scarecrow Press Incorporated, 1995, ISBN 0810837242</ref>
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | "Much of what we know about antiquity – especially Hellenic and Roman literature and Roman law - would have been lost forever, if it weren’t for the scholars and the scribes of Constantinople."
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | '''''J.J. Norwich'''<ref>J.J. Norwich, ''A Short History of Byzantium'', 1997, Vintage Books, ISBN 0679772693</ref>
|}
The Roman Greeks contributed to [[Western culture|Western Civilization]] by their preservation of the literature of the Classical era: Byzantine grammarians were those principally responsible for carrying, in person and in writing, ancient Greek grammatical and literary studies to early [[Renaissance Italy]] to which the influx of [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|Greek scholars]] gave a major boost. <ref name=BritRen>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Renaissance'', 2008, O.Ed.<br>* {{cite book|last=Robins|first=Robert Henry|title=The Byzantine Grammarians: Their Place in History|year=1993|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=3-110-13574-4|pages=8}}</ref> [[Roman Greeks]] never stopped teaching Homer and the Classics and cultivated the philosophical schools of [[Platonism]] and [[Aristotelism]] for over two millennia, until the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in the 15th century.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Aristotelian Philosophy'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
To the Slavic world Roman Greeks contributed by the dissemination of literacy and Christianity. The most notable example of the later was the work of the two Rhomaioi brothers [[Saints Cyril and Methodius]] from [[Thessalonica]], who are credited today with inventing the [[Glagolitic|first Slavic alphabet]].<ref>The Columbia Encyclopedia, ''Cyril and Methodius Saints'', Sixth Edition, 2001-07, O.Ed.</ref>
A distinct Greek nationalism re-emerged in the 11th century within specific circles and became more forceful after the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders of the [[Fourth Crusade]] in 1204, and the establishment of a number of Greek kingdoms (such as the [[Empire of Nicaea]] and the [[Despotate of Epirus]]).<ref name=BritIdent/> When the empire was revived in 1261, it became in many ways a Greek national state. Adherence to [[Greek Orthodox]] rites and the Greek language, became the defining characteristic of its people. That new notion of nationhood engendered a deep interest in the classical past. There was a powerful secularist tradition in this, culminating in the ideas of the Neo-Platonist Byzantine philosopher [[George Gemistus Plethon]] who wished to revive the ancient Greek religion. However it was the combination of Orthodoxy with a specifically Greek identity that shaped the Byzantine Greeks notions of themselves in the empire's twilight years.<ref name=BritIdent>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Greece during the Byzantine period (c. AD 300–c. 1453), Population and languages, Emerging Greek identity'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
{{clear}}
===Ottoman===
[[Image:Hermes the scholar.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Hermes]] o Logios, [[Greek language|Greek]] literary magazine of the 18th and 19th c.]]
{{see|Phanariotes}}
Under the Ottoman Empire's [[millet system]], religion was the defining characteristic of "national" groups (''milletler''), so the [[exonym]] "Greeks" (''Rumlar'' from the name Rhomaioi) was applied by the Ottomans to all members of the [[Orthodox Church]], regardless of their language or ethnic origin. Conversely, those who adopted [[Islam]] during that period were considered part of the same Muslim millet, regardless of their language or origin.<ref name=Mazower/> The [[Greek language|Greek]] speakers were the only ethnic group to actually call themselves [[Rhomaioi]], (as opposed to being so named by others) and some even considered their ethnicity (''genos'') to be Hellenic.<ref>Mavrocordatos Nicholaos, ''Philotheou Parerga'', J.Bouchard, 1989, p.178, quote: ''Γένος μεν ημίν των άγαν Ελλήνων''</ref> For most [[Greek language|Greek]] speakers however the Hellenes were an ancient, semi-mythical race of giants to whom they were inferior in strength and achievement.<ref>I.Th.Kakridis,''Οι αρχαίοι Έλληνες στην νεοελληνική λαική παράδοση'' or ''The Ancient Greeks in Modern Greek popular tradition'', Greek National Bank Editions, 1989 (reprint of early 20th c. work)</ref>
The roots of Greek success in the [[Ottoman Empire]] can be traced to the Greek tradition of education and the need of the Ottomans for skilled and educated negotiators as the power of their empire declined and they were compelled to rely on treaties more than force of arms.<ref name=BritB>Encyclopedia Britannica,''Phanariotes'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref> However it was the wealth of the extensive Greek merchant class that provided the material basis for the intellectual revival that was the prominent feature of Greek life in the half century and more leading to the outbreak of the [[Greek War of Independence]] in 1821. Impelled by the brand of local patriotism that has always been of feature of the Greek world they endowed libraries and schools. Not coincidentally, on the eve of 1821 the three most important centres of Greek learning, schools-cum-universities, were situated in [[Chios]], [[Smyrna]] and [[Aivali]], all three major centres of Greek commerce.<ref name=BritannicaB>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Greek history, The mercantile middle class'', 2008 ed. </ref> Starting in the 15th century many Greeks sought better employment and education opportunities by leaving for the [[Western World|West]], particularly [[Renaissance Italy|Italy]] but also Central Europe and [[Greeks in Germany|Germany]] as well as [[Greeks in Russia|Russia]].
{{clear}}
===Modern===
[[Image:Friedel - Manto Mavrogenous.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Greek heroine [[Manto Mavrogenous]], by Adam Friedel, 1827.]]
{{Main|Diafotismos|Greek War of Independence}}
This relationship between ethnic Greek identity and Greek Orthodox religion continued after the creation of the modern Greek state in 1830. According to the second article of the first [[Greek constitution]] of 1822 a Greek was defined as any Christian resident of the Kingdom of Greece, a clause removed by 1840.<ref>[http://www.verfassungen.de/griech/verf22.htm Text of the 1822 Epidaurus Constitution], (in German)</ref> A century later, when the [[Treaty of Lausanne]] was signed between Greece and Turkey in 1923, the two countries agreed to use religion as the determinant for ethnic identity for the purposes of population exchange.<ref>Clark, Bruce, ''Twice A Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey'', 2006, London: Granta, ISBN 1-86207-752-5.</ref>
While the majority of Greeks today are descended from Greek speaking [[Rhomioi]] there are sizeable groups of ethnic Greeks who trace their descent to [[Aromanian language|Aromanian-speaking]] [[Vlachs]], [[Arvanitika|Albanian-speaking]] [[Arvanites]] and [[Slavophone Greeks|Slavic-speaking Greeks]].<ref>[http://www.eens-congress.eu/?main __page=1&main__lang=de&eensCongress_cmd=showPaper&eensCongress_id=86 Peter Mackridge Hellenes equals Rhomioi and Aromanians and Arberesh] (in Greek)</ref> None of the latter groups were ever considered less Greek than the [[Rhomioi]] and their contribution to the liberation and foundation of the modern Greek state was decisive.<ref>M. Mazower (ed.), ''After The War Was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943-1960'', 2000, Princeton University Press, p. 23, ISBN 0691058423</ref>
In many important respects, the Greek state adhered from its founding to remarkably [[secular]] principles. For instance, Jews were granted full citizens rights in 1830, the year Greece's independence was formally recognized, thus making Greece one of the first states in Europe with an [[Jewish emancipation|emancipated Jewish]] community.
Today, the deeper integration of Greece into the Western strategic system and the effects of migration (both emigration from Greece in the 1950s and 1960s, and immigration into Greece in more recent years) have led to a perception of [[multiculturalism]] similar to that of Western European nations.
{{clear}}
==Identity==
[[Image:Bouboulina Friedel engraving 1827.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Greek heroine [[Laskarina Bouboulina]], 1827 lithograph.]]
The terms used to define Greekness have varied throughout history. By Western standards, the term ''Greeks'' has traditionally referred to any native speakers of the [[Greek language]], whether [[Mycenaean Greek language|Mycenaean]], [[Medieval Greek|Byzantine]] or [[modern Greek]]. While [[Byzantine Greeks]] called themselves ''Rhomioi'', they valued the classical tradition, considered themselves the political heirs of [[Roman Empire|Rome]], and deemed themselves the ethnic, cultural, and literary heirs of [[ancient Greece]].<ref name=Mango>Mango, Cyril, ''The Oxford History of Byzantium'',2002, p. 5, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198140983</ref> The use of the older self-descriptive ethnic term ''Hellenes'' begun to be revived during the era following the Greco-Latin clashes between the Greeks and the Western [[Crusades|Crusaders]] in the 12th century. It regained some popularity through its use by late [[List of Byzantine Emperors|Byzantine Emperors]] and scholars such as [[Gemistus Pletho]] and [[Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli]].<ref name=BritIdent/> 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 19th century that its popular use was firmly re-established.<ref name=Mazower>Mazower, Mark, ''The Balkans: A short history'',2002, Modern Library, ISBN 081296621X</ref>
The Greeks today are a nation in the meaning of an [[ethnic group|''ethnos'']], defined by possessing [[Culture of Greece|Greek culture]] and having a Greek [[First language|mother tongue]], rather than by citizenship, race, religion or by being subjects of any particular state. However, Greeks are also identified as a ''[[genos]]'' in the sense of sharing a common ancestry. The term ''Greek'' also referred to the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christian]] inhabitants of the Rum Millet of the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name=Mazower/>
===Polyonymy===
{{main|Names of the Greeks}}
[[Image:Funerary stele.jpg|thumb|300px|Family group on a funerary [[stele]] from Athens, [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens|National Archaeological Museum]], [[Athens]]]]
Throughout the centuries, the Greeks have been known by a number of names, including:
*'''Hellenes''' (Έλληνες) - In [[Greek mythology]], [[Hellen]], son of [[Deucalion]] and [[Pyrrha]] (the Greek equivalents of [[Adam and Eve]]), received from the nymph [[Orseis]] three sons, [[Aeolus]], [[Dorus]] and [[Xuthus]]. Aeolus and Dorus, and two sons of Xuthus, [[Achaeus, son of Xuthus|Achaeus]] and [[Ion (mythology)|Ion]] were the legendary founders, respectively, of the four principal Greek tribes, [[Aeolians]], [[Dorians]], [[Achaeans]] and [[Ionians]]. Originally, only members of a small tribe in [[Thessaly]] were called ''Hellenes'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Hellenic |title=Hellenic |accessdate=2008-04-19 |format= |work=Online Etymology Dictionary|last=Harper|first=Douglas}}</ref> but the term soon extended to the rest of the peninsula and came to encompass all Greek speakers. In early Christian times ''Hellene'' came to mean '[[Religion in ancient Greece|pagan]]'. It remains in Greece today, the primary national name.<ref name=BritIdent/>
*'''Greeks''' (Γραικοί) - In mythology, [[Graecus]] was the brother of [[Latinus]] and nephew of Hellen.<ref>Hesiod , ''Eoiae'' (Greek : ''Ηοίαι'') or ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'', c.650 BCE. </ref> It was the name of a [[Boeotia]]n tribe (''Graii'' lit. gray)<ref>Homer, ''"Iliad", II, 498''</ref> that migrated to the [[Italy|Italian peninsula]] in the 8th century BC and, probably through contact with natives there, the name ''Graeci'' came to represent all Greek speakers.<ref>Pausanias, ''Boeotics and Phocaeic'', Bk. 5, p. 136</ref> [[Aristotle]] and [[Apollodorus]] mention that it was the name used by Greeks before adopting the name Hellenes.<ref>Aristotle, ''[[Meteorologica]], I, 352a''</ref> It was later re-borrowed as an ethnonym by the Greeks themselves.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=greek&searchmode=none |title=Greek |accessdate=2008-04-19 |format= |work=Online Etymology Dictionary|last=Harper|first=Douglas}}</ref>
*'''[[Names of the Greeks#Romans (Ρωμαίοι) and Romioi (Ρωμιοί)|Rhomioi]]''' (Ρωμιοί) - ''Romans'' is the name by which the [[Byzantine Greeks]] called themselves during the [[Middle Ages]] while the term ''Byzantine'' would have been meaningless to them. The name in antiquity signified the inhabitants of the city of [[Rome]] in Italy, but after [[Constitutio Antoniniana|Caracalla's decree]] and the gradual formation of a Roman national identity among imperial subjects, it soon lost its exclusive connection with the [[Latins]]. Later, while in the West the term ''Roman'' acquired a new meaning in connection with the church and the [[Pope]] of Rome, the Greek form ''Romaioi'' remained attached to the Greeks of the Eastern Roman Empire who still call themselves by that name today.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''History of Europe, The Romans'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref> The term ''Roman'' (''Ρωμαίος'') represented for the Greeks their Roman citizenship and the word ''Romaioi'' came to represent the Greek inhabitants of the [[Byzantine Empire]]. Among Greeks it remains the most often used national name after ''Hellene'' and it is used by [[Turkey]] to signify the Greek Orthodox minority. It is found also in the [[Qur'an|Koran]]; Sura 30 is entitled [[Ar-Rum]], variously translated as The Romans, Byzantines or Greeks.
*'''[[Achaeans]]''', '''[[Argos|Argives]]''', and '''[[Achaeans|Danaans]]''' are names used interchangeably by [[Homer]], to signify the Greek allied forces in the [[Trojan War]]. Danaans is attested in the [[Aeneid]] phrase ''timeo Danaos et dona ferentes'', (engl. ''beware of Greeks bearing gifts'')<ref>[[Aeneid]], II.49</ref>
*'''[[Javan]]''' or '''Yavana''', traditionally in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], was the name of the tribe (and then the nation) which, according to the [[Torah]], migrated from early Biblical times to establish the [[Balkans|Balkan peninsula]].<ref>''[[Genesis]]'', 10.2</ref>
*'''[[Yona]]''' or '''Yavana''' (Ίωνες), were names used by [[India]]ns who encountered [[Alexander the Great]] and his successors who ruled areas of [[Central Asia]]. Originally from the [[Persian language|Persian]] [[Yauna]], itself a transliteration of the Greek [[Ionia]], is the name by which the Greeks are known in the East today. The term became established in Asia by the Persians, who were in contact with the Ionian tribes in western Asia Minor from the 6th century BC and extended the name to all ''Hellenes''.<ref>[[Mahabharata]] 3.188.34-36</ref>
===Genetic origins===
Modern studies have constructed Greek [[Genetics|genetic]] trees revealing a strong degree of homogeneity between Greeks from different geographical locations. Median networks revealed that most of the Greek haplotypes are clustered to the five known [[haplogroups]] and that a number of [[haplotypes]] are shared among Greeks and other European and Near Eastern populations. Within the loci studied, the genetic composition of the Greeks indicates a significantly low level of heterogeneity compared with other European populations.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Genetic studies in 5 Greek population samples using 12 highly polymorphic DNA loci |journal=Human Biology |date=February 1999 |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3659/is_199902/ai_n8845695}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation in Greeks |journal=Human Biology |volume=Vol. 73 |issue=No. 6. |date=December 2001 |pages=pp. 855–869. |url=http://www.citeulike.org/user/Archaeogenetics/article/511923 |doi=10.1353/hub.2001.0085 |author=Kouvatsi, Anastasia |format={{Dead link|date=June 2008}} – <sup>[http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=author%3A+intitle%3AMitochondrial+DNA+sequence+variation+in+Greeks&as_publication=Human+Biology&as_ylo=2001&as_yhi=2001&btnG=Search Scholar search]</sup>}}</ref> The levels of the [[Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA)|R1a1 haplotype]], associated by some with Slavic migrations,<ref>{{Citation |author=Pericic et al. |year=2005 |title=High-resolution phylogenetic analysis of southeastern Europe traces major episodes of paternal gene flow among Slavic populations | periodical=Mol. Biol. Evol. |volume=22 |issue=10 |pages=1964–75 |pmid=15944443 |url=http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/22/10/1964 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msi185 |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution}}</ref> have been found to be less than 12% (by way of comparison the relevant percentage for Syria is 10% and Poland 60%).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Semino |first=et al. |url=http://hpgl.stanford.edu/publications/Science_2000_v290_p1155.pdf |title=The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic ''Homo sapiens sapiens'' in Extant Europeans: A Y Chromosome Perspective |journal=Science |volume=290 |pages=1155–59 |date=2000 |pmid=11073453 |doi=10.1126/science.290.5494.1155}}</ref>
This confirms other studies that disprove the thesis that the Greeks have mingled substantially with Slavic people.<ref name=DNA1>Ornella Semino, Costas Triantaphylidis et.al, [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1181965 Origin, diffusion, and differentiation of y-chromosome haplogroups e and j: inferences on the neolithization of europe and later migratory events in the mediterranean area], ''American Journal of Human Genetics'', 2004 May, 74, '''5''' p.p. 1023-34</ref><ref>[http://www.imdleo.gr/diaf/2006/12-%CE%9A%CE%91%CE%98%CE%91%CE%A1%CE%9F_%CE%A4%CE%9F_DNA_%CE%A4%CE%A9%CE%9D_%CE%95%CE%9B%CE%9B%CE%97%CE%9D%CE%A9%CE%9D.pdf Triantaphylidis interview commenting on study], Apogevmatini, Sunday 6 November 2005</ref> A 7%–22% contribution of Y chromosomes by Greeks to [[Magna Grecia|Southern Italy]] was estimated by admixture analysis in the same study.<ref name=DNA1/> Yet other studies point out the significant frequency drop of the R1a marker over the short geographic distance between Greece and its slavic northern neighbours.<ref>Siiri Rootsi et al., [http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Rootsi2004.pdf Phylogeography of Y-Chromosome Haplogroup I Reveals Distinct Domains of Prehistoric Gene Flow in Europe] ''American Journal of Human Genetics'', 75, p.p. 128–137, 2004</ref>
Modern scholars and scientists have supported the notion that there is a racial connection to the ancient Greeks. [[Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza]], Paolo Menozzi, and Alberto Piazza, have found evidence of a genetic connection between the ancient and modern Greeks.<ref>Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., P. Menozzi and A. Piazza. ''The History and Geography of Human Genes''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. ISBN 0691087504</ref> Recent genetic analyses of Greek populations have provided evidence of statistically significant continuity between ancient and modern Greeks (low admixture attributed to genetic isolation due to physical barriers).<ref>M. Richards, V. Macaulay, E. Hickey, E. Vega, B. Sykes, et al. "Tracing European Founder Lineages in the Near Eastern mtDNA Pool." The American Journal of Human Genetics, (2000), '''67''':1251-1276.</ref><ref>Di Giacomo et al., "Clinal Patterns of Human Y chromosomal Diversity in Continental Italy and Greece Are Dominated by Drift and Founder Effects." ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution''. (2003), '''28''':387–395. [http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/italy.pdf (Online text)]</ref><ref>Semino et al., "Origin, Diffusion, and Differentiation of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups E and J: Inferences on the Neolithization of Europe and Later Migratory Events in the Mediterranean Area", ''The American Journal of Human Genetics'', (2004), '''74''':1023–1034. [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v74n5/40867/40867.web.pdf (Online text)]</ref><ref>Semino et al., Patterns of Gene Flow Inferred from Genetic Distances in the Mediterranean Region, ''Human Biology'', (1999), '''71''':399-415.</ref>
===Modern and ancient===
Some authors in the West and [[Turkey]]<ref>Deniz Bolukbasi, ''Turkey and Greece: The Aegean Disputes'', 2004, ISBN 1859419534</ref> have posited that the Greeks of today are not culturally or demographically related to the Greeks of [[classical antiquity]]. Notable among them was the 19th century [[Austrians|Austrian]] historian [[Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer]]. Fallmerayer, in his work ''Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters'', averred that demographic continuity in Greece was interrupted brutally by successive waves of invasion and migration between the 6th and 8th century by [[Slavic peoples|Slavs]], and later, in the second half of the 14th century by [[Albanians]]<ref>Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer, Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters. Teil 2: Morea, durch innere Kriege zwischen Franken und Byzantinern verwüstet und von albanischen Colonisten überschwemmt, wird endlich von den Türken erobert. Von 1250–1500 nach Christus, Stuttgart-Tübingen (1836), supra </ref> who occupied and settled mainly in the [[Peloponnese]].<ref name="ADS">{{cite book |author=[[Anthony D. Smith|Smith, Anthony D.]] |title=National identity |publisher=University of Nevada Press |location=Reno |year=1991 |pages=29 |isbn=0-87417-204-7 |accessdate=2008-04-10}}</ref> According to this narrative, the centre of gravity of the ancient Greek ethnos was shifted outside the boundaries of modern Greece, and so the "demographic evidence is at best tenuous, at worst non-existent".<ref name="ADS"/> The traditional view is that the Fallmerayer thesis, rooted in 19th century [[racialism]],<ref name=Trudgill>Peter Trudgill, ''Sociolinguistic Variation and Change'', 2002, Edinburgh University Press, p.131, ISBN 0748615156</ref> provoked an "outraged" Greek response, of which [[Constantine Paparrigopoulos]] was the spearhead;<ref name=Gourgouris/> however, modern scholarly opinion tends to see both Fallmerayer and Paparrigopoulos as taking positions influenced by and intelligible only within the political and intellectual decline of Western [[philhellenism]].<ref name=Gourgouris/>
Fallmerayer's controversial (some say racist)<ref name=Gourgouris>Stathis Gourgouris, ''Dream Nation: Enlightenment, Colonization, and the Institution of Modern Greece'', 1996, Stanford University Press, p.142-143, ISBN 0804727252</ref><ref name=Trudgill/> views were later incorporated in [[Nazism|Nazi]] theoretician [[Alfred Rosenberg]]'s ''Der Mythus des 20es Jahrhunderts'' and found adherents in the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]] who echoed them in their writings.<ref name=Loader/><ref>M. Mazower, ''Inside Hitler's Greece: the experience of occupation, 1941-44'', 2001, Yale University Press, p. 158, ISBN 0300089236</ref><ref name=Panourgia>Neni Panourgia, ''The Fragments of Death, Fables of Identity: An Athenian Anthropography'', 1995, University of Wisconsin Press, p. 28, ISBN 0299145646</ref> They were also actively promoted by the [[Axis occupation of Greece during World War II|Axis occupation]] authorities in Greece who hoped to extinguish any sympathy their troops might feel for the Greeks.<ref name=Loader>W. R. Loader, "Greeks Ancient and Modern", in ''Greece & Rome'', Vol. 18, No. 54 (Oct., 1949), p. 121, Published by the Cambridge University Press</ref> Other Western authors say that it is Westerners who are the "true heirs" of Greece, since Greeks today, whom they label "''modern Greeks''", are the product of "''genetic dissonance''" and "''mingling with slaves''".<ref>James C. Russell, The Western Contribution to World History, ''The Occidental Quarterly'', 1, '''2''', Winter 2001</ref> While the point of demographic continuity has been contested by several authors in the West and Greece, ideas of race have never been such a prominent feature in the Greek world, either ancient,<ref>Gocha R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), ''Ancient Greeks West and East'', Christopher Tuplin, ''Greek Racism? Observations on the character and limits of Greek ethnic prejudice'', BRILL, p. 47-49, ISBN 9004111905</ref> or later. The medieval Greek mythological hero [[Digenis Acritas]] was so named because of his dual, Greek and [[Demographics of Syria|Syrian]], parentage.<ref>Beaton, Roderick, David Ricks (edd.),'' Digenes Akrites: New Approaches to Byzantine Heroic Poetry'', Aldershot, King's College London, 1993, ISBN 0860783952</ref>
The most obvious link between modern and ancient Greeks is their language, which has a documented tradition from at least the 14th century BC to the present day, albeit with a break during the [[Greek Dark Ages]]. The Byzantinist Robert Browning, compares its continuity of tradition to [[Chinese language|Chinese]] alone.<ref name="Browning">Browning, R. ''Medieval and Modern Greek'', [[Cambridge University Press]], 1983. ISBN 0-521-23488-3</ref> At its inception, Hellenism was a matter of common culture<ref name=Roberts1/> and the national continuity of the Greek world is more certain than its demographic.<ref name=ADS/> Even during the [[Slavic peoples#Slavic_migrations|Slavic migrations]], in [[Ionia]] and [[Constantinople]] there was a Hellenic revival in language, philosophy and literature and on classical models of thought and scholarship. Such revivals would manifest again in the 10th and 14th century providing a powerful impetus to the sense of cultural affinity with ancient Greece and its classical heritage.<ref name=ADS/> The cultural changes undergone by the Greeks are, despite a surviving common sense of ethnicity, undeniable.<ref name=ADS/> At the same time the Greeks have retained their language and [[Greek alphabet|alphabet]], certain values, a sense of religious and cultural difference and exclusion, (the word ''[[barbarian]]'' was used by 12th century historian [[Anna Komnene]] to describe non-Greek speakers),<ref>Anna Comnena, ''[[Alexiad]]'', Bk. 1-15, throughout</ref> a sense of Greek identity and common sense of ethnicity despite the many political and social changes of the past two millennia.
===Demographics===
{{Main|Demographics of Greece|Demographics of Cyprus}}
Today Greeks are the majority ethnic group in the [[Hellenic Republic]]<ref name=Greece/> where they constitute 93% of that country's population and the [[Republic of Cyprus]]<ref name=Cyprus/> where they comprise 78% of the island's population (excluding Turkish settlers in the occupied part of the country). Greek populations have not traditionally exhibited high rates of growth; nonetheless the population of Greece has shown regular increase since the country's first census in 1828. Most of the population growth since the state's foundation has resulted from annexation of new territories and the influx of 1.5 million Greek refugees following the [[Population exchange between Greece and Turkey|1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey]].<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, Greece, Demography, 2008, O.Ed.</ref> About 80% of the population of Greece is urban<ref>Economist, World in Figures, 2007, ''Greece'', p.150</ref> with 28% concentrated in the city of Athens.<ref>Economist, World in Figures, 2007, ''Highest proportion of a country's population residing in a single city''</ref>
Greeks from Cyprus have a history of emigration, usually to the English speaking world as a result of the island's colonization by the [[British Empire]]. Waves of [[emigration]] followed the [[Turkish invasion of Cyprus]] in 1974, while the population decreased between mid-1974 and 1977 as a result of emigration, war losses and a temporary decline in fertility. After the [[ethnic cleansing]]<ref>Robert Holland, ''Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus:1954-1959'', 1998, p.263, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198205384</ref><ref>Yiannis Papadakis, Nicos Peristianis, Gisela Welz, ''Divided Cyprus: Modernity, History, and an Island in Conflict'', 2006, p.2, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253218519</ref><ref>Miron Rezun, ''Europe's Nightmare: The Struggle for Kosovo'', 2001, p.6, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0275970728</ref> of a third of the Greek population of the island in 1974 there was also an increase in the number of Greek Cypriots leaving, especially for the Middle East. This contributed to a decrease in population which tapered off in the 1990s. More than two thirds of the Greek population in Cyprus is urban.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, Cyprus Demographic trends, 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
There is a sizeable Greek minority of about 60,000 people, in Albania.<ref name=Albania/> The Greek minority of Turkey which numbered upwards of 200,000 people after the 1923 exchange has now dwindled to a few thousand, following the 1955 [[Istanbul Pogrom]] and other state sponsored violence and discrimination. There are also smaller Greek minorities in the rest of the [[Balkan]] countries, the [[Levant]] and the [[Black Sea]] states, remnants of the Old [[Greek Diaspora]] (pre-19th century).<ref name=Prevelakis/>
The New Greek Diaspora (post-19th century) has mainly been towards the Western, in particular the [[Anglosphere|English-speaking]], World. The Greek population outside Greece and Cyprus is around 5 million, though estimates vary.<ref name=Prevelakis/> The trend towards migration to the (modern) West began in the 15th century and continues to this day as Greeks are attracted to the educational and professional opportunities available in the Western World. After Greece the second largest concentration of Greeks in one country is in the [[United States]], while [[New York City]] and [[Melbourne]] are among the largest "Greek" cities.
=== Diaspora ===
{{Main|Greek diaspora}}
The total number of Greeks living outside Greece and Cyprus today is a contentious issue. Where Census figures are available it shows around 3 million Greeks outside of [[Greece]] and [[Cyprus]]. Estimates provided by the ''Council of Hellenes Abroad'' {SAE} put the figure at around 7 million worldwide. According to George Prevelakis of [[Sorbonne University]] the number is closer to just below 5 million.<ref name=Prevelakis>[http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/working%20papers/prevelakis.PDF George Prevelakis, Finis Greciae or the Return of the Greeks? State and Diaspora in the Context of Globalisation, p.4]</ref> Integration, intermarriage and loss of the Greek language also influence the definition and self-definition of [[Greek diaspora|Greeks of the Diaspora]].Important centres of the New Greek Diaspora today are Chicago, London, New York, Melbourne and [[Toronto]].<ref name=Prevelakis/> Recently a law was passed by the Hellenic Parliament that enables Diaspora Greeks to vote in the elections of the Greek state.
====Ancient====
[[Image:Location greek ancient.png|400px|right|thumb|Greek Diaspora 6th c. BCE]]
In ancient times the trading and colonising activities of the Greek tribes and [[city states]] spread people of Greek culture, religion and language around the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins, especially in [[Sicily]], southern Italy, Spain, the South of France and the Black sea coasts. Under Alexander the Great's Empire Greek ruling classes were established in the Middle East, [[Indo-Greek Kingdom|India]] and in [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Egypt]]. The [[Hellenistic period]] is characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and Kingdoms in Asia and Africa. Under the Roman Empire movement of people spread Greeks across the Empire and in the eastern territories Greek became the [[lingua franca]] rather than [[Latin]]. The Roman Empire became Christianized in the fourth century AD, and in the Byzantine period practice of the Greek Orthodox form of Christianity became a defining hallmark of Greek identity.<ref>Peregrine Horden, Nicholas Purcell, ''The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History'',2000, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0631218904</ref>
====Modern====
[[Image:50 largest Greek diaspora.png|thumb|250px|Greek Diaspora 20th c.]]
During and after the [[Greek War of Independence]], Greeks of the Diaspora were important in establishing the fledgling state, raising funds and awareness abroad. Greek merchant families already had contacts in other countries and during the disturbances many set up home around the Mediterranean (notably [[Marseilles]] in [[Greeks in France|France]], [[Livorno]] in [[Greeks in Italy|Italy]], [[Alexandria]] in [[Greeks in Egypt|Egypt]]), [[Greeks in Russia|Russia]] ([[Odessa]] and [[Saint Petersburg]]), and [[British Greeks|Britain]] ([[London]] and [[Liverpool]]) from where they traded, typically in textiles and grain. Businesses frequently comprised the whole extended family, and with them they brought schools teaching Greek and the [[Greek Orthodox church]].<ref>Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Gelina Harlaftis, Iōanna Pepelasē Minoglou, ''Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks: Four Centuries of History'', 2000, p.147, Macmillan, ISBN 0333600479</ref> As markets changed and they became more established, some families grew their operations to become [[Greek shipping|shippers]], financed through the local Greek community, notably with the aid of the [[Ralli Brothers|Ralli]] or [[Panayis Athanase Vagliano|Vagliano Brothers]]. With economic success the Diaspora expanded further across the [[Levant]], [[North Africa]], [[India]] and the USA.<ref>Vassilis Kardasis, ''Diaspora Merchants in the Black Sea: The Greeks in Southern Russia, 1775-1861'',2001, Lexington Books, ISBN 0739102451</ref>
In the twentieth century many Greeks left their traditional homelands for economic reasons resulting in large migrations from [[Greece]] and [[Cyprus]] to the [[Greek Americans|United States]], [[Great Britain]], [[Greek Australians|Australia]], [[Greek Canadians|Canada]], [[Greeks in Germany|Germany]], and [[Greeks in South Africa|South Africa]], especially after the [[Second World War]] (1939-45), the [[Greek Civil War]] (1946-49), and the [[Turkish Invasion of Cyprus]] in 1974.<ref name=Clogg>Richard Clogg, ''The Greek diaspora in the twentieth century'', 2000, Macmillan, ISBN 0333600479</ref>
==Culture==
{{Main|Culture of Greece}}
The [[Culture of Greece|Greek culture]] has evolved over thousands of years, with its beginning in the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean civilization]], continuing in [[Ancient Greece]] and the [[Byzantine Empire]], profoundly affected by [[Christianity]]. When the [[Ottoman Empire]] emerged, it had to endure through several centuries of adversity which nevertheless included some cultural exchanges. The [[Diafotismos|Modern Greek Enlightenment]] is credited with revitalizing Greek culture and giving birth to the synthesis of ancient and medieval elements that characterize it today. Their heritage makes the Greeks a part of the European, Balkan and Mediterranean worlds.<ref>MSN Encarta, ''Greece, Introduction'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
===Language===
{{Main|Greek language}}
[[Image:Iliad VIII 245-253 in cod F205, Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, late 5c or early 6c.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Iliad]], Book 8, lines 245-253, in a Greek manuscript of the late 5th or early 6th century, [[Biblioteca Ambrosiana]], [[Milan]]]]
The Greeks speak the [[Greek language]], an [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language]] which forms a branch itself, with its closest relations being [[Armenian language|Armenian]] (see [[Graeco-Armenian]]) and the [[Indo-Iranian languages]] (see [[Graeco-Aryan]]).<ref>[[BBC]]: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/languages/greek.shtml Languages across Europe: Greek]</ref> It has the longest documented history of any language in the branch.<ref name=BritLang>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Greek language'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
[[Greek literature]] has a continuous history of nearly 3,000 years, and has been written in the [[Greek alphabet]] since the 9th century BC.<ref name=BritLit>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Greek literature'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref> Several notable works have been originally written in Greek, including the [[Odyssey]], the [[Iliad]] and the [[New Testament]] among others.
Greek demonstrates several linguistic features that are shared with other [[Languages of the Balkans|Balkan languages]], such as [[Albanian language|Albanian]], [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] and [[Romanian language|Romanian]] (see [[Balkan sprachbund]]), and has absorbed numerous foreign words, primarily of Western European and [[Turkish language|Turkish]] origin. Due to the movements of [[Philhellenism]] and the [[Diafotismos]] in the 19th century, which emphasized the modern Greeks' ancient heritage, these foreign influences were excluded from official use via the creation of [[Katharevousa]], a somewhat artificial form of Greek purged of all foreign influence and words, as the official language of the Greek state. In 1976, however, the [[Hellenic Parliament]] voted to make [[Dimotiki]] (based on the dialect of the [[Peloponnese]]) the official language, making Katharevousa obsolete.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Katharevousa Greek language'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref>
[[Modern Greek]] has, along with Standard Modern Greek or Dimotiki, a wide [[Varieties of Modern Greek|variety of dialects]] of varying levels of mutual intelligibility, including [[Cypriot Greek|Cypriot]], [[Pontic language|Pontic]], [[Cappadocian Greek language|Cappadocian]], [[Griko language|Griko]] and [[Tsakonian language|Tsakonian]] (the only surviving representative of ancient [[Doric Greek]]).<ref>Olga Miseska Tomic, ''Balkan Sprachbund Morpho-Syntactic Features'', 2006, Springer, p. 703, ISBN 1402044879</ref> [[Yevanic language|Yevanic]] is the language of the [[Romaniotes]], and survives in small communities in Greece, [[New York]] and [[Israel]].
In addition to Greek, many Greeks in Greece are bilingual in other languages or dialects such as [[Arvanitika]], [[Aromanian language|Aromanian]], [[Slavic dialects of Greece|Slavika]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and Turkish.<ref>Ralph W. Fasold, ''The Sociolinguistics of Society'', 1984, Blackwell Publishing, p.160, ISBN 063113462X</ref> In the [[Greek diaspora]], Greeks also speak the languages of the areas in which they live. Some members of the diaspora cannot speak Greek, but are still considered Greeks by ethnic origin or descent.<ref>Geoffrey C. Horrocks, ''Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers'', 1997, Longman, ISBN 0582307090</ref>
===Religion===
[[Image:Greek manuscript uncial 4th century.png|thumb|150px|Uncial script, from a 4th-century Bible manuscript]]
The majority of Greeks are [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christians]], belonging to the [[Greek Orthodox Church]]. During the first centuries after [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]], the [[New Testament]] was originally written in [[Koine Greek]], which is mutually intelligible with modern Greek to a great extent, as most of the early Christians and Church Fathers were Greek-speaking. While the Orthodox Church was always intensely hostile to the [[Religion in ancient Greece|ancient Greek religion]], it did help Greeks retain their sense of identity during the Ottoman rule through its use of Greek in the liturgy and its modest educational efforts.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, ''Greece under Ottoman rule, The role of the Orthodox church'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref> There are also small groups of ethnic Greeks adhering to other [[Chistianity|Christian]] denominations like [[Roman Catholicism in Greece|Greek Catholics]], [[Greek Evangelical Church|Greek Evangelicals]] and [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], and groups adhering to other religions including [[Romaniotes]] and [[Greek Muslims]]. About 2,000 people are members of [[Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism]] congregations.<ref>[http://www.newstatesman.com/200703200001 Newstatesman - The ancient gods of Greece are not extinct]</ref><ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/08/wgods08.xml Telegraph.co.uk - Modern Athenians fight for the right to worship the ancient Greek gods]</ref><ref>The US government gives a generic number of 2,000.[http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71383.htm United States Department of State - International Religious Freedom Report 2006]</ref>
{{clear}}
===Art===
{{Main|Greek art}}
[[Image:The Assumption of the Virgin 1577.jpg|thumb|150px|[[El Greco]]'s ''Assumption of the Virgin'' (1577-1579).]]
Greek art has a long and varied history. Greeks have made several contributions to the visual, literary and performing arts.<ref>Susie Hodge, ''Ancient Greek Art'', 1998, Heinemann Interactive Library, ISBN 1575725517</ref> In the West [[ancient Greek art]] was influential in shaping the [[Roman art|Roman]] and later the modern [[Western art]]istic heritage. Following the [[Renaissance]] in [[Europe]], the humanist aesthetic and the high technical standards of Greek art inspired generations of European artists. Well into the 19th century, the classical tradition derived from Greece played an important part the art of the Western World.<ref>John Boardman, ''The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity'', 1994, Princeton University Press ISBN 0691036802</ref> In the East, [[Alexander the Great]]'s conquests initiated several centuries of exchange between Greek, [[Central Asia]]n and Indian cultures, resulting in [[Greco-Buddhist art]], whose influence reached as far as [[Japan]].<ref>Jerry H.Bentley, ''Old World Encounters. Cross-cultural contacts and exchanges in pre-modern times'', Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0195076397</ref>
Byzantine Greek art, which grew from [[Fayum portraits|classical art]], provided a stimulus to the art of many nations. Its influences can be traced from [[Venice]] in the West to [[Kazakhstan]] in the East and [[Byzantine art]] is one of the most striking features of that civilization.<ref>C. Mango, ed., ''The art of the Byzantine Empire, 312-1453: sources and documents'', 1986, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 0802066275</ref><ref>[http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9900058 Economist, ''The Byzantine Empire, The lasting glory of its art''], Oct 4th 2007 </ref>
In turn Greek art was influenced by Eastern Civilizations in Classical Antiquity and the new religion of Orthodox Christianity during Byzantine times while [[modern Greek art]] is heavily influenced by [[Western art]].<ref>John Griffiths Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology,2007,Pearson/Prentice Hall,ISBN 0132380625</ref> Notable Greek artists include [[Renaissance]] painter [[El Greco]], soprano [[Maria Callas]], and composers [[Iannis Xenakis]] and [[Vangelis]]. Greek [[Alexandria]]n [[Constantine P. Cavafy]] and [[nobel prize|Nobel laureate]]s [[George Seferis]] and [[Odysseas Elitis]] are among the most important poets of the twentieth century.
{{clear}}
===Science===
{{see|Greek mathematics|Medicine in ancient Greece|Byzantine science}}
[[Image:Nicholas negroponte.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Nicholas Negroponte]]]]
The Greeks of the Classical era made several notable contributions to science and helped lay the foundations of modern scientific principles. The scholarly tradition of the Greek academies was maintained during Roman times with several academic institutions in [[Constantinople]], [[Antioch]], [[Alexandria]] and other centres of Greek learning. Byzantine science was essentially classical science.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://historymedren.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=historymedren&cdn=education&tm=7&f=00&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.med.virginia.edu/hs-library/historical/antiqua/texte.htm |title= Byzantine Medicine - Vienna Dioscurides|accessdate=2007-05-27 |format= |work=Antiqua Medicina|publisher=University of Virginia }}</ref>
The Greek world has a long tradition of valuing and investing in ''padeia'' (education). ''Paideia'' was one of the highest societal values in the Greek and Hellenistic world while the first European institution described as a university was founded in 9th century Constantinople and operated in various incarnations until the [[Fall of Constantinople|city's fall]] to the Ottomans in 1453.<ref name="texor">[http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/OriginUniversities.html The Origin of Universities]</ref> The [[University of Constantinople]] was also Christian Europe's first secular institution of higher learning since no theological subjects were taught.<ref>{{cite book | last=Tatakes |first=Vasileios N. |coauthors=Moutafakis, Nicholas J. | title=Byzantine Philosophy | year=2003 | publisher=Hackett Publishing|isbn=0-872-20563-0|pages=189}}</ref>
As of 2007 Greece had the eighth highest percentage of tertiary enrolment in the world (with the percentages for female students being higher than for male) while Greeks of the Diaspora are equally active in the field of education.<ref>The Economist Intelligence Unit, ''World in Figures 2007, Tertiary Enrollment as percentage of relevant age group''</ref> Hundreds of thousands of Greek students attend Western universities every year while the faculty lists of leading Western universities contain a striking number of Greek names.<ref>[http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_STQTVNJ The Economist, University reforms in Greece face student protests], Jul 6th 2006</ref> Notable Greek scientists of modern times include [[Georgios Papanikolaou]] (inventor of the [[Pap test]]), [[Nicholas Negroponte]], [[Constantin Carathéodory]], [[Michael Dertouzos]], and [[Dimitri Nanopoulos]].
{{clear}}
===Symbols===
{|style="float: right; border:solid lightgray 1px; margin:5px;"
|[[Image:Flag of Greece.svg|90px|center]]
|[[Image:Coat of arms of Greece.svg|90px|center]]
|-
|<center><small>National flag<br>of Greece.</small></center>
|<center><small>National emblem<br>of Greece.</small></center>
|-
|
|-
|[[Image:Flag of the Byzantine Empire.svg|90px|center]]
|[[Image:Flag of Greece (1828-1978).svg|90px|center]]
|-
|<center><small>Double-headed eagle<br>flag of the<br>Greek Orthodox Church.</small></center>
|<center><small>The pre-1978<br>flag of Greece.</small></center>
|}
The most widely used symbol used by Greeks is the [[flag of Greece]], which features nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white representing the nine syllables of the Greek national motto ''[[Eleftheria i thanatos]]'' (freedom or death), which was also the motto of the [[Greek War of Independence]]. The blue square in the upper hoist-side corner bears a white cross, which represents [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodoxy]]. The Greek flag is also widely used by the [[Greek Cypriots]], although [[Cyprus]] has officially adopted a neutral flag so as to ease ethnic tensions with the [[Turkish Cypriots|Turkish Cypriot]] minority – see [[flag of Cyprus]]), and by the [[Northern Epirus|Greek minority]] in [[Albania]], which has led to ethnic clashes with the ethnic [[Albanians|Albanian]] majority).<ref>[http://www.presidency.gr/en/shmaia.htm Presidency of the Hellenic Republic], ''The Flag''</ref>
The pre-1978 (and first) flag of Greece, which features a [[Cross|Greek cross]] (''crux immissa quadrata'') on a blue background, is widely used as an alternative to the official flag, and they are often flown together. The [[national emblem of Greece]] features a blue [[Escutcheon (heraldry)|escutcheon]] with a white cross totally surrounded by two laurel branches. A common design involves the current flag of Greece and the pre-1978 flag of Greece with crossed flagpoles and the national emblem placed in front.<ref>Chevalier, Jean, ''The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols'', 1997, Penguin ISBN 0140512543</ref>
Another highly recognizable and popular Greek symbol is the [[Flag of Greece#The double-headed eagle|double-headed eagle]], the imperial emblem of the [[Byzantine Empire]] and a common symbol in [[Eastern Europe]]. It is not currently part of the modern Greek flag or coat of arms, although it is officially the insignia of the [[Greek Army]] and the flag of the [[Church of Greece]]. It had been incorporated in the Greek coat of arms between 1925 and 1926.<ref>[http://www.heraldica.org/topics/national/byzantin.htm Byzantine Heraldry]</ref>
===Surnames===
{{seealso|Family name#Greece|Names of the Greeks}}
Greek surnames are most commonly patronymics. Occupation, characteristic or ethnic background and location/origin-based surnames names also occur; they are sometimes supplemented by nicknames. Commonly, Greek male surnames end in -s, which is the common ending for Greek masculine [[proper nouns]] in the [[nominative case]]. Exceptionally, some end in -ou, indicating the [[genitive case]] of this proper noun for patronymic reasons. Although surnames are static today, dynamic and changing patronym usage survives in middle names in Greece where the genitive of father's first name is commonly the middle name.
Because of their codification in the Modern Greek state, surnames have [[Katharevousa]] forms even though Katharevousa is no longer the official standard. Thus, the Ancient Greek name Eleutherios forms the Modern Greek proper name Lefteris, and former vernacular practice (prefixing the surname to the proper name) was to call John Eleutherios as '''Leftero-giannis'''. Modern practice is to call the same person Giannis Eleftheriou: the proper name is vernacular (and not Ioannis), but the surname is an archaic genitive.
Female surnames, are most often in the [[Katharevousa]] [[genitive case]] of a male name. This is an innovation of the Modern Greek state; Byzantine practice was to form a feminine counterpart of the male surname (e.g. masculine Palaiologos, Byzantine feminine Palaiologina, Modern feminine Palaiologou)".<ref>"The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium", Oxford University Press, volume 3, 2001</ref>
In the past, women would change their surname when married, to that of their husband (again in genitive case) signifying the transfer of "dependence" from the father to the husband. In earlier Modern Greek society, women were named with '''''-aina''''' as a feminine suffix on the husband's first name: "Giorgaina", "Mrs George", "Wife of George". Nowadays, a woman's surname does not change upon marriage, though she can use the husband's surname socially. Children usually receive the paternal surname, though in rare cases, if the bride and groom have agreed before the marriage, the children can receive the maternal surname.
Some surnames are prefixed with '''''Papa-''''', indicating ancestry from a priest, i.e. ."Papadopoulos", the "son of the priest (''papas'')". Others, like '''''Archi-''''' and '''''Mastro-''''' signify "boss" and "[[tradesman]]" respectively.
Prefixes such as '''''Konto-''''', '''''Makro-''''', and '''''Chondro-''''', describe body characteristics, such as "short", "tall/long" and "fat". '''"Gero-"''' and '''"Palaio-"''' signify "old" or "wise".
Other prefixes include '''''[[hajji|Hadji]]-''''' which was an honorific deriving from the Arabic [[Hadj]] or pilgrimage, and indicate that the person had made a pilgrimage (in the case of Christians to Jerusalem) and '''''Kara-''''' which is attributed to the Turkish word for "black" deriving from the [[Ottoman Empire]] era.
[[Arvanites|Arvanitic]] surnames are also common. For example, the word in [[Arvanitic|Arvanitika]] for "brave" or "''pallikari''" (in Greek) being "çanavar" or its shortened form "çavar" was pronounced "tzanavar" or "tzavar" giving birth to traditional Arvanitic family names like "Tzanavaras" and/or "Tzavaras".<ref>Tzavaras, Ath.: "Agapite Aderfe Vasileie", Ekdosis Exantas, Athens 1999</ref>
Most Greek patronymic suffixes are diminutives, which vary by region. The most common Hellenic patronymic suffixes are:
*'''''-poulos/-poulou''''', which means "the little", representing "the son of ...", so a man whose family name is "Christopoulos" means that his main ancestor was named "Christos". This suffix is very spread mostly throughout the whole [[Greece]] and is original from the [[Peloponessus]] in particular.
*'''''-idis/-idou''''' and '''''-iadis/-iadou''''' are both very ancient last names and clan forms used in the [[Pontus]] and [[Asia Minor]] regions, i.e. "Konstantinidis", the "clan of Constantine". After the [[population exchange between Greece and Turkey]], it became very familiar in [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]] with the new settlements of [[Pontic Greeks]] in that region.
* '''''-akis/-aki''''' is associated primarily with [[Crete]] and the [[Aegean Islands]]. A patronymic signifying "little" and/or "son" therefore "Theodorakis" being "little Theodore" or "Theodore´s son". After several migration waves of [[Cretans]] to the Southern Peloponessus it also became familiar in the [[Mani Peninsula]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mani.org.gr/fonimanis/2001/1_2001epif_epon.htm |work=Academy of Athens |title=Maniote surnames}}</ref>
Others, less common are:
* '''''-atos/-atou''''' (From [[Kefalonia]] and other [[Ionian Islands]] under strong [[Italian language|Italian]] influence);<ref>http://www.cangelaris.com/gen.html</ref>
*'''''-as/-a''''' (From [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]] and [[Epirus]]);
*'''''-akos/-akou''''' (From [[Mani Peninsula|Mani]] in the [[Laconia]] region) and '''''-eas/-ea''''' (From [[Mani Peninsula|Mani]] in the [[Messenia]] region);
*'''''-oglou''''' (both genders, a Turkish root ending seen in immigrants from [[Asia Minor]] meaning "son of"<ref>http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/names/modern.html</ref>, i.e. Sarafoglou, "the son of Sarafis");
*'''''-ou''''' (Genitive, from [[Cyprus]]).
The suffix '''''-idis''''' (often transliterated ''-ides'' in [[English language|English]] and [[French language]]s) is the oldest in use. [[Zeus]], for example was also referred to as ''[[Cronides]]'', that is to say "son of [[Cronus]]".<ref>http://www.theoi.com/Text/NonnusDionysiaca2.html</ref>
===Sea===
{{Main|Greek shipping}}
[[Image:WorldMapCosmasIndicopleustes.jpg|thumb|200px|6th century map by [[Cosmas Indicopleustes]].]]
The traditional Greek homelands have been the Greek peninsula and the Aegean, the Black Sea and [[Ionia|Ionian coasts]] of Asia Minor, the islands of Cyprus and [[Sicily]] and the [[Magna Grecia|south of the Italian peninsula]]. In Plato's [[Phaedo|Phaidon]] Socrates remarks that "we (Greeks) live like ants or frogs around a pond".<ref>Plato, Phaidon, 109c, ''ὥσπερ περὶ τέλμα μύρμηκας ἢ βατράχους περὶ τὴν θάλατταν οἰκοῦντας''</ref> This image is attested by the map of the Old Greek Diaspora, which corresponded to the Greek world until the creation of the [[Greece|Greek state]] in 1832. The [[sea]] and trade were natural outlets for Greeks since the Greek peninsula is rocky and does not offer good prospects for agriculture.<ref name=Roberts1/>
The sea has always been a defining feature of Greek culture, with numerous songs and poems about the sea and seascapes attested in Greek art. In war among the many battles that the Greek Nation was called to fight the most decisive one was the sea [[Battle of Salamis|battle at Salamis]] which has been described as one of the most important battles in history. A notable Greek explorer was the 6th century merchant and later monk [[Cosmas Indicopleustes]] ("''Cosmas who sailed to India''").<ref>Beatrice Nicolini, Penelope-Jane Watson, ''Makran, Oman, and Zanzibar: Three-terminal Cultural Corridor in the Western Indian Ocean (1799-1856)'', 2004, BRILL, ISBN 9004137807</ref> In later times the Rhomioi plied the sea-lanes of the [[Mediterranean]] and controlled trade until an embargo imposed by the [[Byzantine Emperor|Roman Emperor]] on trade with the Muslims opened the door for the later Italian pre-eminence in trade.
The Greek shipping tradition recovered during the Ottoman rule when a substantial merchant middle class developed, aided in part by the [[Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca]] ([[21 July]] [[1774]]) between the Ottoman Empire and the [[Russian Empire]]. It granted Russia some economic and political rights in the Ottoman Empire, such as allowing Ottoman [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christians]] to sail under the [[Flag of Russia|Russian flag]]. This was in effect a Russian guarantee on all Greek ships that flew the Russian flag, spurring the creation of a [[merchant marine]] on the three nautical islands of [[Hydra, Saronic Islands|Hydra]], [[Spetses]] and [[Psara]].<ref name=BritMerchant/> These sailors also played an important part in the Greek War of Independence.
Today, Greek shipping continues to prosper to the extent that Greece has the largest merchant fleet in the world, and many more ships under Greek ownership fly flags of convenience.<ref>Economist, World in figures, 2007 ed., ''Merchant marine'', p.76</ref> The most notable shipping [[magnate]] of the 20th century was [[Aristotle Onassis]],<ref>Blyth, Myrna, [[National Review Online]], [http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDRjYzJhMWI5ZjE3ZmNmOWQ0YWEyNjBkYmI1MjhiODI= ''Greek Tragedy, The life of Aristotle Onassis''], Retrieved on [[2008-04-05]].</ref><ref>Smith, Helena, [[The Guardian]], [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/06/arts.artsnews ''Callas takes centre stage again as exhibition recalls Onassis's life''], Retrieved on [[2008-04-05]].</ref> others being [[Yiannis Latsis]], [[George Livanos]], and [[Stavros Niarchos]]. A famous Greek poet of the 20th century was the Chinese-born seaman [[Nikos Kavvadias]] who expressed the spirit of Greek cosmopolitanism and effortless and unpretentious [[multiculturalism]].<ref>[http://www.eleftherovima.gr/cgi-bin/news/viewnews.cgi?newsid1048170154,681, Eleuthero Vima article: The sea in Greek tradition]</ref>
==Timeline==
The history of the Greek people is closely associated with the [[history of Greece]], Cyprus, Constantinople, and Asia Minor. During the Ottoman rule of Greece, a number of Greek enclaves around the Mediterranean were cut off from the core, notably in Southern Italy, the Caucasus, Syria and Egypt. By the early 20th century, over half of the overall [[Greek language|Greek]]-speaking population was settled in Asia Minor (now Turkey). During the 20th century, a huge wave of migration to the United States, Australia, Canada and elsewhere created a Greek diaspora.
''Some key historical events have also been included for context, but '''this timeline is not intended to cover history not related to migrations'''. There is more information on the historical context of these migrations in [[History of Greece]].''
<div class="references-small">
{{MultiCol}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! style="width:120px" |Time|| style="width:400px" |Events
|-
| '''30th century BCE'''|| [[Proto-Greek]] tribes migrate into the [[Balkans]]
|-
| '''20th century BCE'''|| Greek settlements established on the Balkans
|-
| '''17th century BCE''' || Decline of [[Minoan civilization]], possibly due to the eruption of [[Santorini|Thera]]. Settlement of [[Achaeans]] and [[Ionians]], [[Mycenaean civilization]]
|-
| '''13th century BCE''' ||First [[colonies]] established in [[Asia Minor]]
|-
| '''11th century BCE''' ||[[Dorians|Doric]] tribes move into peninsular [[Greece]]
|-
| '''9th century BCE''' ||Major colonization of [[Asia Minor]]
|-
| '''8th century BCE''' ||First major colonies established in [[Sicily]] and Southern Italy
|-
| '''6th century BCE''' ||Colonies established across the [[Mediterranean]] and the [[Black Sea]]
|-
| '''4th century BCE'''|| Campaign of [[Alexander the Great]]; Greek colonies established in newly founded cities of [[Ptolemaic Egypt]] and Asia
|-
| '''2nd century BCE''' || Conquest of Greece by the [[Roman Empire]]. Migrations of Greeks to [[Rome]].
|-
| '''4th century''' || [[Eastern Roman Empire|Eastern Roman]] (Byzantine) Empire, Migrations of Greeks throughout the Empire, mainly towards [[Constantinople]]
|-
| '''7th century'''|| [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] conquest of several parts of [[Greece]], Greek migrations to [[Southern Italy]], Byzantine Emperors capture main Slavic bodies and transfer them to [[Cappadocia]],[[Bosphorus]] re-populated by Macedonian and Cypriot Greeks
|-
| '''8th century''' || Byzantine dissolution of surviving Slavic settlements in Greece and full recovery of the Greek peninsula
|-
| '''9th century''' || Retro-migrations of Greeks from all parts of the Empire (mainly from Southern Italy and Sicily) into parts of Greece that were depopulated by the [[Slavs|Slavic Invasions]] (mainly western Peloponnesus and Thessaly)
|-
| '''13th century'''|| Byzantine Empire dissolves, Constantinople taken by the [[Fourth Crusade]]; becoming the capital of the [[Latin Empire]]. Liberated after a long struggle by the Empire of Nicaea, but fragments remain separated. Migrations between Asia Minor, Constantinople and mainland Greece take place
|-
| '''15th century<br>{{spaces|5}}-<br>19th century''' || Conquest of Constantinople by the [[Ottoman Empire]]. [[Greek diaspora]] into Europe begins. Ottoman settlements in Greece. [[Phanariot]] Greeks occupy high posts in Eastern European millets.
|-
| '''1830s'''|| Creation of the [[History of Modern Greece|Modern Greek State]]. Immigration to the [[New World]] begins. Large-scale migrations from Constantinople and Asia Minor to Greece take place
|}
{{ColBreak}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! style="width:120px" |Time|| style="width:400px" |Events
|-
| '''1913'''||European Ottoman lands partitioned; Unorganized migrations of Greeks, Bulgarians and Turks towards their respective states
|-
| '''1914-1923''' || [[Pontic Greek Genocide]], approximately 353,000 [[Pontian Greeks]] killed<ref name=IAGSrec>[http://genocidescholars.org/images/PRelease16Dec07IAGS_Officially_Recognizes_Assyrian_Greek_Genocides.pdf IAGS Official Website], ''International Genocide Scholars Association Officially Recognizes Assyrian, Greek Genocides'', Retrieved on [[2007-12-15]].</ref><ref name= Schaller > {{cite journal |first= Schaller, Dominik J |last= Zimmerer, Jürgen |title=Late Ottoman genocides: the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Young Turkish population and extermination policies - introduction |journal= Journal of Genocide Research |volume=10 (1) |date=2008 |doi=10.1080/14623520801950820 |pages=7}} </ref><ref name= Levene2 > {{cite journal |first= Mark |last= Levene |title= Creating a Modern "Zone of Genocide": The Impact of Nation- and State-Formation on Eastern Anatolia, 1878–1923 |journal= Holocaust and Genocide Studies |volume=12(3) |date=1998 |doi= 10.1093/hgs/12.3.393 |pages= 393}} </ref><ref name=TatzJatz>{{cite book| url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?vid=ISBN1859845509&id=khCffgX1NPIC&pg=PR13&lpg=PR13&vq=&sig=VgQBQ4-HVjDy2Kju1RpfDdy3N8E | title= With Intent to Destroy: Reflections on Genocide | first =Colin Tatz | last=Cohn Jatz | publisher=Verso |year=2003 | ISBN=1859845509 | location=Essex}}</ref><ref name= Diakonoff>{{cite book | first= Igor M. |last = Diakonoff |title = The Paths of History | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1994 |pages = 276 |isbn= 0521643988 }}</ref><ref name="Rummel">{{cite web| url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP5.HTM |title= Statistics of Democide | work=Chapter 5, Statistics Of Turkey's Democide Estimates, Calculations, And Sources |author=[[R. J. Rummel]] | accessmonthday= October 4 | accessyear=2006}}</ref>
|-
| '''1919'''|| [[Treaty of Neuilly]]; Greece and Bulgaria exchange populations, with some exceptions.
|-
| '''1922'''|| [[Great Fire of Smyrna|The Destruction of Smyrna]] (nowadays Izmir) more than 40 thousands Greeks killed, End of significant Greek presence in Asia Minor
|-
| '''1923'''|| Treaty of Lausanne; Greece and Turkey agree to exchange populations with limited exceptions of the Greeks in [[Constantinople]], [[Imbros]], [[Tenedos]] and the Muslim minority (mainly Greeks, Pomaks, Roms and Turks) of [[Western Thrace]]. 1,5 million of Asia Minor and Pontic Greeks settle in Greece, and some 450 thousands of Muslims settle in Turkey
|-
| '''1940s'''|| Hundred of thousands Greeks died from starvation during the [[Axis Occupation of Greece]]
|-
| '''1947'''|| [[Communist]] regime in Romania begins evictions of the Greek community, approx. 75,000 migrate.
|-
| '''1948'''|| [[Greek Civil War]]. Tens of thousands of Greek [[communist]]s and their families flee into [[Eastern Bloc]] nations. Thousands settle in [[Tashkent]]
|-
| '''1950s'''|| Massive emigration of Greeks to West Germany, the United States, Australia, Canada, and other countries.
|-
| '''1955'''|| [[Istanbul Pogrom]] against Greeks. Exodus of Greeks from the city accelerates; less than 2,000 remain today.
|-
| '''1958'''|| Large Greek community in Alexandria flees [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser's]] regime in [[History of Modern Egypt#Nasser and Arab socialism|Egypt]].
|-
|'''1960s''' || [[Republic of Cyprus]] created, as an independent state, under Greek, Turkish and British protection. Economic emigration continues
|-
| '''1974'''||[[Turkish invasion of Cyprus]]. Almost all Greeks living in Northern Cyprus flee to the south and the United Kingdom
|-
| '''1980s'''||Many civil war refugees were allowed to re-emigrate to Greece. Retro-migration of Greeks from Germany begins
|-
| '''1990s'''||Collapse of [[Soviet Union]]. Approx. 100,000 ethnic Greeks migrate from Georgia, Armenia, southern Russia and Albania to Greece
|-
| '''2000s'''|| Some statistics indicate the beginning of a trend of reverse migration of Greeks from the United States and Australia
|-
|}
{{EndMultiCol}}
</div>
==References==
{{Indo-European topics}}
{{Reflist|2}}
==Further reading==
*Paul Cartledge, ''The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization'', 2000, T.V. Brooks, ISBN 1575000938
*Humphrey Davy Findley Kitto, ''The Greeks'', 1991, Penguin Books, ISBN 0140135219
*Per Bilde , ''Conventional Values of the Hellenistic Greeks'', 1997, Aarhus University Press, ISBN 8772885556
*Michael Grant, ''The Hellenistic Greeks: From Alexander to Cleopatra'', 1990, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0297820575
*John Pentland Mahaffy, William Alexander Goligher,'' Hellenistic Greeks'', 1928
*Stephen Xydis, Medieval Origins of Modern Greek Nationalism, ''Balkan Studies'', Vol. 9 (1968), 1-20.
*Michael Herzfeld, ''Ours Once More: Folklore, Ideology, and the making of Modern Greece'', 1982. ISBN 0292760183
*Victor Roudometof, From Rum Millet to Greek Nation: Enlightenment, Secularization, and National Identity in Ottoman Balkan Society, 1453-1821, ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies '' 16:1 (May 1998), pp. 11-48.
*Peter Mackridge, Eleni Yannakakis, eds., ''Ourselves and Others : The Development of a Greek Macedonian Cultural Identity since 1912'', 1997. ISBN 1-85973-133-3.
*Peter Bien, Inventing Greece, ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 23:2 (October 2005), pp. 217-234.
*John Koliopoulos, Thanos Veremis, ''Greece: The Modern Sequel : from 1831 to the Present'',2002, ISBN 1850654638
*David Holden, ''Greece Without Columns: The Making of the Modern Greeks'', 1972,ISBN 0397007795
==External links==
* [http://www.chs.harvard.edu/activities_events.sec/conferences.ssp/conf_greeks_on_greekness.pg Greeks on Greekness: The Construction and Uses of the Greek Past among Greeks under the Roman Empire], a conference on how Greeks imagined Greekness in relation to the past during the first two centuries of the Roman Empire.
* [http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/ Transnational Communities Programme at the University of Oxford], includes papers on the Greek Diaspora
*[http://en.sae.gr/?id=12377 World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE)], Umbrella Diaspora Organization
[[Category:Greek people| ]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Albania]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Argentina]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Bulgaria]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Europe]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Greece]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Kazakhstan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Macedonia]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Mexico]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in New Zealand]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Poland]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Russia]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in South Africa]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the Czech Republic]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Ukraine]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Uzbekistan]]
[[Category:Indo-European peoples]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the Republic of Macedonia]]
[[ar:إغريق]]
[[az:Yunanlar]]
[[bg:Гърци]]
[[cs:Řekové]]
[[da:Grækerne]]
[[de:Griechen]]
[[el:Έλληνες]]
[[eo:Grekoj]]
[[hr:Grci]]
[[id:Bangsa Yunani]]
[[it:Greci]]
[[ka:ბერძნები]]
[[la:Graeci]]
[[lv:Grieķi]]
[[mk:Грци]]
[[ml:യവനന്]]
[[ms:Orang Greek]]
[[nl:Grieken]]
[[ja:ギリシャ人]]
[[nap:Greci (AV)]]
[[no:Grekere]]
[[pl:Grecy]]
[[pt:Gregos]]
[[ru:Греки]]
[[sk:Gréci]]
[[sl:Grki]]
[[sr:Грци]]
[[fi:Kreikkalaiset]]
[[sv:Greker]]
[[tr:Yunanlar]]
[[zh:希臘人]]