The 4 Greek tribes: characteristics and history of the Hellenic peoples

What are the 4 Greek tribes? Actually, and if we speak strictly, we should talk about many more. In the ethnic cultural melting pot that formed the culture of Ancient Greece, we find groups of diverse origins. However, it is true that the Hellenic tribes that brought together a greater number of human groups were four: the Ionians, the Aeolians, the Achaeans and the Dorians.

Before focusing on the characteristics of each specific tribe, it is necessary to review the concepts that we are going to talk about in this article, as well as the historical process that gave rise to the tribes Greek. Only then can we understand what a tribe was in Hellenic culture, and what role it played in their society.

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Tribes, phratries and genos in Ancient Greece

A tribe, within the Greek cultural and social context, was a grouping of phratries. And what was a phratry? The word comes from the Greek φρατήρ, that is, "brother", and refers to a grouping of several clans or

genes. Finally, the genes They are groups with family relationships, that is, groupings of families. These distinctions drew a pyramid that opened up as more individuals came into play: the basic nucleus was the family; various family groups with common ties, was a genos; several genes, a phratry and finally, a group of phratries It is what gave rise to the tribe.

As we can see, while the families and genos were united by family ties, the case of the phratries and the tribes was more complex. They could count on blood ties or simply be alliances between clans.

Initially, each of these realities was independent of the others, and each resolved its own issues. But as history progressed, economic changes and the rise of trade and crafts, among other things, led to large human movements from one tribe to another. In this way, issues that were previously considered, let's say, privateNow they affected everyone. It is in this context where we must situate the Athenian popular law system, which was placed above the uses and customs of the various tribes.

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The origin of the 4 Greek tribes: the Indo-European invasions

So far we have clarified the meaning of the concepts we are dealing with. However, what is the origin of this division into tribes? The answer is found in the Indo-European invasions.

The Indo-Europeans were a cultural and ethnic group of disputed origin that began to spread through Europe and part of Asia around the 5th millennium BC. Thus, those that were later the main Greek tribes came from this ethnic group. Let's see why.

The pre-Hellenic peoples

Before the Indo-European invasions, what we know today as Greece (the mainland and its islands) were populated by flourishing cultures. Between them, the most notable was the Minoan culture, which was located on the island of Crete, and which authors such as Carlos Moreu identify with the pre-Hellenic tribe of the Léleges.

Similarly, In the north of Greece we find, around the IV millennium BC. C, to the Pelasgian tribe, which Carlos Moreu identifies with the so-called Dímini culture. Both cultures present enough characteristics not to be considered Indo-European; Following Moreu once again, the inscriptions in the Pelasgian language and the tablets written in the Cretan language show that these tribes did not speak Indo-European languages.

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The arrival of the "Hellenes"

Thus, we find that, prior to the Indo-European invasions, cultures of various kinds flourished in mainland Greece and its islands. But towards the fourth millennium BC. C Indo-European groups begin to move, probably from the Caucasus area. And that's when Indo-European immigration to Greece begins, a constant and uninterrupted flow that lasts no less than 5 centuries. Finally, the newcomers manage to dominate Greece around the 2nd millennium BC. c.

The word "Hellenic", which we currently associate without major problems with the Greeks, is actually a word of more than likely Indo-European origin. How could it be otherwise, if the historical Greek tribes come from the migrations of this ethnic group? As Carlos Moreu comments in his magnificent article hellenic tribes, the word "Hellenic" would come to mean something like "brilliant" or "illustrious", since it would take the Indo-European root hel-, which by the way we also find in "Helios", the sun god.

In conclusion, we can say that if the Greeks called themselves "Hellenes" and their land, "Hellas", it is because their tribes came from this invading people, who not only left them their language (Greek is one of the languages ​​that derive from Indo-European) but also many features of their culture.

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The “Dark Ages”

Paradoxically, the arrival of the "brilliants" ushered in the beginning of what historians have called the Dark Ages. And it is that, coinciding with the invasions of the Indo-European peoples, especially that of the Dorians, Greece plunged into a period of which there is no written record, so it is impossible to reconstruct what happened in that long historical episode of more than 3 centuries.

This "Dark Age" coincides with the settlement of the Indo-European peoples in Greek territory, but it does not mean that this "regression" was due to these invasions. There are many hypotheses that try to explain what happened so that civilizations as refined as the Cretan became extinct; but, since we lack written testimonies, it only remains to make assumptions.

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The 4 Greek tribes: Ionians, Aeolians, Achaeans and Dorians

Now that we have laid the foundations of what was the origin of the 4 most important Greek tribes, let's go on to describe each one of them.

1. The Ionians

This tribe was mostly settled in the Ionia area, in Asia Minor. It is especially known for having seen the birth of the Presocratics, whose "leader", Thales of Miletus, was an Ionian. However, despite abounding in this area, we also find Ionian testimony in Attica and the Peloponnese.

The Ionian tribe claimed to be descended from the Greek hero Ion. This is something common in all archaic groups: attributing themselves to a mythical origin, connected with heroes or gods. As we will see later, all the tribes had that mythical past very present.

The Ionians formed the so-called Ionian League, which was constituted by the cities of Ephesus, Samos, Prieno, Colophon, Clazómene, Chios, Miletus, Teos, Mionto, Lebedos, Focea and Erythras. In the sixth century they were conquered by the Persians; It was precisely the rise of the Ionians that originated the Medical Wars against the Persian Empire.

2. the aeolians

Traditionally, the Aeolians They considered themselves descendants of Aeolus, king of Aeolis and god of the winds.. The Aeolian was, certainly, the place of settlement of the tribe, which included the west of Asia Minor and some of its islands, such as Lesbos. Like the rest of the tribes, the Aeolians used a Greek dialect, Aeolian, which was used, among others, by the famous poetess Sappho.

Carlos Moreu adventures in his aforementioned article hellenic tribes that the etymology of this tribe may come from Ea or Aia, a place in Colchis, an area very close to the Caucasus and that it would have been the original area of ​​the Indo-Europeans who emigrated to Greece. Thus, the Aeolians could be the first tribe to penetrate Hellenic soil.

3. the achaeans

It is probably the best known Greek tribe next to the Ionians, with whom it seems that they were ethnically related. The myth turns the Achaeans into descendants of Achaeus, who was also the brother of Ion. The Achaeans were located in southern Thessaly, central Greece, and the Peloponnese., and during the Bronze Age they had cities as flourishing as Tiryns, Thebes or Mycenae.

Mycenae is perhaps the best known, for being the homeland of Agamemnon, the mythical king of the Achaeans during the Trojan War. Archaeological records attest to a wealthy and prosperous city, which exercised significant rule during the time immediately before the Dark Ages.

Some historians accept the explanation of the Dorian invasions, another of the Indo-European peoples, as the beginning of the end of the Mycenaean civilization. Because we must not think that the Indo-European movements only caused the collapse of the pre-Hellenic culture; remember that the Indo-Europeans were arriving in successive waves, which allows us to suppose that, when the last groups arrived, others were already satisfactorily established in Greece, as seems to be the case with the achaeans

In the next point we will deal with the last of the Greek tribes: the Dorians.

4. the dorians

The Dorians entered Greek soil at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. C, and towards 1140 a. c., and according to some theories, they destroyed Mycenae. Initially installed in the north of Greece, they will later move to central Greece.

Carlos Moreu has given the etymological origin for the word "Dorian" the Greek term dory, that is, “spearhead”. If so, we would be effectively facing an eminently warrior people. On the other hand, Julius Pokorny maintains, in the Indo-European Etymological Dictionary, the theory that the term "Dorian" comes from doris, that is, “forest”, “high land”. In this case, the word may be related to the habitat of the Dorians, who may have lived in forested mountains.