Who are the Greeks, the Dark Ages, and the Homeric poems
The origin of the Greek people
The origin of the Greek people falls under the race of Indo-Europeans. As a result, it is considered that the first inhabitants of the country of Greece were through migrations that came out of Asia Minor, and then we will show you the migrations that took place in the countries of Greece.
(The first migration in 3500 BC. AD (in the Stone Age
Where a people known as Pelasgoi immigrated to Greece from Asia Minor in an era called the Neolithic Age, which is the Iron Stone Age, and these peoples used to speak the Indo-European language, which is the language that includes the Greek language spoken by the Greeks.
(The second migration in 1900 BC. AD (Bronze Age
Where European-speaking peoples migrated to central and southern Greece in the early second millennium BC. M, specifically in 1900 BC.
And they were peoples characterized by their love for fighting, as they made their tools and weapons from bronze, and that Hegra established a civilization known as the Mycenaean civilization that was established in southern Greece and was named by that name in relation to the city of Mokinai and the center of that civilization, in addition to all of Argos and Pylos.
How to learn about the Mycenaean civilization
Where the German scientist Venkris succeeded in deciphering written symbols expressing that civilization, these symbols were known as linear writing (Linear B) and so named to distinguish between them and the linear writing P characteristic of the Minoan civilization or Minos whose center was the island of Crete.
In the year 1200 BC. The Mycenaean civilization fell suddenly at the hands of the periodic invasion (the Dorians), they are tribes that came from the north and knew their age as the Iron Age, where they came with weapons made of iron, thus ending the bronze age and overwhelming the Iron Age to continue for 4 centuries of time.
This era was known as the Dark Age and not characterized by ignorance It does not have a civilization, but there were civilizations and writings, but it was not as advanced as its predecessor, like the Mycenaean civilization.
The names given to the Greeks
There were many different names given to the Greeks, including
The Achaeans
This name was mentioned in the Epic of the Iliad and Odyssey of the poet Homer and was intended by the Greeks.
The Greeks
A name that the Romans called the Greeks, especially the peoples who inhabited the southern Italian peninsula, forming Greek colonies known as the country of Great Greece (Magna Graecia).
This name was derived from the name of the tribe that settled that region in the 8th century BC. It is called )(Graioi), from which the linguistic term is derived (Greece –(Greek)
Hellas:
The name given to Greece, the great-grandfather of Greece, who lived in the tribe of Helios, and its place was in Athens.
Helenin:
It is a name that the Greeks called themselves in the seventh century BC. M, as this term, was a comprehensive inclusive of all the peoples of Greece who inhabited the Greek peninsula or outside it, and from here all of the name Hellas, including the Hellenic, referred to the Greek nationalism, where he who defies Greek was a Greek, otherwise he is a foreign barbarian like what was called all The Civilization of Europe in the Middle Ages.
Important note:
Greece has been subject to peoples' stronger than them civilization and progress as the civilization of the Persian Empire and also subjected other civilizations to their control, such as the Thracians and Askinin in southern Russia.
Greece :
The term used by the Arabs and they called the peoples that inhabited Asia Minor and they were called Ions, from which the name of the Greeks was derived.
Dark Ages 1200-800 BC M
What is meant are the ages that followed the destruction of the Mycenaean civilization in Greece by the Dorians, and it was called that name because its civilization was not as strong as the Mycenaean civilization in terms of civilization progress, and among the most important features of this era are some of the pottery discoveries and my poem or the epics of the Iliad and the Odyssey of the poet Homer.
We do not know the origin of the epic poet Homer, but the Greek island of Khios succeeded in its lineage, where the Iliad was written in the 9th - 8th century BC.
It is possible that this was the period in which the two epics were written, but was the Iliad Odyssey written by one poet, or not?
Definition of epic poetry:
Epic poetry is the poetry of heroism for the leaders and talking about their victories and wars. Among the most important Roman poets who wrote epic poetry is the poet Virgillus who wrote about the myth of Aeneas
The Iliad
It consists of 17 thousand houses that tell us the story of the destruction of the Trojan War, which lasted 10 years, especially the 51-day period of the war.
The reason for that war is the king of Sparta and the sister of Agamemnon, the king of Mokinate, where his son, Parsis Helena, was kidnapped.
The Odyssey
It consists of 13 thousand houses that tell the story of the hero, Ordisius, one of the heroes of the Trojan War, the story of his return to his homeland on the island of Ithaka, and the struggle at sea for 10 years to return and get his possessions.