Achaeans (Homer)

The Achaeans (/əˈkiːənz/; Ancient Greek: Ἀχαιοί, romanized: Akhaioí, "the Achaeans" or "of Achaea") is one of the names in Homer which is used to refer to the
Greeks collectively.

The term "Achaean" is believed to be related to the Hittite term Ahhiyawa and the Egyptian term Ekwesh which appear in texts from the Late Bronze Age and
are believed to refer to the Mycenaean civilization or some part of it.

In the historical period, the term fell into disuse as a general term for Greek people, and was generally reserved for inhabitants of the region of Achaea, a region in
the north-central part of the Peloponnese. The city-states of this region later formed a confederation known as the Achaean League, which was influential during
the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.

Etymology
According to Margalit Finkelberg[1] the name Ἀχαιοί/Ἀχαιϝοί is possibly derived, via an intermediate form *Ἀχαϝyοί, from a hypothetical older Greek[2] form
reflected in the Hittite form Aḫḫiyawā; the latter is attested in the Hittite archives, e.g. in the Tawagalawa letter. However, Robert S. P. Beekes doubted its validity
and suggested a Pre-Greek *Akaywa-.[3] William Drummond[4] believed the root ak to have signified water[5][6] and suggested that “those whose name was
Hellenized into Ἀχαιοί, Achaioi were originally called ‫اقیان‬, Akaian, lords or rulers,” transliterated from a Scythian word subsequently preserved in Persian.[7]

Homeric versus later use

In Homer, the term Achaeans is one of the primary terms used to refer to the Greeks as a whole. It is used 598 times in the Iliad, often accompanied by the epithet
"long-haired". Other common names used in Homer are Danaans (/ˈdæneɪ.ənz/; Δαναοί Danaoi; used 138 times in the Iliad) and Argives (/ˈɑːrɡaɪvz/; Ἀργεῖοι
Argeioi; used 182 times in the Iliad) while Panhellenes (Πανέλληνες Panhellenes, "All of the Greeks") and Hellenes (/ˈhɛliːnz/;[8] Ἕλληνες Hellenes) both
appear only once;[9] All of the aforementioned terms were used synonymously to denote a common Greek identity.[10][11] In some English translations of the Iliad,
the Achaeans are simply called the Greeks throughout.

Later, by the Archaic and Classical periods, the term "Achaeans" referred to inhabitants of the much smaller region of Achaea. Herodotus identified the Achaeans
of the northern Peloponnese as descendants of the earlier, Homeric Achaeans. According to Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century CE, the term "Achaean" was
originally given to those Greeks inhabiting the Argolis and Laconia.[12]

Pausanias and Herodotus both recount the legend that the Achaeans were forced from their homelands by the Dorians, during the legendary Dorian invasion of the
Peloponnese. They then moved into the region later called Achaea.

A scholarly consensus has not yet been reached on the origin of the historic Achaeans relative to the Homeric Achaeans and is still hotly debated. Former emphasis
on presumed race, such as John A. Scott's article about the blond locks of the Achaeans as compared to the dark locks of "Mediterranean" Poseidon,[13] on the
basis of hints in Homer, has been rejected by some. The contrasting belief that "Achaeans", as understood through Homer, is "a name without a country", an
ethnos created in the Epic tradition,[14] has modern supporters among those who conclude that "Achaeans" were redefined in the 5th century BC, as contemporary
speakers of Aeolic Greek.

Karl Beloch suggested there was no Dorian invasion, but rather that the Peloponnesian Dorians were the Achaeans.[15] Eduard Meyer, disagreeing with Beloch,
instead put forth the suggestion that the real-life Achaeans were mainland pre-Dorian Greeks.[16] His conclusion is based on his research on the similarity between
the languages of the Achaeans and pre-historic Arcadians. William Prentice disagreed with both, noting archeological evidence suggests the Achaeans instead
migrated from "southern Asia Minor to Greece, probably settling first in lower Thessaly" probably prior to 2000 BC.[17]

Hittite documents
Emil Forrer, a Swiss Hittitologist who worked on the Boghazköy tablets in Berlin, said the Achaeans of pre-Homeric Greece were directly associated with the term
"Land of Ahhiyawa" mentioned in the Hittite texts.[18] His conclusions at the time were challenged by other Hittitologists (i.e. Johannes Friedrich in 1927 and
Albrecht Götze in 1930), as well as by Ferdinand Sommer, who published his Die Ahhijava-Urkunden ("The Ahhiyawa Documents") in 1932.[18]

Map showing the Hittite
Empire, Ahhiyawa
(Achaeans) and Wilusa
(Troy) in c. 1300 BC.
Some Hittite texts mention a nation lying to the west called Ahhiyawa.[19] In the earliest reference to this land, a letter outlining
the treaty violations of the Hittite vassal Madduwatta,[20] it is called Ahhiya. Another important example is the Tawagalawa Letter
written by an unnamed Hittite king (most probably Hattusili III) of the empire period (14th–13th century BC) to the king of
Ahhiyawa, treating him as an equal and implying Miletus (Millawanda) was under his control.[21] It also refers to an earlier
"Wilusa episode" involving hostility on the part of Ahhiyawa. Ahhiya(wa) has been identified with the Achaeans of the Trojan
War and the city of Wilusa with the legendary city of Troy (note the similarity with early Greek Ϝίλιον Wilion, later Ἴλιον Ilion,
the name of the acropolis of Troy). The exact relationship of the term Ahhiyawa to the Achaeans beyond a similarity in
pronunciation was hotly debated by scholars, even following the discovery that Mycenaean Linear B is an early form of Greek;
the earlier debate was summed up in 1984 by Hans G. Güterbock of the Oriental Institute.[22] More recent research based on new
readings and interpretations of the Hittite texts, as well as of the material evidence for Mycenaean contacts with the Anatolian
mainland, came to the conclusion that Ahhiyawa referred to the Mycenaean world, or at least to a part of it.[23]

Egyptian sources
It has been proposed that Ekwesh of the Egyptian records may relate to Achaea (compared to Hittite Ahhiyawa), whereas Denyen and Tanaju may relate to
Classical Greek Danaoi.[24] The earliest textual reference to the Mycenaean world is in the Annals of Thutmosis III (ca. 1479–1425 BC), which refers to
messengers from the king of the Tanaju, circa 1437 BC, offering greeting gifts to the Egyptian king, in order to initiate diplomatic relations, when the latter
campaigned in Syria.[24] Tanaju is also listed in an inscription at the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III. The latter ruled Egypt in circa 1382–1344 BC. Moreover,
a list of the cities and regions of the Tanaju is also mentioned in this inscription; among the cities listed are Mycenae, Nauplion, Kythera, Messenia and the Thebaid
(region of Thebes).[24]
During the 5th year of Pharaoh Merneptah, a confederation of Libyan and northern peoples is supposed to have attacked the
western delta. Included amongst the ethnic names of the repulsed invaders is the Ekwesh or Eqwesh, whom some have seen as
Achaeans, although Egyptian texts specifically mention these Ekwesh to be circumcised. Homer mentions an Achaean attack
upon the delta, and Menelaus speaks of the same in Book IV of the Odyssey to Telemachus when he recounts his own return
home from the Trojan War. Some ancient Greek authors also say that Helen had spent the time of the Trojan War in Egypt, and
not at Troy, and that after Troy the Greeks went there to recover her.[25]

Greek mythology
Map of Mycenaean cultural
In Greek mythology, the perceived cultural divisions among the Hellenes were represented as legendary lines of descent that areas, 1400–1100 BC
identified kinship groups, with each line being derived from an eponymous ancestor. Each of the Greek ethne were said to be (unearthed sites in red dots).
named in honor of their respective ancestors: Achaeus of the Achaeans, Danaus of the Danaans, Cadmus of the Cadmeans (the
Thebans), Hellen of the Hellenes (not to be confused with Helen of Troy), Aeolus of the Aeolians, Ion of the Ionians, and Dorus
of the Dorians.

Cadmus from Phoenicia, Danaus from Egypt, and Pelops from Anatolia each gained a foothold in mainland Greece and were assimilated and Hellenized. Hellen,
Graikos, Magnes, and Macedon were sons of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only people who survived the Great Flood;[26] the ethne were said to have originally been
named Graikoi after the elder son but later renamed Hellenes after Hellen who was proved to be the strongest.[27] Sons of Hellen and the nymph Orseis were
Dorus, Xuthos, and Aeolus.[28] Sons of Xuthos and Kreousa, daughter of Erechthea, were Ion and Achaeus.[28]

According to Hyginus, 22 Achaeans killed 362 Trojans during their ten years at Troy.[29][30]

Genealogy of the Argives

Argive genealogy in Greek mythology

Inachus Melia

Zeus Io Phoroneus

Epaphus Memphis

Libya Poseidon

Belus Achiroë Agenor Telephassa

Danaus Elephantis Aegyptus Cadmus Cilix Europa Phoenix

Mantineus Hypermnestra Lynceus Harmonia Zeus

Polydorus

Sparta Lacedaemon Ocalea Abas Agave Sarpedon Rhadamanthus

Autonoë

Eurydice Acrisius Ino Minos

Zeus Danaë Semele Zeus

Perseus Dionysus
 Colour key:
Male
Female
Deity
See also
Achaea (modern province)
Achaea (Roman province)
Achaean League
Achaean Federation
Aegean civilization
Denyen
Historicity of the Iliad
Homer
Mycenaean Greece
Mycenaean language
Military of Mycenaean Greece
Troy
References
Citations
1. Margalit Finkelberg, "From Ahhiyawa to Ἀχαιοί", Glotta 66 (1988):
127–134.
2. According to Finkelberg, this derivation does not necessitate an
ultimate Greek and Indo-european origin of the word: "Obviously,
this deduction cannot supply conclusive proof that Ahhiyawa
presents a Greek word, the more so as neither the etymology of this
word nor its cognates are known to us".
3. R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p.
181.
4. Drummond, William. Origines, Or Remarks on the Origin of Several
Empires, States and Cities, p. 45, 186. United
Kingdom, Baldwin, 1829.
5. According to Drummond: “It seems highly probable, then, to say the
least of it, that aché, or oché, was an Ancient Greek word, which
signified water, and which entered into the word okeanos, as may
be inferred from the passage cited from Diodorus. This radical,
which might easily vary in sound, and be differently pronounced
ach, ag, ak, (and with any other vowel instead of the a,) appears to
have been lost as a separate vocable, and is only now to be found
in composition. I think, however, that we may trace it in various
words which relate to water -agáppoos, aqua currens vel estuosa-
arry, littus -öxe-revw, rivos duco-oxéreva, aqueductus--ëyla, ripa---
óxeròs, canalis--úypòs, humidus--úypr), mare.”
6. Proceedings of the Tenth Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference,
p. 95. Los Angeles, May 21-23, 1998. United States, Institute for the
Study of Man, 1999.
7. This etymological connection between “water” and “ruler” is
explored further in Mesopotamian studies, where the Sumerian
loanword en-si-ak (manager of the arable/irrigated lands) passes
into old Akkadian as issi’akkum (territorial ruler). Averbeck, Richard
E. "A Preliminary Study of Ritual and Structure in the Cylinders of
Gudea," p. 237. United States, University Microfilms International
(U.M.I.), 1991; Jacobsen, Thorkild. “The Term Ensi." Harvard
University. AnOr (Fs. M. Civil) 9 (1991) 113-121.
8. "Hellene" (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/helle
ne) entry in Collins English Dictionary.
9. See Iliad, II.2.530 for "Panhellenes" and Iliad II.2.653 for "Hellenes".
10. Cartledge 2011, Chapter 4: Argos, p. 23: "The Late Bronze Age in
Greece is also called conventionally 'Mycenaean', as we saw in the
last chapter. But it might in principle have been called 'Argive',
'Achaean', or 'Danaan', since the three names that Homer does
apply to Greeks collectively were 'Argives', 'Achaeans', and
'Danaans'."
11. Nagy 2014, Texts and Commentaries – Introduction #2:
"Panhellenism is the least common denominator of ancient Greek
civilization...The impulse of Panhellenism is already at work in
Homeric and Hesiodic poetry. In the Iliad, the names "Achaeans"
and "Danaans" and "Argives" are used synonymously in the sense
of Panhellenes = "all Hellenes" = "all Greeks.""
12. Pausanias. Description of Greece, VII.1.
13. Scott 1925, pp. 366–367.
14. As William K. Prentice expressed this long-standing skepticism of a
genuine Achaean ethnicity in the distant past, at the outset of his
article "The Achaeans" (see Prentice 1929, p. 206).
15. Beloch 1893, Volume I, pp. 88 (Note #1) and 92.
16. Meyer 1884–1902, Volume II, Part 1: Die Zeit der ägyptischen
Großmacht – V. Das griechische Festland und die mykenische
Kultur (http://www.zeno.org/Geschichte/M/Meyer,+Eduard/Geschicht
e+des+Altertums/Zweiter+Band.+Erste+Abteilung%3A+Die+Zeit+d
er+%C3%A4gyptischen+Gro%C3%9Fmacht/V.+Das+griechische+
Festland+und+die+mykenische+Kultur).
17. Prentice 1929, pp. 206–218.
18. Güterbock 1984, p. 114.
19. Huxley 1960, p. 22; Güterbock 1983, pp. 133–138; Mellink 1983,
pp. 138–141.
20. Translation of the Sins of Madduwatta (http://www.hittites.info/transl
ations.aspx?text=translations/historical%2fCTH147_Madduwatta.ht
ml) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20070228042849/http://w
ww.hittites.info/translations.aspx?text=translations%2Fhistorical%2
FCTH147_Madduwatta.html) February 28, 2007, at the Wayback
Machine
21. Translation of the Tawagalawa Letter (http://www.hittites.info/translat
ions.aspx?text=translations/historical%2fPiyama-radu+Letter.html)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20131021192729/http://www.
hittites.info/translations.aspx?text=translations%2Fhistorical%2FPiy
ama-radu+Letter.html) 2013-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
22. Güterbock 1984, pp. 114–122.
23. Windle 2004, pp. 121–122; Bryce 1999, p. 60.
24. Kelder 2010, pp. 125–126.
25. For example, in Euripides, Stesichorus, and Herodotus; HELEN (htt
ps://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/mythology/helen.html) wsu.edu
26. Hesiod. Catalogue of Women, Fragments.
27. Aristotle. Meteorologica, I.14.
28. Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, I.7.3 (http://www.theoi.com/Text/A
pollodorus1.html).
29. Hyginus. Fabulae, 114 (http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae
3.html#114).
30. In particular: Achilles 72, Antilochus 2, Protesilaus 4, Peneleos 2,
Eurypylus 1, Ajax 14, Thoas 2, Leitus 20, Thrasymedes 2,
Agamemnon 16, Diomedes 18, Menelaus 8, Philoctetes 3,
Meriones 7, Odysseus 12, Idomeneus 13, Leonteus 5, Ajax 28,
Patroclus 54, Polypoetes 1, Teucer 30, Neoptolemus 6; a total of
362 Trojans.

Sources
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Greek: The Pre-Greek Loanwords in Greek (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=669ytwAACAAJ). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004174184.
Beloch, Karl Julius (1893). Griechische Geschichte (Volume I).
Strassburg and Berlin.
Bryce, Trevor (1999). The Kingdom of the Hittites (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=Agg5-lpVI2MC). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-924010-4.
Cartledge, Paul (2011). Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction
(https://books.google.com/books?id=ViqDNE-igH4C). Oxford:
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-960134-9.
Finkelberg, Margalit (1988). "From Ahhiyawa to Ἀχαιοί". Glotta. 66:
127–134.
Güterbock, Hans G. (April 1983). "The Hittites and the Aegean
World: Part 1. The Ahhiyawa Problem Reconsidered". American
Journal of Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. 87 (2):
133–138. doi:10.2307/504928 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F504928).
JSTOR 504928 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/504928).
Güterbock, Hans G. (June 1984). "Hittites and Akhaeans: A New
Look". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.
American Philosophical Society. 128 (2): 114–122. JSTOR 986225
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/986225).
Huxley, George Leonard (1960). Achaeans and Hittites (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=RXEfAAAAMAAJ). Oxford: Vincent Baxter
Press.
Kelder, Jorrit M. (2010). "The Egyptian Interest in Mycenaean
Greece" (https://www.academia.edu/221955). Jaarbericht "Ex
Oriente Lux" (JEOL). 42: 125–140.
Mellink, Machteld J. (April 1983). "The Hittites and the Aegean
World: Part 2. Archaeological Comments on Ahhiyawa-Achaians in
Western Anatolia". American Journal of Archaeology.
Archaeological Institute of America. 87 (2): 138–141.
doi:10.2307/504929 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F504929).
JSTOR 504929 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/504929).
Meyer, Eduard (1884–1902). Geschichte des Altertums (Volume 1–
5) (http://www.zeno.org/Geschichte/M/Meyer,+Eduard/Geschichte+d
es+Altertums). Stuttgart-Berlin.
Nagy, Gregory (2014). "The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical
Greek Civilization" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160520202801/h
ttps://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/ancient-gr
eek-civilization). Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard
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du/open-learning-initiative/ancient-greek-civilization) on 2016-05-
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Prentice, William K. (April–June 1929). "The Achaeans". American
Journal of Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. 33 (2):
206–218. doi:10.2307/497808 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F497808).
JSTOR 497808 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/497808).
Scott, John A. (March 1925). "The Complexion of the Achaeans".
The Classical Journal. The Classical Association of the Middle
West and South. 20 (6): 366–367. JSTOR 3288466 (https://www.jst
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IyA9CW-wC). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-
926308-0.

External links
Jordan, Herbert (2009–2012). "The Iliad of Homer (Translated by Herbert Jordan): The Achaeans, Argives, Danaans, or Greeks?" (http://www.i
liadtranslation.com/achaeans.html).
Salimbetti, Andrea (30 September 2013). "The Greek Age of Bronze" (http://www.salimbeti.com/micenei).

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