Ionians
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TheIonians(/aɪˈoʊniənz/;Greek:Ἴωνες,Íōnes,singularἼων,Íōn) were one of thefour major tribesthat theGreeksconsidered themselves to be divided into during theancient period;the other three being theDorians,Aeolians,andAchaeans.[2]TheIonian dialectwas one of thethree major linguistic divisionsof theHellenic world,together with theDorianandAeoliandialects.
When referring to populations, "Ionian"defines several groups inClassical Greece.In its narrowest sense, the term referred to the region ofIoniainAsia Minor.In a broader sense, it could be used to describe all speakers of the Ionic dialect, which in addition to those in Ionia proper also included the Greek populations ofEuboea,theCyclades,and many cities founded by Ioniancolonists.Finally, in the broadest sense it could be used to describe all those who spoke languages of theEast Greekgroup, which includedAttic.
Thefoundation mythwhich was current in theClassical periodsuggested that the Ionians were named afterIon,son ofXuthus,who lived in the northPeloponnesianregion ofAigialeia.When theDorians invadedthe Peloponnese they expelled the Achaeans from theArgolidandLacedaemonia.The displaced Achaeans moved into Aigialeia (thereafter known asAchaea), in turn expelling the Ionians from Aigialeia.[3]The Ionians moved to Attica and mingled with the local population of Attica, and many years later emigrated to the coast of Asia Minor founding the historical region ofIonia.According toHerodotus,all the Ionians arrived in Asia Minor without women and took localCariansas wives.[4]
Unlike the austere and militaristic Dorians, the Ionians are renowned for their love ofphilosophy,art,democracy,and pleasure – Ionian traits that were most famously expressed by theAthenians.[5][page needed][need quotation to verify]TheIonian school of philosophy,centered onMiletus,was characterized by a focus on non-supernatural explanations for natural phenomena and a search for rational explanations of the universe, thereby laying the foundation for scientific inquiry and rational thought in Western philosophy.
Etymology
[edit]Theetymologyof the word Ἴωνες or Ἰᾱ́ϝoνες is uncertain.[6]Friskisolates an unknown root,*Ia-,pronounced*ya-.[7]There are, however, some theories:
- From aProto-Indo-Europeanonomatopoeicroot*wi-or*woi-expressing a shout uttered by persons running to the assistance of others; according toPokorny,*Iāwonescould mean "devotees of Apollo", based on the cryiḕ paiṓnuttered in his worship; the god was also callediḕioshimself.[8]
- From an unknown early name of an eastern Mediterranean island population represented byḥꜣw-nbwt,an ancient Egyptian name for the people living there.[9]
- From ancient Egyptianjwn"pillar, tree trunk" extended intojwnt"bow" (of wood?) andjwntjw"bowmen, archers."[10]This derivation is analogous on the one hand to the possible derivation ofDoriansand on the other fits the Egyptian concept of "nine bows"with reference to theSea Peoples.
- From aProto-Indo-Europeanroot*uiH-,meaning "power."[11]
History of the name
[edit]Unlike "Aeolians" and "Dorians", "Ionians" appears in the languages of different civilizations around theeastern Mediterraneanand as far east asHan China.They are not the earliest Greeks to appear in the records; that distinction belongs to theDanaansand theAchaeans.The trail of the Ionians begins in theMycenaean Greekrecords ofCrete.
Mycenaean
[edit]A fragmentaryLinear Btablet fromKnossos(tablet Xd 146) bears the namei-ja-wo-ne,interpreted byVentrisandChadwick[12]as possibly thedativeornominativeplural case of *Iāwones, an ethnic name. The Knossos tablets are dated to 1400 or 1200 B.C. and thus pre-date the Dorian dominance inCrete,if the name refers toCretans.
The name first appears inGreek literatureinHomeras Ἰάονες,iāones,[13]used on a single occasion of some long-robed Greeks attacked byHectorand apparently identified with Athenians, and this Homeric form appears to be identical with the Mycenaean form but without the*-w-.This name also appears in a fragment of the other early poet,Hesiod,in the singular Ἰάων,iāōn.[14]
Biblical
[edit]In theBook of Genesis[15]of theEnglish Bible,Javanis a son ofJapheth.Javan is believed nearly universally by Bible scholars to represent the Ionians; that is, Javan isIon.TheHebrewis Yāwān, plural Yəwānīm.[16]
Additionally, but less surely, Japheth may be related linguistically to the Greek mythological figureIapetus.[17]
The locations of Biblical tribal countries have been the subjects of centuries of scholarship and yet remain to various degrees open questions. TheBook of Isaiah[18]gives what may be a hint by listing "the nations... that have not heard my fame" including Javan and immediately after "the isles afar off." These isles may be considered as anappositionto Javan or the last item in the series. If the former, the expression is typically used of the population of the islands in theAegean Sea[citation needed].
The date of the Book of Isaiah cannot precede the date of the manIsaiah,in the 8th century BC.
Assyrian
[edit]Some letters of theNeo-Assyrian Empirein the 8th century BC record attacks by what appear to be Ionians on the cities ofPhoenicia:
For example, a raid by the Ionians (ia-u-na-a-a) on the Phoenician coast is reported toTiglath-Pileser IIIin a letter from the 730s BC discovered atNimrud.[19]
The Assyrian word, which is preceded by the country determinative, has been reconstructed as *Iaunaia.[20]More common is ia-a-ma-nu, ia-ma-nu and ia-am-na-a-a with the country determinative, reconstructed as Iamānu.[21]Sargon IIrelated that he took the latter from the sea like fish and that they were from "the sea of the setting sun."[22]If the identification of Assyrian names is correct, at least some of the Ionian marauders came fromCyprus:[23]
Sargon's Annals for 709, claiming that tribute was sent to him by 'seven kings of Ya (ya-a'), a district of Yadnana whose distant abodes are situated a seven-days' journey in the sea of the setting sun', is confirmed by asteleset up atCitiumin Cyprus 'at the base of a mountain ravine... of Yadnana.'
Iranian
[edit]Ionians appear in a number ofOld Persianinscriptions of theAchaemenid EmpireasYaunā(𐎹𐎢𐎴𐎠),[24]anominativeplural masculine, singular Yauna;[25]for example, an inscription ofDariuson the south wall of the palace atPersepolisincludes in the provinces of the empire "Ionians who are of the mainland and (those) who are by the sea, and countries which are across the sea;...."[26]At that time the empire probably extended around the Aegean to northern Greece.
Indic
[edit]
Inspired by Achaemenid Iranians, Ionians appear inIndicliterature and documents as Yavana and Yona. In documents, these names refer to theIndo-Greek Kingdoms:the states formed by the MacedonianAlexander the Greatand his successors on theIndian subcontinent.The earliest such documentation is theEdicts of Ashoka.The Thirteenth Edict is dated to 260–258 BC and directly refers to the "Yonas".[27]
Chinese
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Dayuan(orTayuan;Chinese:Ðại Uyên;pinyin:Dàyuān;lit.'GreatIonians';Middle ChinesedâiC-jwɐn<LHC:dɑh-ʔyɑn[29]) is the Chineseexonymfor a country that existed inFerghana valleyinCentral Asia,described in theChinesehistorical works ofRecords of the Grand Historianand theBook of Han.It is mentioned in the accounts of the ChineseexplorerZhang Qianin 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to theFerghana Valley,controlled by theHellenisticpolisAlexandria Eschate(modernKhujand,Tajikistan), which can probably be understood as "Greco-Fergana city-state" in English language.
Other languages
[edit]Most modernWestern Asianlanguages use the terms "Ionia" and "Ionian" to refer to Greece and Greeks. That is true ofHebrew(Yavan 'Greece' / Yevani fem. Yevania 'a Greek'),[30]Armenian(Hunastan 'Greece'[31]/ Huyn 'a Greek'[citation needed]), and theClassical Arabicwords (al-Yūnān 'Greece' / Yūnānī fem. Yūnāniyya pl. Yūnān 'a Greek',[32]probably from Aramaic Yawnānā[33]) are used in most modernArabicdialects including Egyptian[citation needed]and Palestinian[34]as well as being used in modernPersian(Yūnānestān 'Greece' / Yūnānī pl. Yūnānīhā/Yūnānīyān 'Greeks')[35]andTurkishtoo via Persian (Yunanistan 'Greece' / Yunan 'a Greek person' pl. Yunanlar 'Greek people').[36]
Ionic language
[edit]Ionic Greek was asubdialectof the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group ofAncient Greek.
Pre-Ionic Ionians
[edit]The literary evidence of the Ionians leads back to mainland Greece in Mycenaean times before there was anIonia.The classical sources seem determined that they were to be called Ionians along with other names even then. This cannot be documented with inscriptional evidence, and yet the literary evidence, which is manifestly at least partially legendary, seems to reflect a general verbal tradition.
Herodotus
[edit]HerodotusofHalicarnassusasserts:[37]
all are Ionians who are ofAtheniandescent and keep the feastApaturia.
He further explains:[38]
The whole Hellenic stock was then small, and the last of all its branches and the least regarded was the Ionian; for it had no considerable city exceptAthens.
The Ionians spread from Athens to other places in theAegean Sea:SifnosandSerifos,[39]Naxos,[40]Kea[41]andSamos.[42]But they were not just from Athens:[43]
These Ionians, as long as they were in thePeloponnesus,dwelt in what is now calledAchaea,and beforeDanausandXuthuscame to the Peloponnesus, as the Greeks say, they were calledAegialianPelasgians.They were named Ionians afterIonthe son ofXuthus.
Achaea was divided into 12 communities originally Ionian:[44]Pellene,Aegira,Aegae,Bura,Helice,Aegion,Rhype,Patrae,Phareae,Olenus,Dymeand Tritaeae. The most aboriginal Ionians were of Cynuria:[45]
TheCynuriansare aboriginal and seem to be the only Ionians, but they have been Dorianized by time and by Argive rule.
Strabo
[edit]InStrabo's account of the origin of the Ionians,Hellen,son ofDeucalion,ancestor of theHellenes,king ofPhthia,arranged a marriage between his sonXuthusand the daughter of kingErechtheusofAthens.Xuthus then founded theTetrapolis( "Four Cities" ) ofAttica,a rural district. His son,Achaeus,went into exile in a land subsequently called Achaea after him. Another son of Xuthus,Ion,conqueredThrace,after which the Athenians made him king of Athens. Attica was called Ionia after his death. Those Ionians colonizedAigialiachanging its name to Ionia also. When theHeracleidaereturned the Achaeans drove the Ionians back to Athens. Under theCodridaethey set forth forAnatoliaand founded 12 cities inCariaandLydiafollowing the model of the 12 cities of Achaea, formerly Ionian.[46]
Ionian School of philosophy
[edit]During the 6th century BC, Ionian coastal towns, such asMiletusandEphesus,became the focus of a revolution in traditional thinking about Nature. Instead of explaining natural phenomena by recourse to traditional religion/myth, the cultural climate was such that men began to form hypotheses about the natural world based on ideas gained from both personal experience and deep reflection.[47]These men—Thalesandhis successors—were calledphysiologoi,those who discoursed onNature.They were skeptical of religious explanations for natural phenomena and instead sought purely mechanical and physical explanations. They are credited as being of critical importance to the development of the 'scientific attitude' towards the study of Nature. According to physicistCarlo Rovelli,the work of the Ionian school produced the "first great scientific revolution" and the earliest example of critical thinking, which would come to define Greek, and subsequently modern, thought.[47]
Notes
[edit]- ^Darius I, DNa inscription, Line 28
- ^ApollodorusI, 7.3
- ^PausaniasVII, 1.7
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book I, Chapter 146.
- ^Kōnstantinos D. Paparrēgopulos, Historikai Pragmateiai – Volume 1, 1858
- ^Robert S. P. Beekes,Etymological Dictionary of Greek,Brill, 2009, p. 608 f.
- ^"Indo-European Etymological Dictionary".Leiden University, the IEEE Project. Archived fromthe originalon 27 September 2006.To find the full presentation in H. J. Frisk'sGriechisches Wörterbuchsearch on page 1,748, being sure to include the comma. For a similar presentation in Beekes'A Greek Etymological Dictionarysearch onIonianinEtymology.Both linguists state a full panoply of "Ionian" words with sources.
- ^"Indo-European Etymological Dictionary".Leiden University, the IEEE Project. Archived fromthe originalon 27 September 2006.In Pokorny'sIndogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch(1959), p. 1176.
- ^Partridge, Eric (1983).Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English: Ionian.New York: Greenwich House.ISBN0-517-41425-2.
- ^Bernal, Martin (1991).Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization: Volume I: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785–1985.New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. pp.83–84.ISBN0-8135-1277-8.
- ^Nikolaev, Alexander S. (2006),"Ἰάoνες",Acta Linguistica Petropolitana,2(1), pp. 100–115.
- ^Ventris, Michael; John Chadwick (1973).Documents in Mycenaean Greek: Second Edition.Cambridge University Press. pp. 547 in the "Glossary" under i-ja-wo-ne.ISBN0-521-08558-6.
- ^Homer.Iliad,Book XIII, Line 685.
- ^Hes.fr.10a.23 M-W: seeGlare, P. G. W. (1996).Greek-English Leicon: Revised Supplement.Oxford University Press. p. 155.
- ^Book of Genesis, 10.2.
- ^Bromiley, Geoffrey William, ed. (1994).The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Volume Two: Fully Revised: E-J: Javan.Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 971.ISBN0-8028-3782-4.
- ^Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 215.
- ^Book of Isaiah 66.19.
- ^Malkin, Irad (1998).The Return of Odysseus: Colonization and Ethnicity.Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 148.ISBN0-520-21185-5.
- ^Foley, John Miles (2005).A Companion to Ancient Epic.Malden, Ma.: Blackwell Publishing. p.294.ISBN1-4051-0524-0.
- ^Muss-Arnolt, William (1905).A Concise Dictionary of the Assyrian Language: Volume I: A-MUQQU: Iamānu.Berlin; London; New York: Reuther & Reichard; Williams & Morgate; Lemcke & Büchner. p. 360.
- ^Kearsley, R.A. (1999). "Greeks Overseas in the 8th Century B.C.: Euboeans, Al Mina and Assyrian Imperialism". In Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. (ed.).Ancient Greeks West and East.Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill. pp.109–134.ISBN90-04-10230-2.See pages 120-121.
- ^Braun, T.F.R.G. (1925). "The Greeks in the Near East: IV. Assyrian Kings and the Greeks". In Boardman, John; Hammond, N.G.L. (eds.).The Cambridge Ancient History: III Part 3: The Expansion of the Greek World Eighth to Sixth Centuries B.C.Cambridge University Press. pp. 14–24.ISBN0-521-23447-6.See page 17 for the quote.
- ^Waters, Matt (2014).Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173.ISBN978-1-107-00960-8.
- ^Kent, Roland G. (1953).Old Persian: Grammar Texts Lexicon: Second Edition, Revised.New Haven, Connecticut: American Oriental Society. p. 204.ISBN0-940490-33-1.
- ^Kent, p. 136.
- ^abKosmin, Paul J.(2014).The Land of the Elephant Kings.Harvard University Press. pp. 56–57.ISBN978-0-674-72882-0.
- ^Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch(in Sanskrit). 1925. p. 3.
- ^Schuessler, Axel. (2009)Minimal Old Chinese and Later Han Chinese..University of Hawai'i Press. p. 233, 268
- ^Dagut, M. (1990).Prof.Jerusalem: Kiryat-Sefer Ltd. p. 294.ISBN9651701722.
- ^Bedrossian, Matthias (1985).New Dictionary Armenian-English.Beirut: Librairie du Liban. p. 515.
- ^Wehr, Hans (1971).Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic.Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 1110.ISBN0-87950-001-8.
- ^Rosenthal, Franz (2007).Encyclopedia of Islam Vol XI(2nd ed.). Leiden: Brill. p. 344.ISBN9789004161214.
- ^Elihai, Yohanan (1985).Dictionnaire de l'arabe parlé palistinien Français-Arabe.Paris: Éditions Klincksieck. p. 203.ISBN2252025115.
- ^Turner, Colin (2003).A Thematic Dictionary of Modern Persian.London: Routledge. p. 92.ISBN978-0-7007-0458-3.
- ^Kornrumpf, H.-J. (1979).Langenscheidt's Universan Dictionary Turkish-English English-Turkish.Berlin: Langenscheidt.ISBN0-340-00042-2.
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book I, Chapter 147.
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book I, Chapter 143.
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book 8, Section 48.1.
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book 8, Section 46.3.
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book 8, Section 46.2.
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book 6, Section 22.3.
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book 7, Chapter 94.
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book 1, Section 145.1.
- ^Herodotus.Histories.Book 8, Section 73.3.
- ^Strabo.Geography.Book 8, Section 7.1.
- ^abCarlo Rovelli (28 February 2023).Anaximander: And the Birth of Science.Penguin. p. 22.ISBN978-0-593-54236-1.OCLC1322366046.
Further reading
[edit]- J. A. R Munro. "Pelasgians and Ionians".The Journal of Hellenic Studies,1934 (JSTOR).
- R. M. Cook. "Ionia and Greece in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C."The Journal of Hellenic Studies,1946 (JSTOR).
External links
[edit]- Mair, Victor H.(2019), "Greeks in ancient Central Asia: the Ionians",Language Log,20 October 2019. Informative scholarly discussion.
- Myres, John Linton(1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 14 (11th ed.). pp. 730–731.The reader should be aware that, although useful, this article necessarily omits all of modern scholarship.
