A similar renaissance — the "Golden Age of Greece" and its renowned experiment with democracy — occurred
after the collapse of the plutocraticMycenaean culture had plunged Mediterranean civilization into the so-called "
Greek Dark Ages" (c.1050 - c.750 BCE),
Mainstream ancient history is completely wrong. Mycenaean and Minoan culture have nothing to do with Greeks. Story of Troy is not about Greeks either (Homer was not a Greek). In the excavation layers corresponding to the time of "War of Troy" not single Greek DNA skeleton has been found, dominant DNA haplogroup is I2a which is the same haplogroup of Vinca Culture and still today dominant among modern day inhabitants of Balkans (today called Southern Slavs).
Just for the record, I didn't say that the Mycenaean or Minoan cultures had anything to do with Classical Greek culture. In fact, the so-called "Greek Dark Ages" obliterated most Minoan and Mycenaean culture well before the Greek Golden Age began. As far as genetics go, there's this:
The Mycenaeans were descendants of two European groups moving south from the Danube region - Ionians and Achaeans - and the Classical Greeks were yet a third related group from that region, referred to as the Dorians. I never mentioned Trojans (except indirectly as part of "Mediterranean culture", which could include Egyptians, Phoenicians, Etruscans, et al.). Yes, I agree that the Trojans were of some ethnicity other than Greek—the origin of their mostly lost language remains totally unknown, but the very little evidence of writing found at Troy was not any form of Greek.
The
Iliad was written in good archaic or "epic" Greek and the writer(s) used poetic license in letting the reader assume that all the characters spoke the same language - which is extremely unlikely. Saying Homer was not Greek is ultimately pointless since nobody is sure if "Homer" even existed! That may have been a fictitious name assigned to a compilation of tales done by who knows whom or how many. Kinda like "Ossian" in British lit.
Greeks came to the Balkans from Egypt (around 1500 BC). They lived as a minority among locals (whom they called Pelasgians) for many centuries.
That the Greeks lived among locals whom
they called Pelasgians is quite correct. However, to say the Greeks came to the Balkans from Egypt??? That's the first time in my life I've ever heard
that one! Please post any sources on that. I find that impossible to even ponder for the following reasons:
First, having taught historical linguistics for decades, I can assure you that Ancient Greek was a purely Indo-
European language, and it shares many grammatical and lexical features with other Indo-European languages:
English | Ancient Greek | Latin | Finnish (non-Indo-European) |
---|
father | πατέρ (pater) | pater | isä |
mother | μητέρ (meter) | mater | äiti |
brother | φατέρ (phrater) = "kinsman" | frater | veli |
knowledge | γνῶσις, (gnosis) | cognitio | tietoa |
star | αστέρι (astéri) | stella | tähti |
Second, Ancient Greek literature shows no vestiges whatsoever of any influence from Ancient Egyptian, which is related to Arabic and Hebrew, and
TOTALLY different from Greek, lexically, grammatically, and phonologically.
To explain: Whenever a people live surrounded by speakers of a different language, their own language is always affected by the "host language" to
some obvious degree; for example, TexMex - the Spanglish that is spoken all along the Texas-Mexico border (I am very familiar with this dialect as I was born there and TexMex was actually my first language as a child! I spoke a 50/50 mix of English and Spanish until I was 4 or 5!). Another example is Yiddish, a German-Hebrew hybrid language that evolved in Jewish communities that had been in Germany for centuries.
So to state that the Greeks c
ame to Europe
after living among the Egyptians - fluently speaking a very complex,
distinctly Indo-European language?? With no traces of Egyptian influence?? That's linguistically preposterous!
The Greeks did
go to Egypt after Alexander the Great died and one of his generals, Ptolemy, assumed control of the Egyptian portion of the empire. The Ptolemaic Dynasty he founded was exceptionally insular, and rather incestuous (not unusual in Egypt), to secure the Ptolemies' exclusive sovereignty and not have it jeopardized by marriages to former Egyptian nobility. All their public addresses were in Greek, requiring an interpreter to translate into Egyptian for the masses. The first Ptolemy to learn the local language was also the last active monarch of Egypt - Cleopatra VII Philopator, who learned the language of her subjects and openly embraced the ancient gods, religion, and babies of Egypt to win the absolute support of her people. And she got it. (Thus setting a successful precedent for Elizabeth I many centuries later!) I always like to shock people who say Elizabeth Taylor playing Cleopatra was a "whitewashing of history" by replying to them that Liz was perfectly cast, and then proving to them that Cleo was actually not even Egyptian - she was a Macedonian - many times over (after almost four centuries of endogamous marriages among the Ptolemies).
Alexander the Great, who established huge empire, was of course not Greek but Macedonian (southern Slav). His real name was Lesandar Karanovic.
I found only one coherent mention of this. A video of an Iranian sitting in his living room droning on about the Seleucid Empire. A WTF moment. To the present day, "Karanović" is a Southern Slavic surname meaning "native of Karanovo" - which is modern Bulgaria. Not quite Macedonia. But the important thing that blows this out of the water is that in Alexander's day, Macedonia to Greece was sorta like modern Scotland to England. The majority didn't speak a totally different language (i.e. Slavic) at that time, but rather a dialect or sister language of Greek.
Here's some scholarly Wikipedia to refute. (I don't have time to scan and upload pages from my textbooks.) However, I am aware that many modern Slavic Macedonians have completely co-opted Alexander the Great as their national hero - and that's fine. It's a tiny country. They deserve some self-esteem, some national pride. DNA match or not.