My OperaA Hellene (Greek) is like Santa Claus in many ways
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 4:59:28 AM
Trying to define what a Hellene is is like trying to define who Santa Claus is.
The word "Santa Claus" conjures up an image of a white bearded man dressed up in a red suit who gives away presents; an image of happiness.
But is Santa Claus real?
A Hellene (Greek) is like Santa Claus in many ways.
Conditioned over the years many people believe he or she exists. Any ordinary person properly dressed in red and white attire can unmistakably be Santa Claus, similarly any person who speaks and feels Greek can qualify to be a Hellene. The story of the Hellene is something like the story of Santa Claus.
They both started somewhere back in Ancient times and borrowed something from this culture and something from that.
Dorians
1.The written record is nonexistent.
2.Cartledge says humorously perhaps with a note of whimsical frustration:
It has of late become an acknowledged scandal that the Dorians, archaeologically speaking, do not exist. That is, there is no cultural trait surviving in the material record for the two centuries or so after 1200 which can be regarded as a peculiarly Dorian hallmark. Robbed of their patents for Geometric pottery, cremation burial, iron-working and, the unkindest prick of all, the humble straight pin, the hapless Dorians stand naked before their creator - or, some would say, inventor.
Cartledge, Paul (2002). Sparta and Lakonia: A Regional History, 1300-362. Routledge. pp. 68. ISBN 0415262763.
3.Toward the end of the 19th century the philologist Paul Kretschmer made a strong case that Pelasgian was a pre-Greek substrate.
Hall, Jonathan M. (2002). Between Ethnicity and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 40. ISBN 0226313298.
Danaos (Dan)
Greek tradition has their eponymous ancestor, Danaos (Dan), migrating from the Nile delta to Greece…
Note: that the Israelites did in fact migrate from Egypt.
So important was this movement that the Greeks afterward called themselves Danaoi for centuries.
Virgil also designated the Greeks as “Danai.”
But is Dan real?
Although the tribe of Dan settled the tel in the 11th century BCE, they did not leave any archeological remains.
Archeology in Israel-Dan
