ტერმინ ეთნოსის გააზრებისთვის ელინური ეპოქის საბერძნეთში

Abstract

The lexical formative ἔθνος (ethnos) occurs quite frequently in the epic of Homer, although it substantially changed its meaning from the Geometric to the Classical period. In Homer’s work, this formative denotes the multitude of objects united by some sign. Although the etymology of ἔθνος is not established, it can be said that Homer uses it with the meaning of collective as well as singleness. Thus, here the term acquired the nuances of meaning which determined the basic meaning of the term in the post-Homer period. It appears that the term with the present meaning of “nation, nationality” was used for the first time by Herodotus - τὸ Ἑλληνικὸν ἔθνος (I, 58). The historian uses this term with the same meaning when he relates how Deioces united τὸ Μηδικὸν ἔθνος (I, 101). Each nation may have ethnic groups in the modern sense. To refer to these, Herodotus again uses the term ethnos or the term γένος. The Greeks who won the war are discussing how to remove the Hellenic tribes ἐθνέων Ἑλληνικῶν (IX, 106) that had sided the Medians and to give their land to the Ionians. In I, 101, Herodotus lists the ethnic groups of the Medians Μήδων γένεα. Herodotus was quite successful in developing the concept of Hellenic unity: “…the kinship of all Greeks in blood and speech, and the shrines of gods and the sacrifices that we have in common, and the likeness of our way of life…” (VIII, 144). Herodotus, in listing the criteria for the ethnic unity of the Hellenes, apparently refers only to the Hellenic reality. He enumerates some essential conditions for defining ethnic unity: the kinship in blood or genetics, language, religious beliefs and customs. It is noteworthy that the criteria of Herodotus did not include the homeland or the territory of residence, which evidently takes into account the situation resulting from the extension of the Greeks in the entire Mediterranean and the Black Sea area. In regards to other criteria, their significance is argued by Herodotus by the genealogical tradition or historical facts. The kinship in blood ὅμαιμον implies common origin, which Herodotus establishes in accordance with the genealogical tradition of the Greeks. ὁμόγλωσσον means unity of the language. Despite the fact that in the times of Herodotus many dialects were spread in the Greek world, he considers the common Greek language as one of the defining features of Hellenic self-consciousness (I, 58). At the same time, Herodotus is aware that earlier another, pre-Greek, Pelasgian language was circulating in Greece, which must have been a barbarian, i.e. non-Greek language (I, 57). According to Herodotus, the Hellenic stock was separated exactly from the Pelasgians (I, 58). This viewpoint is, in fact, confirmed by the modern linguistic studies, which demonstrate that the Greek language contains the Pelasgianpre- Greek elements quite abundantly, in the Ancient Greek vocabulary several thousand pre-Greek formatives were attested. The fact that the Greeks have the temples of gods θεῶν ἱδρύματα in common is so clear to everyone that Herodotus does not devote special attention to its argumentation. Especially important for Herodotus is θυσίαι ἤθεα, as one of the main defining elements of ethnic identity. Herodotus quite interestingly discusses the importance of customs. He relates the first “ethnographic experiment”, which was allegedly conducted by Darius. “He summoned the Greeks who were with him and asked them what price would persuade them to eat their fathers’ dead bodies. They answered that there was no price for which they would do it. Then he summoned those Indians who are called Callatiae, who eat their parents, and asked them (the Greeks being present and understanding by interpretation what was said) what would make them willing to burn their fathers at death. The Indians cried aloud, that he should not speak of so horrid an act. So firmly rooted are these beliefs; and it is, I think, rightly said in Pindar’s poem that use and wont is lord of all” (III, 38). With Herodotus, the term ἔθνος acquired the universal meaning related to ethnicity, and it denotes both ethnos in general (nation) and its constituent ethnic groups. Thus, the Greeks proper as well as the Dorians, the Aeolians. Herodotus, evidently, for the first time in historiography, makes the concept ethnos an object of thorough study and on the example of the Greeks, the most familiar ethnos to him, tries to identify which features determine the unity of the ethnos. Unlike the ancient oriental traditions, for Herodotus not only the denomination of one or another people is important, but analysis of each feature of the unity of the ethnos as well. Due to this, Herodotus appears not only as “the father of history”, but also as the precursor of modern ethnology and ethnography. Herodotus in his “ethnological research” is not limited only to the Greeks and sometimes tries to discuss the origin of other peoples too, e.g. the Colchians (II, 104). In the case of describing the Colchians as an ethnos, he identifies the same features which occurred in determining the unity of the Greeks: a) genetics – part of the Egyptian army, b) customs (circumcision, similarity of lifestyle), c) language – resemblance of the languages. Thus, it can be said that Herodotus imparts new meaning to the formative ἔθνος used in Homer’s work and turns it into a key term for ethnological and ethnographic studies.