This article is about the ancient people called the Achaeans. See Achaea (MUD) for the MUD. Achaea Dreams of Divine Lands is a Roleplay -intensive Text-based multi-user dungeon (MUD released in 1997. In computer gaming, a MUD ( Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of

The Achaeans (in Greek Ἀχαιοί, Akhaioi) is one of the collective names used for the Greeks in Homer's Iliad (used 598 times) and Odyssey. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the The Iliad ( Greek: Ἰλιάς (Ancient Ιλιάδα (Modern is together with the Odyssey, one of two ancient The Odyssey ( Greek: Ὀδύσσεια or Odússeia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. The other names are the Danaans (Δαναοί, used 138 times in the Iliad) and Argives (Ἀργεῖοι, used 29 times in the Iliad). In the historical period, the Achaeans were the inhabitants of the region of Achaea, a region in the north central part of the Peloponnese. Achaea (Αχαΐα Achaïa, axaˈia in Polytonic orthography) is an ancient province and a present prefecture of Greece, on the northern The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus ( Greek: Πελοπόννησος Pelopónnisos; see also List of Greek place names) is a large Peninsula The city states of this region formed a confederation known as the Achaean League which was influential during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The Achaean League (Ἀχαϊκὴ Συμμαχία or (Ἀχαϊκὴ Συμπολιτεία was a Confederation of Greek city states in Achaea

The Achaeans are one of the four main tribes occupying the ancient Greek mainland (Achaeans, Aeolians, Ionians, Dorians). The name Achaeans came to mean all the Greeks at the time of the Trojan War. [1]

The Homeric "long-haired Achaeans" would have been a part of the Mycenaean civilization that dominated Greece from ca. Mycenaean Greece is a cultural period of ancient Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese 1600 BC, with a history as a tribe that may have gone back to the prehistoric Hellenic immigration in the late 3rd millennium BC. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca The 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age. It represents a period of time in which Imperialism, or the desire to conquer grew to prominence It has been suggested that the Achaeans had not settled in the Greek mainland until the Dorian invasions of the 12th century BC. It is possible that Homer's Achaean leaders held power in the Mycenean world but were replaced by the Dorians. Herodotus identified the Achaeans of the northern Peloponnese as descendants of these earlier Achaeans.

A scholarly consensus has not yet been reached on the origin of the historic Achaeans, and is still hotly debated. Former emphasis on presumed race, in which John A. Scott could write an article on Achaean blondness, compared to the dark locks of "Mediterranean" Poseidon,^[1] on the basis of hints in Homer, has been laid aside. The contrasting view that "Achaeans", as understood through Homer, are "a name without a country", an ethnos created in the Epic tradition,^[2] has modern supporters among those who conclude that "Achaeans" were redefined in the fifth century, as contemporary speakers of Aeolic Greek. The Epic Cycle (Επικός Κύκλος was a collection of Ancient Greek Epic poems that related the story of the Trojan War, which includes the Aeolic Greek (also known as Lesbian Greek) is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub- Dialects spoken Professor Karl Beloch has suggested that there was no Dorian invasion, but rather that the Peloponnesian Dorians were the Achaeans. ^[3] Professor Eduard Meyer, disagreeing with Beloch, has instead put forth the suggestion that the real-life Achaeans were mainland pre-Dorian Greeks. ^[4] His conclusion is based on his research on the similarity between the languages of the Achaeans and pre-historic Arcadians. And Professor William Prentice disagrees with both, noting that archeological evidence suggests that the Achaeans instead migrated from “southern Asia Minor to Greece, probably settling first in lower Thessaly” probably prior to 2000 BC. ^[5]

Hittite documents

Some Hittite texts mention a nation lying to the west called Ahhiyawa. Hittite or Nesili is the Extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern An important example is the Tawagalawa Letter^[6] written by an unnamed Hittite king of the empire period (14th century B. The Tawagalawa letter ( CTH 181 was written by a Hittite king (generally accepted as Hattusili III) to a king of Ahhiyawa around 1250 BC The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established C. ) to the king of Ahhiyawa, treating him as an equal and suggesting that Miletus (Millawanda) was under his control. Miletus (mī lē' təs ( Ancient Greek: Μίλητος literally Transliterated Milētos, Latin Miletus) was an Ancient It also refers to an earlier "Wilusa episode" involving hostility on the part of Ahhiyawa. In the earliest reference to this land, in a letter outlining the treaty violations of the Hittite vassal Madduwatta,^[7] it is called Ahhiya. Madduwatta (sometimes given as Madduwattas) was a king of Arzawa, in Anatolia about 14th or 13th century BC 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 (ϝ)Ίλιον, (w)Ilion, the name of the acropolis of Troy). In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her Troy ( Greek: grc Τροία Troia, also, Ilion; Latin: Trōia, Īlium, Hittite: Wilusa or Acropolis (Gr akros akron edge extremity + polis city pl acropoleis However the exact relationship of the term Ahhiyawa to the Achaeans beyond a similarity in pronunciation is 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. Linear B is a script that was used for writing Mycenaean, an early form of Greek. Güterbock of the Oriental Institute. ^[8]

Egyptian sources

During the 5th year of Pharaoh Merneptah, a confederation of Libyan and northern peoples is supposed to have attacked the Western Delta. Merneptah (or Merenptah) was the fourth ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Included amongst the ethnic names of the repulsed invaders is the Ekwesh or Eqwesh, whom some have seen as Achaeans. Homer mentions an Achaean attack upon the delta, and Odysseus speaks of the same when he talks to the shade of Menelaus. grc-Latn Odysseus or la Ulysses ( Greek grc-Latn Odysseus; Latin: la Ulixes or more commonly Ulysses) oʊˈdɪsiəs In Greek mythology, Menelaus ( Ancient Greek:) was a king of Ancient Sparta, the husband of Helen, and a central figure in the Later Greek myths 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. In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Troy ( Greek: grc Τροία Troia, also, Ilion; Latin: Trōia, Īlium, Hittite: Wilusa or The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions There is also the strange myth of the brothers Aegyptus and Danaus, sons of Belus, with the latter supposedly coming from Egypt, that Marianne Luban has suggested may date to this time. In Greek mythology, Αἴγυπτος/Aígyptos, usually Latinized as Aegyptus, in Greek ("supine goat" descendant of the Heifer Danaus, or Danaos ("sleeper" Greek Δαναός) was a Greek mythological character, twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe Belus ( Greek Βῆλος) the Egyptian is in Greek Mythology a son of Poseidon by Libya.

The same Egyptian sources indicate that Merneptah defeated the invasion, killing 6,000 soldiers and taking 9,000 prisoners. Merneptah (or Merenptah) was the fourth ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. To be sure of the numbers, among other things, he took the penises of all uncircumcised enemy dead and the hands of all the circumcised, from which history learns that the Ekwesh were circumcised, a fact causing some to doubt they were Greek.

In Greek mythology

In Greek mythology the perceived cultural divisions among the Hellenes were represented as legendary lines of descent that identified kinship groups, among them the Achaeans. Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and Heroes the nature of the world and the origins and significance The Greek ethnoi were named in their honor Achaeans, Danaans, Kadmeioi, Hellenes, Aeolians, Ionians, Dorians. The Aeolians (Αἰολεῖς were one of the three ancient Greek tribes The Ionians ( Greek:, Iōnes singular) were one of the three populations into which the Ancient Greeks considered the population of Hellenes to have been The Dorians or Dorian Greeks ( Greek:, Dōrieis singular, Dōrieus were Kadmos and Danaos came from Egypt, and Pelops from Phrygia settled in mainland Greece and were assimilated and Hellenized. In antiquity Phrygia (Φρυγία was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. Hellen, Graicos, Magnis, and Macedon were sons of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only people who survived the Great Flood; the ethne were said to have originally been named after the elder son Graikoi but renamed later after Hellen who was proved to be the strongest. In Greek mythology, Deucalion (Δευκαλίων was a son of Prometheus and Pronoia. Sons of Hellen and the nymph Orsiis were Dorus, Xuthos, and Aeolus. Sons of Xuthos and Kreousa, daughter of Erechthea, were Ion and Achaeus. ^[9]

See also

• Achaea, Achaea (province)
• Achaian Federation
• Aegean civilization
• Mycenaean Greece
• Historicity of the Iliad
• Mycenaean language
• Homer
• Troy
• The Achaean League was a confederation of Greek city states in Achaea, a territory on the northern coast of the Peloponnese. Achaea (Αχαΐα Achaïa, axaˈia in Polytonic orthography) is an ancient province and a present prefecture of Greece, on the northern Achaea was a province of the Roman Empire, consisting of the modern-day Peloponnese in southern Greece and bordered on the north by The Achaean Federation was a governmental unit of ancient Greece that flourished from 281 to 246 BC, ending effectively with the sack of Corinth. Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age Civilizations of Greece and the Aegean. Mycenaean Greece is a cultural period of ancient Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese The extent of the historical basis of the Iliad has been debated for some time Mycenaean is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Troy ( Greek: grc Τροία Troia, also, Ilion; Latin: Trōia, Īlium, Hittite: Wilusa or The Achaean League (Ἀχαϊκὴ Συμμαχία or (Ἀχαϊκὴ Συμπολιτεία was a Confederation of Greek city states in Achaea A confederation is a group of empowered states or communities usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία A city-state is a Region controlled exclusively by a City, usually having Sovereignty. Achaea (Αχαΐα Achaïa, axaˈia in Polytonic orthography) is an ancient province and a present prefecture of Greece, on the northern The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus ( Greek: Πελοπόννησος Pelopónnisos; see also List of Greek place names) is a large Peninsula An initial confederation existed during the 5th through the 4th century BC. The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC. The 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 301 BC.

Notes

External links

• Sites and Photos: Mediterranean and Classical Archaeology Images
• Detailed cultural studies of Minoan Crete and relations with the mainland "Mycenean" tribes of Achaians
• The Greek Age of Bronze weapons and warfare

References

• Tsotakou-Karveli. Lexicon of Greek Mythology. Athens: Sokoli, 1990.