In Greek mythology , Hector ( / ˈ h ɛ k t ər / ; Ἕκτωρ , Hektōr , pronounced [héktɔːr] ) is a Trojan prince, a hero and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War . He is a major character in Homer 's Iliad , where he leads the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, killing countless Greek warriors. He is ultimately killed in single combat by the Greek hero Achilles , who later drags his dead body around the city of Troy behind his chariot .
100-563: The Ionians ( / aɪ ˈ oʊ n i ə n z / ; Greek : Ἴωνες , Íōnes , singular Ἴων , Íōn ) were one of the four major tribes that the Greeks considered themselves to be divided into during the ancient period ; the other three being the Dorians , Aeolians , and Achaeans . The Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the Hellenic world , together with
200-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
300-467: A chariot attack, with Apollo clearing the way. After much war across several books of the Iliad , Hector lays hold of Protesilaus ' ship and calls for fire. The Trojans cannot bring it to him, as Ajax kills everyone who tries. Eventually, Hector breaks Ajax's spear with his sword, forcing him to give ground, and he sets the ship afire. These events are all according to the will of the gods, who have decreed
400-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
500-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
600-478: A few words in victory and ties Hector's body by the heels to his chariot. He drags the body around the city of Troy, as the Trojans watch from the walls and lament, especially Andromache, Hector's wife. The desecration of Hector's body by Achilles is considered an affront to the gods and ultimately leads to Achilles' downfall. During and after Patroclus' funeral, Achilles drags Hector's body around his pyre. However,
700-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
800-475: A good son, husband and father, and without darker motives." Hector of Troy is a Trojan prince and warrior. He is the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba , making him a prince of the royal house and heir to his father's throne. Hector weds Andromache , the mother of his first and only son, Scamandrius, whom the people of Troy know as Astyanax . Hector throughout the Trojan War brings glory to
900-772: A land subsequently called Achaea after him. Another son of Xuthus, Ion , conquered Thrace , after which the Athenians made him king of Athens. Attica was called Ionia after his death. Those Ionians colonized Aigialia changing its name to Ionia also. When the Heracleidae returned the Achaeans drove the Ionians back to Athens. Under the Codridae they set forth for Anatolia and founded 12 cities in Caria and Lydia following
1000-495: A number of Old Persian inscriptions of the Achaemenid Empire as Yaunā ( 𐎹𐎢𐎴𐎠 ), a nominative plural masculine, singular Yauna; for example, an inscription of Darius on the south wall of the palace at Persepolis includes 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; ...." At that time the empire probably extended around
1100-627: A servant with the name referred to in a Linear B tablet. In the tablet, the name is spelled 𐀁𐀒𐀵 , E-ko-to . Moses I. Finley proposed that the Homeric hero was partly based on an earlier Theban hero of the same name. Hector was described by the sixth-century Christian chronicler Malalas in his account of the Chronography as "dark-skinned, tall, very stoutly built, strong, good nose, wooly-haired, good beard, squinting, speech defect, noble, fearsome warrior, deep-voiced". Meanwhile, in
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#17327657672001200-404: A slight by Agamemnon —reenters the war to avenge his friend, and the Trojans are beaten back again. Hector's parents plead for him to take shelter within the city walls. Hector refuses, wanting to talk with Achilles, in an attempt to resolve the altercation without bloodshed, though Achilles is not one to be placated after Hector slays his close friend, Patroclus. Achilles chases Hector around
1300-476: Is a derivative of the verb ἔχειν ékhein , archaic form * ἕχειν , hékhein ('to have' or 'to hold'), from Proto-Indo-European * seɡ́ʰ- ('to hold'). Héktōr , or Éktōr as found in Aeolic poetry, is also an epithet of Zeus in his capacity as 'he who holds [everything together]'. Hector's name could thus be taken to mean 'holding fast'. The name was in use during Mycenaean times, as evidenced by
1400-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
1500-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system
1600-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
1700-505: Is correct, at least some of the Ionian marauders came from Cyprus : 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 a stele set up at Citium in Cyprus 'at the base of a mountain ravine ... of Yadnana.' Ionians appear in
1800-506: Is doomed. Hector decides that he will go down fighting and that men will talk about his bravery in years to come. Hector pulls out his sword, now his only weapon, and charges. But Achilles grabbed his thrown spears that were delivered to him by the unseen Athena who wore the Hades helmet. Achilles then aimed his spear and pierced the collar bone section of Hector, the only part of the stolen Armor of Achilles that did not protect Hector. The wound
1900-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
2000-829: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Hector In Greek, Héktōr
2100-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around
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#17327657672002200-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
2300-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with
2400-559: Is to take the body, while Achilles escapes after he fights his way through the Trojan reinforcements. In the tenth year of the war, observing Paris avoiding combat with Menelaus , Hector scolds him with having brought trouble on his whole country and now refusing to fight. Paris therefore proposes single combat between himself and Menelaus, with Helen to go to the victor, ending the war. The duel, however, leads to inconclusive results due to intervention by Aphrodite , who leads Paris off
2500-563: The Archaic and Classical periods, both in poetry and prose. The works of Homer ( The Iliad , The Odyssey , Homeric Hymns ) and of Hesiod were written in a literary form of the Ionic dialect called Homeric Greek or Epic Greek . Ionic was eventually supplanted by the Attic dialect which had become the dominant dialect of the Greek world by the 5th century BC. The literary evidence of
2600-578: The Argolid and Lacedaemonia . The displaced Achaeans moved into Aigialeia (thereafter known as Achaea ), in turn expelling the Ionians from Aigialeia. 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 of Ionia . Unlike the austere and militaristic Dorians, the Ionians are renowned for their love of philosophy , art , democracy , and pleasure – Ionian traits that were most famously expressed by
2700-589: The Athenians . The Ionian school of philosophy , centered on Miletus , 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. The etymology of the word Ἴωνες or Ἰᾱ́ϝoνες is uncertain. Frisk isolates an unknown root, *Ia- , pronounced *ya- . There are, however, some theories: Unlike "Aeolians" and "Dorians", "Ionians" appears in
2800-744: The Dorian and Aeolian dialects. When referring to populations, " Ionian " defines several groups in Classical Greece . In its narrowest sense, the term referred to the region of Ionia in Asia 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 of Euboea , the Cyclades , and many cities founded by Ionian colonists . Finally, in
2900-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
3000-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
3100-676: The Peloponnesus , dwelt in what is now called Achaea , and before Danaus and Xuthus came to the Peloponnesus, as the Greeks say, they were called Aegialian Pelasgians . They were named Ionians after Ion the son of Xuthus . Achaea was divided into 12 communities originally Ionian: Pellene , Aegira , Aegae , Bura , Helice , Aegion , Rhype, Patrae , Phareae, Olenus , Dyme and Tritaeae. The most aboriginal Ionians were of Cynuria: The Cynurians are aboriginal and seem to be
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3200-607: The dative or nominative plural case of *Iāwones, an ethnic name. The Knossos tablets are dated to 1400 or 1200 B.C. and thus pre-date the Dorian dominance in Crete , if the name refers to Cretans . The name first appears in Greek literature in Homer as Ἰάονες , iāones , used on a single occasion of some long-robed Greeks attacked by Hector and apparently identified with Athenians, and this Homeric form appears to be identical with
3300-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
3400-743: The "Yonas". Dayuan' (or Tayuan; Chinese : 大宛 ; pinyin : Dàyuān ; lit. 'Great Ionians'; Middle Chinese dâi-jwɐn < LHC : dɑh-ʔyɑn ) is the Chinese exonym for a country that existed in Ferghana valley in Central Asia , described in the Chinese historical works of Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han . It is mentioned in the accounts of
3500-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into
3600-411: The 730s BC discovered at Nimrud . The Assyrian word, which is preceded by the country determinative, has been reconstructed as *Iaunaia. More common is ia-a-ma-nu, ia-ma-nu and ia-am-na-a-a with the country determinative, reconstructed as Iamānu. Sargon II related that he took the latter from the sea like fish and that they were from "the sea of the setting sun." If the identification of Assyrian names
3700-834: The Aegean to northern Greece. Inspired by Achaemenid Iranians, Ionians appear in Indic literature and documents as Yavana and Yona. In documents, these names refer to the Indo-Greek Kingdoms : the states formed by the Macedonian Alexander the Great and his successors on the Indian subcontinent . The earliest such documentation is the Edicts of Ashoka . The Thirteenth Edict is dated to 260–258 BC and directly refers to
3800-538: The Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to the Ferghana Valley , controlled by the Hellenistic polis Alexandria Eschate (modern Khujand , Tajikistan ), which can probably be understood as "Greco-Fergana city-state" in English language. Most modern Western Asian languages use
3900-682: The Greek Ion , and to serve as a name for the Greeks and Macedonians . The term is also found in other ancient literature; the Yevana (Ionians) aligned with the Hittites against Egypt, while the Yauna of the Persian records corresponds to the Ionians of Asia Minor. Additionally, though less surely, Japheth may be related linguistically to the Greek mythological figure Iapetus . The locations of
4000-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
4100-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
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4200-442: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
4300-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
4400-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
4500-533: The Ionians leads back to mainland Greece in Mycenaean times before there was an Ionia . 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 of Halicarnassus asserts: all are Ionians who are of Athenian descent and keep
4600-564: 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 . In the Book of Genesis of the English Bible , Javan , known in Hebrew as Yāwān and in plural Yəwānīm , is a son of Japheth . Javan, meaning 'Greek', is believed nearly universally by Bible scholars to represent the Ionians, corresponding to
4700-472: The Trojans as their best fighter. He is loved by all his people and known for never turning down a fight. He is gracious to all and thus thought of favorably by all but the Achaeans , who both hate and fear him as the Trojans' best warrior. He turns the tide of battle, breaking down their barriers and slaughtering their troops. When Hector kills Patroclus , Achilles —who had refused to fight because of
4800-540: The account of Dares the Phrygian and also that of the Trojan priest and author Dares Phrygius , he was described as "... [speaking] with a slight lisp. His complexion was fair, his hair curly. His eyes would blink attractively. His movements were swift. His face, with its beard, was noble. He was handsome, fierce, and high-spirited, merciful to the citizens, and deserving of love.". Greek author and poet Homer portrayed Hector as "peace-loving, thoughtful, as well as bold,
4900-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
5000-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
5100-416: The armor of Achilles off the fallen Patroclus and gives it to his men to take back to the city. Glaucus accuses Hector of cowardice for not challenging Ajax. Stung, Hector calls for the armor, puts it on, and uses it to rally the Trojans. Zeus regards the donning of a hero's armor as an act of insolence by a fool about to die, but it makes Hector strong for now. The next day, the enraged Achilles renounces
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#17327657672005200-410: The biblical tribal countries have been the subjects of centuries of scholarship and yet remain open questions to various degrees. The final chapter of the Book of Isaiah , who lived in the 8th century BC, contains what may be a hint by listing "the nations ... that have not heard my fame" including Javan immediately after "the isles afar off". These isles may be considered as an apposition to Javan or
5300-430: The blood of his enemies, and make his mother proud. Once he leaves for battle, those in the house begin to mourn, as they know he would not return. Hector and Paris pass through the gate and rally the Trojans, raising havoc among the Greeks. Zeus weighs the fates of the two armies in the balance, and that of the Greeks sinks. The Trojans press the Greeks into their camp over the ditch and wall and would have laid hands on
5400-445: The body, but it remains preserved from all injury by Apollo and Aphrodite . After these twelve days, the gods can no longer stand watching it and send down two messengers: Iris , another messenger god, and Thetis, the mother of Achilles. Thetis has told Achilles to allow King Priam to come and take the body for ransom. Once King Priam has been notified that Achilles will allow him to claim the body, he goes to his strongroom to withdraw
5500-401: The broadest sense it could be used to describe all those who spoke languages of the East Greek group, which included Attic . The foundation myth which was current in the Classical period suggested that the Ionians were named after Ion , son of Xuthus , who lived in the north Peloponnesian region of Aigialeia . When the Dorians invaded the Peloponnese they expelled the Achaeans from
5600-479: The challenge and draw by lot to see who is to face Hector. Ajax wins. Hector is unable to pierce Ajax's famous shield, but Ajax crushes Hector's shield with a rock and stabs through his armor with a spear, drawing blood, upon which the god Apollo intervenes, and the duel is ended, as the sun is setting. Hector gives Ajax his sword, which Ajax later uses to kill himself. Ajax gives Hector his girdle that Achilles later attaches to his chariot to drag Hector's corpse around
5700-700: The city three times before Hector masters his fear and turns to face Achilles. But Athena, in the disguise of Hector's brother Deiphobus , has deluded Hector. He requests from Achilles that the victor should return the other's body after the duel, (though Hector himself made it clear he planned to throw the body of Patroclus to the dogs) but Achilles refuses. Achilles hurls his spear at Hector, who dodges it, but Athena brings it back to Achilles' hands without Hector noticing. Hector then throws his own spear at Achilles; it hits his shield and does no injury. When Hector turns to face his supposed brother to retrieve another spear, he sees no one there. At that moment he realizes that he
5800-499: The development of the 'scientific attitude' towards the study of Nature. According to physicist Carlo 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. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ )
5900-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of
6000-471: The ensuing fight, Hector killed him, fulfilling the prophecy. As described by Homer in the Iliad at the advice of Hector's brother Helenus (who also is divinely inspired) and being told by him that he is not destined to die yet, Hector manages to get both armies seated and challenges any one of the Greek warriors to single combat . The Argives are initially reluctant to accept the challenge. However, after Nestor 's chiding, nine Greek heroes step up to
6100-448: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute
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#17327657672006200-632: The fall of Troy, and therefore intend to tempt Achilles back into the war. Patroclus , Achilles' closest companion, disguised in Achilles' armor, enters the combat leading the Myrmidons and the rest of the Achaeans to force a Trojan withdrawal. After Patroclus has routed the Trojan army, Hector, with the aid of Apollo and Euphorbus , kills Patroclus, vaunting over him: "Wretch! Achilleus, great as he was, could do nothing to help you." The dying Patroclus foretells Hector's death: "You yourself are not one who shall live long, but now already death and powerful destiny are standing beside you, to go down under
6300-405: The feast Apaturia . He further explains: 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 except Athens . The Ionians spread from Athens to other places in the Aegean Sea : Sifnos and Serifos , Naxos , Kea and Samos . But they were not just from Athens: These Ionians, as long as they were in
6400-403: The field, wounded in the arm by a spear. Then Hector rallies the Trojans: ... like some fierce tempest that swoops down upon the sea ... Diomedes and Odysseus hinder Hector and win the Greeks some time to retreat, but the Trojans sweep down upon the wall and rain blows upon it. The Greeks in the camp contest the gates to secure entrance for their fleeing warriors. The Trojans try to pull down
6500-438: The field. After Pandarus wounds Menelaus with an arrow, the fight begins again. The Greeks attack and drive the Trojans back. Hector must now go out to lead a counter-attack. According to Homer, his wife Andromache , carrying in her arms her son Astyanax , intercepts Hector at the gate, pleading with him not to go out for her sake as well as his son's. Hector knows that Troy and the house of Priam are doomed to fall and that
6600-599: The fight. In his response, Achilles points out that while Hector is terrorizing the Greek forces now, and that while he himself had fought in their front lines, Hector had 'no wish' to take his force far beyond the walls and out from the Skaian Gate and nearby oak tree. He then claims, 'There he stood up to me alone one day, and he barely escaped my onslaught.' Another duel takes place, although Hector receives help from Aeneas (his cousin ) and Deiphobus, when Hector rushes to try to save his brother Troilus from Achilles. He comes too late; Troilus has already perished. All Hector can do
6700-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in
6800-453: The gates of Troy three times. Apollo gives Hector strength so he can always stay in the lead. But whenever he nears the entrance to the city, Achilles cuts him off. Finally Athena takes the guise of his favorite brother, Deiphobus , telling him that they can face Achilles together. Tricked into thinking he might have a chance at winning, Hector waits for Achilles. He then proposes that whoever wins, be it him or Achilles, will be respectful to
6900-528: The gloomy fate of his wife and infant son will be to die or go into slavery in a foreign land. With understanding, compassion, and tenderness, he explains that he cannot personally refuse to fight, and comforts her with the idea that no one can take him until it is his time to go. The gleaming bronze helmet frightens Astyanax and makes him cry. Hector takes it off, embraces his wife and son, and for his sake prays aloud to Zeus that his son might be chief after him, become more glorious in battle than he, to bring home
7000-508: The gods Aphrodite and Apollo protected his body from the dogs, disfigurement, and decomposition. Twelve days elapse before Priam goes to Achilles to ransom his son's body. According to the Iliad , Hector did not approve of war between the Greeks and the Trojans. For ten years, the Achaeans besieged Troy and their allies in the east. Hector commanded the Trojan army, with a number of subordinates including Polydamas , and his brothers Deiphobus , Helenus and Paris . By all accounts, Hector
7100-400: The gods' curse ... upon you, on that day when Paris and Phoibos Apollo...destroy you in the Skainan gates, for all your valor. After his death, Achilles slits Hector's heels and passes the girdle that Ajax had given Hector through the slits. He then fastens the girdle to his chariot and drives his fallen enemy through the dust to the Danaan camp. For the next twelve days, Achilles mistreats
7200-476: The hands of Aiakos' great son, Achilleus" Alas! the gods have lured me on to my destruction. ... death is now indeed exceedingly near at hand and there is no way out of it – for so Zeus and his son Apollo the far-darter have willed it, though heretofore they have been ever ready to protect me. My doom has come upon me; let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter. Hector strips
7300-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
7400-569: The languages of different civilizations around the eastern Mediterranean and as far east as Han China . They are not the earliest Greeks to appear in the records; that distinction belongs to the Danaans and the Achaeans . The trail of the Ionians begins in the Mycenaean Greek records of Crete . A fragmentary Linear B tablet from Knossos (tablet Xd 146) bears the name i-ja-wo-ne , interpreted by Ventris and Chadwick as possibly
7500-588: The last item in the series. If the former, the expression is typically used of the population of the islands in the Aegean Sea . Some letters of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BC record attacks by what appear to be Ionians on the cities of Phoenicia : For example, a raid by the Ionians ( ia-u-na-a-a ) on the Phoenician coast is reported to Tiglath-Pileser III in a letter from
7600-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
7700-640: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
7800-740: The model of the 12 cities of Achaea, formerly Ionian. During the 6th century BC, Ionian coastal towns, such as Miletus and Ephesus , 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. These men— Thales and his successors —were called physiologoi , those who discoursed on Nature . 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
7900-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
8000-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
8100-536: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It
8200-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
8300-536: The only Ionians, but they have been Dorianized by time and by Argive rule. In Strabo 's account of the origin of the Ionians, Hellen , son of Deucalion , ancestor of the Hellenes , king of Phthia , arranged a marriage between his son Xuthus and the daughter of king Erechtheus of Athens . Xuthus then founded the Tetrapolis ("Four Cities") of Attica , a rural district. His son, Achaeus , went into exile in
8400-526: The other's body and give it back so there can be a proper burial. Achilles refuses, saying that there is "...no love between us. No truce till the other falls and gluts with blood" (Book 22, 313–314). After a short fight, Achilles stabs Hector in the throat, which results in his fated death. Hector then foretells Achilles' own death, saying that he will be killed by Paris and Apollo. After slaying him, Achilles strips him of his armor. The other Achaeans then gather to look upon and stab Hector's body. Achilles says
8500-401: The ramparts while the Greeks rain arrows upon them. Hector smashes open a gate with a large stone, clears the gate, and calls on the Trojans to scale the wall, which they do, and ... all was uproar and confusion. The battle rages inside the camp. Hector goes down, hit by a stone thrown by Ajax, but Apollo arrives from Olympus and infuses strength into "the shepherd of the people", who orders
8600-734: The ransom. The ransom King Priam offers includes twelve fine robes, twelve white mantles, several richly embroidered tunics, ten bars of yellow gold, a very beautiful cup, and several cauldrons. Priam himself goes to claim his son's body, and Hermes grants him safe passage by casting a charm that will make anyone who looks at him fall asleep. Think of thy father, and this helpless face behold See him in me, as helpless and as old! Though not so wretched: there he yields to me, The first of men in sovereign misery! Thus forced to kneel, thus groveling to embrace The scourge and ruin of my realm and race; Suppliant my children’s murderer to implore, And kiss those hands yet reeking with their gore! Achilles,
8700-453: The ships, but Agamemnon personally rallies the Greeks. The Trojans are driven off, night falls, and Hector resolves to take the camp and burn the ships the next day. The Trojans bivouac in the field. A thousand camp-fires gleamed upon the plain .... The next day Agamemnon rallies the Greeks and drives the Trojans like a herd of cows maddened with fright when a lion has attacked them ... Hector refrains from battle until Agamemnon leaves
8800-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
8900-681: The terms "Ionia" and "Ionian" to refer to Greece and Greeks. That is true of Hebrew (Yavan 'Greece' / Yevani fem. Yevania 'a Greek'), Armenian (Hunastan 'Greece' / Huyn 'a Greek'), and the Classical Arabic words (al-Yūnān 'Greece' / Yūnānī fem. Yūnāniyya pl. Yūnān 'a Greek', probably from Aramaic Yawnānā) are used in most modern Arabic dialects including Egyptian and Palestinian as well as being used in modern Persian (Yūnānestān 'Greece' / Yūnānī pl. Yūnānīhā/Yūnānīyān 'Greeks') and Turkish too via Persian (Yunanistan 'Greece' / Yunan 'a Greek person' pl. Yunanlar 'Greek people'). Ionic Greek
9000-487: The walls of Troy. The Greeks and the Trojans make a truce to bury the dead. In the early dawn the next day, the Greeks take advantage of the truce to build a wall and ditch around the ships, while Zeus watches in the distance. Another mention of Hector's exploits in the early years of war is given in the Iliad in book IX. During the embassy to Achilles , Odysseus, Phoenix and Ajax all try to persuade Achilles to rejoin
9100-405: The wrath that kept him out of action and routs the Trojans, forcing them back to the city. Hector chooses to remain outside the gates of Troy to face Achilles, partly because had he listened to Polydamas and retreated with his troops the previous night, Achilles would not have killed so many Trojans. When he sees Achilles, however, Hector is seized by fear and turns to flee. Achilles chases him around
9200-582: Was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group of Ancient Greek . The Ionic group traditionally comprises three dialectal varieties that were spoken in Euboea (West Ionic), the northern Cyclades (Central Ionic), and from c. 1000 BC onward in Asiatic Ionia (East Ionic), where Ionian colonists from Athens founded their cities. Ionic was the base of several literary language forms of
9300-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
9400-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
9500-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
9600-484: Was fatal yet allowed Hector to speak to Achilles. In his final moments, Hector begs Achilles for an honorable funeral, but Achilles replies that he will let the dogs and vultures devour Hector's flesh. (Throughout the Homeric poems, several references are made to dogs, vultures, and other creatures that devour the dead. It can be seen as another way of saying one will die.) Hector dies, prophesying that Achilles' death will follow soon: Be careful now; for I might be made into
9700-399: Was moved by Priam's actions and following his mother's orders sent by Zeus, returns Hector's body to Priam and promises him a truce of twelve days to allow the Trojans to perform funeral rites for Hector. Priam returns to Troy with the body of his son, and it is given full funeral honors. Even Helen mourns Hector, for he had always been kind to her and protected her from spite. The last lines of
9800-583: Was the best warrior the Trojans and their allies could field, and his fighting prowess was admired by Greeks and his own people alike. In the Iliad , Hector's exploits in the war prior to the events of the book are recapitulated. He had fought the Greek champion Protesilaus in single combat at the start of the war and killed him. A prophecy had stated that the first Greek to land on Trojan soil would die. Thus, Protesilaus, Ajax , and Odysseus would not land. Finally, Odysseus threw his shield out and landed on that, and Protesilaus jumped next from his own ship. In
9900-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
10000-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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