Graea

Graea is listed under Boeotia in Homer's Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad.{{Cite Iliad|2.498}} It seems to have included the city of Oropus, though by the fifth century BCE it was probably a kome (district) of that city.G. S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 1, Books 1-4. Cambridge University Press, 1985, {{ISBN|0-521-28171-7}}, p. 191. According to Pausanias the name was a shortcut of the original name Tanagraia, who was daughter of the river-god Asopos. Graea was a greater area including Aulis, Mycalessus, Harma etc.Pausanias: Boeotica 20–24 It is also described by some sources as a city; Fossey argues for its identification with the hill of Dhrámesi 8 km from Tanagra,John M. Fossey, "The Identification of Graia," Euphrosyne 4 (1970), pp. 3–22. while others suggest it is identical with Oropus itself.Simon Hornblower and Elaine Matthews, Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence. Oxford University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-19-726216-3}}, p. 95; similarly Maria Stamatopoulou and Marina Yeroulanou, Excavating Classical Culture: Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Greece. Archaeopress, 2002, {{ISBN|1-84171-411-9}}, p. 151.

Graea was sometimes said to be the oldest city of Greece. Aristotle said that this city was created before the deluge. The same assertion about the origins of Graea is found in an ancient marble, the Parian Chronicle, discovered in 1687 and dated to 267–263 BCE, that is currently kept in Oxford and on Paros.

Reports about this ancient city can be also found in Homer, in Pausanias, in Thucydides, etc. The name Graïke ({{langx|grc|Γραϊκή}} {{IPA|grc|ɡra.ikɛ̌ː|}}) was used of the Oropus area, which was dependent on Athens during the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, and the term was also used by Stephanus of Byzantium.{{Cite Thucydides|2.23.3}}{{Cite Stephanus|s.v. Ορωπώς}} At some point, the whole of Oropus, including Graea, was incorporated into ancient Attica and became a deme of the phyle of Pandionis, as evidenced from a surviving inscription.Ross & Meier, Die Demen von Attika, p. 6, et seq.{{Cite DGRG|title=Oropus}}

The word Γραικός (Graecus, Greek) may be interpreted as "inhabitant of Graia".Hatzidakis, 1977, quoted in Babiniotis Dictionary Aristotle uses {{transliteration|grc|Graikoi}} as equivalent to Hellenes, and believes that it was the name originally used for the Dorians of Dodona in Epirus.[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=greek&searchmode=none Online Etymology Dictionary].Aristotle, Meteorologica I.xiv The German historian Georg Busolt suggested that the name Graeci was given initially by the Romans to the colonists from Graia who helped the Euboeans to establish Cumae in southern Italy, and was then used for all Greeks.Online Etymology Dictionary.[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=greek] The classicist Robin Lane Fox states that Oropus was either located in or identical with the city of Graia, and writes:

If men from Oropos-Graia were among the early Greek visitors to Capua or Veii and even early Rome, we can better understand an age-old puzzle: why Greeks were called "Greeks" in the Latin West. Such people told their first contacts in the Latin region that they were "Graikoi," that is, people from Graia. They were thus called "Graeci" by the people whom they met.Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes: In the Epic Age of Homer. Random House, 2009: {{ISBN|0-679-44431-9}}, p. 61/161; see also John Nicolas Coldstream, Geometric Greece: 900–700 BC. Routledge, 2003, {{ISBN|0-415-29899-7}}, p. 403 (note 7).

Others state that the ethnonym may come from the adjective γραῖα graia "old woman", derived from the PIE root '*ǵerh₂-/*ǵreh₂-, "to grow old" via Proto-Greek *gera-/grau-iu;R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 285. the same root later gave γέρας geras (/ɡé.ras/), "gift of honour" in Mycenean Greek.R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 267.

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Category:Cities in ancient Boeotia

Category:Populated places in ancient Boeotia

Category:Populated places in ancient Attica

Category:Former populated places in Greece

Category:Locations in the Iliad

Category:Demoi