by Lulzim Osmanaj
Abstract
This text presents the view that the ancient people called “Greeks” (Graeci) were originally not Hellenes, but likely Illyrians or a mixed population including Pelasgians, Illyrians, and Thracians. According to this argument, the Hellenes arrived later, spread their language and culture, and gradually absorbed or replaced earlier populations.
It claims that many elements associated with Greek civilization—such as myths, place names, religion, and even the word “Greek”—may have older origins linked to Illyrian or Thraco-Pelasgian peoples. Ancient writers like Homer, Thucydides, and Strabo are cited as distinguishing between Greeks and other regional populations such as Epirotes and Illyrians.
The text also suggests that regions like Epirus, Thessaly, and parts of Italy (Apulia, Calabria, Sicily) were originally inhabited by Illyrian or related groups before becoming Hellenized. It argues that Dodona was an important religious center for these pre-Hellenic peoples.
Helbing, Cornelius Fligier.
They called themselves Γρικοί or Σικελοί.¹ The adjective refers to an Illyrian population in true Illyria, in Dalmatia, in Italy, and on the island that bears their name. Even the name of the Greeks is of Illyrian origin.
The original “Greeks” (Graeci) were a non-Hellenic tribe, Illyrian, or a mixed population of Pelasgians, Illyrians, and Thracians.
The “Hellenes,” whom we today call the “true Greeks,” arrived later, Hellenized the region, and adopted many things from these older peoples.
Many of the “Greek myths” are in fact older and have non-Greek roots.
Names, culture, religion, and even the word “Greek” itself are very likely to have Illyrian or Thraco-Pelasgian origin.
As is known, v. Hahn declared the Pelasgians to be Illyrians, despite the prevailing opinion. Some of his statements proved arbitrary, and this had consequences. A native Albanian is said to have presented the same view much earlier, but his book can hardly be found anymore.
Pott later called for the place names of Greece to be researched and also considered Hahn’s view to be very plausible. Later, Kiepert said in a lecture at the Berlin Academy in 1861 that at most twenty place names in Greece were of Hellenic origin.
Mrs. Müller considered the Pelasgians to be Thraco-Illyrians. Our research will also show that among the Pelasgians both Thracian and Illyrian elements must be understood, just as both Greeks and Illyrian natives of Greece must be understood.
The Epirotes joined the actual Illyrians. Homer already described the native inhabitants of Dodona as barbarians. Thucydides did the same. Strabo separates the Epirotes from the Greeks, saying, for example, that at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, the Acarnanians, who belong to the Greeks, live on the right side of the entering river, and on the left the Cassopaeans, who are Epirotes. Elsewhere he says that the Epirotes and Illyrians are now followed by the Greek peoples of the Acroceraunians, etc.
According to Strabo, the Via Egnatia formed the dividing line between the Illyrians and the Epirotes.
Hahn places the border between the Tosks and their opponents in exactly the same way. The two tribes differ greatly from each other dialectically and also hate each other. This difference must have existed in ancient times. The opponents may be descendants of the ancient Illyrians, the Tosks of the Epirotes.
Ἔπειρος is the Greek name for a non-Greek land, so it could not originally have been called that. A note on page 39 gives the true name Aire, and the inhabitants were said to be called Asians. Asia is a widespread name mentioned throughout Thrace, Greece, and Asia Minor.
They seem to have called themselves Γρικοί or Σικελοί.¹ The adjective refers to an Illyrian population in true Illyria, in Dalmatia, in Italy, and on the island that bears their name. Even the name of the Greeks is of Illyrian origin.
Helbig’s assumption is very likely that the Illyrians (Iapygians, Messapians) became known to the Italic peoples (Oscans, Sabellians) under the name Greeks. When the Hellenes conquered Illyrian territories in Italy, this name was also used for them. Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily were Hellenized so quickly that the distinction between Hellenes and Illyrians there seems to have disappeared very early.
Dodona was the religious center of these peoples. The Pelasgians trace back there (Niebuhr, philol. and hist.). The Hyperboreans who came to Delos and Dodona with gifts were probably Illyrians or Illyrian Pannonians and Iapodians.
In the north, in the territory of the Paionians, the name Graeans appears, but the Paionians were Illyrians. Among the Thracians, Γρααίοι are mentioned by Thucydides (II, 96).
In a fragment of Hesiod’s Eoeae, Graekos is recognized as older in origin than Hellen. This seems to mean that the Greeks are an older people than the Hellenes.
Helbig would like to place the Greeks between the Hellenes and the Illyrians, which no ethnologist would agree with.
Lacmonberg, which joins like a knot the mountain ranges coming from Illyria, Macedonia, and Epirus, is today called Ζυγός. “Ljazov” means connection in Albanian. Here we have before us an old Illyrian mountain name and a literal Greek translation of it.
The original inhabitants of Thessaly appear to have been Illyrians.
The Penestae, the oppressed population, were Illyrians, since in Illyria the Penestae are found in the Drin valley and the Apenestae in Apulia.
Later came the Thracians, from whom the land took the name Haemonia. Haemonia recalls Haemus. An attempt was made to connect it with Sanskrit himân, supposedly meaning something like “snow mountain.” This is certainly incorrect, since Sanskrit h changes to z in the Thraco-Asia Minor languages. Tomaschek’s explanation from Old Bactrian aêsma (“forest”) is much more likely.
References
- Pausanias, I, 31.
- Fragment XXIX. Göttling, V. Marckscheffel.
- Niebuhr, philological and historical works.
- Helbig in Hermes, Vol. XI, No. 3.
- For Calabria compare Galabria in Thrace.
- Even now historians take little or no part in resolving anthropological and ethnological questions.
- Pischel on the name of the Pelasgians in Kuhn’s Journal for Comparative Language Research, XX, p. 369.
- v. Hahn, Albanian Studies. Vienna, 1854.
- Masci’s discourse on the origin, customs, and current state of the Albanians, Naples, 1806.
- Literary entertainment journal, 1854, p. 409.
Mrs. Müller, General Ethnography. Vienna, 1873.
