If you arrive in Athens and tell a local taxi driver: “How wonderful Greece is!”, he will, of course, understand you (because you are a tourist and are carrying euros), but he will think to himself: “Well, again. What the hell is Greece? This is Hellas, son.”
Why did it happen that an entire nation has one name, and we “sticked” a completely different label on them? Let's figure it out.
The Greeks themselves call their country Hellas (Ελλάδα), and themselves Hellenes. This is their history and their pride. The official name of the state is the Hellenic Republic.
But if you look at a map of Europe, you'll see a solid “Greece”:
- English: Greece.
- Germans: Greece.
- Ukrainians: Greece.
A logical question arises: who screwed up with the naming?
It's all down to the ancient Romans and their habit of simplifying life.
When Rome was still small but very ambitious, it began to expand. The first Greeks the Romans encountered were colonists who settled in the south of modern-day Italy. They belonged to a small tribe of Graikoi from the region of Epirus.
The Romans didn't bother to look into the varieties of the Greek tribes. They thought, “Oh, these guys call themselves Graeci. So everyone who lives further out there and eats olives is Graeci.”
It's the same as if aliens landed in Zhytomyr, talked to the locals, and then returned to space and told everyone that planet Earth is called “Zhytomyr” and all people are “Zhytomyr residents.”
The Roman Empire became the main influencer of antiquity. Their language, Latin, became the basis for half of the languages of Europe. Therefore, the name Graecia spread across the continent. The Romans simply rebranded an entire nation without even asking its consent.
And here we come to the main myth. Many people think that the whole world calls them Greeks. But no! If you go to the East, the situation changes dramatically. The Turks, Arabs, Persians and even Indians did not use Roman maps. They met the Greeks from the other side – through Asia Minor. There lived another powerful Greek tribe – the Ionians.
Therefore, the Eastern peoples did the same as the Romans, only they took a different name. For them, Greece is “Yunnan” (from Ionia).
- Turkey: Yunanistan.
- Arab countries: Al-Yūnān.
- Israel: Yavan.
So the world was divided into two camps: those who believed the Romans (the West), and those who remembered the Ionians (the East).
There is a third category of countries that have decided: “We will go our own way.” The most interesting example is Georgia.
Georgians call Greece Saberdzneti. It sounds complicated, but you'll like the translation. It means “Land of the Wise.”
But the Norwegians officially use the name Hellas. Thus, the harsh Vikings turned out to be almost the only ones in Europe who respected the country of the Greeks.
Do Greeks take offense when we call them “wrong”? Not really. After all, it's a business: the “Greece” brand sells well, tourists come, feta is bought. But now you know the truth.
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⚡ Readers' Pulse
Should we abandon the name “Greece” in favor of the historical “Hellas” to show respect?
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🏛️ Only “Hellas”! 👎 We leave “Greece”! 🤷 What's the difference?
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Clever Dolphin 🏛️ Only “Hellas”! 08.02.2026 08:25 Respect for the nation 👍 1 + Reply