Why is Hellines another word for Greek?

Answer 1

Hellenes in the wider meaning of the word appears in writing for the first time in an inscription by Echembrotus, dedicated to Heracles for his victory in the Amphictyonic Games,[14] and refers to the 48th Olympiad (584 BC).[not in citation given] It appears to have been introduced in the 8th century BC with the Olympic Games,[citation needed] and permanently established itself by the 5th century BC. After the Greco-Persian Wars, an inscription was written in Delphi celebrating victory over the Persians and calling Pausanias the leading general of the Hellenes.[15] Awareness of a pan-Hellenic unity was promoted by religious festivals, most significantly in the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which prospective initiates had to speak Greek, and almost as importantly through participation in the four Panhellenic Games-including the Olympic Games-in which participants were recognized by tribal affiliation. Neither women nor non-Greeks were allowed to participate; the occasional exception in later times, such as that made for Emperor Nero, was a sure sign of Roman political hegemony.[citation needed]

The modern English adaptation of Greek is derived from the Latin Graecus, which in turn originates from Greek Γραικός (Graikos), the eponym of the Γραικοί (Graikoi) of Euboea, who migrated to Italy in the 8th century BC, and it is by that name the Hellenes were known in the West.

As the Romans strove to dominate all spheres of public life-in their own right, the term 'Greek' took on a derogatory connotation. Horace used it admiringly, Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio ("Greece, defeated, conquered its wild conqueror, and civilised the peasant Latins"). Virgil, on the other hand, coined the expression, Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes (meaning "I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts") which became known as 'beware of Greeks bearing gifts".