Greece. The histories of Greece and Palestine are little connected with each
other. In Gen_10:2-5, Moses mentions
the descendants of Javan as peopling the isles of the Gentiles; and when the
Hebrews came into contact with the Ionians of Asia Minor, and recognized them
as the long-lost islanders of the western migration, it was natural that they
should mark the similarity of sound between Javan and Iones. Accordingly
the Old Testament word which is Grecia, in Authorized Versions Greece,
Greeks, etc., is in Javan, Dan_8:21;
Joe_3:6, the Hebrew, however, is
sometimes regained. Isa_66:19; Eze_27:13.
The Greeks and Hebrews met for the first time in the slave-market. The
medium of communication seems to have been the Tyrian slave-merchants. About
B.C. 800, Joel speaks of the Tyrians as, selling the children of Judah to the
Grecians, Joe_3:6 and in Eze_27:13, the Greeks are mentioned as bartering
their brazen vessels for slaves. Prophetical notice of Greece occurs in Dan_8:21, etc., where the history of Alexander
and his successors is rapidly sketched. Zechariah, Zec_9:13,
foretells the triumphs of the Maccabees against the Greco-Syrian empire, while
Isaiah looks forward to the conversion of the Greeks, amongst other Gentiles,
through the instrumentality of Jewish missionaries. Isa_66:19.
The name of the country, Greece occurs once in the New Testament, Act_20:2, as opposed to Macedonia. See Gentiles.
Source:
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Greece; Graecia
grēs, grē´sha;
1. Name
In the earliest times there was no single name universally and
exclusively in use either of the people or of the land of Greece. In Homer,
three appellations, (Ἀχαιοί,
Achaioí), Δαναοί,
(Danaoí), (Ἀργεῖοι,
Argeíoi), were with no apparent discrimination applied to all the
Greeks. By the Orientals they were called Ionians. See JAVAN. The name (Ἕλληνες,
Héllēnes), which in historical times came into general use
as a collective appellation, was applied in Homer to a small tribe in Thessaly.
But the corresponding name (Ἑλλάς,
Hellás) was not primarily a geographical term, but designated the
abode of the Hellenes wherever they had their own states or cities. In the 4th
century bc many felt, as did Isocrates, that even “Hellene” stood not so much
for a distinction in race, as for preeminence of culture, in contrast to the
despised “Barbarian.” Hence, there was much dispute as touching certain
peoples, as, e.g. the Epirotes, Macedonians, and even the Thessalians, whether
they should be accounted Hellenes and as included in Hellas. The word (Γραικοί, Graikoí,
Latin Graeci) occurs in Aristotle, who says that it was an older name
for those who were later called Hellenes. The meaning and truth of this
statement are alike in doubt; but he probably refers only to the tribe
inhabiting the vicinity of Dodona, in Epirus. At any rate, Graeci and Graecia
owed their introduction practically to the Romans after their contact with the
Greeks in the war with Pyrrhus, and in consequence they included (what
“Hellenes” and “Hellas” did not) Epirus and Macedonia.
2. Location and Area
“Hellas,” as the land of the Hellenes, is used in a broad sense to
include not only Greece proper, but also the islands of the Ionian and Aegean
seas, the seaboard of the Hellespont, of the Pontus, and of Asia Minor, the
flourishing colonial regions of Magna Grecia and Sicily, Crete, and
occasionally Cyprus, Cyrene, and the scattered colonies dotting the shore of
the Mediterranean, almost to the Pillars of Hercules. “Grecia,” however, was
used in a more restricted sense as applying to “Continuous” (or continental)
Greece, which forms the southern extremity of the Balkan peninsula. While the
Romans included Macedonia and Epirus, it will be well for us to limit Greece to
the territory lying roughly below 40 degrees, and extending almost to 36
degrees North latitude, and ranging between 17 degrees and 23 degrees East
longitude. If, as is proper, we include the immediately adjacent islands, its
greatest length, from Mt. Olympus in the North to Cythera in the South, is
about 280 miles; its greatest breadth, from Cephallenia in the West to Euboea
in the East, is about 240 miles. The area, however, owing to the great
irregularity of its contour, is far less than one might expect, amounting to
about 30,000 square miles. With an area, therefore, considerably less than that
of Portugal, Greece has a coastline exceeding in length that of Spain and
Portugal combined. In Greece the ratio of coastline to area is Mat_1:3 1/4, whereas that of the Iberian
peninsula is Mat_1:25.
3. Mountain Structure
The northern boundary of Greece is formed by an irregular series of
mountain chains, beginning on the West with the Acroceraunian range and ending
in Mt. Olympus (now, Elymbos, 9,790 ft.) on the East. Intersecting this
line, the lofty Pindus range, forming the backbone of Northern Greece, extends
southward to Mt. Tymphrestus (now, Velouchi, 7, 610 ft.) in Aetolia, at
which point spurs radiate through Central Greece. The highest peaks are Mt.
Corax (now, Vardusia, 8,180 ft.) in Aetolia, Mt. Oeta (7,060 ft.),
Parnassus (now, Lyakoura, 8,070 ft.), Helicon (now, Paléo Vouno,
5,740 ft.), Cithaeron (now, Elatias, 4,630 ft.), lying on the boundary
between Boeotia and Attica, Mt. Geranea (now, Makri Plaghi, 4,500 ft.),
North of the 1sthmus, and, in Attica, Parnes (now, Ozea, 4,640 ft.),
Pentelicon (now, Mendeli, 3,640 ft.) and Hymettus (now Trelovouni,
3,370 ft.). Along the eastern coast extends a broken range of mountains, the
highest peaks of which are Ossa (now, Kissavos, 6,400 ft.), Pelion (now,
Plessidi, 5, 310 ft.); and, in Euboea, which virtually belongs to this
range, Dirphys (now, Delphi, 5,730 ft.) and Ocha (now, Sṫ Elias,
4, 610 ft.). Southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, is united to Central Greece
only by a narrow 1sthmus (now cut by a canal 4 miles long), with a minimum
altitude of about 250 ft. In the northern portion, a confused mass of mountains
rises to great heights in Cyllene (now, Ziria, 7,790 ft.), Erymanthus
(now, Olonos, 7,300 ft), Maenalus (now, Apano Chrepa, 6,500 ft.),
all in Arcadia, Panachaļcus (now, Voidia, 6,320 ft.), in Achaia; and,
running southward through Laconia, the two important ranges called Ta˙getus
(now, Pentedaktylo, 7,900 ft.) and Parnon (now, Malevo, 6,430
ft.). Minor ranges jut seaward in Argolis, Laconia and Messenia.
4. Rivers and Lakes
The rainfall in Greece is not abundant and is confined largely to late
autumn and winter. Whether the present rainfall differs much in amount from
that of antiquity is a matter in dispute, although it seems reasonable to
assume that the progressive denudation of the mountains since the 5th century
ad has entailed a corresponding loss in humidity. Even in antiquity, however,
the rivers of Greece were much like the arroyos of the Southwest portion
of the U.S.A., which are in winter raging mountain torrents, and in summer dry
channels. Owing to the proximity of the sea to all points in Greece, the rivers
are short, and the scarcity of springs makes them dependent upon the direct and
immediate rainfall. Among the more considerable rivers may be enumerated, in
Northern Greece, the Peneius, with its tributaries, in Thessaly; Central
Greece, the Achelous and the Evenus, in Aetolia; the Spercheius, flowing
between Oeta and Othrys into the Maliac Gulf; the storied, but actually
insignificant, Ilyssus and Cephissus, of the Attic plain; in Southern Greece,
the Alpheius, rising in Arcadia and flowing westward through Elis, and the
Eurotas, which drains Laconia. Eastern Greece consists of a series of somewhat
considerable basins, which become lakes in winter and are pestilent marshes in
summer, except where Nature or man has afforded an outlet. The former is the
case with the Peneius, which has cut a channel through the celebrated Vale of
Tempe. Lake Copais, in Boeotia, affords an example of man's activity. The
Minyae, in prehistoric times, are credited with enlarging the natural outlets,
and so draining the basin for a time; in recent times the same undertaking has
again been brought to a successful issue. Similar basins occur at Lake Boebeis,
in Thessaly, and at Lake Stymphalus, in Arcadia, besides others of less
importance. Western Greece has relatively few such basins, as at Lake Pambotis,
in Epirus, and at Lake Trichonis, in Aetolia. In many cases, where there is no
surface outlet to these basins, subterranean channels (called by the Greeks Katavothrae)
are formed in the calcareous rock, through which the waters are drained and
occasionally again brought to the surface at a lower level.
5. Climate
The climate of Greece was probably much the same in ancient times as it
is today, except that it may have been more salubrious when the land was more
thickly populated and better cultivated. Herodotus says that of all countries,
Greece possessed the most happily tempered seasons; and Hippocrates and
Aristotle commend it for the absence of extremes of heat and cold, as favorable
for intelligence and energy. But owing to the inequalities of its surface, to
the height of its mountains and the depth of its valleys, the climate varies
greatly in different districts. In the highlands of the interior the winter is
often cold and severe, the snow lying on the ground until late in the spring,
while in the lowlands near the sea there is rarely any severe weather, and snow
is almost unknown. The following data for Athens may be taken as a basis for
comparison: humidity 41 per cent, rainfall 13.2 inches, distributed over 100
days; mean temperature, Jan. 48.2 degrees F., July 80.6 degrees F. Greece lies
open to the northern winds which, during certain seasons, prevail and give a
bracing quality to the air not always present in places of the same latitude.
6. Geology
The western half of Greece, in which the mountain ranges run generally
from North to South, consists of a formation of grayish and yellowish-white
compact limestone, while the eastern half - Macedonia, Thessaly, Euboea,
Cyllene, and the mountains from Artemision to Cape Malea and Ta˙getus -
together with the greater part of Attica and of the Cyclades, consists of
mica-schist and crystalline-granular limestone (marble) Tertiary formations
occur in narrow strips on the North and Northwest slopes of the ranges in the
Peloponnesus and in the valley of the Eurotas, in Boeotia and Euboea. Volcanic
action is evidenced both in the parallel elevations of similar or contemporary
formation, and in the earthquakes frequent in all ages, especially in Southern
and Central Greece, and in the islands of the Aegean. Perennially active
volcanoes are nowhere found in Greece, but new formations due to volcanic
action are most clearly seen on the island of Them among the Cyclades, where
they have occurred within the last half-century. The solfatara between Megara
and Corinth, and the abundant hot springs at widely scattered points in Greece
also bear witness to the volcanic character of the region. Many an ancient
site, venerated for its sanctity in antiquity, like those of Delphi and
Olympia, in their ruined temples offer mute testimony to the violence of the earthquakes;
and history records repeated instances of cities engulfed by tidal waves of
appalling height.
7. Topography
Mention has already been made of the sinuous coastline of Greece, and
the land has been spoken of as consisting of three divisions. Northern Greece,
to which Epirus and Thessaly belong, is marked off from Central Greece by the
deep indentations of the Ambracian Gulf on the West and the Maliac Gulf on the
East. The Pegasean Gulf, virtually continued by Lake Boebeis, reaches far into
Thessaly, and divides it from Magnesia, which lies to the eastward. The land of
the Dolopians really belongs to Northern Greece. Central Greece consists of
Acarnania and Aetolia on the West, and of Phocis, Boeotia and Attica (with the
adjacent island of Euboea) on the East, separated by a group of lesser states,
Aenis, Oetaea, Doris, Locris and Phocis. Southern Greece is separated from
Central Greece by the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs, which almost meet at the
1sthmus of Corinth, and are now, after repeated efforts, dating from the time
of Julius Caesar, united by a sea-level canal. Megaris, which, by its position,
belongs to Central Greece, is here, in accordance with its political affinities
and predilections, classed with Corinth, the keeper of the 1sthmus, as belonging
to Southern Greece. Facing the Corinthian Gulf, Achaia forms the northern
division of the Peloponnesus, touching Elis, Arcadia and Argolis, which belt
the peninsula in this order from West to East Arcadia is the only political
division which does not have access to the sea, occupying as it does the great
central plateau intersected by lesser ranges of varying height. The
southernmost divisions, Messenia and Laconia, are deeply indented by the
Messeniac and Laconic Gulfs, and Laconia is separated from the peninsula of
Argolis by the Argolic Gulf, all of which head somewhat West of North of the
subjacent islands, which a reasonable view must include in the boundaries of
Greece, Euboea has already been mentioned; but we should add the group of great
islands lying in the Ionian Sea, namely, Corcyra (now, Corfu), Leukas,
Ithaca, Cephallenia (now, Cephalonia), Zacynthus (now, Zante),
and Cythera (now, Cerigo), at the mouth of the Laconic Gulf, as well as
Salamis and Aegina in the Saronic Gulf.
Greece was never, in ancient times, a united state, but consisted of a
large number of separate states. These were essentially of two types, (a)
city-states, in which a city dominated the adjacent territory whose free
population constituted its citizenship, or (b) confederacies, in which
neighboring cities or districts combined into political organizations which we
may call federal states. These matters cannot, however, be discussed except in
connection with the history of Greece, for which the reader must consult the standard
works. It may be advisable here, however, to name the principal cities of
Greece. Northern Greece had no great cities which developed as commercial
centers. Aegina was the first to attain to special importance, then Corinth and
Athens; Chalcis and Eretria, in Euboea, were for a time rich and prosperous,
and Megara, in Megarid, and Argos, in Argolis, became formidable rivals of
Athens. Sparta, though never a commercial center, early won and long maintained
the hegemony of Greece, for a while disputed by Athens, in virtue of her power
as the home of the militant Dorian aristocracy, which was disastrously defeated
by the Beotians under Epaminondas, when Thebes, for a time, assumed great
importance. Megalopolis, in Arcadia, enjoyed a brief prominence at the time of
the Achean League, and Corcyra flourished in the 5th and 4th centuries bc. We
should also not fail to mention three great centers of Greek religion: Olympia,
in Elis, as the chief sanctuary of Zeus; Delphi, in Phocis, as the oracular
seat of Apollo; and Eleusis, in Attica, as the pilgrim-shrine to which all
Greeks resorted who would be initiated in the mysteries of Demeter and Cora.
Argos also possessed a far-famed shrine of Hera, and Thermopile and Calauria
were the centers at which met the councils of influential amphictyonies.
Epidaurus was famous for her sanctuary of Asclepius. Delos, a little island in
mid-Aegean, celebrated as a sanctuary of Apollo and as the meeting-place of a
most influential amphictyony, falls without the limits of Greece proper; but
Dodona, in Southern Epirus, should be mentioned as the most ancient and
venerable abode of the oracle of Zeus. The Greeks, incorrigibly particularistic
in politics, because of the almost insuperable barriers erected by Nature
between neighboring peoples in the lofty mountain ranges, were in a measure
united by their religion which, like the sea, another element making for
intercourse and union, touched them at nearly every point.
For Greece in the Old Testament, see JAVAN. In the New Testament “Greece”
occurs but once - Act_20:2 - where it
is distinguished from Macedonia.
Source:
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Greece
Originally consisted of the four provinces of Macedonia, Epirus, Achaia,
and Peleponnesus. In Act_20:2 it
designates only the Roman province of Macedonia. Greece was conquered by the
Romans 146 B.C.. After passing through various changes it was erected into an
independent monarchy in 1831.
Moses makes mention of Greece under the name of Javan (Gen_10:2-5); and this name does not again occur
in the Old Testament till the time of Joel (Joe_3:6).
Then the Greeks and Hebrews first came into contact in the Tyrian slave-market.
Prophetic notice is taken of Greece in Dan_8:21.
The cities of Greece were the special scenes of the labours of the
apostle Paul.
Source:
Easton’s Bible Dictionary