🛡️ Los Dorios: de tribu mítica a columna de la Grecia clásica
✔️ Introducción
Los Dorios (en griego Δωριείς, Dōrieis) fueron una de las cuatro grandes tribus de la antigua Grecia —junto con los aqueos, los jonios y los eolios— y jugaron un papel crucial en la historia helénica: idioma, cultura, colonización y mito se entremezclan para dar forma a una identidad que marcó el Peloponeso, Creta, Rodas y más.
🧭 Origen, migraciones y asentamientos
🧳 Ruta de…
The Dorian "invasion" was a major event in the history of Bronze age Greece; however, do note, as there is a significant lack of information, that's it's highly debated upon regarding its dating, events and even if it was truly an invasion.
In Greek, we call it "The descent of the Dorians" (H Κάθοδος των Δωριέων) based on the outdated theory that the Dorians first resided in the mountains of Pindus (Epirus, northern Greece) as an isolated northern tribe before heading down to central Greece and Peloponnesus and establishing themselves there, subsequently displacing the former residents (Achaeans/Mycenaeans) to the northern part of Peloponnesus (thus named Achaea), the Ionians of Argolis to Athens and Euboea and several other tribes across the Aegean to the coast of Asia Minor.
What I've done for this AU is a mix of the (in my opinion) most probable theories and the myth of the Herakleides (since we're dealing with ch).
The first theory that I'm including is that the Dorians were just low-class Achaeans that were pushed northwards.
The second would be that the Dorians originally resided in Phthiotis, in a status similar to the perioeci of classical Sparta. (I'm calling this the "Dor- root theory" as the root dor- is associated with wood < lumbermen < an activity residents living on the borders of the state would do.) From Phthiotis they would move northwards to Mt. Ossa, then to Pindus, then to Doris (where they'd found the Tetrapolis).
So, it'd be an ascension and then a descent.
The myth of the Herakleides is the Dorian interpretation of their arrival in Peloponnesus and their subsequent settlement there. In summary, the Dorian royalty described themselves as ancestors of Heracles, who had come back to "take what is rightfully theirs" (will be continuing on a later paragraph).
DATING
Now, regarding the dating; I solely calculated it based on the approximate ages and generation gaps between (semi-)mythological figures. Is it accurate? Most likely not. Does it somehow work? Comme-ci, Comme-ça.
The date 1560 is given by the approximate period in which Deucalion, who was king of several places and contemporary to the Athenian kings Cecrops I and Cranaus, lived as according to Herodotus (1.56.2-3):
"in the period of Deucalion’s reign, the Dorians dwelled in the region of Phthiotis".
Which I find probable.
If Hermione was at least 10 when the Trojan war started (about the same age as Orestes, to whom she would be married after the war) and Helen was at least 16 years of age when conceiving her, that would place Helen’s birth at 1238bc. From there, we could estimate that Menelaus was at least 8-10 years older than her, placing his birth at 1248-1246. If we account for a 25-year gap between him and his father, that would place Atreas, a contemporary of both Eurystheas and Hyllus at 1273. Then, if we applied the 25-year gap between Helen and her father Tyndareus, who was a friend of Heracles and approximately the same age, that would place them both at 1263bc. Since Eurystheas was born in the same year as Heracles, that would also place him at 1263bc.
Going back to Heracles, if we count the generations after him with an average 25 years gap, we would find:
And since both Heracles and Hyllus were contemporary of king Aegimios (of the Dorians) and Aegimios was of an age able to “adopt” Hyllus:
Which is a problem, considering how Deucalion being born in 1325 would be interesting, but not attestable.
This would also place the earliest date of the Dorians' accounted stay in Ossa to c.1255 the earliest and 1215 the latest, since Coronos, king of the Lapithae, who fought the Dorians settled there, was a contemporary of both Aegimios (king of the Dorians) and Heracles (by whom he was also killed). Also supporting this is the fact that (according to Herodotus in the same paragraph):
“[…] while, in the time of Dorus, son of Hellen, they resided in a region around Ossa and Olympus which is called Istiaeotis. And when the Cadmeians (Thebans) expelled them from Istiaeotis, they settled in Pindus with the name Macednoi (Macedonians).”
These dates are quite interesting, since c.1250 was when the Sea Peoples commenced to raid the Aegean (perhaps they moved inwards to not fall victim to the raiding). It would also place the supposed exodus of the Herakleides under Hyllus from Peloponnesus around 1212, as for Hyllus to be able to partake in the battle.
The relocation to Pindus needs to have taken place after Aegimios adopted Hyllus, since when Hyllus visited him, he was still in Istiaeotis (thus around 1210). While the relocation to Doris and founding of the Doric Tetrapolis (:"four cities", Erineos/Dorium, Voion, Pindus, Kytinion) would thus take place sometime after that (under Aegimios).
I placed the Dorian invasion of Peloponnesus in 1187-1104bc (second and last battle); hereby the Dorians would split into four groups, 3 of which were ruled by the alleged great-great-grandsons of Heracles and the fourth by Oxylus, an Aetolian (hence the residents of Hlis describing themselves as Aetolian) who just so happened to be part of a prophesy (that happens sometimes- you're just minding your business for one moment and you're the leader of a state the next).
The dating of the final invasion is the one Thucydides gives us:
"80 years after the fall (of Troy) the Dorians with the Herakleides annexed Peloponnesus"
(if we accept the traditional dating of the Trojan war to be 1194-1184, which makes more sense than the commonly accepted 1250).
Nevertheless; I will quit torturing both myself and you, as the Greek mythos is not meant to be taken as a dating system as, not only is it inconsistent, but also highly anachronistic (who would've thought).
Please take my dating with a grain of salt, as it was calculated based on averages and approximations.
CAUSES
According to the Dorians, Heracles was to be king of Argos and Tiryns before the title fell to Eurystheas (his father's cousin) due to Hera's intervention. After Heracles died, his ancestors made the first attempt to "take what was rightfully theirs". They were, however, forced to flee to Athens by Eurystheas who then declared war on Athens based on the pretext that Theseus, then king of Athens (which I highly doubt as the myth of minotaur would've taken place when Knossos was in its acme, around 1500, but then again he is described as being a child when Heracles went over to Athens and as kidnapping Helen when she was a child), refused to deliver the Herakleides to him. After said event, the Herakleides would launch constant invasions of Peloponnesus (5 in total over several years).
On a more historically-accurate note, the 13th and 12th century were marked by perpetual blows on not only the Mycenaean civilisation, but also the civilisations of the eastern Mediterranean as a whole: Ugarit was destroyed, Hattusa was burned and Egypt was facing wave after wave of the "Sea peoples". The Sea peoples are a big question mark as in itself, but it is believed that they were forced to leave their homeland in, possibly, western Europe due to the great drought of that period which made growing food impossible. From their unknown famine-ridden homelands, they would raid the Eastern Mediterranean, destroying all in their path. It is further believed that they were joined by certain eastern peoples that were discontent with the living conditions of their homelands; That, of course, would be the Mycenaeans.
The Sea peoples had arrived at a period before the Trojan war, raiding all neighbouring states. Thus, trade began to suffer. The Mycenaeans were cut off from the rest of the Mediterranean; they needed resources and fast. The Mycenaean kings held a conference and thus the war on Troy was declared. Troy was situated on the Hellespont and controlled the trade routes to Ukraine, from where the ancient Greeks later (and the Byzantines after them) secured their supply of grain. But years passed and the war saw no end. Famine spread; While the kings were off at war, the Palatial complexes, the centres of economic activity, began to fall into disarray. Production of goods halted. The people grew restless as supplies ran lower. Whoever was in a position to would join the Sea peoples in their raids in an attempt to secure what was needed for their and their family's survival.
By the end of the war most kings laid dead. Contestants to the throne would spark inner conflicts, in an adjacent situation to that of Odysseus and the suitors, as told in the Odyssey.
And that's when the Dorians decided to strike. For years they lived on the margins of the state. With the unstable political status, the weakened populace and lack of army to stand in their way, they were able to impose their rule over Peloponnesus. The Achaeans were pushed to the inner mountains of Arcadia and, later on, to the region named after them in north Peloponnesus.
AFTERMATH
The Achaeans of Laconia were turned into helots (serfs) by the Dorian royalty.
Four centuries later, in the First Messenian war (743bc), the Lacedaemonians (Spartans) were to enslave the populace of Messenia. Greatly outnumbered by them, the Messenian helots would become a constant stressor for the Spartans, holding them from campaigning outside of Peloponnesus in case they rebelled; a great deal, as Spartan society was based on helot labour. Hence why the Spartans were able to be solely focused on the military, and hence why the city declined and finally collapsed after they were forced to give up those territories.
They were also the reason Athens's and Sparta's relationship soured, since there was that one time (Third Messenian war, 464bc) where Athens send them 4000 hoplites (soldiers), but the Spartans, paranoid, send them back fearing they would instead help the helots orchestrate a revolution. Athens was evidently very offended by this action and broke all treaties by allying Argos, Sparta's mortal enemy.
If one was aspiring to defeat or pressure Sparta, they would immediately turn to the helots. The Athenians would constantly involve themselves in Messenian affairs and so would the Thebans later (371bc), when they re-founded Messene and founded Megalopolis.
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This was admittedly not planned to be a two-parter, however, I do believe it'd be better if I separated history and fiction, even if the history is highly theoretical.
Pt.2 will thus focus on how I've interpreted the above in my AU. Stay tuned.
