st insuperable difficulty of really inventing a new word to denote a
new thing. It is so much easier to take an existing word, especially a
famous word with fine associations, and twist it into a new sense. In
part, no doubt, it comes from mankind's natural love for these old
associations, and the fact that nearly all people who are worth much
have in them some instinctive spirit of reverence. Even when striking
out a new path they like to feel that they are following at least the
spirit of one greater than themselves.

The Hellenism of the sixth and fifth centuries was to a great extent
what the Hellenism of later ages was almost entirely, an ideal and a
standard of culture. The classical Greeks were not, strictly speaking,
pure Hellenes by blood. Herodotus, and Thucydides[41:1] are quite clear
about that. The original Hellenes were a particular conquering tribe of
great prestige, which attracted the surrounding tribes to follow it,
imitate it, and call themselves by its name. The Spartans were, to
Herodotus, Hellenic; the Athenians on the other hand were not. They were
Pelasgian, but by a certain time 'changed into Hellenes and learnt the
language'. In historical times we cannot really find any tribe of pure
Hellenes in existence, though the name clings faintly to a particular
district, not otherwise important, in South Thessaly. Had there been any
undoubted Hellenes with incontrovertible pedigrees still going, very
likely the ideal would have taken quite a different name. But where no
one's ancestry would bear much inspection, the only way to show you were
a true Hellene was to behave as such: that is, to approximate to some
constantly rising ideal of what the true Hellene should be. In all
probability if a Greek of the fifth century, like Aeschylus or even
Pindar, had met a group of the real Hellenes or Achaioi of the
Migrations, he would have set them down as so many obvious and flaming
barbarians.

We do not know whether the old Hellenes had any general word to denote
the surrounding peoples ('Pelasgians and divers other barbarous
tribes'[42:1]) whom they conquered or accepted as allies.[42:2] In any
case by the time of the Persian Wars (say 500 B. C.) all these tribes
together considered themselves Hellenized, bore the name of 'Hellenes',
and formed a kind of unity against hordes of 'barbaroi' surrounding them
on every side and threatening them especially from the east.

Let us consider for a moment the dates.