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The name of Greece differs in Greece in comparison with the names used for the country in other languages and cultures, just like the names of the Greeks. The Greeks call the country ''Hellas'' or ''Ellada'' ((ギリシア語:Ελλάς, Ελλάδα); in polytonic: ) and its official name is Hellenic Republic. In English, however, the country is usually called Greece, which comes from Latin ''Graecia'' (as used by the Romans) and literally means 'the land of the Greeks'. ==Origin== The English name ''Greece'' and the similar adaptations in other languages derive from the Latin name ''Graecia'' (Greek: ), literally meaning 'the land of the Greeks', which was used by the Romans to denote the area of modern day Greece. Similarly, the Latin name of the nation was ''Graeci'', from which the English name ''Greeks'' originates. These names in turn trace their origin from ''Graecus'', the Latin adaptation of the Greek name Γραικός (pl. ), which means 'Greek' but its etymology remains uncertain. It is unclear why the Romans called the country Graecia and its people Graeci. In Arabic "الإغريق" or "''alegreek''" is the name of the old Greeks, while the Greeks called their land Hellas and themselves Hellenes, and several speculations have been made. William Smith notes in the ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'' that foreigners frequently refer to people by a different name (an exonym) from their native one (endonym).〔.〕 Aristotle was the first to use the name ''Graeci'' () in ''Meteorology'', saying that the area about Dodona and Achelous was inhabited by the Selli and a people formerly called Graeci, but at his time Hellenes.〔Aristotle, ''Meteorology'', (1.14 )〕 From this statement of Aristotle it is asserted that the name of Graeci was at one period widely spread in Epirus and the western coast of Greece in general, hence it became the one by which the Hellenes were known to the Italic peoples on the opposite side of the Ionian Sea.〔 According to Hesiod, in his work ''Catalogue of Women'', Graecus was the son of Pandora and Zeus; he gave his name to the people who followed the Hellenic customs, while his brother Latinus gave his name to the Latins;〔Hesiod, ''Catalogue of Women'', (2 )〕 similarly the eponymous Hellen is supposed to have given his name to the Greeks/Hellenes. In ''Ethnica'', Stephanus of Byzantium also states that from Graecus, the son of Thessalus, the Hellenes derived the name of ''Graeci''.〔Stephanus, ''Ethnica'', (p. 212 )〕〔.〕 The name "Yūnān" (Persian: یونان), an Old-Persian name that all Eastern nations under Achaemenid Persian Empire and the other nations after them used for calling the country, is a Persian name and took from ancient Greek colony Ionia, which was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia. The Sanskrit root of the name is ''Yavana'', in Pāṇini and Pali is ''Yona'', and in Indian-European is ''Yonaka''. Today the word Yūnān can be found in Persian, Turkish, Azeri, Uzbek, Kurdish, Armenian (as ''Yūnānistan'' "land of Yūnān"; -''istan'' "land" in Persian), Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Indian (Hindi), Laz, Pashto, Urdu, Indonesian, Malay. The eastern part of the Roman Empire which was predominantly Greek-speaking, gave rise to the name (''Rhomania'' or ''Romania''); in fact, starting from a point in late antiquity and for a long period, Greeks called themselves (sg. ), i.e. ''Romans''; these or related terms are in fact still used sometimes in Modern Greek: e.g. (from . While there was tension with Western Europe regarding the romanness of the eastern part of the Empire〔And vice versa.〕 – something exemplified, starting with Hieronymus Wolf and after it had ceased to exist, in calling it the ''Byzantine Empire'' – which, unlike its western twin, survived till the 15th century CE, people to the East of the Empire, e.g. Persians and later Turks, used and sometimes still use ''Rhomania'' or ''Rome'' derived terms, e.g. ''Rûm'', to refer to the land or to the people. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Name of Greece」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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