The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples - RePub - Erasmus Universiteit ...

tinuity. 154 However this may be, what primarily concerns
us here is the fact that in three instances the conquerors are
explicitly identified as foreigners, whereas in two instances
these are just locals from Greece itself. From an archaeological
point of view, the latter adapted to the Mycenaean
culture developed under the influence of the foreign invaders
pretty quickly, so that they may fruitfully be considered
as local allies. In linguistic terms, these local allies
can, of course, not be held responsible for the introduction
of the Greek language in Greece, which, in line with Best’s
scenario, must have been the privilige of the foreign invaders.
Hence, let us take a closer look at them.
What can be said about the language(s) of the foreign
invaders? One group, which settled in Krisa, is straightforwardly
identified as Cretans from Knossos. These may
safely be assumed to have spoken one of the languages
current on the island before the introduction of Linear B c.
1450 BC, recorded for documents in Linear A and Cretan
hieroglyphic, respectively. A good case can be made that
Linear A contains a west-Semitic idiom, whereas Cretan
hieroglyphic probably bears testimony of both west-
Semitic and Luwian (see further section 12 below). 155 At
any rate, one thing is clear: our Cretans from Knossos did
not speak a Greek vernacular. Next comes Kadmos with
his Phoenicians. Taking this tradition at face value, the
conquerors of Thebes are likely to have spoken a Semitic
tongue. In fact, the name of Kadmos himself has been cogently
interpreted as representing the Semitic root qdm
“east”, whereas that of his sister Europa, whom he was so
desparately looking for, may likewise be based on a Semitic
stem, viz. ‘rb “west” (in Astour’s explanation, these
names stand for the morning and evening star, respectively,
of which the one seems to follow the other endlessly).
Furthermore, Kadmos is held responsible for the
introduction of the mystery cult of the Kabeiroi, the great
gods whose name recalls Semitic kbr “great”. 156 Again,
not a trace of the Greek language. Remains the case of
Danaos, after whom the Greeks were named Danaoi. First
of all, it is interesting to note that the royal house he
founded in Mycenae ends with the reign of Eurystheus, after
whom the originally Phrygian, but by now fully Mycenaeanized,
Pelopids take over: a clear instance of a reflux,
154 Symeonoglou 1973: 14-5; fig. 3.
155 Best & Woudhuizen 1988; Best & Woudhuizen 1989; Woudhuizen
2001b.
156 Astour 1965b; cf. Edwards 1979.
64
effectuated by intermarriage (the mother of Eurystheus,
Nikippe, is claimed to be a daughter of Pelops). On the basis
of the probable mention of Atreus in an Hittite text
from the reigns of Tud®aliyas II (1390-1370 BC) and Arnuwandas
I (1370-1355 BC), where he occurs in the form
of Attarissiyas, this takeover by the Pelopids may safely be
assumed to be anterior to the late 15th century BC or beginning
of the 14th century BC – in fact it may perhaps
even be surmised to have its archaeological reflection in
the shift from shaft graves to tholos tombs, which occurred
in Late Helladic IIA. 157 Because Danaos is reported to
have come from Egypt, it has been plausibly assumed that
he represents a conquest of the Argolid by the Hyksos, the
foreign rulers of lower Egypt who were kicked out at about
the time of the shaft graves in Mycenae.
Our question, therefore, is: who were the Hyksos? For
sure, there was a Semitic component among them, as the
first element of the name of one of their kings, Yakob-Har,
strikingly recalls Biblical Jakob. 158 In addition to this,
there may have been a Hurrian component among them: as
pointed out by Wolfgang Helck, the sister and daughter of
the Hyksos king Apophis bore Hurrian names. 159 It is even
possible that there was an Indo-European component
among them, to be more specific of the Indo-Aryan type:
thus Drews draws our attention to the fact that the Indo-
Aryan term marya is used in Egyptian texts to indicate a
charioteer or chariot fighter160 (note in this connection that
the distribution of Indo-Aryan names [especially with the
elements ava- and ratha-] and terms over the Near East is
intrinsically linked up with the spread of chariot warfare –
the latter being introduced in Egypt by the Hyksos). 161
157 Hope Simpson 1981: 14.
158 Redford 1992: 98-122.
159 Helck 1971: 101; contra van Seters 1966: 182-3, who considers
the names in question west-Semitic. It is interesting to note in
this connection that, as remarked by Stubbings 1973: 637, the
Egyptian name Apophis occurs in Greek mythology in form of
Epaphos (or Epopeus).
160 Drews 1988: 151.
161 Mayrhofer 1974; considering the personal names
Tar®undaradus, Piyamaradus, and Rhadamanthys, apparently
based on the onomastic element ratha- “chariot”, the Indo-Aryan
influence may even be assumed to have radiated to the Aegean,
though, as we have seen, not to the Greek mainland. This latter
suggestion is further enhanced by Schachermeyr’s (1984 : 98) and
Latacz’s (2003: 312) identification of the Cretan personal name
Meriones as a reflex of Indo-Aryan maryannu. As duly stressed by