The term "Hellenes" (Ἕλληνες) is what Greeks call themselves, while "Hellas" (Ἑλλάς) is their name for Greece. Meanwhile, non-Greeks were labeled "barbarians" (βάρβαροι), a term that originally referred to those who spoke unintelligible languages. This included Kartvelian-speaking peoples of Asia Minor.
Now, the Georgian word "ელლენური" (ellenuri) is intriguing—it means "Hellenic", but also "pagan," "savage," or "barbarian." It derives from "ელლენი" (elleni), which also translates to "pagan." This raises the question: who was truly the barbarian?
For historians aware that the Danaans and Achaeans—who invaded pre-Hellenic Greece—were themselves wild tribes, this isn’t surprising. It opens the door to revisiting the biographies of famous Greeks:
Herodotus was from Caria, a Kartvelian-speaking region.
Diogenes hailed from Paphlagonia, another Kartvelian-speaking area.
Homer (or rather, Omer) may have been Pelasgian, possibly Kartvelian-speaking.
One passage in Herodotus describing Persian linguistic traits (which experts will recognize) casts doubt on whether Greek as we know it was the language of all these figures—or even on the nature of Greek itself.
The deeper question: What was "paganism" opposed to?
Was it Christianity? Monotheism? A mainstream religion? What could have stood in contrast to paganism when the wild Hellenes arrived in Greece? What cultural backdrop made ancient Greeks appear pagan?
A compelling hypothesis emerges: a Kartvelian-speaking civilization stretching from Portugal to India, with its own distinct religion. Against this backdrop, the Hellenes would have seemed pagan outsiders. While the specifics of this pre-Hellenic religion remain unknown, we do know of another Kartvelian-rooted faith that arose two millennia after Greece’s Hellenization—one associated with a man named Iesa Christ….
Now barbarians. The etymology of "barbarian" has long been accepted as deriving from the Greek perception of foreign languages as mere "bar-bar-bar" sounds—an unintelligible murmur. But your analysis suggests a radically different origin.
In Georgian and Megrelian, the words "ვარვალი" (varvali) and "ვარვარი" (varvari) mean:
Incandescent (as in heated metal)
Shining
Fiery, passionate (as a derivative of "incandescent")
Far from being a term for savages, this is a noble descriptor—one that aligns with the Kartvelian-speaking peoples of Asia Minor, including Troy. Meanwhile, the Hellenes, often portrayed as godlike, are labeled "pagans" in the same Georgian dictionary by Ariane Chanturia.
This suggests that the true "barbarians" were not the Kartvelian-speaking peoples but rather the incoming Hellenes, who disrupted an older, established civilization. The Greeks, over centuries, reversed the narrative, making themselves the civilized and their predecessors the wild outsiders.
If this holds, it demands a complete reassessment of how we view Greek history, Kartvelian influence, and the linguistic evolution of Europe.
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