当希腊人移入希腊时，他们还不是希腊人。

Does that sound strange? Yet it is true.

这听起来不奇怪吗？但是这却是真的。

For the fact is that when the tribes from the north first invaded the lands they were to occupy,

因为事实上当这些部落从北方迁入他们后来的居住地时，

they weren't yet a unified people.

他们还不是统一的民族。

They spoke different dialects and were obedient to different chieftains.

他们讲不同的方言并服从不同的首领。

They were tribes rather like the Sioux or the Mohicans you read about in stories of the Wild West,

他们的部落跟印第安人木简书中所记载的苏克斯人或马希康人没有多大区别。

and had names such as the Dorians, Ionians and Aeolians.Like the American Indians they were warlike and brave,

他们的部落几乎跟印第安人一样勇敢和好战，并被人们称为多里安人、伊安尼尔人、埃厄里尔人等等。

but in other ways they were quite different.

但是在某些方面他们跟印第安人很不一样，

The native Americans were familiar with iron, while the people of Mycenae and Crete, just as the songs of Homer tell us, had weapons made of bronze.

后者已经知道铁，而在迈锡尼和克里特的人，和荷马史诗告诉我们的一样，只用青铜武器。

And so these tribes arrived, with their wives and their children.

这些部族里的男人带着妇女和儿童移入定居，

The Dorians pushed furthest, right down into the southernmost tip of Greece which looks like a maple leaf and is called the Peloponnese.

多里安人做前导，他们迁徙得很远，直到希腊的最南端伯罗奔尼撒半岛，那儿看上去像一片枫树叶。