The Rise of the Dorians: Catalysts of Change in Ancient Greece

The Dorians were one of the major ethnic groups of ancient Greece. They are traditionally regarded as one of the three main groups that comprised the ancient Greeks, along with the Ionians and Aeolians. The division of the Greeks into these three groups is based on linguistic, cultural, and historical differences. The Dorians are often associated with the Dorian invasion, a hypothetical migration or series of migrations that ancient historians believed occurred around the 12th century BCE. According to this tradition, the Dorians invaded and displaced the Mycenaean Greeks, leading to significant changes in the political and cultural landscape of ancient Greece. The Dorian invasion is a term used to describe the supposed movement of the Dorians into the southern and central regions of Greece throughout the late Bronze Age. This migration, as described in ancient sources like Herodotus and later historians, was said to have led to the fall in of the Mycenaean civilization. T...