Dorians

Dorians, one of the three main groups of people of ancient Greece, the others being the Aeolians and the Ionians, who invaded from the north in the 12th and 11th centuries bc. According to legend, the Dorians took their name from Dorus, the son of Hellen, who settled in Doris, which the Dorians regarded as their mother country. The Dorians settled first in Sparta, Argolis, and Corinth on the Peloponnese Peninsula where according to legend their arrival was related to the mythical return of the Heraclids, the descendants of Heracles or Hercules. They then invaded and occupied Crete, the Dodecanese, the south-west corner of Asia Minor, Sicily, and southern Italy. They destroyed the Mycenaean civilization, and in Sparta and Crete they suppressed their subjects as helots. Elsewhere, however, there was a gradual fusion of conquerors and conquered. They spoke a dialect of the Greek language called Doric.