page_title: Iron Age Greek migrations
section_title: Aeolian migration
hierarchical_section_title: Iron Age Greek migrations / The settlement of Asia Minor and the Aegean / Aeolian migration
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the central regions of Ancient Greece
context_page_description: The Iron Age Greek migrations were effected by a population of émigrés from amidst the displacements and reconstruction that occurred in Greece proper from the middle of the 11th century to end of the 9th century BCE. These movements resulted in the settlement of the Aegean islands, Cyprus, Crete and the western coast of Asia Minor and the founding of new cities which afterwards became centers of the Greek civilization. The migrations were effected in consecutive waves by tribal groupings known as the Aeolic, Ionian, Doric and Achaean migrations. These movements differed from the Greek colonisation of the Archaic period in that they were more ad hoc affairs instead of the result of a planned process of colonisation on the part of the mother city, and they are less well-documented historically, often with a mythologized or semi-legendary leader such as Hercules or Orestes being recorded as the leader of the colonists.
context_section_description: In the same period that the Dorians moved on the Peloponnese, others carried out their own movements within Greece proper. The Thessalians, from their first appearance in the area of Thesprotia, moved into the area of Thessaly, displacing the earlier Aeolophone tribe who inhabited that area.
   Among these tribes who lived in Thessaly before the establishment of the Thessalians were the Boeotians, who moved southward and established the area of Boeotia. Other populations of Thessaly and the previous inhabitants of Boeotia fled to the region of the Northeast Aegean after the loss of their territories and established themselves first in Lesbos and Tenedos and the Moschonesi (Fragrant Isles). These inhabitants were later called Aeolians from the name of a Thessalic tribe who had taken part in the migration. The Aeolians next colonised the opposite shore of Asia Minor, which was named Aeolis. Herodotus relates the founding of twelve cities in that section of Asia Minor. They were as follows:Aegae, Aegiroessa, Gryneion, Cilla, Cyme, Larissa,  Myrina, Neonteichos, Notion, Pitane, Smyrna and Temnus. In the 7th century BCE, the Aeolians also expanded into the Troad, founding the cities of Gargara Assos, Antandros, Cebre, Scepsis, Neandreia and Pitya. The Achaeans of the Peloponnese who followed the Aeolic speakers participated in the Aeolic resettlement. The received tradition records Orestes as an instigator of the relocation of the Aeolians, and the royal family of the Penthilides on Mytilene claimed descent from Orestes.
caption: Ancient Greece Map
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