Before the 19th century, there was never a Greek nation state, but rather the community of Greek small and city states linked by common culture, religion and language.
The various peoples of the Greeks defined their affiliation with the Hellenes through the different variants of the Greek language and through the Olympic cult in religion. Religious festivals such as the Mysteries of Eleusis, to which inhabitants of all Greek peoples gathered, formed a unifying, almost national manifestation in the politically fragmented Greek world, often marked by mutual competition or war. The four Panhellenic Games (including the Olympic Games), in which ethnicity was the decisive factor for participation, also fostered a sense of belonging among the various Greek tribes under the concept of the Hellenic.