Dorians in the context of "Menelaus"

The Argead dynasty (Greek: Ἀργεάδαι, romanized: Argeádai), also known as the Temenid dynasty (Greek: Τημενίδαι, Tēmenídai) was an ancient Macedonian royal house of Dorian Greek provenance. They were the founders and the ruling dynasty of the kingdom of Macedon from about 700 to 310 BC.

Their tradition, as described in ancient Greek historiography, traced their origins to Argos, of Peloponnese in Southern Greece, hence the name Argeads or Argives. Initially, the Argeadae were the rulers of the tribe of the same name, (Argead Macedonians) who prevailed in early Emathia. By the time of Philip II they had expanded their reign further, to include under the rule of Macedonia all Upper Macedonian states. The family's most celebrated members were Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great, under whose leadership the kingdom of Macedonia gradually gained predominance throughout Greece, established the Hellenic League, defeated the Achaemenid Empire and expanded as far as Egypt and India. The mythical founder of the Argead dynasty is King Caranus. The Argeads claimed descent from Heracles through his great-great-grandson Temenus, also king of Argos.

Cleisthenes (/ˈklaɪsθɪniːz/ KLYSSE-thin-eez; Ancient Greek: Κλεισθένης) was the tyrant of Sicyon from c. 600–560 BC, who aided in the First Sacred War against Kirrha that destroyed that city in 595 BC. He was also said to have organized a successful war against Argos because of his anti-Dorian feelings. After his victory he abolished all the rhapsodes of Homer, because they praised the citizens of Argos. The key innovation of his reign, which Herodotus mentions, was the reformation of the tribal system in the city of Sicyon. Herodotus states that he gave new names to the four tribes of Sicyon, calling his own tribe "Rulers of the People" and naming the other three tribes after swine, donkeys, and pigs. However, Herodotus does not describe the nature of Cleisthenes' reform. Whatever it was, all the tribes kept their new names for sixty years after Cleisthenes' death.

Cleisthenes of Sicyon organized a competition whose prize would be marriage to his beautiful daughter Agariste. The two main competitors were the Alcmaeonid Megacles and Hippocleides. Because Hippocleides made a fool of himself by dancing drunkenly in front of Cleisthenes, Megacles was chosen to marry Agariste.

The Antipatrid dynasty (/ænˈtɪpətrɪd/; Ancient Greek: Ἀντιπατρίδαι) was a Dorian Greek dynasty of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon founded by Cassander, the son of Antipater, who declared himself King of Macedon in 305 BC. This dynasty did not last long; in 294 BC it was swiftly overthrown by the Antigonid dynasty.

In Archaic Greece, an amphictyony (Ancient Greek: ἀμφικτυονία, a "league of neighbors"), or Amphictyonic League, was an ancient religious association of tribes formed before the rise of the Greek polis.

The six Dorian cities of coastal southwest Anatolia and the twelve Ionian cities to their north that formed the Ionian League after a Meliac war in the mid-7th century BC were already of considerable antiquity when the first written records emerged.

The Siceliot people (pl. Siceliots or Siceliotes, Σικελιῶται in Ancient Greek) formed a distinct ethno-cultural group in Sicily from about the 8th century BC until their assimilation into the general Sicilian population. As Hellenic colonists (often reputedly of Doric origin) and descendants of colonists from Greece, they spoke Greek and participated in the wider cultural and political activities of Greek Sicily and of the Hellenic world as a whole. The Athenian historian Thucydides mentions them in various places in his "History of the Peloponnesian War".

The Roman Republic and the Roman Empire continued to see a distinction between the Siceliotes (the descendants of Greek settlers) and the non-Greek inhabitants of Sicily.

The Aeolians (/iːˈoʊliənz/; Greek: Αἰολεῖς, Aioleis) were one of the four major tribes into which Greeks divided themselves in the ancient period (along with the Achaeans, Dorians and Ionians). They originated in the eastern parts of the Greek mainland, notably in Thessaly and Boeotia. By c. 1100 BC, the Aeolians began their early settlements on the west coast of Anatolia, known as Aeolis, comprising the territory between Troas and Ionia, as well as on the Aegean islands of Lesbos and Tenedos. A second round of Aeolian settlements took place during the 7th century. They spoke Aeolic, a dialect of Ancient Greek most famously known for its use by poets like Sappho and Alcaeus from Lesbos, and Corinna from Boeotia.

The Ionians (/aɪˈoʊniənz/; Greek: Ἴωνες, Íōnes, singular Ἴων, Íōn) were one of the traditional four major tribes of Ancient Greece, alongside the Dorians, Aeolians, and Achaeans. The Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the Hellenic world, together with the Dorian and Aeolian dialects.

When referring to populations, "Ionian" defines several groups in Classical Greece. In its narrowest sense, the term referred to the region of Ionia in Asia Minor. In a broader sense, it could be used to describe all speakers of the Ionic dialect, which in addition to those in Ionia proper also included the Greek populations of Euboea, the Cyclades, and many cities founded by Ionian colonists. Finally, in the broadest sense it could be used to describe all those who spoke languages of the East Greek group, which included Attic.

Macedonia, also called Macedon, was ruled continuously by kings from its inception around the middle of the seventh century BC until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 168 BC. Kingship in Macedonia, its earliest attested political institution, was hereditary, exclusively male, and characterized by dynastic politics.

Information regarding the origins of the Argeads, Macedonia's founding dynasty, is very scarce and often contradictory. The Argeads themselves claimed descent from the royal house of Argos, the Temenids, but this story is viewed with skepticism by some scholars as a fifth century BC fiction invented by the Argead court "to 'prove' Greek lineage". It is more likely that the Argeads first surfaced either as part of a tribe living near Mount Bermion who, possibly under the authority of Perdiccas, subjugated neighboring lands, or, according to Herodotus, were of a Doric race that originally resided in Pindus. During their reign, Macedonia would not only come to dominate Greece, but also emerge as one of the most powerful states in the ancient world with the conquest of the Persian Empire under Alexander the Great. However, Alexander's untimely death in 323 BC triggered a series of civil wars and regents for his young son Alexander IV, ultimately leading to the Argead dynasty's demise.