Who were the Karians in Hellenistic times? The evidence from epichoric language and personal names

Our knowledge about the ethnic and cultural identity of the Karians relies on a few mentions of Karia and its population transmitted by the Greek literary sources. However, these texts, written in Greek by Greek authors, reflect the perception of ‘others’, i.e. of Greeks, of the Karians and do not convey the self-understanding of the Karians themselves. Already in the Geometric period, when Homer introduced the adjective βαρβαροφώνος with reference to the Karians, and throughout the Classical..