Greece

The local names for Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The native Greek name of the country is Hellas (/ˈhɛləs/) or Ellada (Greek: Ελλάς or Ελλάδα), and its official name is the Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Ellinikí Dimokratía). In English, however, the country is usually called Greece, which comes from Latin Graecia (as used by the Romans) and literally means ‘the land of the Greeks’, which in turn originates from Ancient Greek Γραικός (Graikós).

https://touristguides.gr/en/information/info

Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered the birthplace of Western civilisation, beginning with the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Aegean Sea at around 3200 BC, the Minoan civilization in Crete (2700–1500 BC), and then the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland (1600–1100 BC). These civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, during a time of regional upheaval known as the Bronze Age collapse. This ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. Though the unearthed Linear B texts are too fragmentary for the reconstruction of the political landscape and can’t support the existence of a larger state, contemporary Hittite and Egyptian records suggest the presence of a single state under a “Great King” based in mainland Greece.