The book presents twenty-five Greek nations that were formed in the Hellenic space between the arrival of the Proto-Greeks (before 1900 B.C.) and the end of the Bronze Age (around 1100 B.C.), first attested by Homer in the "Catalogue of Ships" of the Iliad: Abantes, Athamantes, Ainians, Aeolians, Aetolians, Arcadians, Achaeans, Boeotians, Graecians, Dolopes, Dorians, Greeks, Epicians, Thessalians, Ionians, Cephalonians, Lapiths, Locrians, Magnetes, Minyans, Myrmidons, Perrhaebians, Phthians, Phlegyans, and Phocians.

These twenty-five nations are studied here as independent entities, but also as part of a broader entity, that during the historical period corresponds to the name Greeks, and which in the Homeric epics is referred to by three interchangeable names: Achaeans, Danaans, Argives.

The author attempts to identify and document the existence of these Greek nations based on their written and cultural traces, as well as historical, linguistic, onomastic, mythological, and archaeological data, systematically recording the directions of the routes they followed, the pace of their movements or conquests, the extent of their activities in terms of space and time, as well as the degree of their geographic dispersion or fragmentation.

The study is based on two main research assumptions: First, that after the settlement of the first Greeks in the Hellenic area, the first nations were formed, with identifiable intrinsic cultural characteristics (national name, deities, heroes, dialects, personal and place names, calendars, names of tribes). And second, that each nation constitutes a self-contained structured entity from the Bronze Age, a political society composed of groups with shared cultural elements.

A classic work of the history of ideas, the result of extensive research, patience, and exceptional care, it is valuable for those interested in and studying the image of the past of the Greek world. It serves as a model of interdisciplinary research and synthesis and, at the same time, one of the few significant Greek contributions to the international study of the Indo-European problem.