Any member of an ancient Greek people identified in Homer as those who, with the Danaoi and the Argeioi, attacked Troy.
Some identify them with the Mycenaean s of the 14th–13th century BC; others say that they arrived in the 12th-century Dorian invasions. They may have held power only a few generations before being replaced by the Dorians. Herodotus claims the later Achaeans of the northern Peloponnese (see Achaean League ) were descended from these earlier Achaeans.