PELASGIAN IN ANCIENT GREECE

PELASGIAN IN ANCIENT GREECE EVOLVES TO GREEK, MACEDONIAN AND EPIROT

À le Ve siècle, Thucydide, décrivant les opérations militaires durant la guerre du Péloponnèse, classe comme barbares toutes les populations de l’Épire, caractérisées par leur langue presque incompréhensible

Strabon (VII 7, 4), contemporain d’Auguste, considère que, pour le voyageur qui va d’Épidamne-Dyrrachion ou d’Apollonia vers Ohrid, le long de la via Egnatia, à main gauche sont des peuples illyriens, à main droite des peuples épirotes; il déplace ainsi très sensiblement la frontière entre monde civilisé et monde barbare, mais on remarque qu’il classe les Épirotes à part des Grecs proprement dits.

IDEA: so for the Ancient Greeks the Epirotian were related to Greek but was not pure Greek.

Then after this he [Croesus, a Lydian king] gave thought to inquire which people of the Hellenes he should esteem the most powerful and gain over to himself as friends. And inquiring he found that the Lacedemonians and the Athenians had the pre-eminence, the first of the Dorian and the others of the Ionian race. For these were the most eminent races in ancient time, the second being a Pelasgian and the first a Hellenic race: and the one never migrated from its place in any direction, while the other was very exceedingly given to wanderings; for in the reign of Deucalion this race dwelt in Pthiotis, and in the time of Doros the son of Hellen in the land lying below Ossa and Olympos, which is called Histiaiotis; and when it was driven from Histiaiotis by the sons of Cadmos, it dwelt in Pindos and was called Makednian; and thence it moved afterwards to Dryopis, and from Dryopis it came finally to Peloponnesus, and began to be called Dorian. (Herodotus).

IDEA: The reference to Cadmos refers such happenings to be before the Trojan War (-1200).

The Macedonians, as they are called by all the ancient poets, and in the fragments of epic poetry, owed their name, as it was said, to an eponymous ancestor; according to some, this was Macednus, son of Lycaon, from whom the Arcadians were descended (Apollod. iii. 8. § 1), or Macedon, grandson of Aeolus [son of Hellen and forerunner of the Aeolians], according to Hesiod and Hellanicus. These, as well as the otherwise unsupported statement of Herodotus of the original identity of the Doric and Macednian (Macedonian) peoples, are merely various attempts to form a genealogical connection between this semi-barbarous people and the rest of the Hellenic race. [Hellen had Dorus as son, the forerunner of the Dorians].


IDEA: in the other side the Armenian and Phrygian first branches with Greek; and the homeland of the Phrygians was in actual Macedonia.

IDEA: and curiously the "Brygians" converted to "Phrygians" in Anatolia...


The ancient Greeks gradually occupied the Aegean territory from the end of the third or the beginning of the second millenium BC. But it is still not clear where the dwelt before this invasion, or, in other words, where the proto-Greek region lay. Study of toponyms shows clearly that this region lay approximately in north-western Greece.
The proofs are as follows:
1. Here the typical pre-Greek toponyms are lacking.
2. Almost all toponyms, especially the most important ones from this region are of Greek origin and they often show archaic Greek features (Thesprotia, Argos, Gonos, Tekmon, Aleron, Pinios, Pindhos, etc.)
3. The two common ancient Greek denomonations Elines and Grekoi originate from Epirus
4. The most charcteristic toponym in here is -argos- which occurs in this region four times: it means "the white town".

[...] some go so far as to call the whole of the country Macedonia, [refered to Epirus] as far as Corcyra, [Corfu] at the same time stating as their reason that in tonsure, language, short cloak, and other things of the kind, the usages of the inhabitants are similar [to those of Macedonia], although, they add, some speak both languages [Epirot and Macedonian, or Macedonian]. (Strabo).

What is now called Macedonia was in earlier times called Emathia. And it took its present name from Macedon, one of its early chieftains. And there was also a city Emathia close to the sea. Now a part of this country was taken and held by certain of the Epeirotes and the Illyrians, but most of it by the Bottiaei and the Thracians. (Strabo).

IDEA: By both accounts, it seems clear that the Macedonian language was in fact Epirot.

Ancient Greeks always considered Macedonians to be semi-barbarians.

IDEA: Maybe some account on the invasion of Egypt by the Sea Peoples can be excerpt from the ancient Greek myths. Inachus had Io as daughter, Zeus tried to seduce her, but he went/fleed to Egypt were she married Telegonus, the king of Egypt; her gransdon, Busiris, was slain by Herakles/Hercules (son of Zeus, conquerer and wanderer).

IDEA: Before the Dorians, the Thracians occupied Greece ? (by -1200).

Urnfield (-1300), with cremation and centered in the High Danube Bassin, spread to Poland as Lausitz culture, related to Illyrians and Venets. Expanded southwards to ancient Greece and Asia Minor.

IDEA: Such invasions pushed native tribes to invade the territories of their neighbours.

By -1150 Towns burned and come here Dorians, Beocians, Thessalians, etc that incinerated their dead. Their militar superiority was due that they mounted horses and used spears with iron, where Mycenians combated with chariots, axes and swords.

Longtemps on a cru que les Doriens avaient été les responsables de la destruction des citadelles mycéniennes. Forts de leurs armes de fer, ces Doriens auraient balayé le vieil univers achéen à la fin du II millénaire, introduisant entre autre en Grèce de nouvelles coutumes funéraires comme celle de l’incinération. Aujourd’hui on se rend compte que l’introduction du fer et de ces nouvelles coutumes funéraires est bien postérieure à -1200.

[...] for when the poet [Homerus] said "and all his companions Idomeneus [brother of Hellen] brought to Crete, all who escaped from the [Trojan] war, and the sea robbed him of none" (Strabo).

IDEA: Legendary Greek colonization of Crete around -1200.

Figurine of a knight mounting a horse in Greece dated of -950.

Homer "Iliad" composed by -700, first classical Greek book: the Iliad of Homer.


(explanation: Do not mix the modern "greeks" with the ancient ones; the today "greeks" don't have nothing in commun with the ancient ones)