The Rise of the Tribes

The Rise of the Tribes (Paionia, Epirus, Thrace and Macedonia)

…Then the God of Thunder took upon his carriage of fire and before he departed from his people, he bestowed his word onto them: “Explore the River of the Soul, whence or in what order you have come: so that although you have become a servant to the body, you may again rise to the Order from which you descended, joining works to sacred reason (logos).” 1 (Awakening…)

As rivers descend from their pristine sources, from rain and snow, they pick up the silts and other qualities of the regions they pass through, as well as the grosser pollutions we humans contribute to muddy these life-giving streams, whether they be physical or mental. Homer and Plato almost certainly had this latter aspect in mind when describing the descent of rivers into the nether worlds. In the Greek cosmogony, the Titan Oceanus, first-born of Heaven and Earth, is described as the father of all rivers and is himself a celestial river whose waters surround the Earth. Among his daughters, sometimes numbered in the thousands, are the four principal rivers of the underworld, and also Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness and Oblivion. These eventually combine to flow south, winding around the Acherusian Lake, until they finally discharge their remaining contents into Tartarus. Here in the underworld they function as a purgative, cleansing human souls of selfish mental and emotional qualities which are "lethal" or otherwise harmful to their evolutionary progress.2 After the Trojan War, things seem to have become hectic for the natives of the Balkans. There were new invading hoards ravaging the land from the south and those that were caught up in the middle suffered the harshest of authorities, while those to the north had to organize themselves in a rather different fashion from what their ancestors had provided as a legacy from the peaceful times. The rivers were the most important nourishment of life; therefore, the tribes gathered along these primal deities and drank the life force from their sources, preparing for the next raid.

While to the south the hoards devastated the kingdoms and imposed harsh laws as that of Draco in order to install their Isfet as a common rule for everyone, the tribes to the north developed cultural life based on their spirituality that had shaped their visions for a world united in peace something that would later reach its peak with the rise of the House of Macedon.

1

The Chaldean Oracles: Chaldean may refer to historical Babylonia, in particular in a Hellenistic context. Chaldean mythology is a generalized term used to refer to all the mythologies of ancient Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. The Chaldean Oracles played a role in Hellenistic mystery religions of the first centuries BC and AD. 2

From Sacred Rivers by W. T. S. Thackara

"Driving the Trojans in a body to the Scamander3, where he [Achilles]4 destroyed many, including Asteropaios5, the son of the river Axios’ son Pelegon. In fury the River rose up against him. But Hephaestus6 chased the river with a great flame and dried up its stream."7 The River had been growing more and more angry, and he began to consider how he could stop Achilles from his carnage and save the Trojans from destruction. Meanwhile Achilles had attacked Asteropaios. He was a son of Pelegon, himself the son of the river Axios and Periboia, the eldest daughter of Acessamenos. With one leap Achilles was upon him, and the other came out of the river to meet him holding two spears: for Xanthos put courage into him, being angry because of all those men that Achilles had slain in the water without mercy.

Achilles called out: "Who are you that dare to come and face me? What is your family? Unhappy are they whose sons face my wrath!"

Asteropaios answered: 3

Wikipedia: In Greek mythology, Scamander (Skamandros) was a river god, son of Oceanus and Tethys according to Hesiod. Scamander is also thought of as the river god, son of Zeus. By Idaea, he fathered King Teucer.

4

Wikipedia: In Greek mythology, Achilles (also Akhilleus or Achilleus; Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme the Wrath of Achilles. According to the incomplete poem Achilleis written by Statius in the first century AD, and to no other sources, when Achilles was born Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx.

However, she forgot to wet the heel she held him by, leaving him vulnerable at that spot.

5

Wikipedia: In the Iliad, Asteropaios (Latin: Asteropaeus) was the leader of the Trojan-allied Paionians along with fellow warrior Pyraechmes. Asteropaios was the son of Pelagon, who was the son of the river god Axios and the mortal woman Periboia. Asteropaios was a newcomer to the war at the start of the Iliad; he had only been in Troy for approximately less than a week.

6 Wikipedia: Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. The center of his cult was Lemnos, but he was worshipped in all of the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, especially Athens.

Hephaestus was identified by Greek colonists in southern Italy with the volcano gods Adranus of Mount Etna and Vulcanus of the Lipari islands. His forge was moved there by the poets.

The first-century sage Apollonius of Tyana is said to have observed, "there are many other mountains all over the earth that are on fire, and yet we should never be done with it if we assigned to them giants and gods like Hephaestus".

An Athenian founding myth tells that Athena refused a union with Hephaestus, and that when he tried to rape her she disappeared from the bed. Hephaestus ejaculated on the earth, impregnating Gaia, who subsequently gave birth to Erichthonius of Athens; then the surrogate mother gave the child to Athena to foster, guarded by a serpent.

Hyginus made an etymology of strife (Eri-) between Athena and Hephaestus and the Earth-child (chthonios). Some readers may have the sense that an earlier, non-virginal Athena is disguised in a convoluted re-making of the mythelement. At any rate, there is a Temple of Hephaestus (Hephaesteum or the so-called "Theseum") located near the Athens agora, or marketplace.

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Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E4. 7 - 8 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer 2nd century A.D.)

''Do you want to know my family, Peleiades? I come from distant Paionia at the head of my countrymen. It is now ten days since I reached Ilios. I trace my lineage from the river Axios, who begat Pelegon the famous spearman, and they say he is my father. Now then let us fight, valiant Achilles!”

Then Achilles lifted his spear, and Asteropaios threw both spears at once, for both hands were as the right One struck the shield, but it did not break through, for the god's golden gift held it off; the other grazed his right forearm and drew blood, but it passed on and stuck in the earth, greedy for more.8 The Sacred Rivers The Trojan War9 brought misery to many native tribes that populated the Balkans prior to the Danaos and Dorian intrusions from the south. This is something well recorded in the oral tradition of the Homeric epics, which seems to have been a gathering of lamentations that the common folks cherished as their memory of the glorious epoch when the heroes fought to preserve their land from the newcomers. The “more sophisticated” Semitic people, who introduced warfare as a way to attain divinity, had deceived the peaceful inhabitants of the mainland by assimilating their culture, and consuming their spiritual legacy in an epoch that would soon sprout as the Classical period of Greece. To the south the Trojan War was recorded to provide entertainment to the victorious Greeks, while to the north it remained in oral form to tell about the saga of those who suffered the demise of the glorious epoch for many ages to 8

The Iliad: The Story of Achilles by Homer, W. H. D. Rouse (The Battle by the River)

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The study of the Trojan War is inextricably interwoven with Greek mythology. This is due mainly to two literary figures, the legendary epic talent Homer, and the historian-mythologian Hesiod. The works of these two form the basis not only for the telling of the historical tale of the Trojan War, but also of the mythical characters so influential in Greek culture. Homer, in fact, is listed by the historian Herotodus as being one of the original authors of Greek mythology. His Iliad and Odyssey tell the tale of the Trojan War through the participants of it, outlining and detailing the history of the war and the gods. Hesiod’s Theogony and Weeks and Days also was influential in this, but not quite to the same extent.

Of all wars of history and pre-history, of fact or fancy, the Trojan War is the most famous. The historical event has captured the imaginations of poets and storytellers century after century, and each teller had added something to the tale. Often the accounts given were extremely distorted, often with little or no attention paid to the actual history of the occurrence. The account given in Homer’s Iliad of the Trojan War is a masterpiece, of both mythological fiction and historical accuracy. In this work, many details of the war can be found, represented with astonishing accuracy.

Because of their intertwining with myth, however, it is necessary to understand the nature and brief history of the main characters found in it. Several of these, such as Helen and Priam, were actual historical figures, merely enlarged and given grandeur by Homer.

Others were obvious fabrications, such as the deities. Yet, even these are not creations taken "from out of the blue".

Rather, they are an ideal, an illustration of the standards and aspirations of the Greek people. The Greeks admired intelligence, beauty, and strength: to them, man was a manifestation of all of these. They gave their gods these qualities in abundance, always portraying them in human form with strong, beautiful, gracefully strong bodies. The Greek Gods and Heroes represented the dominant personality characteristics of the Greek people. They were quarrelsome, unforgiving, wise creatures that enjoyed warring, banquets, and fornication. The deities are a representation of the qualities most aimed for by the Greeks; a goal that every youth strove to attain, and characteristics admired by all in those who had them. (Greek Mythology and the Trojan War by Megan J. Stoner)

follow, and reached the modern times through the South Slavic epics such as that of the guslari, the weepers, or "The Sirdar" by Grigor Prlichev who told of the same saga, just as Homer did it in antiquity, this time of another bravery that he learned from folk tales, for which he was praised as the Second Homer. The time that followed this mythical tragedy was the time when the rivers gathered the people and showed them “whence or in what order they had come”.

As the ancient sources clearly denote, there were several sacred rivers to the north, and unlike the Hellenic world where the rivers were associated to Hades, and were considered as purgatory for “cleansing human souls of selfish mental and emotional qualities”, to the native tribes they were deities wherefrom they took their origins. The rivers were the forefathers of the tribes and they appeared as sacred protectors of Life for the native population, while to the newcomers they were vile enemies or titanic forces.

The Scamander River10 which flew from Mount Ida across the plain of Troy was the greatest haven for the Trojans. It was a protector of the fertile soil and it was considered a deity which was summoned to fight the greatest enemy of the native Trojans, Achilles himself. Scamander would have won this battle if there wasn’t for the volcanic power of the underworld. If we apply symbolic meaning to this epic tale, it seems plausible to suggest that the underworld or the hidden forces were on the side of the invaders while the natural or the visible forces were defending the indigenous people. This observed in the light of those who perceived the reality of the events in that epoch would suggest the status these deities had among the natives and the newcomers, respectively, as well as the beliefs that shaped their fancy. It seems that the newcomers were observed as deceitful and devious, with a hidden agenda, to which we can add the Greek cunningness with the Trojan horse, as opposed to the naivety of the native Trojans for succumbing to such a travesty. That dreadful night, the soldiers crept down out of the horse, killed the sentries, and opened the gates to let the Greek army in. The Greeks set fires throughout the city, began massacring the inhabitants, and looted the city. The Trojan resistance was ineffectual. King Priam was killed and by morning all but a few Trojans were dead. Only Aeneas with his old father, his young son, and a small band of Trojans escaped. Hector’s young son was thrown from the walls of the city. The women who were left were given to the Greek leaders as was prizes, to be used as slaves or as concubines. Troy was devastated. Hera and Athena had their revenge upon Paris and upon his city.

The Vardar River11 was the river god that fathered Pelagon, the mythical ancestors of the Paeonians. These people who gathered support to the Trojans in their struggle against the invaders, had settled the Vardar valley down to the Aegean Sea, and had produced the core of 10

Scamander fought on the side of the Trojans during the Trojan War (Iliad XX, 73/74; XXI). Scamander was also said to have fought against Achilles, who was only saved due to the intervention of Hera, Athena and Hephaestus. In this context, he is the personification of the Scamander River that flowed from Mount Ida across the plain beneath the city of Troy, joining the Hellespont north of the city. The Achaeans, according to Homer, had set up their camp near its mouth, and their battles with the Trojans were fought on the plain of Scamander.

According to Homer, he was called Xanthos by gods and Scamander by men, which might indicate that the former name refers to the god and the latter one to the river itself.

In Iliad XXI he tried to drown Achilles after being mocked by him, but was stopped by Hera and Hephaestus.

(Wikipedia)

what was to become the House of Macedon. Their tradition and culture derives directly from those Neolithic inhabitants of Macedonia, those indigenous people of the region, whose river deity had nurtured all of their existence - a legacy of the Great Mother goddess. They were the allies to the Trojans just as they were to the Argeads – the founders of the House of Macedon.

The Strymon River12 was the home to the Thracians, those tribes that inherited the land from the Pelasgians to the east from their motherland. They also supported the Trojans against the newcomers, and later accompanied Alexander the Great when he crossed the Hellespont to win a battle against the Persians. Their devotion to the god of war made them the most fearsome fighters, especially in rocky or hilly regions similar to their homeland. Their militant skills wellpaid for which made them liable to switch side. As a consequence to this infidelity, they later had to face the Bulgars who raided their land, and digested their indigenous cultural heritage into their state, a legacy that has survived until modern times.

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The Vardar or Axios (Macedonian Вардар, Greek Αξιός = Aksiós (or Βαρδάρης), Latin Axius) is the longest river in the Republic of Macedonia and a major river of Greece.

The most accepted theory on the origin of the name derives Bardários from the Thracian language, from PIE *(s)wordo-wori-, "black water" (cf. German schwarz "black", Latin suāsum "dirt", Ossetian xuaræn "color", Persian sioh "black", Old Irish sorb "stain, dirt"). This can be considered a translation or similar meaning of Axios, itself Thracian for "not-shining" from PIE *n.-sk(e)i (cf. Avestan axšaēna "dark-colored"), and found in another name at the mouth of the Danube, Axíopa "dark water", renamed in Slavic Cernavoda "black water". The name Bardários (Βαρδάριος) was sometimes used by the Ancient Greeks in the 3rd Century BCE; the same name was widely used during Byzantine era.

Its Greek name Αξιός (Axios) is mentioned by Homer (Il. 21.141, Il. 2.849 ) as the home of the Paeonians, allies of Troy and it derives from the word άξος (axos) meaning "timber", "forest-trees", because the river flaw was used to transport timber. (Wikipedia) 12

Strymon (Strumôn),a son of Oceanus and Tethys, was a river god of Thrace, and is called a king of Thrace. (Hes. Theog. 339 ; Conon.Narr. 4 ; Anton. Lib. 21.) By Euterpe or Calliope, he became the father of Rhesus (Apollod. i.

3. § 4 ; Eurip. Rhes. 347), and by Neaera of Euadne. (Apollod. ii. 1. § 2.)

Herodotus, like Homer, has a denotative as well as a connotative use. He describes actual Pelasgians surviving and mutually intelligible (a) at Placie and Scylace on the Asiatic shore of the Hellespont, and (b) near Creston on the Strymon; in the latter area they have "Tyrrhenian" neighbors.

The Ister River13 - the home of the Earth Goddess, where the native population had created what was to be known as the Vinca culture, was yet another river god to provide for the sustenance of the indigenous people, who were far from the events to the south, and faced the intrusion of yet another wave of invaders, who came much later to create the belt of division among the aborigines of Europe. That belt is visible even today where the Hunic and Avaric hoards settled, which clearly divides all the Slavic speaking people to those of the north and the south.

Among these rivers did the native population create haven from the raiding hoards, thus providing grounds for the civilizational developments that would later take place as part of the global vision of the House of Macedon.

The five rivers of Hades To the invading population from the south, after the Dark Ages that created such havoc among the natives of mainland Greece, the rivers had a rather different connotation. They were not considered as forefathers or river gods, but rather as daughters of Oceanus, one of the Titans who preceded the Olympian gods. The River Styx which denoted the boundary between Earth and the Underworld circled Hades nine times. The River Lethe gave forgetfulness to those who drank from its waters, while the River Phlegethon is described by Plato as “a stream of fire, which coils round the earth and flows into the depths of Tartarus”. The River Cocytus was the river of lamentation, which flowed into Acheron across which dwelled Hades, where the dead resided. The River Acheron is located in Epirus, and it represented the “river of woe” wherefrom the new dead souls were transported to Hades.

The cursed rivers There were other rivers that were not directly associated to the underworld but caused the demise of one of the sanctuaries which hosted the most venerated of all events to the Greek world, that of the Olympic games – an instrument of the rising rationality of the phony tenet known as

13

Istros (or Ister) was a River-God of Skythia and northern Europe (the Danube of modern Romania).

Hesiod, Theogony 337 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) : "Tethys bore to Okeanos the swirling Potamoi (Rivers) . . . Istros of the beautiful waters, Phasis [in a list of rivers]."

THE DRAKAINA SKYTHIA was the first ruler of the land of Skythia. She was a woman from the waist up with the serpentine tail of a Drakon in place of legs. When Herakles visited her realm leading the cattle of Geryon, she stole some of the herd and insisted the hero mate with her before she would return them.

The Skythian Drakaina was probably identified with the monster Ekhidna, who was sometimes placed in the Skythian land of Arimoi. The Drakaina's story is undoubtedly a Greek translation of a Skythian myth. Her serpentine form, the birthing of the first men, and the title "Hora" (Season) all indicate that she was a native earthgoddess.

“democracy”14 to the Greeks, intended to establish order in the chaotic rule imposed by the belligerent Isfet of the newcomers.

The Olympic Games were first organized in Elean15 land, in the 8th century BC, ten miles inland from the Ionian Sea in western Peloponnese and at the point where Alpheus and Kladios rivers meet, where the ancient sanctuary of Olympia was located. The Alpheus River was the river which Hercules cleaned from the filth in a single day, which contained the cattle droppings from the Augean Stables. The Kladios River, which was a river god in Greek mythology, flooded the area many times and buried the sanctuary of Olympia under the debris it accumulated.

There are two legends about the origins of the Olympic Games, that of the Achaeans and the Dorians, or the Heraklids. According to Pausanias16 the oldest Greek inhabitants of Elis were the Achaeans17 from Thessaly, Arcadia, Aetolia, as well as, Boeotia and Attica. He tells us that the first king of Elis was Aethlios, who came from Thessaly with his people. His son, Endymion, according to the legend, had fifty daughters and three sons. Endymion was the first to proclaim a foot race in Olympia, between his three sons, Paeon, Epeios and Aetolos. Epeios won the race and the throne and the inhabitants named after him, Epeans, as Homer calls them. Paeon left after his defeat and went to the territory after the river Axios, which took his name, Paeonia.

Could these have been the Pelasgians or the native founders of the games, as suggested by 14

Athenian democracy developed in the Greek city-state of Athens, comprising the central city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, around 500 BC. Athens was one of the very first known democracies. Other Greek cities set up democracies, most but not all following an Athenian model, but none were as powerful or as stable (or as well-documented) as that of Athens. It remains a unique and intriguing experiment in direct democracy where the people do not elect representatives to vote on their behalf but vote on legislation and executive bills in their own right. Participation was by no means open to all inhabitants of Attica, but the in-group of participants was constituted with no reference to economic class and they participated on a scale that was truly phenomenal. The public opinion of voters was remarkably influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters.

Only adult male Athenians citizens who had completed their military training as ephebes had the right to vote in Athens. This excluded a majority of the population, namely slaves, children, women and resident foreigners (metics). Also disallowed were citizens whose rights were under suspension (typically for failure to pay a debt to the city: see atimia); for some Athenians this amounted to permanent (and in fact inheritable) disqualification.

(Wikipedia) 15 Elis, or Eleia (Greek, Modern: Ήλιδα Ilida, Ancient: Ἦλις Ēlis, Doric: Ἆλις Alis , Elean : Ϝάλις Walis) is an ancient district, that corresponds with the modern Elis Prefecture. It is in southern Greece on the Peloponnesos peninsula, bounded on the north by Achaea, east by Arcadia, south by Messenia, and west by the Ionian Sea. The first Olympic festival was organized in Elean land, Olympia, Greece by the authorities of Elis in the 8th century BCE - with tradition dating the first games at 776 BCE. The Hellanodikai, the judges of the Games, were of Elean origin. (Wikipedia) 16 Pausanias (Greek: Παυσανίας) was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece (Ἑλλάδος περιήγησις), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical literature and modern archaeology. (Wikipedia) 17 After the Danaos invasion of Greece, in his book Black Athena Martin Bernal states that at the beginning of the 14th century BC there was another invasion of Greece - that of the Pelopids or Achaians from Anatolia, which introduced new styles of fortification and possibly chariot-racing. According to Homer, there were Pelasgians on both sides of the Trojan War. Some of Achilles' force of Hellenes and Achaians were supposed to have inhabited 'Pelasgian Argos', which was clearly seen as being in Thessaly. Fighting for Troy, on the other hand, were the warriors of Hippothoos the Pelasgian, who came from Larisa.

Homer, out of which the Achaeans later derived mixing with the newcomers, while to the north the Paeonians sprouted as “barbarians�?

According to another legend the Heraklids, who wanted to return to Peloponnese, were advised by Delphi, to find a guide with three eyes and go through a narrow pass. The Heraklids then met an exiled nobleman from Aetolia, Oxylos, who had lost one of his eyes and was riding a mule and asked him to guide them to Peloponnese. Oxylos advised them to pass upon Peloponnese with ships and not to attempt to go across the Isthmus, with a land army. And so, he led them on the voyage from Naupaktos to Molycrium and in return of his guidance, it was agreed to give him the land of Elis. Oxylos cunningly led the Dorians through Arcadia, because he did not want them to see the fertile land of Elis, which was fully cultivated. Oxylos wanted to become king of Elis without battle, but the leader of Epeans - Dius - would not agree and proposed a contest between men from each side. From Elis was chosen the archer Degmenos and from the Aetolians, Pyraechmes, a slinger. Pyraechmes won and Oxylos became king of Elis. Oxylos assigned privileges to Dius, who was honored as a hero and allowed the Epeans to keep their lands, but at the same time brought Aetolian colonists and gave them a share to the land. Oxylos persuaded the inhabitants of the nearby villages to come and live inside the walls of Elis and thus he made larger the city and more prosperous. Under Oxylos, Elis increased its territory and also renewed the games. During these times a lot of people from Pisa, Hollow Elis, left their land to migrate to Epirus.

There seemed to be a very interesting entanglement between the Pelasgians, the Achaeans and the Dorians on the Greek land, which correlates to the invasions as recorded by archeology. If Oxylos was from Aetolia, he must have been an Achaean, while the Dorians were clearly the last wave of newcomers who wanted to settle Peloponnese, while the people of Elis must have been a mixed population of Pelasgians and Achaeans. However, the amount of various tribes that settled the Greek mainland had incited warfare that was a threat to all the common people of the region.

The Olympic Games although disrupted at periods, were again renewed to sustain the stability of the region. Allow me to quote a passage18 that would summarize the events that marked the Olympic Games in general: During the reign of his son Laias, the games were abandoned for many years and they were renewed by Iphitos, a descendant of Oxylos, who was contemporary of Lykourgos of Sparta. Tradition tells us, that Iphitos visited Delphi and there he was persuaded to renew the Olympic Games. Iphitos signed a treaty with Lykourgos, the king of Sparta and the king of Pisa, Kleosthenes, to proclaim Elis sanctuary of Zeus and introduced for the first time, the truce, during the period of the games. According to the sacred truce (ekechiria), everyone who was entering Elis ought to put down his arms and take them when he was leaving and mainly every hostility between the Greek cities ought to stop for the period the games were held. This agreement was valid and respected for many centuries by the Greek states. For his achievement, a statue of Iphitos was erected in the temple of Zeus in Olympia, in which Hostility was crowning the hero Iphitos. Aristotle tell us about this treaty, which was written on a bronze discus and was kept in the temple 18

http://www.sikyon.com

of Hera. Iphitos also persuaded the inhabitants of Elis to sacrifice in honor of the hero Herakles, who was considered by them, as a former enemy.

The Games were held at the sacred precinct of Altis (or the sacred grove of Zeus) from 776 BC to the end of 4th century BC. At first, they lasted only one day and there was one only event, the foot race, which was run at the length of the stadium. Soon afterwards many other events were added, the chariot racing, the discus throwing, the javelin, the long jump, boxing, wrestling and the pentathlon and the duration of the games became five days. The winners of the Games became instantly heroes and poets and musicians sang their strength and beauty and sculptors made their sculptures.

In the seventh century BC, Pisa, with the help of the powerful king of Argos Pheidon and the support from Messene and Arcadia, defeated Elis at various battles, taking under control the Games. But at the beginning of the sixth century BC, Elis became strong again, probably because of the death of Pheidon.

In 580 BC, with the help of Sparta, the Eleans conquered Pisa and they regained back the sanctuary at Olympia and the Games. Eleans destroyed the cities of Pisa and their inhabitants went abroad. The ones who remained, they forced to pay yearly compensation. Elis with the help of Arcadians conquered also a part of Triphylia. From the four territories which made now the country of Elis, only the inhabitants of Hollow Elis were citizens. The inhabitants of Pisa, Acroria and Triphylia only periodically managed to become citizens. These were the most prosperous times in the history of Elis.

Their land was considered sacred and their inhabitants lived in prosperity and peace. As for the Games, they were enriched with the addition of new competitions.

During the fourth century many changes took place in the political system of Elis. In 334 BC, the oligarchs had overthrown the democrats and sought the friendship of Philip of Macedon. They took part in the expedition of Philip against Sparta, but after the death of Philip, Elis tried to get rid from the Macedonian rule.

In 331 BC, Eleans, Spartans, Arcadians and Achaeans revolted against Antipatros and tried to capitulate Megalopolis, the main center of Macedonian rule. After being defeated

by Antipatros, Elis was punished to pay a fine of 120 talents to Megalopolis.

During the sixth century AD, a big earthquake destroyed what had remained of the sanctuary, and the rivers of Alpheus and Kladios covered up with mud the ruins, which came up to light in the nineteenth century AD. There is an interesting coincidence between this and the fact that the Aryan model brought the Greek civilization to light at the same time as the ruins did, namely in the 19th century. The resurrection of both suggests a luscious correlation. The Olympic Games served as a truce among the warring tribes to the south, while those to the north developed a culture that would later spring into a nation that would change the course of history.

PAEONIA

Along the Vardar River the descendants of Pelagon had settled the fertile valley and had gradually established the Paeonian19 Kingdom. They were seen as rude an barbaric by Herodotus, however they were builders of magnificent towns like that of Bylazora, Stobi, Atalanta, Dober and many other, as centers of their princedoms which later united under a common King. They were related to the Thracians, and considered themselves to be the descendants of the Trojans, while same ancient authors regarded them as the ancestors to the Phrygians, large numbers of whom in early times are believed to have crossed over to Asia Minor from Europe. There were several tribes that comprised the Paeonian cluster such as the Agrianes, Aestraei, Derrones, Doberes, with their kings, some of which we have records of, such as: Agis, Lycceius, Patraus, Audoleon, Ariston, Leon, Dropion, Eupolemenos, Bastareus…

The Paeonians worshiped Dionysus, known as Dyalus, or Dryalus among them. The women offered sacrifice to Queen Bendis20, who was associated to Artemis by the Greek authors, even though it had a broader meaning for the native Paeonians. She was venerated along with Apollo.

The image bellow is of the monastery of Treskavec in Prilep area, which was built on the foundations of an older sanctuary dedicated to Artemis and Apollo. The monastery today is dedicated to the Ascension of the Holy Mother of God. The image to the right is a Maenad (a woman participant in Dionysian rites) of Tetovo, a bronze statue from the 6th century B.C. of a young woman dancing, used as a decoration on a large bronze cup.

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Paionia or Paeonia (Greek: Παιονία) was in ancient geography, the land of the Paeonians (Ancient Greek Παίονες), the exact boundaries of which, like the early history of its inhabitants, are very obscure but they were in the region of Thrace. In the time of Classical Greece, Paionia originally including the whole Axius River valley and the surrounding areas, in what is now the northern part of the Greek region of Macedonia,most of the Republic of Macedonia, and a small part of western Bulgaria. It was located immediately north of ancient Macedon (roughly corresponding to the modern Greek region of Macedonia) and south of Dardania (Europe) (roughly corresponding to modern-day Kosovo). In the east were other Thracians and in the west the Illyrians. (Wikipedia) 20

Bendis was a Thracian goddess of the moon and the hunt whom the Greeks identified with Artemis, and hence with the other two aspects of the former Minoan Triple Goddess, Hecate and Persephone. She was a huntress, like Artemis, but was accompanied by dancing satyrs and maenads on a fifth century red-figure stemless cup (at Verona). More than Olympian Artemis, Bendis remained a night-goddess, which linked her with Hecate. By a decree of the oracle of Dodona, which required the Athenians to grant land for a shrine or temple her cult was introduced into Attica by immigrant Thracian residents. (Wikipedia)

The feminine cult had obviously survived in the Paeonian culture since Neolithic times. This can be clearly seen from their veneration of Bendis or Artemis, which was related to the oracle of Dodona, where previously the Great Mother had been adored. The Christian cult dedicated to the Holy Mother of God asserts this trend extensively, particularly when we consider the evident continuum at certain locations.

The Paeonians worshipped the Sun in the form of a small round disk fixed on top of a pole, which brings them very close to the Argeads of Macedon, and the Ma’at of Egypt. They too seem to have been a Sun culture as opposed to the Isfet of their southern neighbors. Their language is considered to be very close to the language of the Mysians21. The country was rich in gold and a bituminous kind of wood (or stone, which burst into a blaze when in contact with water) called tsarivos.

The women were crafty and appealed even to the Persian conqueror Darius who, according to Herodotus, saw a beautiful Paeonian woman that incited him to have two tribes from Paeonia deported without delay to Asia. At the time of the Persian invasion, the Paionians on the lower Strymon had lost, while those in the north maintained, their independence. Although they resisted the Macedonian expansion, eventually they joined the Macedonian Kingdom and became their greatest support in their campaigns. The daughter of Audoleon, one of the Paeonian kings, was the wife of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and Alexander the Great wished to bestow the hand of his sister Cynane upon Langarus, who had shown himself loyal to Philip II. There were close relation between the Paeonian, Epiran and Macedonian royal houses, which enabled the establishment of the strong Macedonian state that would further expand its influence to the East. The Paeonian contribution to this conquest can be seen in the legacy of the Hunza22 and Kalash23 people in Pakistan. They share many customs and traditions with the modern 21

The Mysians (Latin: Mysi) were the inhabitants of Mysia, a region in northwestern Asia Minor. Herodotus wrote that they were brethren of the Carians and Lydians and that the Mysians were "Lydian colonists". This identification may be supported by the fact that only Mysians, Carians, and Lydians were allowed to worship at the temple of Carian Zeus in the country of the Mylasians, based on the tradition that the eponymous figures Car (Carians), Lydus (Lydians), and Mysus (Mysians) were brothers. Little is known about the Mysian language. A short inscription which may be in Mysian and which dates from between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC was found in Uyuçik, near Kütahya, and seems to include Indo-European words, but it has not been deciphered. If Herodotus was right, the Mysian language would be a language of the Anatolian group, akin to Carian and Lydian. However, a passage in Athenaeus suggests that Mysian was akin to the barely attested Paionian language of Paionia, north of Macedon.

According to Homer, the Mysians fought in the Trojan War on the side of Troy. Herodotus recorded the tradition that Mysians (along with the Teucrians) invaded Europe, conquering "all of Thrace" and invading Greece as far as Elis in early times. (Wikipedia) 22

The people living in Hunza in Northern Pakistan are called Hunzakuts (Hunza people). There is no general agreement on the ethnic origin of the people of Hunza, but the people who speak Burushaski are called Brushu. The Burusho language Burushaski is an isolated language isolate, i.e. not related to any known language. (Wikipedia) 23 The Kalash (Nuristani: Kasivo) or Kalasha, are an ethnic group of the Hindu Kush mountain range, residing in the Chitral district of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. They speak the Kalash language, a member of the Dardic family of Indo-Aryan.

The culture of Kalash people is unique and differs drastically from the various ethnic groups surrounding them.

They are polytheists and nature plays a highly significant and spiritual role in their daily life. As part of their religious tradition, sacrifices are offered and festivals held to give thanks for the abundant resources of their three valleys. Kalash mythology and folklore has been compared to that of ancient Greece, but they are much closer to

Macedonians, they play the same instruments, and even believe in a creator deity called Dezau (ḍezáw), similar to the name of the god Dze as recorded in the Rosetta stone Demotic text, and they even have similar words like that of shaka [palm], which is the same in modern Macedonian. Their language is of Indo-Aryan family, which corresponds to the Indo-European South Slavic language spoken in Macedonia. The images bellow clearly show the similarities between the Kalash and the Macedonian people, at least when it comes to their ethno-genetic features. The image to the left is of a Kalash girl in a traditional costume, while the one to the right shows a group of Macedonian girls dressed in traditional Macedonian costumes. The similarity is astounding.

The dexterity of the Kalash and Macedonian women has defied the peril of the ages in preserving the heritage that has shaped the existence of both cultures.

Indo-Iranian (Vedic and pre-Zoroastrian) traditions. According to one of their legends, Kalash people are the descendants of Alexander the Great’s soldiers who settled and ruled the area after the expedition. The following statement made by a Kalash named Kazi Khushnawaz indicates Kalash people main belief for the origin of their culture: "Long long ago, before the days of Islam, Sikander e Aazem came to India. The Two Horned one whom you British people call Alexander the Great. He conquered the world, and was a very great man, brave and dauntless and generous to his followers. When he left to go back to Macedonia, some of his men did not wish to go back with him but preferred to stay here. Their leader was a general called Shalakash (i.e: Seleucus). With some of his officers and men, he came to these valleys and they settled here and took local women, and here they stayed. We, the Kalash, the Black Kafir of the Hindu Kush, are the descendants of their children. Still some of our words are the same as theirs, our music and our dances, too; we worship the same gods. This is why we believe the Macedonians are our first ancestors.” (Wikipedia: in the original text it is Greece/Greeks)

Macedonian traditional weave designs – Kalash traditional weave designs

EPIRUS Epirus was yet another Kingdom to the north of the Greek city-states, which shared many similarities with the Paeonian, Thracian and Macedonian cultures. Unlike the invaders from the south, they lived in villages, and had many similarities to the Mycenaean culture, suggesting possible links to the indigenous population of Mycenae prior to the Dorian invasion. The oracle of Dodona was situated in Epirus, thus the Neolithic population of Epirus evidently venerated the Great Mother goddess. The Athenians considered them inferior to themselves, or as Thucydides describes them – simply “barbarian”. During the Peloponnesian War they allied with the Spartans, which again shows their links to the indigenous population of Greece, rather than the Dorian newcomers.

As well Strabo says: "and even to the present day the Thracians, Illyrians, and Epirotes live on the flanks of the Greeks (though this was still more the case formerly than now); indeed most of the country that at the present time is indisputably Greece is held by the barbarians — Macedonia and certain parts of Thessaly by the Thracians, and the parts above Acarnania and Aetolia by the Thesproti, the Cassopaei, the Amphilochi, the Molossi, and the Athamanes — Epirote tribes."

Plutarch mentions an interesting cultural element of the Epirotes regarding Achilles. In his biography of King Pyrrhus, he claims that Achilles "had a divine status in Epirus and in the local dialect he was called Aspetos".

The Epiran dynasty allied themselves with the Kingdom of Macedon and in 359 BC the princess Olympias, married King Philip of Macedon. She was to become the mother of Alexander the Great. Epirus had a similar state organization as that of Macedon and Paeonia, with its own parliament or synedrion – a Council of a small group formed among some of the most eminent nobles, chosen by the king to assist him in the government of the kingdom. As such it was not a representative assembly, but notwithstanding that on certain occasions it could be expanded with the admission of representatives of the cities and of the civic corps of the kingdom, which was rather different from the Athenian agora, where only free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather to debate matters of importance. The main difference, however, was the

fact that the Kingdoms to the north did not have slaves, while the Greek city-states to the south relied on their labor to a great extent, yet they believed themselves to be more sophisticated and superior to the barbarians from the north, for that very fact: "... not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honors, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent slave" - Demosthenes, Third Philippic, 31.

Demosthenes was not merely denoting the unintelligible character of the Macedonians by calling them barbarian, nor was he simply insulting Philip; with this remark he was also accentuating the Greek “superiority” since they considered themselves inclined to the sophisticated Semitic cultures of the old world, as opposed to the secluded mentality of the aboriginal inlanders to the north. The sophistication of the Semitic culture at that time implied a self-assumed divinity and superiority of their advanced race against the natives who cherished the old mystical ways, which were detested by the rational Greeks. This allowed the Greeks to treat the less advanced races as slaves, imposing a “democracy” of the packs, as I it seems from modern perspective, or the enlightened Hellenes, as they saw it from their perspective. It appears that the Isfet mentality, which had introduced warfare as a means to attain divinity allowed the aggressive males to presume superiority on the grounds of their ability to dominate the meek, thus women were discriminated in Classical Greece, as well as those who could not comply with the requirements of the male-dominated society.

THRACE The Thracians were also the allies to the Trojans, according to Homer’s Iliad, their leaders being Acamas and Peiros, both Kings. Their Kingdom stretched from the Danube River to the north and the Aegean Sea to the south, to the east – the Black Sea and to the west the Vardar and Great Morava rivers. They joined the Macedonians in their fight against the invading Persians, and were considered as fierce fighters by the Greeks, particularly those who lived in the mountainous regions.

They were Indo-European people and therefore considered barbarian and rural by their urbanized and “refined” Greeks, however, they had advanced forms of music, poetry, industry, and artistic crafts. They lived on top of hills in fortified villages, and preferred the nature rather than the urban living. However, their militant skills made them the most feared mercenaries of the age.

The region was conquered by Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BC and was ruled by the kingdom of Macedon for a century and a half.

They had a calendar similar to the Egyptians with twelve months totaling 360 days, and 5 days added to the last month.

MACEDON Macedon was the name of the Kingdom that developed from the Argead Dynasty, which took its origins from the city of Argos in the Peloponnesus. The Kingdom emerged in the early 8th

century BC, or probably even earlier, since it embodied the principles of the indigenous culture that it inherited from the pre-Trojan epoch. According to legend the ancestors of the Argeads migrated from Argos in Peloponnesus to the northern plains, most probably after the first wave of invaders, and were therefore linked to the indigenous Pelasgian population that preceded the Danaos, Achaeans or the Dorian settlers. The name of this ruling tribe translates as “descendants from Argos”. After the Hyksos pushed the Danaos to Peloponnesus, the Argeads must have moved north in search for more fertile soil, while some of their kin remained to be later listed as the Pelasgians from Argos fighting on the side of the Achaeans, according to Homer.

As Martin Bernal states in Black Athena: The idea that the Pelasgians were the native population, convened to become something more Greek by the invading Egyptians, occurs more clearly in the plays of Aischylos and Euripides, written around the time of Herodotos' Histories. According to them the Pelasgians were the indigenes, encountered and somehow overcome by Danaos in the Argolid: “Danaos, the father of fifty daughters, on coming to Argos took up his abode in the city of Inachos and throughout Greece (Hellas) he laid down the law that all people hitherto named Pelasgians were to be named Danaans."

This incident might be connected to the Argead acclaimed descent from the same location, which later migrated north, as a reaction to the new imposed identity. They must have felt threatened by the invaders and decided to change location in search for better conditions. If we assume that the Argeads were the Pelasgians mentioned by Aischylos and Euripides, and if we assume that they were the aboriginal population of the region prior to the intrusion of the foreigners, who spoke an Indo-European native language different from the Egyptian Danaos or Semitic Dorian dialects, then we can clearly understand the reference of Demosthenes to Philip and the Macedonians as “barbarian”.

They had many archaic remnants from the epoch that preceded the chaotic invasions, one of which was the hereditary monarchic system which wielded formidable – sometimes absolute – power. However, there were liberal relations among the aristocracy and the King, as well as the common people, who were treated as a single body, a gender-related tribe with common origins and heritage. This contrasted sharply with the Greek cultures further south, where the city-states mostly possessed aristocratic or democratic institutions, while monarchic rule was seen as inferior and was widely detested. The Greek cultures to the south which had monarchic system were de facto subdued to the rule of tyrants, where heredity was more of an ambition rather than the accepted rule as it was in Macedon. This might be explained with the fact that the Macedonian kingship received its wide support from the nobles on the grounds of their heroic lineage. This was also very much different from the limited, predominantly military and sacerdotal, power of the twin hereditary Spartan kings. This all brings the Macedonian Kingdom closer to the traditional concepts developed in Epirus, Paeonia and Thrace rather than the Greek cultures to the south. If we add the fact that the Kingdom of Macedon posed as a unifying factor for the monarchies of the northern regions, than we might assume that this was due to the strong

cohesion both cultural and political among those who most probably considered themselves as the legacy-holders of the indigenous cultures that preceded the influences from the south.

In other words, the Kingdom of Macedon, along with Epirus, Paeonia and Thrace were closer to the Ma’at principles, which allowed their cultures to unite in a single body, rather than the Isfet principles developed to the south, which although considered as superior, were not akin to the indigenous population of the northern Kingdoms.

The Rise of a Nation: the House of Macedon All things considered, let us say that the Macedonian Dynasty had already existed in the period prior to the invasions of the Semitic tribes from Egypt. While the Greek Doric tribes were raiding the south of the mainland and slowly making way for their expansion, the Macedonian tribes were already walking their way to a powerful monarchy that later spread its influence to all parts of the ancient world.

We do not know when it was founded because most of the writings of the ancient Macedonian writers, historians and poets like: Anhang Makedonien, Antigonus Macedo, Antiochus Aegeus, Antipater Macedo, Ariston Pellaeus, Bardesanes Edesenus, Crateras Macedo, Leo Pellaeus, Nymphis Heracleensis, Damaios, John of Stobi or Joannes Stobaeus, Fedrus and many more are in private collections or lost throughout the ages especially after the Roman conquest and the exodus of the Macedonian population that took place at that time. These people have written works like: the Complete History of the Macedonian Kingdom, Macedonian History from Mythology to Philip II, and other similar titles. We do not know what information did these sources contain, but we can assume that the Macedonians had their own views on the events that shaped their history, given the vast archeological finds that have survived the menace of the ages.

What we do know from archeological findings is that there was a much different culture in Macedonia than that in the Greek city-states, the trade was much more developed, and social life was thriving.

To add to this, I will quote Martin Bernal’s Black Athena: Amongst many other things Aristotle was, of course, the tutor of Alexander the Great.

With the extraordinary Macedonian conquest of the Persian Empire in the 330s BC, there was a great surge of Greek interest in all Oriental civilizations, and especially in that of Egypt. It was in the years immediately after the conquest that the Egyptian priest Manetho wrote a history of Egypt in Greek in which he set out the scheme of 33 dynasties which remains the basis of the historiography of Ancient Egypt. It was also at about this time that Hekataios of Abdera set out his view that the traditions of the Egyptian expulsion of the Hyksos, the Israelite Exodus and that of Danaos' landing in Argos were three parallel versions of the same story:

The natives of the land surmised that unless they removed the foreigners their troubles would never be resolved. At once, therefore, the aliens were driven from the country and the most outstanding and active among them banded together and, as some say, were cast ashore in Greece and certain other regions; their teachers were notable men, among them being Danaos and Kadmos. But the greater number were driven into what is now called Judaea, which is not far from Egypt and at that time was utterly uninhabited. The colony was headed by a man called Moses.

This not only proves that the invaders of Greece were related to the Hyksos of Egypt, their most outstanding leaders being Danaos and Kadmos, both aliens to the Ma’at culture of Egypt, but that they were also akin to the Jews driven to Judaea under the leadership of Moses. Interesting information that rises here is Manetho’s scheme of 33 dynasties that preceded that of the Ptolemies of Egypt.

Ptolemy Philadelphos, who was a Macedonian pharaoh of Egypt at that time, summoned Manetho to write a history which would draw his lineage from Herakles. Herakles was obviously seen as the legendary hero who was the earliest ancestor to the Macedonians. As Martin Bernal reveals, the Greek historians had inclination to assign Phoenician or Egyptian origins to Herakles, while Plutarch was the only one who suggested his Argive origins. Having in mind that Heraclea24 was a city probably built by Philip II of Macedon, where his grandmother’s origins were traced, we can assume that Herakles was considered a great hero among the Macedonians and the Paeonians, and most probably the founder of the heroic lineage of the House of Macedon, prior to any other claims by the “sophisticated” world. The Macedonians, considered barbarians by the Hellenes, had obviously founded their royal lineage on the legacy from an earlier archaic epoch which preceded the invasions. Thus the Argive origins of Herakles would most plausibly apply to the Pelasgians of Argos, or the ancestors of the Argead Dynasty.

Their legacy had later been asserted with the Ptolemy dynasts of Egypt.

Heraclea, 4th century BC

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A mosaic excavated in Heraclea

Famous for its dazzling mosaics, ancient theater and Roman baths, Heraclea is the most vividly preserved city from the Ancient Macedonian Empire surviving in the country. Founded in the 4th century B.C.E. and conquered by the Romans two centuries later, it was built on the Via Egnatia and became one of the key stations on this trading route. It is located in the vicinity of Bitola, to the south of the Republic of Macedonia. (http://www.exploringmacedonia.com)

The earliest accounts on the Macedonian dynasty reveal Tsar Karan (Caranus) as the earliest founder of the House of Macedon. According to Chronicon - a work in two books by Eusebius of Caesarea, which seem to have been compiled in the early 4th century, both of which are mostly preserved in an Armenian translation – the founder of the Macedonian dynasty can be linked to the Pelasgians from Argos, which lived in the Peloponnesus prior to the first Olympic games: Before the first Olympiad, Caranus was moved by ambition to collect forces from the Argives and from the rest of the Peloponnese, in order to lead an army into the territory of the Macedonians. At that time the king of the Orestae25 was at war with his neighbors, the Eordaei, and he called on Caranus to come to his aid, promising to give him half of his territory in return, if the Orestae were successful. The king kept his promise, and Caranus took possession of the territory; he reigned there for 30 years, until he died in old age. He was succeeded by his son Coenus, who was king for 28 years.

This account provides enough evidence to suggest that the Orestae and the Argives from the Peloponnesus were related, most probably as Pelasgians - as they seemed to the invading Danaos, and later the Dorians - which implied they were the natives of the region. These can be linked to the Paeonians, which according to legend, lost the foot race in the first Olympic Games and had to move north into the plains of Pelagon.

Were these legends maybe accounts given by the newcomers to provide explanation for the history of the earlier population of the region? Since the written record regarding the history of the indigenous population comes mostly from Greek authors, we can assume that they were either guessing or giving explanations to suit the curiosity of their audiences in regards to the barbarians to the north. What we know from these sources is that the Macedonian Kingdom was a very much different organizational system than that of the Greek city-states, with an Assembly comprised of all the kingdom's citizen-soldiers, very similar to the modern day parliaments, with a Synedrion or a council of a small group formed among some of the most eminent Macedonians, chosen by the king to assist him in the government of the kingdom, who were either honorary bodyguards, who served the king as close advisers, then the king’s Companions, named for life by the king among the Macedonian aristocracy, and the generals of the army, named by the king. This is what Wikipedia says on the matter: The king had in reality less power in the choice of the members of the Council than appearances would warrant; this was because many of the kingdom's most important noblemen were members of the Council by birth-right.

The Council primarily exerted a probouleutic function with respect to the Assembly: it prepared and proposed the decisions which the Assembly would have discussed and Orestis (Greek: Ὀρεστίς, mountainous orestias) was a region of Upper Macedonia, corresponding roughly to the modern Kastoria Prefecture, West Macedonia, Greece. Its inhabitants were the tribe Orestae. As most of Upper Macedonia, it became part of Macedon only after the early 4th century BC; before that it had close relations with the Molossians of Epirus. Hecataeus and Strabo identified these mountain Macedonia kingdoms as of Epirotic stock.

Natives of the region were: Pausanias of Orestis, the murderer of Philip II, Perdiccas (son of Orontes) and Seleucus I Nicator (son of Antiochus). Orestis became again independent in 196 BC when the Romans, after defeating Philip V, declared the people of Orestis free because they had adhered to the Roman cause in the recent war against.

According to Appian, Argos Orestikon (in modern Orestida) was the homeland of the Argead dynasty. (Wikipedia) 25

voted, working in many fields such as the designation of kings and regents, as of that of the high administrators and the declarations of war. It was also the first and final authority for all the cases which did not involve capital punishment.

The Council gathered frequently and represented the principal body of government of the kingdom. Any important decision taken by the king was subjected before it for deliberation.

Inside the Council ruled the democratic principles of iségoria (equality of word) and of parrhésia (freedom of speech), to which even the king subjected himself.

If we compare this way of governing to that suggested by Draco and his bizarre laws, I think we all need to reconsider the application of the term barbarian as opposed to civilized.

The Macedonian kingdom developed independent of the influences from the south for a long epoch since its founding until the first intrusion of Hellenic culture by Alexander I Philhellene.

The historical accounts show a distinct and unique monarchic system of governing that was often seen as inferior by the Greeks. However, it was a monarchy that produced a wide archeological context for a Sun culture to emerge, similar to that of the Egyptian Ma’at, on the grounds of a continuum from an earlier epoch, which reached the House of Macedon through its veneration of the Great Mother cult, which eventually marked their identity as a nation, thus producing a nation widely recognized as that of the children of Dea, the Great Mother goddess, the Makea Dona (Mother Lady).

The Macedonians established and developed their Sun Kingdom through the reign of Karanus (808-778 BC), Koinos, Tyrimmas, Perdiccas I (700-678 BC), Argaeus I (678-640 BC), Philip I (640-602 BC), Aeropus I (602-576 BC), Alcetas I (576-547 BC), Amyntas I (547-498 BC), Alexander I (498-454 BC), Alcetas II (454-448 BC), Perdiccas II (448-413 BC), Archelaus (413-399 BC), Craterus (399 BC), Orestes and Aeropus II (399-396 BC), Archelaus II (396-393 BC), Amyntas II (393 BC) Pausanias (393 BC), Amyntas III (393 BC), Argaeus II (393-392 BC), Amyntas III (392-370 BC), Alexander II (370-368 BC), Perdiccas III (368-359 BC), Ptolemy of Aloros, Regent of Macedon (368-365 BC), Amyntas IV (359-356 BC), Philip II (359-336 BC), Alexander III, the Great (336-323 BC), and many more to come…

Various sources suggest that besides the various dynastic rules a unified Macedonian state was eventually established by King Amyntas III (c. 393–370 BC), though it still retained strong contrasts between the cattle-rich coastal plain and the fierce isolated tribal hinterland, allied to the king by marriage ties. They controlled the passes through which barbarian invasions came from Illyria to the north and northwest.

Around the time of Alexander I of Macedon, the Argead Macedonians started to expand into Upper Macedonia, that is Eordaia, Bottiaea, Mygdonia, and Almopia - which were mountainous regions settled by independent Macedonian tribes. It was this king who realized the importance of establishing strong influences in the Mediterranean world for which reason he introduced the Hellenic culture in Macedonia. He did that through diplomacy by allegedly attending the Olympic Games, for which he needed to prove his “Hellenic origin” to the court of Elean

Hellanodikai26. The question that rises is why did he need to prove his Hellenic origin in the first place? Was this maybe due to the fact that the Macedonians were considered non-Hellenic by their “sophisticated” southern neighbors?

He allegedly claimed his origins from Argos of Peloponnesus, which would not be wrong at all, considering the earlier accounts we suggested in this chapter, thus implying descent from the Pelasgian Argos, of the time prior to the Danaos and Dorian invasion. If we consider Alexander I’s political intentions, we might assume that Appian27 was right to suggest that Argos Orestikon (in modern Orestida) was the homeland of the Argead dynasty, not the one in the Peloponnesus.

This would be more plausible since we know that Alexander’s name was removed from the winner’s list. This by itself creates suspicion if he indeed took part in that race. Eugene Borza, In The Shadow of Olympus p. 112 writes: Herodotus' story is fraught with too many difficulties to make sense of it. For example, either (1) Alexander lost the run-off for his dead heat, which is why his name does not appear in the victor lists; or (2) he won the run-off, although Herodotus does not tell us this; or (3) it remained a dead heat, which is impossible in light Olympic practice; or (4) it was a special race, in which case it is unlikely that his fellow competitors would have protested Alexander's presence; or (5) Alexander never competed at Olympia. It is best to abandon this story, which belongs in the category of the tale of Alexander at Plataea. In their commentaries on these passages Macan and How and Wells long ago recognized that the Olympic Games story was based on family legend (Hdt. 5.22: "as the descendants of Perdiccas themselves say [autoi legousi]"), weak proofs of their Hellenic descent. Moreover, the Olympic Games tale is twice removed: Herodotus heard from the Argeadea (perhaps from Alexander himself) that the king had told something to the judges, but we do not know what those proofs were.

Prior to the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered a region approximately corresponding to the province of Macedonia of modern Greece, while to the north the Kingdoms of Paeonia and Thrace, as well as that of Epirus, existed independent of the Macedonian rule. Macedonia became increasingly Atticised during this period, though prominent Athenians appear to have regarded the Macedonians as uncivilized.

The earliest finds of inscriptions in Hellenic language on the territory of Macedonia do not precede much that of the Pella curse tablet28, dating to the 4th of 3rd century BC, which coincides 26

The Hellanodikai (literally meaning Judges of the Greeks) were the judges of the Ancient Olympic Games, and the success of the games are attributed to their efforts. It was their sacred duty to maintain the standards and legacy of the games, as well as uphold the rules. Originally the title was Agonothetai (meaning game organisers), but was changed to Hellanodikai soon after. (Wikipedia) 27

Appian (Greek: Αππιανός) (c. 95 – c. 165), of Alexandria was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. He might as well have been a Macedonian by origin since he came from Alexandria, founded and populated mostly by Macedonians. (Wikipedia) 28 The Pella curse tablet is a curse or magic spell (Greek: κατάδεσμος, katadesmos) inscribed on a lead scroll, dating to the 4th or 3rd century BC. It was found in Pella (at the time capital of Macedon) in 1986 and published in the Hellenic Dialectology Journal in 1993. It is possibly an attested text in the ancient Greek language.It is a magic spell or love charm written by a woman, possibly named Dagina, whose lover Dionysophōn (i.e. "Voice of Dionysus") is apparently about to marry Thetima (i.e. "she who honors the gods"; the standard Attic form would be

with the introduction of Hellenic culture into Macedon by Alexander I Philhellene. The language that the ancient Macedonians spoke, which was considered as barbaric by the Hellenes, one of them being Demosthenes, must have thus belonged to the indigenous Indo-European pre-Slavic language, as recorded in the Demotic text of the Rosetta stone, and most probably similar to that of the Epiran, Paeonian, and Thracian languages. The situation has not changed much over the ages, since we can see the similar linguistic situation even today, excluding the Slavic invasion theory which was imposed as part of the policy making in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The expansion of the Macedonian Kingdom29 continued after the reign of Alexander I, and in the time of Philip II it expanded further north reaching the Danube region, and further west to the Adriatic shores. The founding of Singidunum30, today’s Belgrade can be ascribed to the contact between the Macedonian and Celtic cultures according to archeological finds, as suggested in the book titled as The Druid of Sindidun by Vladislav Bajac. During Philip II’s reign there were immense changes in the organization of the Macedonian Kingdom with the creation of an intermediate territorial administrative level between central government and the cities, similar to the local self-government of modern times. It was not easy to convene all the Macedonians in a single general assembly, which was solved by creating four regional districts, each supplied with a regional assembly. They were artificial administrative lines which can be fully attested with certainty (by the numismatics) only after the 2nd century BC. The Kingdom had a rich cultural life, which can be confirmed with the numerous theatres, such as that of Skupi, Ohrid (Lychnidos), Stobi, Heraclea…

Theotimē). She invokes "Makron and the demons" (parkattithemai makrōni kai [tois] daimosi, Attic would be parakata-tithemai) to cause Dionysophon to marry her rather than Thetima, and never to marry another woman unless she herself recovers and unrolls the scroll.

The language is a harsh but distinctly recognizable form of North-West or Doric Greek, and the low social status of its writer, as evidenced by her vocabulary and belief in magic, strongly hint that a unique form of Doric Greek was spoken by lay people in Pella at the time the tab was written (see below, Dating and Significance). Brixhe and Panayotou (1994:209) think a Macedonian origin of the text probable, but they suggest that the population of Pella was not homogeneously autochthonic, and they prefer to wait for a second find before making a definitive statement.

Before the publication of the Pella katadesmos' findings in 1993, it was proposed that Doric Greek may have been spoken in pre-Hellenistic Macedon as a second dialect in addition to a Ancient Macedonian language (Rhomiopoulou, 1980). (Wikipedia) 29

Under Philip II, (359–336 BC), Macedon expanded into the territory of the Paionians, Thracians, and Illyrians.

Among other conquests, he annexed the regions of Pelagonija and Southern Paionia. (South East Europe History pages) 30

Singidunum was an ancient Roman city, first settled by the Celtic Scordisci tribe in the 3rd century BC, and later garrisoned and fortified by the Romans who romanized the name. It is known today as Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, birthplace to the Roman Emperor Jovian. It has arisen (according to legend and verified history) from its ashes 38 times. (Wikipedia)

The Kingdom comprised of towns, which were rich in cultural life, that has been a result of a long continuum that can be supported with archeological evidence, as for example in Vardarski Rid31, an ancient Macedonian town in the vicinity of Gevgelija located to the south of the Republic of Macedonia, where numerous artifacts from as early as the 7th century BC have been found.

Not only did the ancient Macedonians venerate the beauty of the living, they too paid deep respect to the dead, whom they buried with all the royal honours of the epoch that shaped their existence. According to Pasko Kuzman, the head of the archeological excavations at the Samoil Fortress, and a leading archeologist from Macedonia there are a number of graves and tombs with different structures that belonged to people in antique Lychnidos, today’s Ohrid. The chronological span of those funerals was 5th B.C. to 5th A.D. Most graves belonged to the Macedonian-Hellenic period and are rich in various archaeological materials: ornamental pottery dishes; iron, bronze, silver and golden items, which according to their features belonged exclusively to Macedonian oldest ethnicity. These ancient Macedonians seem to have had quite distinct funeral rites from their southern neighbors, with royal features that can be seen from the

31

The region of the Lower Vardar region, and within it of the Valandovo – Gevgelija valley, is affirmed as one of the archeologically strongest sites in the Balkans, especially during the period towards the end of the iron age and the beginning of the ancient time. In that sense, it has already been clearly defined in science as one of the strongest cultural groups of the iron age on the Balkans, the so-called Lower Vardar valley or the Gevgelija cultural group.

Also, it is increasingly clear that on the sites of Isar-Marvinci and Vardarski Rid –Gevgelija are hidden the remains of the two historically witnessed city centers of the Early Ancient Macedonia, probably the towns Idomene and Gortinia. (http://www.vardarskirid.org.mk)

golden masks32 they used to cover the faces of the deceased, as those excavated in Trebenište, near Ohrid.

According to Nade Proeva, a leading expert on Ancient Macedonia from the Skopje University: It is of great importance in defining the material culture of the inhabitants from Trebenište and its surroundings, and thus for determining their ethnic origin. Namely, it has been proven that the characteristics of the funerary ritual in these necropolises are neither Greek nor Illyrian or Thracian. So far, funerary masks have been found only in Macedonia, and not on the territory of Ancient Greece. Gold masks were not used in the funerary cult of ancient Greeks: to connect them with the masks from the CretanMycenaean culture is methodologically wrong, because the ethnic, the cultural, and the chronological differences between them are huge. Another characteristic of the Macedonian funerary ritual is the tripod for the funeral feast, which is not found with the Ancient Greeks, where the cult bed, the so-called “kline” was used for the funeral feast.

These two most significant characteristics were indicated by the renowned French expert Claude Rolley after the discovery of the necropolis in Sindos. Apart from these characteristics, metal vessels were found in the necropolis in Gorenci/Trebenište that were not used at that time in Ancient Greece. All this proves that we are faced with two different funerary customs. If we point out that the funerary ritual is one of the most significant elements of a religion, which, after the language, is the most important element in defining the ethnicity of the tribes, it is obvious that the Engelanes belonged to the group of Macedonian tribes.

I would allow myself the indecency to object to Professor Nade Proeva’s conclusion that the Trebenište masks from the 5th century BC are not to be connected to the Cretan-Mycenaean culture33, because it would be methodologically wrong. To the contrary, with the evidence 32

A golden postmortem mask and a golden glove with a golden ring were discovered at the Samoil Fortress on 30 September, 2002. The mask points to the family of the world famous Trebenište masks two of which, unfortunately, have been appropriated by the Belgrade Museum, and two others by the Sofia Museum. The tomb and all the items found in there date back to 5th B.C. pointing to the oldest burial within the Lychnidos necropolis. (http://www.culture.in.mk) 33

From: http://www.flickr.com

provided in Black Athena by Martin Bernal - who in reference to the Dorian invasions of Greece states that “the Dorian kings (who) continued to be proud of their Egypto-Hyksos ancestry well into Hellenistic times … destroyed the Mycenaean palaces” and introduced a long period known as the Greek Dark Ages – then, we can easily conclude that there was after all a certain cultural connection between the Mycenaean culture and the one in ancient Macedon. How could this be explained, knowing that the predecessors of the Macedonians were the indigenous population, while the Mycenaean culture developed as a result of the Danaos invasion of Greece, mixing with the local Pelasgians?

Mask 1

Mask 2

Mask 3

If we consider the historical account provided by Hekataios of Abdera, that the Danaos were actually the castaway Semitic aliens, who during the second intermediary period had settled in Egypt as Hyksos, thus introducing the Isfet as opposed to the Ma’at principle of the earlier epoch, imitating the Egyptian culture, then we can assume that although akin to the Semitic people who settled in Judaea with Moses, they were rather inclined to the Egyptian way of life which they passed on to Mycenae, including the funeral rites they assumed during their stay in Egypt. Now if we add to this the alleged descent of the Macedonian dynasty from Argos of Peloponnesus which was settled by Pelasgians prior to the Danaos invasion, we can assume that there must have been a contact between the two cultures. The surprising fact is that the golden masks found in Ohrid are closely related to the tribes who cannot have had any contact with the Mycenaean culture, neither can we confirm that the Danaos had used this rite prior to their arrival in Greece, which then confirms Nade Proeva’s conclusion that it is wrong to assume there was a connection after all.

1. Golden Death mask (16th century. B.C.) - named "Mask of Agamemnon" by Schliemann in 1876. It is now believed that this claim is false since the mask predates the death of Agamemnon, but the name sounds so good that we continue using it. Found in Tomb V, Grave Circle A at Mycenae.

2. Death mask (gold) Mycenae. (16th century. B.C.) Found in tomb IV in Grave circle A which housed five individuals.

3. Death mask (gold) Mycenae (16th century. B.C.) Found in tomb IV in Grave circle A which housed five individuals.

However, I would suggest that the golden mask ritual both in Crete and Mycenae is a Pelasgian one, or belonging to the culture of the indigenous population of Greece, even prior to the Danaos intrusion, which must have assumed this typical funerary rite as part of an even more ancient legacy that would connect the indigenous culture of the Balkans to that of Egypt before the Hyksos invasion. In other words, it was not the Danaos that shaped the culture in Crete to the extent as it appears. The Mycenaean golden masks must have belonged to the native culture of the region, which remained as a cultural legacy in the Macedonian traditions. The most notable argument here is that after the Dorian invasion, not only did the Mycenaean palaces ceased to exist, but also the funerary rites died away, which means that the last wave of intruders must have pushed the indigenous population north into Macedonia, where these rites had continued to exist, as in TrebeniĹĄte customs of the 5th century.

Another possible explanation would be that the golden mask ritual belonged to an even older cultural exchange between the indigenous population of the Balkans with that of Egypt, particularly considering the specific links between the most important and probably the oldest oracular centre of the region, 'Pelasgian' Dodona, the Egypto-Libyan oracle of Ammon in the Siwa Oasis and the great oracle of Amon at 'Thebes, as Martin Bernal suggests. The most fascinating thing is that this funerary ritual had somehow survived in the Macedonian culture, while it had completely ceased after the Dorian invasion in Greece. This disruption of cultural life can be seen from the fowling quote from Black Athena: Thirdly the date of transmission was now lowered to ‘720 BC, safely after the creation of the polis and the formative period of Archaic Greek culture. This opened up a long period of illiteracy between the disappearance of the Linear scripts discovered by Evans and the introduction of the alphabet, which in turn provided a double advantage: it allowed Homer to be the blind - almost northern - bard of an illiterate society, and it established an impermeable seal or complete Dark Age between the Mycenaean and Archaic ages. In this way, later Greek reports of their early history and the Ancient Model were discredited still further.

This makes the Dorians the most dominant element in shaping the Archaic and Classical Greek culture which differs drastically from the earlier Mycenaean and Minoan cultures, which on the other hand have more connections to the culture developed in ancient Macedonia. It seems that the ancient Macedonians were after all descendants from the indigenous population that settled the Peloponnesus prior to the Dorian intrusion. If we compare here the Linear scripts of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations with those found on rocks across Macedonia that predate them, the picture becomes even clearer. Another asset to this perspective is the oral tradition of Homeric times, which has survived in modern Macedonian culture, as well as the Indo-European words that predate the Semitic and Egyptian influences of Classical Greek found in Homer’s epics, plus the Trojan heritage in the Paeonian, Thracian, Epiran and Macedonian cultures, which makes the mosaic complete.

To me it seems unacceptable to suggest that the culture, which had shaped the visions of a conquest the history would record as unprecedented, was that of an illiterate society. It seems that the archaic remnants of the Neolithic culture in Macedonia, and the Balkans for that matter, which preceded that of the literate society of the warring invaders, was not a barbaric, but a

highly-developed spiritual society, with a clear perspective on reality, and a vision of a cosmopolitan world, where all people would be considered as equals, a society that would set the foundations for a unique spiritual perspective that would resurrect the principles of harmonious coexistence among all nations, something that was disrupted and abandoned by the invading hoards. This spiritual society, which developed from the taciturn epoch of the matriarchal Neolithic culture of prehistoric Macedon, had undergone drastic changes interacting with the aggressive God of the advancing invaders over the turbulent post-Trojan ages, thus assembling its male power on the grounds of its feminine legacy of a heroic lineage, in order to produce a Sun Kingdom that would proclaim the New World Order, a successor to that of the Egyptian Ma’at, where Darkness would again be replaced with Light.

Thus, the Sun Symbol - as representative of the House of Macedon - with its sixteen rays must have had a deep spiritual application for those that promoted it as their own identity. There have been certain attempts among modern enthusiasts to provide a rather comprehensive analysis of the Macedonian Sun-symbol and its implication in the ancient Macedonian society. Allow me to modify it a bit in order to satisfy our modern perspective of what a highly-ethical society would need to embody: The central point of this symbol represents the main deity - the Creator, where from all existence derived. The ten-petal flower that develops from it represents the divine will and absolute power of the Creator inherited by the King. It composes of ten principles which were the foundation of the spiritual unity between man and God: harmony (not expansionism), ecumenism (cooperation among the people), activism (willingness for progress), diplomacy, equal rights, tolerance and dialogue, generosity, prosperity and cultural upheaval, science and ethics (humility and isihasm). These were the concepts that were esteemed in accordance to the Egyptian Ma’at principle of the Sun cultures. The first ring encircling the core represents the Earth, the Great Mother which contains the divinity of the Creator within her womb. She nurtures the rest of the creation with her Energy, which is represented by the second ring. The 16 rays that emerge from this union represent the pillars of the Macedonian spiritual culture, and these are: PEACE, LOVE, INTELLECT, EXISTENCE, HOPE, FREEDOM, FRIENDSHIP, CREATIVITY, GOOD-WILL, RESPECT, SIMPLICITY, PATIENCE, MEEKNESS, STRENGTH, DIGNITY, and PERSISTENCY.