History of ancient Macedonia - 4000 years of Greek History

History of Macedonia Blog

2008-07-12T16:24:00.001-07:00

Religion of ancient Macedonians from ancient sources

2007-07-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

Having settled these affairs, he returned into Macedonia. He then offered to the Olympian Zeus the sacrifice which had been instituted by Archelaus, and had been customary up to that time;

(Arrian Anab. I 11.1)

It is said he [Alexander] also held a public contest in honour of Muses

(Arrian Anab. I 11.2)

when he was about the middle of the channel of the hellespont he sacrificed a bull to Poseidon and the Nereids and poured forth a libation to them into the sea from a golden goblet

(Arrian Anab. I 11)

they say also that he was the first man to step out of the ship in full armour on the land of Asia, and that he erected altars to Zeus, the protector of people landing, to Athena and to Heracles

(Arrian Anab. I 11.6)

Philip, after this vision, sent Chaeron of Megalopolis to consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, by which he was commanded to perform sacrifice, and henceforth pay particular honour, above all other gods, to Zeus;

(Plutarch, The life of Alexander)

He [Alexander he Great] erected altars, also, to the gods, which the kings of the Praesians even in our time do honour to when they pass the river, and offer sacrifice upon them after the Greek manner.

(Plutarch, The life of Alexander)

Along with lavish display of every sort, Philip included in the procession statues of the twelve Gods brought with great artistry and adorned with a dazzling show of wealth to strike awe to the beholder, and along with these was conducted a thirteenth statue, suitable for a god, that of Philip himself, so that the king exhibited himself enthroned among the twelve Gods.

(Diodorus Histories, Chapter 16, 95.2)

He (King Philip) wanted as many Greeks as possible to take part in the festivities in honour of the gods, and so planned brilliant musical contests and lavish banquets for his friends and guests. Out of all Greece he summoned his personal guest-friends and ordered the members of his court to bring along as many as they could of their acquaintances from abroad.

(Diodorus Histories, Chapter 16, 91.5-6)

The future prosperity [of the historical general] Seleukos was foreshadowed by unmistakable signs. When he was about to set forth from Makedonia with Alexandros [the Great], and was sacrificing at Pella [in Makedonia] to Zeus, the wood that lay on the altar advanced of its own accord to the image and caught fire without the application of a light.

Pausanias, Guide to Greece 1.16.1

Delos would win the foremost guerdon from the Mousai, since she it was that bathed Apollon, the lord of minstrels, and swaddled him, and was the first to accept him for a god. Even as the Mousai abhor him who sings not of Pimpleia [town in Pieria/Macedonia sacred to the Mousai] so Phoibos abhors him who forgets Delos.

Callimachus, Hymn IV to Delos 3

They say that afterwards [the establishment of a shrine to three Mousai on Mount Helikon in Boiotia] Pieros, a Makedonian, after whom the mountain in Makedonia was named, came to Thespiae and established nine Mousai, changing their names to the present ones

Pausanias, Guide to Greece 9.39.3

Speaking of Alexander the Greatʼs luxury, Ephippus of Olynthus in his book On the Death of Hephaestion and Alexander says that in the park there was erected for him a golden throne and couches with silver legs, on which he sat when transacting business in the company of his boon companions. And Nicobule says that during dinner every sort of contestant exerted their efforts to entertain the king, and that in the course of his last dinner Alexander in person acted from memory a scene from the Andromeda of Euripides, and pledging toasts in unmixed wine with zest compelled the others also to do likewise. Ephippus, again, says that Alexander also wore the sacred vestments at his dinner parties, at one time putting on the purple robe of Ammon, and thin slippers and horns just like the gods, at another time the costume of Artemis, which he often wore even in his chariot, wearing the Persian garb and showing above the shoulders the bow and hunting-spear of the goddess, while at still other times he was garbed in the costume of Hermes; on other occasions as a rule, and in every-day use, he wore a purple riding-cloak, a purple tunic with white stripes, and the Macedonian hat with the royal fillet; but on social occasions he wore the winged sandals and broad-brimmed hat on his head, and carried the caduceus in his hand; yet often, again, he bore the lionʼs skin and club in imitation of Heracles. What wonder that the Emperor Commodus of our time also had the club of Hercules lying beside him in his chariot with the lionʼs skin spread out beneath him, and desired to be called Hercules, seeing that Alexander, Aristotleʼs pupil, got himself up like so may gods, to say nothing of the goddess Artemis? Alexander sprinkled the very floor with valuable perfumes and scented wine. In his honour myrrh and other kinds of incense went up in smoke; a religious stillness and silence born of fear held fast all who were in his presence. For he was hot-tempered and murderous, reputed, in fact, to be melancholy-mad. At Ecbatana he arranged a festival in honour of Dionysus, everything being supplied at the feast with lavish expense, and Satrabates the satrap entertained all the troops.

Ath. Deipn. Book XII. 537 d – 540 a

Concerning the professional “companions” Philetaerus says this in The Huntress: “No wonder there is a shrine to the Companion everywhere, but nowhere in all Greece is there one to the Wife.” But I know also of a festival, the Hetairideia, celebrated in Magnesia, not in honour of these “companions” (hetaerae) but for a different reason, which is mentioned by Hegesander in his Commentaries, writing thus: The Magnesians celebrate the festival of the Hetairideia. They record that Jason the son of Aeson, after gathering the Argonauts together, was the first to sacrifice to Zeus Hetaireios* and that he called the festival Hetairideia. And the kings of Macedonia also celebrate with sacrifices the Hetairideia.

Ath Deipn. Book XIII. 572 d – e

....but there is an inscription at Dium in Macedonia, saying that he was killed by lightning, and it runs thus:Here the bard buried by the Muses lies,
The Thracian Orpheus of the golden lyre;
Whom mighty Zeus, the Sovereign of the skies,
Removed from earth by his dread lightning's fire.

Diogenes Laertius 1.8

http://history-of-macedonia.com/wordpress/2007/07/20/ancient-sources-about-ancient-macedonians-and-their-religion/

History of Macedonia

2007-03-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

Alexander the Great:

14th Century Names of Lay Proprietors in the Themes of Thessaloniki and Strymon

Macedonia in the 16th and 17th Centuries

Macedonia preceeding Turkish Occupation

The final capture of Thessalonica by Turks (1430)

Ancient/Modern Sources about Thessalonica

Modern History of Macedonia

Greek schools of Pelagonia during 19th cent.

Greek Macedonian newspapers of late 19th cent.- early 20th cent.

Four of the best Historians, describe Balkans in 1915

Books in Greek education prior to 1936 about Macedonia

Paidomazoma - Communist children abductions in the Greek civil war

F.Y.R.O.M Propaganda

Modern Writers about the Bulgarian origin of FYROM’s slavs POPULAR

Indisputable Evidence of FYROM’s Slavs being originally Bulgarians

FYROM’s revisionist falsifications - Rejected by the World’s academia

Linguistic origins of F.Y.R.O.M - From Bulgarian dialect to “Macedonian” language

The Ethnic and Historical origins of FYROM Part I

The Ethnic and Historical origins of FYROM Part II

The Ethnic and Historical origins of FYROM Part III

The Ethnic and Historical origins of FYROM Part IV

The Ethnic and Historical origins of FYROM Part V

The Ethnic and Historical origins of FYROM Part VI

The Ethnic and Historical origins of FYROM Part VII

The Ethnic and Historical origins of FYROM Part VIII

Fighting Fyrom Propaganda #1 - Tzar Samouel

1910 Census and fabrications

The so-called FYROM’s claim about “occupation” of Macedonia in 1913 exposed

Letter from FYROMs Slavs to Oliver Stone

Propaganda of FYROMs site HistoryofMacedonia.Org exposed - Part I

Propaganda of FYROMs site HistoryofMacedonia.Org exposed - Part II

Propaganda of FYROMs site HistoryofMacedonia.Org Exposed - Part III

Propaganda of FYROMs site HistoryofMacedonia.Org Exposed - Part IV

BIG Stefov Lie # 6 ,”Greeks Are a Superior Race”

BIG Stefov Lie # 8,”Tito created the Macedonian Nation”

BIG Stefov Lie # 10, ‘Greeks are Turks, Albanians, Slavs and Vlachs

Big Stefov Lie #11, ‘Saint Cyrill and Methodios are Greek’

BIG Stefov Lies # 17: “Ancient Macedonians were not Greeks"

Big Stefov Lies # 18_”Philip II United the Greeks"

BIG Stefov Lie # 19 “4,000 years of Greek Civilization

BIG Stefov Lie # 20_The Final Answer in His Lies

Fyrom's lies over Slavic populations genetics Part I

Fyrom's lies over Slavic populations genetics Part II.

Modern Bulgarian Heroes…claimed by FYROM

Fake Letter from Alexander in…nationalistic site of FYROM

De-Bulgarization and persecutions of Bulgarians in FYROM

Diplomatic Sources on Ilinden - a Bulgarian Uprising

F.A.Q - Frequently Asked Questions on Macedonia by Alexandros Gerbessiotis

FALLACIES AND FACTS ON THE MACEDONIAN ISSUE - Marcus Templar

Ancient historians about Macedonia - Herodotus

2007-03-04T06:16:00.000-08:00

“Now that the men of this family are Hellenes, sprung from Perdiccas, as they themselves affirm, is a thing which I can declare on my own knowledge, and which I will hereafter make plainly evident. That they are so has been already adjudged by those who manage the Pan-Hellenic contest at Olympia“

(Herodotus, The Histories 8.43)

“Tell your king who sent you how his Hellenic viceroy of Macedonia has received you hospitably… “

(Herodotus V, 20, 4)

“Now that these descendants of Perdiccas are Hellenes, as they themselves say, I myself chance to know”

(Herodotus V, 22, 1)

“Xerxes, having so spoken, held his peace. (SS 1.) Whereupon Mardonius took the word, and said: ….I myself have had experience of these men when I marched against them by the orders of thy father; and though I went as far as Macedonia, and came but a little short of reaching Athens itself, yet not a soul ventured to come out against me to battle. ……But, notwithstanding that they have so foolish a manner of warfare, yet these Greeks, when I led my army against them to the very borders of Macedonia, did not so much as think of offering me battle.”

(Herodotus Book VII)

“…but the Dorians on the contrary have been constantly on the move; their home in Deucalion’s reign was Phthiotis and in the reign of Dorus son of Hellen the country known as Histiaeotis in the neighbourhood of Ossa and Olympus; driven from there by the Cadmeians they settled in Pindus and were known as Macedons; thence they migrated to Dryopis, and finally to the Peloponnese, where they got their present name of Dorians.”

Herodotus, Book I, 56

“…Three brothers of the lineage of Temenos came as banished men from Argos to Illyria, Gavganis and Aeropos and Perdikkas, and worked for the king that was there… When the king learned that when the queen baked the bread of Perdikkas, it doubled its size, than of the the other breads, he considered that as a miracle and ordered the 3 brothers to leave his kingdom. The brothers required their payment. Then the king told them to take the sun as a payment. Gavganis and Aeropos where taken by surprise and the youngest brother, Perdikkas, accepted the offer. He took out his sword, circled it 3 times and took the sun, which he placed in his underarm and left with his brothers…”

Herodotus VIII,137

“The composition of the fleet was as follows: 16 ships from Lacedaemon, the same number from Corinth as at Artemisium, 15 from Sicyon, 10 from Epidaurus, 5 form Troezen, 3 from Hermione. The people of all these places except Hermione are of Dorian and Macedonian blood, and had last emigrated from Erineus, Pindus, and Dryopis.”

Herodotus, Book VIII ,43

Ancient historians about Macedonia - Thucydides

2007-03-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

“The country by the sea which is now called Macedonia… Alexander, the father of Perdiccas, and his forefathers, who were originally Temenidae from Argos“

(Thuc. II, 99, 3 [Loeb, C. F. Smith])

“In all there were about three thousand Hellenic heavy infantry, accompanied by all the Macedonian cavalry with the Chalcidians, near one thousand strong, besides an immense crowd of barbarians.”

(Thukydides 4.124)

“The Hellenic troops with him consisted of the Ambraciots, Leucadians, and Anactorians, and the thousand Peloponnesians with whom he came; the barbarian of a thousand Chaonians, who, belonging to a nation that has no king, were led by Photys and Nicanor, the two members of the royal family to whom the chieftainship for that year had been confided. With the Chaonians came also some Thesprotians, like them without a king, some Molossians and Atintanians led by Sabylinthus, the guardian of King Tharyps who was still a minor, and some Paravæans, under their king Oroedus, accompanied by a thousand Orestians, subjects of King Antichus and placed by him under the command of Oroedus. There were also a thousand Macedonians sent by Perdiccas without the knowledge of the Athenians, but they arrived too late. With this force Cnemus set out, without waiting for the fleet from Corinth. Passing through the territory of Amphilochian Argos, and sacking the open village of Limnæa, they advanced to Stratus the Acarnanian capital; this once taken, the rest of the country, they felt convinced, would speedily follow”

(Thucydides Chapter VIII)

History of ancient Macedonia - 4000 years of Greek History

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Religion of ancient Macedonians from ancient sources

History of Macedonia

Alexander the Great:

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Modern History of Macedonia

F.Y.R.O.M Propaganda

Ancient historians about Macedonia - Herodotus

Ancient historians about Macedonia - Thucydides