[edit]Audio file for the pronunciation of MakednósinModern Greek
Μακεδών (Makedón) is related to the Greek μᾰκεδνός (makednós, “tall, slim”).[2] Both adjectives traditionally derive from the Indo-European root*mak-or*meh2k-, meaning "long, slender", cognate with poetic Greek makednósormēkedanós "long, tall",[3] Doric mãkos and Attic mẽkos "length",[4]Makistos, the mythological eponym of a town in Elis and an epithet of Heracles, Avestanmasah "length", Hittitemak-l-ant "thin", Latinmacer "meagre" and Proto-Germanic*magraz "lean, meager". The same root and meaning has been duly assigned to the tribal name of the Macedonians,[5] which is commonly explained as having originally meant "the tall ones" or "highlanders" in Greek.[6]
A fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, quoted by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, states: "Macedonia the country was named after Makedon, the son of Zeus and Thyia, daughter of Deucalion, as the poet Hesiod relates; and she became pregnant and bore to thunder-loving Zeus, two sons, Magnes and Macedon, the horse lover, those who dwelt in mansions around Pieria and Olympus".[7][8][9] The poetic epithet "hippiocharmes" can alternatively be translated as "fighting on horseback" or "chariot-fighter"[10] and has also been attributed to Aeolus son of Hellen, Troilus and Amythaon. A fragment of the Macedonian historian Marsyas of Pella (4th century BC), through a scholiastofIliad xiv 226[11] confirms the genealogy as found in the Catalogue of Women: "Makedon son of Zeus and Thyia, conquered the land then belonging to Thrace and he called it Macedonia after his name. He married a local woman and got two sons, Pierus and Amathus; two cities, Pieria and Amathia in Macedonia were founded or named after them". The rare name of his mother Thyia, has been corrupted in transmission to Aithria or Aithyia through the phrase "kai Thyias, and Thyia". Thyia in the Delphic tradition was an eponym naiad of the Thyiades, alternative name of the Maenads in the cult of Dionysus, certainly practiced also in Macedonia.[12]
The mythological chronologization of the Hesiodean passage indicates a time before the Trojan War and Iliad, since then the Magnetes dwell in Magnesia, Thessaly.[13] The Catalogue of Women, which is variously dated mostly between the 8th and 6th century BC, provides the earliest and only reference to a Macedonian element before the 5th century BC historiography.
In a fragment of a chronological work of Hellanicus called "Priestesses of HeraatArgos", and preserved by Stephanus, Makedon is son of Aeolus, as Hellanicus relates in the first (book or archive list) of his "Hiereiai tes Heras en Argei", and of Makedon, the son of Aeolus, the present Macedonians were named so, then living alone with the Mysians.[14][15] The fragment does not clarify who of the three Aeoli is Makedon's father but Eustathius reported him as one of the ten sons of Aeolus,[16] thus the son of Hellen. In later traditions, Magnes is also reported as one of the ten sons of Aeolus and father of Pierus.
In "The antiquities of Egypt", first chapter of Bibliotheca historicabyDiodorus Siculus, which is based mainly on AegyptiacaofHecataeus of Abdera, Greek and Egyptian mythology have been syncretized. Osiris has taken the place of Dionysus in his various myths and expeditions. According to Herodotus Osiris was the Egyptian Dionysus and the house of Ptolemies claimed descent from Dionysus. (see also Osiris-Dionysus deity). Diodorus relates:[20] "Now Osiris was accompanied on his campaign, as the Egyptian account goes, by his two sons Anubis and Macedon, who were distinguished for their valour. Both of them carried the most notable accoutrements of war, taken from certain animals whose character was not unlike the boldness of the men, Anubis wearing a dog's skin and Macedon the fore-parts of a wolf; and it is for this reason that these animals are held in honour among the Egyptians. Macedon his son, moreover, he left as king of Macedonia, which was named after him." Makedon has taken the place of the Egyptian wolf-god of Lycopolis, Wepwawet[21] and in later traditions Makedon is mentioned as a son of the were-wolf Lycaon.
According to Apollodorus,[22] but not present in the list of Pausanias or Hyginus, Macednus is the tenth of the fifty sons of the impious Lycaon king of Arcadia. His mother may either be the naiadCyllene,[23]Nonacris[24] or by unknown woman. The closest brother to him by region is Thesprotus. In the story of Pindus and the SerpentbyClaudius Aelianus, Makedon is the son of Lycaon king of Emathia, "after whom the land was called Macedonia no longer preserving its ancient name".
Eustathius, summarizing the genealogies, relates: "Emathion son of Zeus and Electra preceding the birth of Makedon son of Aeacus" (instead of Lycaon).[25] Strabo just called him archaios hegemon[26] (old chieftain), and Pseudo-Scymnus,[27]gêgenês basileus (earth-born king). Isidore of Seville, "rege Deucalionis materno nepote" (king, maternal grandson of Deucalion).[28]
According to Marsyas of Pella, Makedon son of Zeus had by a local woman two sons Pierus and Amathus.[29] In the Ethnika of Stephanus (perhaps through Theagenes), sons and grandsons of Makedon are: Atintan (in the version of Lycaon) eponymous of a region in Epirus or Illyria, Beres, (father of Mieza, Beroea and Olganos, toponyms in Bottiaea), EuropusbyOreithyia, daughter of Cecrops, and Oropus, birthplace of Seleucus I Nikator, which is perhaps confused with Europus. Finally, in the version of Lycaon, king of Emathia, Pindus is a son of Makedon, who gave his name to Pindus, where he died, a river of Doris, a region in central Greece.[30][31]
It is unclear whether these localities represent pre- or post-Macedonian elements, since Emathia and Pieria are older toponyms than Macedonia. Anachronism is not infrequent in later mythic traditions. (Cf. Boeotus, reported as father of autochthon Ogyges)
In Greek sources, the noun is mostly attested as Μακεδών (Makedôn) with two exceptions: the poetic form Μακηδών (Makêdôn) in Hesiod with long medial vowel serving the metrical feet of dactylic hexameter and Mάκεδνος (Mákednos) or latinicized Macednus with barytonesis and apophony in Apollodorus. The recessive accent is reminiscent of two Macedonian barytonized personal names, Κοῖνος (Koînos) and Βάλακρος (Bálakros) (Attic/Greek adjectives:koinós, phalakrós), but whether Makedôn or Mákednos is the original spelling presumably cannot be proven. Moreover, the suffix -dnos, either as the『Dorian Makednón ethnos』of Herodotus or makednós, a rare poetic epithet denoting tall, seems not to be attested in epigraphy, or used by Macedonians themselves.
In Latin sources the noun is Macedo. As adjectives the Latin Macedo and Greek Μακεδών (Makedôn) denote foremost a Macedonian man. They also appear, mostly during the Roman era, as personal male names (cf. Macedonius)
^Strabo, 7, fr. 11: "What is now called Macedonia was in earlier times called Emathia. And it took its present name from Macedon, one of its early chieftains. And there was also a city Emathia close to the sea."
^Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “μακεδνός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 894
^Article μακεδνός in: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, and Roderick McKenzie: A Greek–English Lexicon (= LSJ). Oxford University Press, Oxford 91925. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
^The cultures within ancient Greek culture: contact, conflict, collaboration By Carol Dougherty, Leslie Kurke Page 30ISBN0-521-81566-5 (2003)
^In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon By Eugene N. Borza Page 69ISBN0-691-05549-1 (1992)
^Diodorus 1.18. Translation by Charles Henry Oldfather. Read the whole passage in translation by Edwin Murphy
^Burton, Anne. Diodorus Siculus: A Commentary. BRILL, 1972, ISBN90-04-03514-1, page 83. "Macedon must be identified with Wepwawet, the so-called "wolf" god, who was associated with Anubis as the companion and guardian of Osiris. In one instance Wepwawet also appears as the son of Osiris: "I am Wepwawet, the heir of Senwy, the son of Osiris."
^Chatzopoulos, Miltiadēs V. Macedonian Institutions Under the Kings: a historical and epigraphic study. Kentron Hellēnikēs kai Rōmaïkēs Archaiotētos, 1996, ISBN960-7094-89-1, p. 240. "This substitution of Emathia for what was practically in Classical times Bottia, and its joint use with Pieria in order to describe the original cradle of the Macedonian kingdom and not Polybios' innovations, but can be traced back at least to the second half of the fourth century, when Marsyas of Pella made Amathos and Pieros the eponymous of these two subdivisions..."
Claudius Aelianus, On the Characteristics of Animals, translated by Alwyn Faber Scholfield (1884–1969), from Aelian, Characteristics of Animals, published in three volumes by Harvard/Heinemann, Loeb Classical Library, 1958. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Pertusi, Agostino, Costantino Porfirogenito De thematibus, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1952. Google Books.
Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790–1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Tzetzes, John, Book of Histories, Book II-IV translated by Gary Berkowitz from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826. Online version at theio.com
