greece the land where myth replaces the reality-edited

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GREECE, THE LAND WHERE MYTHS REPLACEREALITY

(Myths about Epirus)

What is myth and what does it serve?

Myth is a narrative based usually on a false story which can not be used as a replacement

of history, but sometimes myth might be considered a distorted account of a realhistorical event. The myth does not differ much from a folktale and usually the boundary

between them is very thin. Myth must not be used to reconstruct, however in the ancient

society of the so called Ancient Greeks myth was usually regarded as a true accountfor a remote past. Surprisingly this tradition is descended to the Modern Greeks as well.

They never loose the chance to use the myths and the mythology of a remote past and to

pose them as their real ethnic history. This job is being done combining the ancient myths

with the ones already created in the modern era. Now lets take a look at two Greek

myths, respectively one ancient and one modern, while our job is to prove that even thesemyths are respectively hijacked or created to join realities not related to each other, but

unfortunately propagandized belonging to a real history, the history of the Greek race.Thus before we analyze and expose some of their myths which are uncountable, we are

inclined to say that whatever is considered Greek History is completely based on

mythical stories, whose reliability and truthiness is deeply compromised for the mere factthat is based on myths not only by the Modern Greeks and especially philhellenes, but

even by the ancient authors. One of them Strabo in a moment of self-reflection to the

weakness of those mythical stories is appealing like this:

Strabo book 13.1.1

, , . .

With this fact in view, I should ask the pardon of my readers and appeal to them not to

fasten the blame for the length of my discussion upon me rather than upon those who

strongly yearn for knowledge of the things that are famous and ancientAnd my discussion is further prolonged by the number of the peoples who have colonized

the country, both Greeks and barbarians (a clear division put from Strabo-my note), and

by the historians, who do not write the same things on the same subjects, nor alwaysclearly either; among the first of these is Homer, who leaves us to guess about most

things. And it is necessary for me to arbitrate between his statements and those of the

others, after I shall first have described in a summary way the nature of the region inquestion

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In any case it is better to inform the opinion about the weakness of the thesis the

scientific institutions where they are working upon, elaborating the mythical stories of aremote past.

Ancient myth No. 1.Achilles and his clan the Aeacides were (ancient) Greeks.

This myth has been often used from the ancient Greek(this term is used for label

only) authors, to connect themselves with what they considered or wishing to be their

past. The story of Achilles and the story of those people who attacked the place named

Troy, is often considered a real story from the ancient authors. It was so romantic evenfor them to be left aside as a myth, which what really was. The history of Achilles often

credited as a Greek hero, is a history of a mythical hero in a mythical story, the epic story

of Achaeans who attacked Troy. We wont try to exclude this story from what really

happened, but we will definitely prove that whatever the narrative of Troy was, a myth ora real story, the epic song was not dedicated to the Greek heroes, and none of the

participants of that battle can be regarded as Hellenes. The whole account about thisevent real or fiction, was part and was dedicated to a previous culture and people, that of

the Pelasgians. Homer in his epic song as rightly noticed from ancient authors like

Thucydides or Strabo, nowhere call the participants of the Trojan War by the name

Hellenes. He uses instead the names :

1. Achaeans (, Akhaio) (used 598 times)2. Danaans (, Danaoi) (used 138 times)

3. Argives (, Argioi) (used 29 times)

All these names imply the same people who now are wrongly widely recognized as

Greeks(or Hellenes), and some modern political clans are working hard to spread the

illusion they were such. The truth is that they all represent the population before theDorian invasion of Peloponnesus , they by no means can be regarded as Hellenes, while

the Hellenes are a later small offspring of them, taking the name as usually in those

ancient time from a mythical hero Hellen, son of another mythical hero Deucalion.

The most celebrated names Achaeans and Achaea, as a result, was given to these peopleand the region they inhabited.

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These people were ruled (much earlier that the name Hellenes firstly appearing) by anEgyptian ruler named Danaus. According to the mythology(not the history) he was twin

brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe and Belus, a mythical king of Egypt. As the old

accounts tell us, he named the people upon who he was ruling after himself.

Strabo, Book 008.006.009 , ' ' ' .

The acropolis of the Argives is said to have been founded by Danas, who is reputed to

have surpassed so much those who reigned in this region before him that, according to

Euripides,"throughout Greece he laid down a law that all people hitherto namedPelasgians should be called Danaans."

Obviously the name Pelasgian is equivalent to the name Danans or Argives or Achaeans.

The immediate succession of Hellenes in the history of the Pelasgians of Peloponnesus iswhat causes the confusion among many of us in regard of the name we ethnically label

the people who attacked Troy.

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For the sake of truth the name Hellenes is found one single time among the people

portrayed from Homer in his Iliad as the Troy attackers (Iliad 2.681):

,' ' ,

' ' , ,

Now all those again that inhabitedPelasgian Argos (1)and dwelt in Alos and Alope and Trachis,

and that held Phthia and Hellas, the land of fair women,

and were called Myrmidons and Hellenes and Achaeansof the fifty ships of these men wasAchilles captain.

However even though a well-known martial tribe, their number used to represent just a

tiny particle of the Pelasgian race. The Hellenes mentioned in this paragraph are differentfrom the people which was considered to be the core of the Hellenic race, who were theDorians and appeared in this land generations later as invaders of Homeric Hellenes,

killing, subduing and driving them out of their land.

In the paragraph above the mythical hero Achilles was the captain of the Pelasgian

warriors. That Achilles was Pelasgian is easily verifiable, he came from a Pelasgian land(1)(Iliad 2.681), he was worshiping a Pelasgian God : Zeus (Iliad 16.200):

Zeus, thou king, Dodonaean, Pelasgian,thou that dwellest afar, ruling over wintry Dodona

and his race was nowhere called Hellenic in the main source but Pelasgian. As a matter offact he was grandson of Aeacus () andmember of the family clan AeacidiansA who took the name from the patriarch Aeacus, who was the king of a smallisland beside Peloponnesus, called Aegina

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The name of the small tribe of Hellenes mentioned in the Iliad, might have been reused

much later on to refer to the mighty Hellenes we are all familiar with who were

essentially different people from the former. Even archeologically the nameHellenes in the wider sense of the word appears only for the first in writing in an

inscription, dedicated to Heracles for his victory in the Amphictyonic Games,

and refers to the 48th Olympiad (584 BC).So naming the Troy attackers(Danaans, or Achaeans or in wider meaning Pelasgians) as Greek isinappropriate, irrelevant and abusive. So is the act of naming heroes of this great race,

like Achilles and his Mirmidones. It is true that a small portion of Pelasgic race started

calling themselves as Hellenes, but the former and the later are far from being equally thesame.

All accounts from antiquity confirm that what consists in the nucleus of the later Hellenes

appeared generations later of the Trojan War event:

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4.3.1

After the conclusion of the Trojan Warand the death of Nestor after his return home,

the Dorian expedition and return of the Heracleidae, which took place two generations

later,drove the descendants of Nestor from Messenia. This has already formed a part of

my account of Tisamenus I will only add the following: When the Dorians assigned

Argos to Temenus, Cresphontes asked them for the land of Messenia, in that he was older

than Aristodemus.

It was exactly these Dorians who first among all would have called themselves

Hellenes, drove out from Peloponnese(the heart of the so called Greece) what remainedfrom the participants of Trojan War and their families. All the old accounts show us that

those people who attacked Troy called Achaeans not only identified themselves in awider meaning & interchangeably as Danaans or Pelasgians, and not Hellenes, but madea common cause against the people who later would be the first calling themselves as

such. What would have become the core of the later Hellenes, never participated in the

Trojan War, and this later culture and people are intentionally suggested to us as theparticipants in it.

The stories from the past being myth are often unsecure and unreliable to determine a

clear image of the ancient events but even if we follow these tracks, we can reach a

conclusion easily provable that:

1. The Dorians(and Heraclides) were the first among all others to identify

themselves as Hellenes much later the Trojan War event, they were the core ofthe Hellenic people and did not participate in the Trojan War.

2. The participants of the Trojan War were called Achaeans or

Pelasgians(mainly from Peloponnesus and the around islands) were driven out

from their land, exactly by the people who in a much later period were the first

identifying themselves as Hellenes. These Hellenes were invaders and persecutorsof the Pelasgic Achaeans, and they firmly fought each-other until the end, which

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was the Peloponnesian War (431 to 404 B.C around 800 years after Trojan War),

which ended up with the triumph of the Hellenes.

3. All Achaeans mythical heroes including Achilles (and his family clan starting

from his son Neoptolemos) were not Hellenes, they were Pelasgians, who never

returned back to their original home(most likely Aegina), but they went and ruledover people of the same race, the Pelasgians of Epirus.

.That the Ancient Greeks were inclined to make capital of the Pelasgians and their heroes,

nobody can deny, but the Moderns Greeks for every one who knows their intentions is

doubtless that their aspirations to make capital from the ancient people is limitless, and

this eager to claim ancient cultures as theirs is extended beyond the proper AncientGreeks. This aspirations include any race or sub-race who inhabited Balkans and was

somehow vaguely related to Ancient Greeks, except the Illyrians. In this rush to claim

anything as Greek, the Modern ones dont follow any standard or criteria for that

approach. The tendency of some pre and post classical authors to look at Homeric heroesas Greeks(especially Achilles and his descendents) is not only stressed out from the

Modern Greeks but also used to union a great amount of presumptions.Their logic works like this: Since Achilles was a Greek, his son Neoptolemos established

a Greek dynasty into Epirus whose Greekness was descended until Pyrrhus, and amongst

the entire Mollosian dynasty, and thus making any member of this clan a Greek

The senseless of this logic does not only consist in the weak ties that connect its structure,but also for reasons like myths where this presumptions are based on, and most of all for

intentionally ignoring the mere fact that Achilles and the entire race of the Danaans was

Pelasgian which in its meaning exceeds considerably even the greatest Hellenic one. .

Homer, Odyssey 11.440

', :, ; , ' : ' . : ' ', ' .

' :

Thus we two stood and held sad converse with one another, sorrowing and shedding big tears;and there came up the spirit of Achilles, son of Peleus, and those of Patroclus and of peerlessAntilochus and ofAias, who in comeliness and form was the goodliest of all the Danaans after

the peerless son of Peleus. And the spirit of the swift-footed son of Aeacus recognized me, andweeping, spoke to me winged words: Son of Laertes, sprung from Zeus, Odysseus of manydevices, rash man, what deed yet greater than this wilt thou devise in thy heart?

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http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?type=phrase&alts=0&group=typecat&lookup=Antilochus&collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Romanhttp://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?type=phrase&alts=0&group=typecat&lookup=Aias&collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Romanhttp://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?type=phrase&alts=0&group=typecat&lookup=Antilochus&collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Romanhttp://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?type=phrase&alts=0&group=typecat&lookup=Aias&collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman


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That Argives(from the capital Argos), Danaans, Mycenai, and Achaeans are words

interchangeably used to describe the same people of the Pelasgian race is an well-known fact but

let us read a fragment from the remarkable lines of Euripides in this regard:

Euripide, Orestes 408 BC

,

.

, ;

' .

.

.

ELECTRA

O you women of Mycenae, my friends,

among the first ranks of those who live in the Argives' Pelasgian home.

CHORUS LEADERWhat is it you want to say, my lady?You still retain this title in the city

where the sons of Danaus live.

MENELAUS

O land of the Danaans and you who live

in horse-rich Argos, take up your weapons

and bring help on the run. To save his life

this man here is using force against you,

against the entire city, though he carries

the pollution of his mother's murdered blood.

Pelasgian was the culture which archeology is classified as the Mycenaean civilization.

What the linguists label as an ancient form of Greek(Linear B) was in fact the language

of the Pelasgians, even the later incoming language of Hellenes is a form of thePelasgian language. The label is very important, since its name enables a series of

modern political and historical pretenses, which have affected the course of history.

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What is wrongly known as Ancient Greek was in fact the language of the Pelasgians, and

its written form might have been largely different from the spoken language. Pelasgian

was something larger and different in what it represented in quantity, time and spacefrom the entire Hellenic World even in its zenith. The boundaries of the Hellenic World

in the ancient times never reached those aspired and propagandized by the Greeks,

ancient or modern whatsoever, they remained limited, and the territory within wasinhabited not only by the Hellenes but by all sorts and sizes of different races, who if we

trust the old accounts were larger than those of Hellenes even in the Greece proper. The

notorious idea, that the race of Hellenes was the dominant race since Mychanean era andat least until the Roman invasion is a subject to be refined to that degree that the result

could be completely different from the original one. The thesis circulating in some

political environment that Epirus was inhabited from some non culturally developed

Greek speakers is also false. Its falsity starts at the moment is used the term Greek,because Hellenes were not the originators of that language.

Myth no 2.(Modern myth about antiquity)Epirus was inhabited from some sort of Greeks who belonged to the so called North-WestGreek speakers (dialect).

That the Epirotes might have spoken a language similar to that of the so called Hellenesis not a surprise for us, since we still consider both Hellenes and Epirotes as Pelasgians

offspring, however them being strictly Greeks or very close to them following the

modern standards about the estimation of ethnicity is far from being true. There is no wayyou can apply the same standards for the people of that remote time because the human

society was organized quite differently from ours, nevertheless we will neglect this, and

we will analyze each of the major Epirotic tribes separately bringing quotes which will

isolate the presumably truthiness of their thesis showing its absurdity.Here it is a map of Epirus, created for any purpose other that representing the real mosaic

of tribes inhabiting this area in the ancient times.

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Strictly using ancient authors quotes we will modify it, simply placing the right

information in it which has intentionally altered and wrongly interpreted by the map

creator, who is a disgusting speculator and doesnt deserve the academic position hepresumably enjoys. We previously explained many huge distortions of the real situation

made in this map for certain tribes in the article (Reviewing an Ancient map), but

today we will stop particularly to the tribes known as Epirotes, who are propagandizedfrom this map as Greek.

Strabo in his book 7.7.8 using the information taken from another Greek historian,

Theopompus (4th c. B.C) identifies 11 tribes inhabiting Epirus from 14 suggested byTheopompus.

1. Chaones-

2. Thesprotoi-2.a Kassopaians- [branch of Thesprotoi, Strabo (book 7.7.5)]

3. Mollosoi-

4. Atintanes-

5. Athamanes-

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6. Tymfaioi-

7. Aithikes-

8. Orestai-

9. Enienes-

10. Peraeboi-11. Amphilochoi-

We already know that the most known tribes of Epirus were Thesprotians(+Kassopaians),

Mollosians, and Chaonians . Several ancient authors like Thucydides(The Peloponnesian

War 2.80.1), Strabo (7.7.6), Theopompus(Strabo 7.7.8), Ephorus(Strabo 8.1.3), Hecateusof Miletus(Strabo 7.7.1), Skylax of Karyander, Pseudo- Scymnus etc have not included

these tribes within Greece proper, some of the above have named them barbarians (a term

used to define a person ethnicity as opposed to a Greek one) and to drop the pretensesraised that this term was not used to denote ethnic implication but just cultural one lets

bring one quote from the above author:

Scymnus of Chios( Geographer)

The above highlighted sentence doesnt leave room for interpretations, it clearly says that

Chaonians and Thesprotians were - and the meaning of this word is explainedas explicit in there: NOT OF GREEK ORIGIN.Strabo in his book

014.002.028

When the poet says,Masthles in turn led the Carians,of barbarian speech, we have no reason to inquire howit is that, although he knew so many barbarian tribes,he speaks of the Carians alone as "of barbarian

'

,

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speech," but nowhere speaks of "barbarians."Thucydides, therefore, is not correct, for he says thatHomer "did not use the term 'barbarians' either,because the Hellenes on their part had not yet beendistinguished under one name as opposed to them";for the poet himself refutes the statement that theHellenes had not yet been so distinguished when hesays,My husband, whose fame is wide through Hellas

and mid-Argos. And again,And if thou dost wish tojourney through Hellas and mid-Argos. Further, if theywere not called "barbarians," how could they properlybe called a people "of barbarian speech?" So neitherThucydides is correct, nor Apollodorus thegrammarian, who says that the general term was usedby the Hellenes in a peculiar and abusive sense againstthe Carians, and in particular by the Ionians, whohated them because of their enmity and thecontinuous military campaigns; for it was right toname them barbarians in this sense. But I raise thequestion, Why does he call them people "of barbarianspeech," but not even once calls them barbarians?"Because," Apollodorus replies, "the plural does not fal lin with the metre; this is why he does not call thembarbarians." But though this case does not fall in withmetre, the nominative case does not differ metrically

from that of "Dardanians": Trojans and Lycians andDardanians. So, also, the word "Trojan," inof what kindthe Trojan horses are. Neither is he correct when hesays that the language of the Carians is very harsh, forit is not, but even has very many Greek words mixedup with it, according to the Philip who wrote TheCarica. I suppose that the word "barbarian" was at firstuttered onomatopoetically in reference to people whoenunciated words only with difficulty and talkedharshly and raucously, like our words "battarizein,""traulizein," and "psellizein"; for we are by nature verymuch inclined to denote sounds by words that soundlike them, on account of their homogeneity. Whereforeonomatopoetic words abound in our language, as, forexample, "celaryzein," and also "clange," "psophos,""boe," and "crotos," most of which are by now used intheir proper sense. Accordingly, when all who

pronounced words thickly were being called barbariansonomatopoetically, it appeared that the pronunciationsof all alien races were likewise thick, I mean of thosethat were not Greek. Those, therefore, they calledbarbarians in the special sense of the term, at firstderisively, meaning that they pronounced words thicklyor harshly; and then we misused the word as a generalethnic term, thus making a logical distinction betweenthe Greeks and all other races. The fact is, however,that through our long acquaintance and intercoursewith the barbarians this effect was at last seen to bethe result, not of a thick pronunciation or any naturaldefect in the vocal organs, but of the peculiarities oftheir several languages. And there appeared anotherfaulty and barbarian-like pronunciation in ourlanguage, whenever any person speaking Greek didnot pronounce it correctly, but pronounced the wordslike barbarians who are only beginning to learn Greekand are unable to speak it accurately, as is also thecase with us in speaking their languages. This wasparticularly the case with the Carians, for, although theother peoples were not yet having very muchintercourse with the Greeks nor even trying to live inGreek fashion or to learn our language--with theexception, perhaps, of rare persons who by chance,and singly, mingled with a few of the Greeks--yet theCarians roamed throughout the whole of Greece,serving on expeditions for pay. Already, therefore, the

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ATINTANESThis tribe was considered from Strabo(book 7.7.8) a tribe of Epirus, living in Epirusinland. This tribe has been attested to be Illyrian tribe too:

Appian The Foreign WarsThe Illyrian Wars III.2.7

, , , . , ' ' .

,

The latter then entered into an alliance with Epidamnus and went to the assistance of the

Issii and of the Epidamnians, who were besiegedby the Illyrians. The latter raised thesiege and fled, and one of their tribes, called the Atintani, went over to the Romans.

After these events the widow of Agron sent ambassadors to Rome to surrender the

prisoners and deserters into their hands. She begged pardon also for what had been

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done, not by herself, but by Agron. They received for answer that Corcyra, Pharus, Issa,

Epidamnus, and the Illyrian Atintani were already Roman subjects.

as we talked about them in a previous article. We dont know for certain if they were

more Epirotic or Illyrian, or if these names were representing different sub-tribes of thesame tribe, but what we know for sure is that they were classified as barbaroi fromThucydides:

Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War2.80.6

, , . . ,

.

The Hellenic troops with him consisted of the Ambraciots, Leucadians, and Anactorians,and the thousand Peloponnesians with whom he came;

the barbarian of a thousandChaonians, who, belonging to a nation that has no king,

were led by Photius and Nicanor, the two members of the royal family to whom thechieftainship for that year had been confided. With the Chaonians came also some

Thesprotians, like them without a king, some Molossians andAtintanians led by

Sabylinthus, the guardian of king Tharyps who was still a minor, and some Paravaeans,under their King Oroedus, accompanied by a thousand Orestians, subjects of King

Antiochus and placed by him under the command of Oroedus.

a term explained above that means not only not-Greek but not of Greek origin as well.

Despite the desperate efforts to duplicate this Illyrian and/or Epirotic tribe in twodifferent ones, they were one and the same, and they were living in Epirus.

As for their territory, Pseudo-Skylaks when describing the Illyrian tribes writes:

Skylax is a the earliest, 6th B.C.E and the latest, mid-4th centuryB.C.E.

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ENGLISH translation

22. ILLYRIOI. And after Libyrnians are the Illyrian nation, and theIllyrians live along beside the sea as far as Chaonia by Kerkyra, the island

of Alkinos. And there is a Hellenic city here, which has the nameHerakleia, with a harbour. The barbarians called Lotus-eaters are thefollowing: Hierastamnai, Boulinoi (Hyllinoi), coterminous with Boulinoi theHylloi. And these say Hyllos son of Herakles settled them: and they arebarbarians. And they occupy a peninsula a little lesser than thePeloponnese. And from peninsula parastonion* is upright: Boulinoi livebeside this. And Boulinoi are an Illyric nation. And the coastal voyage isof the territory of Boulinoi of a long day up to Nestos river.

23. NESTIANS. And from Nestou the voyage is gulf-shaped. And all this gulfis called Manios. And the coastal voyage is of one day. And there are inthis gulf islands, Proteras, Krateiai, Olynta. And these from one anotherare distant 2 stades or a little more, by Pharos and Issa. For here is NewPharos, a Hellenic island, and Issa island, and these are Hellenic cities.Before sailing along-the-coast up to the Naron river, much territory extendsvery much into the sea. And there is an island near the coastal territory,

which has the name Melite [Malta], and another island near this, which hasthe name Kerkyra the Black: and this island runs out very much with one ofthe promontories from the coastal territory, and with the other promontoryit comes down to the Naron river. And from Melite it is distant 20 stades,and from the coastal territory it is distant 8 stades.

24. MANIANS. And from Nestians is the Naron river: and the voyage into theNarona is not narrow: and even a trireme voyages into it, and boats into theupper trading-town, being distant from the sea 80 stades. And these areIllyrian by nation, the Manians. And there is a lake inland from thetrading-town, a great one, and the lake extends to Autariatai, an Illyricnation. And there is an island in the lake of 120 stades: and this island is

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very much well farmed. And from this lake the Naron river flows. And fromthe Naron up to the Arion river is a days voyage: and from the Arion rivera voyage of a days half: and Kadmoss and Harmonias stones are here, and asanctuary [not] far from the Rhizous river. And from the Rhizous river toBoutho the voyage ** and the trading-town.

25. ENCHELEIS. A nation of Illyrians are the Encheleis, adjoining theRhizous. And out of Boutho to Epidamnos, Hellenic city, voyage of a day and

a night, and a road of three days.

26. TAULANTIOI. And of the Taulantians is the Illyric nation, in whichEpidamnos is, and a river flows beside the city which has the name Palamnos.

And out of Epidamnos to Apollonia, a Hellenic city, is a road of two days.And Apollonia is distant from the sea 50 stades, and the river Aias flowsbeside the city. And from Apollonia into Amantia is 320 stades. And the Aiasriver from the Pindos Mountain flows beside Apollonia. [And] towards[Amantia] inland, somewhat into the Ionian gulf is Orikos. It comes downfrom Orikia to the sea 90 stades, and from Amantia 60 stades. Sharing a

border with all these in the interior are Atintanes above Orikia and Karia*as far as Dodonia. And in the Kestris territory is said to be a pedion, nameErytheia. Here Geryones is said to come and pasture his oxen. By these

places are the Keraunian mountains in Epeiros, and there is an island besidethese places, a small one, which has the name Sason. From here to Orikoscity is a coastal voyage of a days third part.

27.[ORIKOI. And the Orikoi occupy of the Amanian territory.] Andthe [Amantians], from Boulinoi as far as here, are Illyrians. And the mouthof the Ionian gulf is from Keraunian mountains as far as cape Iapygia. Andup to Hydrois city in Iapygia from the Keraunian mountains, the stades ofthe voyage across are about 500, [which] is the mouth of the gulf: and the

places inside are the Ionian gulf. There are many harbours in the Adriatic:and the same thing is the Adriatic and the Ionian.

28. CHAONES. [U]And after Illyrians, Chaonians. And Chaonia has goodharbours: and the Chaonians live in villages. And the coastal voyage ofChaonia is a half of a day.

29. KORKYRA. And by Chaonia is an island, Korkyra, and a Hellenic city init, having three harbours by the city: of these the one is enclosed. AndKorkyra belongs also to Thesprotia more than Chaonia. And I return againonto the mainland, whence I turned aside.

30. THESPROTIANS. And after Chaonia are the Thesprotian nation. And thesetoo live in villages: and this territory also has good harbours. Here is aharbour, which has name Elaia. Into this the harbour the river Acheronemits: and there is lake Acherousia, out of which the Acheron fiver flows.

And the coastal voyage of Thesprotias is a half of a day.

31. KASSOPIANS. And after Thesprotia is the nation Kassopia. And these toolive in villages. And these live beside as far as into the Anaktoric gulf.

And the coastal voyage of the Kassopians territory is a half of a day; andthe Anaktoric gulf is a little less from its mouth as far as into the innerend, 120 stades. And the mouth has width 4 stades.

32. MOLOTTIA(MOLOSSIA). And after Kassopia are the Molottian nation. Andthese live in villages: and they come down only a little here to the sea,and largely into the interior. And the coastal voyage of Molottian territory

is of 40 stades.

Let us mark this on the map:

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ATHAMANES

That was another Epirotic tribe who kept the extreme south-eastern position from all theEpirus tribes. We wont take for granted that they were barbaroi(non-Greek) since they

were Epirotes, not willing to fall not even in a minor speculation, and we know very little

about them, but we know very well that they were nowhere attested as Greeks.Strabo is the first telling us that Athamanes were originally Epirotes but their country was

included in a later time within Thessaly:

Strabo 009.005.011

, ' , , , .

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For both on account of the fame and of the predominance of the Thessalians and the

Macedonians, the countries of those Epeirotes who were their nearest neighbors weremade, some willingly and the others unwillingly, parts of Thessaly or Macedonia; for

instance, the Athamanes, the Aethices, and the Talares were made parts of Thessaly, and

the Orestae, the Pelagonians, and the Elimiotae of Macedonia

The same story was told from Stephanus Byzantinus( ; fl. 6th

century) a later historian in his bookEthnica (). The only difference is that what isEpirote from Strabos prospective seems to be Illyrian in the Stephanus Byzantinus one,

which is a huge indication that the names Epirote and Illyrian are variants of the same

name, where the former is just a local name for the later, considering the geography ofEpirus.

We might consider this quote a vague one to determine the exact Athamians ethnicity,

but combined with other quotes in their regard we might reach a reliable conclusion, thattheir land had never been included within Greece proper, but most likely within Illyrians

(whose nationally is not willed to be shared with those of the Hellenes from Greek propaganda) or Thessalians

who originally were kindred of barbaric(non-Greek) Thessprotians, until Athamaniansceased to exist by Strabos time(Strabo 9.4.11).

Lets mark on the map the above conclusion:

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As for the Thessaly(not the Thessaly in Peloponnesus) itself, is often wrongly considered

a Greek land only, but the truth is that other than geographicaly was nowhere suggestedthat Thessalians to be Hellenes proper, their origin is well attested(from at least two

ancient sources) to be Thesprotian

Strabo book 9.443

In reality and as Herodotus also affirms, Thessalians were a branch of Thesprotiansthus Thessalians and Epirotans were kinsmen.

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Velleius Paterculus, Roman History Book I.3.

The Achaeans, driven from Laconia, established themselves in those localities which they

occupy to-day. The Pelasgians migrated to Athens, and a warlike youth named

Thessalus, of the race of the Thesprotians, with a great force of his fellow-countrymen

took armed possession of that region, which, after his name, is now called Thessaly .

.

but also since antiquity Pelasgians and their branch Thracians(also Beotians a race founded from

the Phoenician Cadmus who was also the founder of the Illyric race).The general the name used to address

them was Pelasgiotis(), and whatever this name meant it didnt mean strictlyand simply Greek at all, but was used for the people who never became part of the Greek

nation(whatever this concept means) mostly Thracians and Epirotes(Thesprotians) whowere well differentiated from the Hellenes..

Strabo, Geography, book 7. 7. 8

And again, of the Epeirotes, the Molossibecame subject to Pyrrhus, the son of

Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, and to his descendants, who were Thessalians.But therest were ruled by men of native stock

So, for now I will mark Thessalia as a Pelasgians(Thracian) land what it really was and

called even when it had been geographically included within Hellas, for the mere reason

that Greece had been geographically considered to be the continuation of Pelasgia (in a

limited way), regardless the various different tribes of the Pelasgian universe living therefrom all sorts and sizes.

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A Pelasgian genus too is the following:

PERRHAEBIANS

We talked a lot about them in previous article(The credits belongs to the Pelasgians)

proving beyond any doubt that they were of the Pelasgian race.

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STRABO, Book 9.5.20 (1)

AESCHYLUS, Suppliant, Women 234 (2)

APPIAN, The Foreign Wars (The Illyrian Wars) Ill. 1.1 (3)

The exact limits location of their territory are determined from Strabos description(1)

Perrhaebians stead fast in war, who had established their homes round wintry Dodona,

{321} and dwelt in the fields about lovely Titaresius

&

and also because, although the Lapiths held possession of the plains and the

Perrhaebian element there were for the most part subject to the Lapiths, the

Perrhaebians held possession of the more mountainous parts near Olympus and

Tempe, as, for example, Cyphus, and Dodona, and the region about the Titaresius; this

river rises in the Titarius Mountain, which connects with Olympus, and flows into the

territory of Perrhaebia which is near Tempe,

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This is a very ancient tribe, their existence at least since the Trojan War, has been attested

by Homerus himself

Homer Iliad 2.749-751

' : ' ' ' '

And Gouneus led from Cyphus two and twenty ships,and with him followed the Enienes and the Perrhaebi,

staunch in fight, that had set their dwellings about wintry Dodona,

and dwelt in the ploughland about lovely Titaressus,

And of course being a tribe that was in existence at least 500 years before Hellenes and

their names to be filtered from the rest of the world, they Perrhaebians can not be regardedas Hellenes at all, but their name stands portrayed as Pelasgiotis.Lets mark this Illyrian and/or Pelasgian tribe in the map.

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In regard of the Perrhaebi, we find an interesting fact, although they are implied asHellenes from Greek propaganda, they failed to mark them on their original map:

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and we find this unusual for a propaganda which self-educated itself with the reflexive

habit to mark as Greek or Greek-related any historical and pre-historical people or event.

Did they miss to mark Perrhaebi on their map?No, if you take a look on their map they found time to mark cities such as Pambotis,

Astakos or Orraon which never played any role of great importance in the history of

Epirus but they failed to mark Perrhaebi. As usually for any Epirotic tribe who is attestedto be clearly Pelasgic and/or Illyrian like the case of Perrhaebi they follow the duplication

of its name tactics. They invented another tribe naming the same with the IllyrianPerrhaebi, finding this as an alibi for their thesis. Even if we grant for now the pleasure toconsider Perrhaebi as a Hellenic tribe, they still didnt mark them on the map. This is not

happening for the reason of amnesia, because if you look their map its been flood with

all kinds of unnecessary information. The real reason is that this Illyric tribe had been

living around the most important religious places such as Dodona and Olympus, makingnull the pretenses that these places were Greek only worshiping ones. Evidently the

Hellenes of close Pelasgic origin were still worshiping the same places and Gods like the

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other Pelasgic offspring races, such as Illyrians who not only shared the same religion

with Hellenes, but their Gods still had room in the most celebrated worship places such as

Olympus, even in the time(which came too late) when the division between Hellenes andtheir forefathers Pelasgians(and the other offspring) was such radical that Hellenes were

portraying themselves a distinct race and they have established a distinct Gods pantheon.

ARISTOPHANES THE BIRDS

PITHETAERUS

Ah! and since when, pray?

PROMETHEUS

Since you founded this city in the air. There is not a man who nowsacrifices to the gods, the smoke of the victims no longer reaches us.

Not the smallest offering comes! We fast as though it were thefestivall of Demeter. The barbarian gods, who are dying of hunger, are

bawling like Illyrians and threaten to make an armed descent upon

Zeus, if he does not open markets where joints of the victims are sold.

PITHETAERUS

What! there are other gods besides you, barbarian gods who dwell above Olympus?

PROMETHEUS

If there were no barbarian gods, who would be the patron of Execestides?

Nevertheless is another very important reason why Greek propaganda forgot to mark

the Perrhaebi in their own map. Perrhaebi who shared the name Pelasgiotis with the other

Pelasgians such as Thessalians and Lapithes, were located in a strategic line of division,the line which divides Macedonians from the most northern Greek tribes, cutting in half

the presumed Hellenic continuity, and smashing in pieces the modern Greek pretenses

that the Macedonians belonged to the Hellenic race.

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(We will dedicate another article about the ethnicity of the Macedonians)

AMPILOCHIANSThis tribe was located in the most southern area of Epirus.

Strabo portraits them as Epirotes, and if we follow the Greek propaganda standards we

expect them to be Greeks, this based in their location too. It was not thinking so the father

of the greatest Greek ever Alexander the Great, Philip II king of Macedonia:

POLYBIUS - 'THE RISE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE', HISTORIES Book XVIII.5 : , , ' : " " [8] ; : , , . [9] .

But the most outrageous part of their conduct is that they try to rival Rome, and bid meentirely evacuate Greece! The demand in itself is sufficiently haughty and dictatorial:

still, in the mouths of Romans, it is tolerable, but in that of Aetolians quite intolerable.'What is this Greece which you demand that I should evacuate, and what do you define

Greece? Certainly most of the Aetolians themselves are not Greeks!. The countries ofthe Agraae, the Apodotea, and the Amphilochians cannot be regarded as Greeks. So do

you allow to me to remain in those territories.

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The surprise doesnt come for the Amphilochians, since we already know from other

ancient sources that they were no Greeks, and learnt Greek language only during the

contacts with the Greekcolonists of Ambracia, and not all of them:

Thucydides (Book 2.68)

68 ] , , ' . . , ( ),

, .

the surprise comes for the Aetolians who are propagandized so badly as Greeks.Now lets include in one map everything we proved with direct and reliable quotes:

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There is nothing Greek in Illyria and its geographical division Epirus, beside some

colonies:And since we are talking about Epirus, there was only two of them with Greek

colonists(not natives), Ambracia and Corcyra which was build in the Corcyra island

originally inhabited by the Illyrian Liburnians.Almost all ancient authors who described Epirus were stressing the term Hellenic

polises(urbes-lat.) for the Greek colonies in Epirus and Illyria, a term that wouldnt benecessary to use if Epirus was a Greek land.Epirus is a geographical term, and opposed to the general idea does not have ethnic

implication in its meaning, when we talk about ancient times. It was inhabited from a

series of Illyrian and Thracian tribes and Greek colonies, people who had in common the

same origin and was sharing the same language who is regarded today as Greek but wasin fact the language of all these people, and if we name it: Pelasgian, we dont fall in big

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Which correspond with the time of Greek state creation

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EnglishEpirus today called Albania

or

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Dictionarium Latino Epiroticum, per R.D. Franciscum Blanchum,

Romae: Typis Sac.Congr.de Propag. Fide. 1635

In any mapMap 1600 AD

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English

Epirus called Albania today.

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English

Epirus called Albania today

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In any book dedicated to the Albanian heroes

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or in any Italian book about them:

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In any translation of the ancient authors (like this book of Pliny the Elder)

from the translator Lodovico Domenichi in the year 1515 AD, the text written from Pliny

the Elder taken from his book III chapter 26/23

in any medieval book where is written about Epirus:

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Book, year 1581

And most importantly this connection is demonstrated spontaneously from anyone other

than Albanians. The accusation against so called Albanian propaganda is false andridiculous. There is no Albanian propaganda; no nationalistic movement was in existence

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Prepared and written by Zeus10In collaboration with Albpelasgian, and Socio and Mallakastriotihelped by Pirro, Arber, Arta etc.Video prepared by Mallakastrioti

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Homer, Iliad2. Homer, Odyssey3. Strabo, Geography4. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War,5. Pausanias, Description of Greece6. Euripide, Orestes7. Scymnus of Chios8. Stephanus Byzantinus, Ethnica ().9. AESCHYLUS, Suppliant,10. APPIAN, The Foreign Wars11. ARISTOPHANES THE BIRDS12. POLYBIUS - 'THE RISE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE', HISTORIES13. Prosodia Italiana ovvero LArte con Luso degli accenti Nella Volgar Favella DItalia,Venecia 182014. The History of George Castriot, Surnamed Scanderbeg, King of Albanie, London 159615. Pliny the Elder, translated by Lodovico Domenichi in the year 1515 AD16. Descrittione Di Tvtta LItalia, 158117. The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume III, Part III, The Expansion of the Greek World,Eighth to Sixth Centuries B.C18. The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume III, Part I, The Prehistory of the Balkans; and theMiddle East and the Aegean world, tenth to eighth centuries B.C

19. Singing for the Gods, Performances of Myth and Ritual in Archaic and Classical Greece

Dedicated to our parents and to all those intellectuals who worked sohard that the name Epirus and Epirotes not to be confused andmanipulated, but to be used and revived where it originally belongs to,ALBANIA.

greece the land where myth replaces the reality-edited

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