FYROMers & Homer

[Andrew]

One of the favorite arguments that FYROMers use to defend the non-grecity of the ancient Macedonians is : "How can they be Greeks when Homer doesn't mention them ???"

Well ,first of all we must reform the question and that is for pure clarity. It wasn't only one person that wrote Iliad and Odyssey , but many .Homer was the most known among a chain of varius epical poets that contributed to the creation of the homeric epics and lived between 1000-800 BC. So the correct question should be " Why the Macedonians are not mentioned among the Greeks fighting in Troy?"
1)The answer is that not even the Dorians partecipate in the Trojan expedition , but that doesn't mean that they weren't greeks.But later , in Odyssey (XIX,177) we have a single mention of the three subtribed Dorians of Crete and this is the greatest proof that Odyssey whas written much later from the Iliad. Another surprising mention of the Odyssey is the word "Makednos" used as "very heigh" (makos = length)in (VII,106):

"...like the leaves of a very heigh poplar"
"...οἷά τε φύλλα μακεδνῆς αῖγείροιο"

The word "Makednos" is a previus version for the name of the Macedonians since Herodotus in (1.56) says that "the Dorians were Makednoi that have discended from Pindus"

“...forced to retire from that region by the Cadmeians, they settled, under the name of Macedni, in the chain of Pindus. Hence they once more removed and came to Dryopis; and from Dryopis having entered the Peloponnese in this way, they became known as Dorians.”

2) The Aetolians participate in the Trojan expedition as it is refered to us in
Iliad (II,638-644):

«Αἰτωλῶν δ' ἡγεῖτο Θόας Ἀνδραίμονος υἱός,
οἳ Πλευρῶν' ἐνέμοντο καὶ Ὤλενον ἠδὲ Πυλήνην
Χαλκίδα τ' ἀγχίαλον Καλυδῶνά τε πετρήεσσαν• 640
οὐ γὰρ ἔτ' Οἰνῆος μεγαλήτορος υἱέες ἦσαν,
οὐδ' ἄρ' ἔτ' αὐτὸς ἔην, θάνε δὲ ξανθὸς Μελέαγρος•
τῷ δ' ἐπὶ πάντ' ἐτέταλτο ἀνασσέμεν Αἰτωλοῖσι•
τῷ δ' ἅμα τεσσαράκοντα μέλαιναι νῆες ἕποντο.»

«Thoas, son of Andraemon, commanded the Aetolians, who dwelt in Pleuron, Olenus, Pylene, Chalcis by the sea, and rocky Calydon, for the great king Oeneus had now no sons living, and was himself dead, as was also golden-haired Meleager, who had been set over the Aetolians to be their king. And with Thoas there came forty ships.»

...and Roman Historian Titus Livius (Livy) in (31,29) reminds us that :

“Aetolos , Acarnanas , Macedonas , EIUSDEM LINGUAE HOMINES”

“Aetolians , Acarnanians , Macedonians , MEN OF THE SAME LANGUAGE”

..that language is of course the North-Western Greek Dialect !!!!!

So the answer is that the Macedonians didn't partecipate in Troy because probably they didn't even know about the war in Troy ...it happened in a period that they were mainly nomadic goatherds in the mountains of north greece , like their north-western "brothers" Dorians , Thessalians etc (In Homer Thessaly is known as Argos Pelasgikon and it is inhabited by Aelophons greeks ,because the NW Thessalians didn't invaded it yet !! Analogusly , Peloponnesus is mentioned mostly Achean and one time Ionian (Ἴασον Ἄργος)but never Dorian , just because the dorians didn't invade it yet !!!!

3) Homer knows the macedonian territories Emathia and Pieria that constituted the nucleus of the earlier Macedonian kingdom and these are safely GREEK names . Emathia (Ημαθία) meaning "sandy" (ημαθόεν) and Pieria(Πιερία) meaning "well choosen" (Πῖαρ = top milk). In (XIV,224-230) we have :

Ἣ μὲν ἔβη πρὸς δῶμα Διὸς θυγάτηρ Ἀφροδίτη,
Ἥρη δ' ἀΐξασα λίπεν ῥίον Οὐλύμποιο,
Πιερίην δ' ἐπιβᾶσα καὶ Ἠμαθίην ἐρατεινὴν
σεύατ' ἐφ' ἱπποπόλων Θρῃκῶν ὄρεα νιφόεντα
ἀκροτάτας κορυφάς• οὐδὲ χθόνα μάρπτε ποδοῖιν•
ἐξ Ἀθόω δ' ἐπὶ πόντον ἐβήσετο κυμαίνοντα,
Λῆμνον δ' εἰσαφίκανε πόλιν θείοιο Θόαντος

Hera departs from Olympus , passes from Pieria , beautiful Emathia , then goes to the wintry mountains of Thrace ...
The limit between Emathia and Thrace is safely recognized as the river Axios after which wee find the Paeonians (II,848-850) , Trojan Allies:

Αὐτὰρ Πυραίχμης ἄγε Παίονας ἀγκυλοτόξους
τηλόθεν ἐξ Ἀμυδῶνος ἀπ' Ἀξιοῦ εὐρὺ ῥέοντος,
Ἀξιοῦ οὗ κάλλιστον ὕδωρ ἐπικίδναται αἶαν.

"Paeonians of the wide-fluent Axios ..."

4) Even if "Homer" doesn't mention the Macedonians his contemporary Hesiod does them in the Katalog of women as brothers of the Greek Magnetes and the two being sons of Zeus and Thyia ,daughter of the greek-genarch Deucalion.
Deucalion + Pyrra => Pandora junior , Hellen , Thyia
Zeus + Pandora junior => Graecus (Genarch of the Epeirotans , Γραῖα = the old lady = Epeirus one of the first stations of the discending indoeuropean proto-Greeks)
Zeus + Thyia => Macedon , Magnes
Hellen + ... => Dorus , Aeolus , Xouthus
Xouthus + ... => Ion , Acheus

...and if someone askes why the Macedonians are cousins and not sons of Hellen the answer is that neither the Epeirotans , neither the Magnetes are sons of Hellen ..but were safely Greeks ...Don't forget that Homer names "Hellens" only the followers of Achilles. Only later the term expanded to include all the greek-speakers !!!