Skopian Lie about ancient Macedonian religion

[Ptolemy]

taken from the propagandistic site of FYROM:
http://faq.macedonia.org/history/ancient.macedonia/8.html

Macedonians worshiped the same Gods as the rest of the Greeks"

SKOPIAN CLAIM: This statement is a complete lie. Not only that the Macedonians did not worshiped the Greek gods, but also there is not a single temple discovered on the territory of Macedonia which resembles the temples in Greece. Alexander sacrificed to "Macedonian gods according to ancestral rituals, and ordered a torch-race and gymnastic contest to follow." Ulrich Wilken’s Alexander the Great: p. 187, line 15, we read the following passage referring to his advances to the Hyphasis:

"Alexander built twelve great tower-like altars on the nearer side of the river. We have been informed by those who refer everything to Babylonia, that this was for the twelve signs of the zodiac. In reality it was the twelve gods of Macedonia to whom these altars were raised."

Key words are: Twelve Macedonian gods, not Greek. The fact that the Macedonians had their own gods, does prove that they had different religion from the Greeks who worshiped different gods. To this we can add the writings of the ancient author Plutarch:

'Soon after his death the people of Athens paid him fitting honours by erecting his statue in bronze, and by decreeing that the eldest member of his family should be maintained in the prytaneum at the public expense. On the base of his statue was carved his famous inscription: 'If only your strength had been equal, Demosthenes, to your wisdom Never would Greece have been ruled by a Macedonian Ares' [p.216]

Macedonians had their own Gods and religion, separate from the Greeks. Macedonian Ares is a Macedonian god, which the ancient Greeks here compare to their own Ares. The fact that they call it "Macedonian Ares" clearly states that it is not the Greek God Ares, but a Macedonian god equivalent to the Greek Ares, whose name they had substituted with Ares. This phenomena when the ancient Greeks substitute the names of the foreign gods with names of their own gods, is called interpretatio graeca. In the ancient Greek texts we also find the Greeks referring to one Egyptian God as Egyptian Athena. Of course, the real name of this Egyptian god can not be Athena (just like the name of the Macedonian god above was not Ares), since the Egyptians didn't worship Greek gods The ancient Greek writers here use interpretatio graeca in order to better relate to their audience the magnitude of the Macedonian and Egyptian gods, both foreign to them. The above quote, furthermore, clearly shows that not only Macedonians had their own gods and religion distinct from the Greeks, but they also subdued Greece.

The skopian claim is utterly flawed. Firstly its really surprising that Skopian propagandists use in their side a quote taken from the German writer U. Wilcken, while it is well known to anyone who have read his work that Wilcken is a strong supporter of the Greekness of Macedonians and his following quote is more than enlightening.

yet if we take into account the political conditions, religion and morals of the Macedonians, our conviction is strengthened that they were a Greek race an$d akin to the Dorians.

Wilcken, U., "Alexander the Great

Secondly, the Skopian propagandists seem to forget about the temple of Dion, (literally the city of Zeus), found in Mt Olympus, of course inside Macedonia.

Furthermore, Pausanias makes perfectly clear that contrary to Skopian claims, Macedonians had got the same gods and religion with the rest of Greeks and puts an end to the Skopian lies.

Pausanias [6.18.3]

The people of Lampsacus favoured the cause of the Persian king, or were suspected of doing so, and Alexander, boiling over with rage against them, threatened to treat them with utmost rigor. As their wives, their children, and their country itself were in great danger, they sent Anaximenes to intercede for them, because he was known to Alexander himself and had been known to Philip before him. Anaximenes approached, and when Alexander learned for what cause he had come, they say that HE SWORE BY THE GODS OF GREECE, WHOM HE NAMED that he would verily do the opposite of what Anaximenes asked

Furthermore its really distinguisable from the Macedonian coins of Alexander the Great time, that Macedonians had the same gods with the rest of Greeks.

From this gold stater of Alexander the great we can easily figure out godess Athena.

http://www.usask.ca/antiquities/coins/alexander2A.JPG

Or from this tetradrachm of Alexander the Great depicting Zeus.

http://www.usask.ca/antiquities/coins/alexander1B.JPG

Moreover we have several ancient sources making clear that Macedonians had the same religion as the rest of the Greeks and they worshiped the twelve Olympian Gods.

Two quotes from Plutarch's "Alexander"


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;

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.


Diodoros of Sicily also makes clear that the Macedonnians worshiped the twelve Greek Gods and exposes skopian lies :

Histories, Chapter 16, 95.2


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.


Histories, Chapter 16, 91.5-6

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.

[akritas]

Religion in ancient Greece had a strong public character and was, in many respects, a way of integrating the individual into the community. Within this public religion, which often was sponsored and even imposed by the polis, there were special cults that addressed people on an individual basis and were voluntarily selected by each person.
The ancient Greeks called them Mysteries (“Mysteria”) and they represented a special opportunity for dealing with the gods of the polis on an individual basis. As these cults had to do with the individual's inner self, privacy was necessary and was secured by an initiation ceremony, a personal ritual that brought the individual to a new spiritual level, a higher degree of awareness in relation to the gods. Once initiated, the individual was entitled to share the eternal truth, to catch a glimpse of the eternal reality.
One from the Mysteria was that Thebans and Pausanias.
Thebans told Pausanias that the Mysteries lapsed after the expulsion of the Kabeiraioi by the Argives.
The legendary successful siege of Thebes by the Argeioi may stand here for the historical capture of Thebes by Alexander in 335: can it be a coincidence that the Argead kings of Makedonia traced their origins from Temenos?

[Orphic_Hymn]

What can anyone say...
They try and try, manipulate and distort but always come to the same result. Someone opens up the text and slaps them in the face with reality..

A couple of quote from Plutarch's Alexander that we must note does NOT include the imaginative quote our dear Northern friends have invented..

For he neither sought nor valued it upon every occasion, as his father Philip did (who affected to show his eloquence almost to a degree of pedantry, and took care to have the victories of his racing chariots at the Olympic games engraven on his coin), but when he was asked by some about him, whether he would run a race in the Olympic games, as he was very swift-footed, he answered, he would, if he might have kings to run with him.

Beside the well known fact that only Hellines took part in the Olympics, we also know that they were dedicated to the God Zeus..

As a place for the pursuit of their studies and exercise, he assigned the temple of the Nymphs, near Mieza, where, to this very day, they show you Aristotle's stone seats, and the shady walks which he was wont to frequent.
We know of the nymphaeum, where the Hellinic Nymphs were worshipped. Strabo (book 7) mentions several all around Mt. Athos..

Then he went to Delphi, to consult Apollo concerning the success of the war he had undertaken
What can anyone comment on the obvious ???

he passed the Hellespont, and at Troy sacrificed to Minerva, and honoured the memory of the heroes who were buried there, with solemn libations; especially Achilles, whose gravestone he anointed, and with his friends, as the ancient custom is, ran naked about his sepulchre, and crowned it with garlands,
The translator (John Dryden 1683-86) obviously means Athena, since it was a common practice in the 16th-18th cent. to refer to Hellinic Gods by their Latin equivelent.
But who's ancient customs.. ?? obviously Hellinic for if the Macedonians were 'foreign' they'd neither worship an undoubtably Hellinic Goddess, nor practice the obviously Hellinic ancient custom of honoring a dead hero..

During the siege of this city, which, with mounds of earth cast up, and battering engines, and two hundred galleys by sea, was carried on for seven months together, he dreamt that he saw Hercules upon the walls, reaching out his hands, and calling to him.
He dreams of Hellinic demigods/heroes..
Another time Alexander dreamed he saw a satyr mocking him at a distance, and when he endeavoured to catch him, he still escaped from him, till at last with much perseverance, and running about after him, he got him into his power. The soothsayers, making two words of Satyrus, assured him that Tyre should be his own.
Satyrs, connected to the battle of the Olympian Gods against the Giants..

He made the longest address that day to the Thessalians and other Greeks, who answered him with loud shouts, desiring him to lead them on against the barbarians, upon which he shifted his javelin into his left hand, and with his right lifted up towards heaven, besought the gods, as Callisthenes tells us, that if he was of a truth the son of Jupiter, they would be pleased to assist and strengthen the Grecians.
The well noted fact that he considered himself son of Zeus..


Of course there are more references to Hellinic Gods that I've left out..
---------------------------

As for this :

'Soon after his death the people of Athens paid him fitting honours by erecting his statue in bronze, and by decreeing that the eldest member of his family should be maintained in the prytaneum at the public expense. On the base of his statue was carved his famous inscription: 'If only your strength had been equal, Demosthenes, to your wisdom Never would Greece have been ruled by a Macedonian Ares' [p.216]

Unfortunately for our dear friends, the only reference to a inscription on a statue in Plutarch's work is the following :

On Alexander's side, Aristobulus says there were not wanting above four-and-thirty, of whom nine were foot-soldiers; and in memory of them he caused so many statues of brass, of Lysippus's making, to be erected. And that the Grecians might participate in the honour of his victory he sent a portion of the spoils home to them particularly to the Athenians three hundred bucklers, and upon all the rest he ordered this inscription to be set: "Alexander the son of Philip, and the Grecians, except the Lacedaemonians, won these from the barbarians who inhabit Asia."

Note that the inscription clearly indicates that the Makedones are included in his reference to Hellines..

Source for the text:
Western Washington University
http://www.ac.wwu.edu (http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Renault/fire.plutarch.html)

[Ptolemy]

Ancient Macedonian Religion

From the data at our disposal at present, we know that the Macedonians worshipped the twelve Olympian gods, both collectively and individually, and also Pluto, Persephone, Dionysos, Pan, Hestia, Heracles, Asklepios, Okeanos, Amphitrite, the Nereids, Thetys, Orpheus, the Diocouroi, Amphilochos, the Nymphs, the Graces, the Fates, Hygieia, Lethe, Nemesis and Eros. They also gave them the familiar Greek epithets, such as Agoraios, Basileus, Olympios, Hypsistos of Zeus, Basileia of Hera, Soter of Apollo, Hagemona and Soteira of Artemis, Boulaia of Hestia, etc.

Some to the evidence for the worship of Ge, Helios, Dionysos, Pan, Asklepios and Heracles is earlier than the period of Philip, while the earliest evidence for the twelve gods from this period. The large number of these god’s names and the early date of the evidence militates against the false argument advanced by those opposed to the idea that the Macedonians were Greeks.

The Macedonians were particularly devoted to Zeus, father of Makedon (Μακεδών), their eponymous ancestor, and to Heracles, held to be the progenitor (Ηρακλής προπάτωρ) of the Argead clan as well as of the later Antigonid dynasty. Notable are the cults of Zeus Hetairides (Εταιρίδης), who presided over the relationship of the Argead kings with their aristocratic Companions (εταίροι) and who gave his name to the festival of the Hetairideia. Heracles Kynagidas (Κυναγίδας) was worshipped as the patron of hunting, a sport to which the Macedonians were passionately attached.
Heracles Kynagidas was also presiding over the Royal Huntsmen (βασιλικοί κυνηγοί) as well as over the kings’ game preserves.

Established custom required the king personally to conduct many rites and sacrifices. Among these two of the most important were: (a) the formal purification of the army performed each at the festival of the Xandica (Ξανδικά) held in the early spring, at the beginning of the campaigning season, though this purification could be performed at other times as well; and (b) the overseeing of the ceremonial interment of the Macedonian dead post-combat.

Cult figures, largely Thracian and indigenous to the regions occupied by the Argead Macedonians, continued to be worshipped along side the Macedonian religion. We have, for instance, the water-air spirit that gave its name to Edessa, an old town famous for its springs and situated near Aigai, the earliest residence of the Macedonian kings. Meanwhile, the reverence accorded to Sileni (σαυάδαι) and Bacchae (Κλώδωνες and Μιμαλλόνες) indicates a prevalence of Dionysus-Sabazius worship

References : 'Athena' Journal, iss.14, Melbourne 2006, of the Society for Ancient Hellenic Studies, by Kostas Vitkos - Iakovos Garivaldis

[Istor]

There is an inscription found at Episkopi, Pella that states:

ΑΡΤΕΜΙΝ ΑΓΡΟΤΕΡΑΝ ΓΑΖΩΡΕΙΤΙΔΑ ΚΑΙ ΒΛΟΥΡΕΙΤΙΝ (atremin agroteran gazwreitida kai vloureitin) = to Artemis the biggest hunter, gedess of Gazwros and lover of mountains.

The inscription is dated around 350 BC. Gazwros is now a village in Serres pref.

The word vloureitis comes from filw (to love) + oros (mountain) + ei (kind) + tis (fem. ending) > filoreitis > (f > v + o > ou + cut of unaccended i, all Macedonian dialect characteritstics) vloureitis.

[Ptolemy]

This is a sworn treaty made between us, Hannibal the general, Mago, Myrkan, Barmokar and all other Carthaginian senators present with him, and all Carthaginians serving under him, on the one side, and Xenophanes the Athenian, son of Kleomachos, the envoy whom King Philip, son of Demetrios, sent to us on behalf of himself, and the Macedonians and allies, on the other side. `In the presence of ZEUS, HERA and APOLLO; in the presence of the Genius of Carthage; ...and in the presence of all the gods who possess Carthage; and in the presence of ALL THE GODS who possess Macedonia AND THE REST OF HELLAS; and in the presence of all the gods of the army who preside over this oath. Thus said Hannibal the general and all the Carthaginian senators along with him and the Carthaginian soldiers: ..That King Philip and the Macedonians AND the REST OF THE HELLENES who are their allies shall protect the Carthaginians,... King Philip and the Macedonians AND the OTHER HELLENES who are their allies shall be protected and guarded by the Carthaginians..."

(Polybios 7.9.1-7; Treaty of alliance between king Philip V of Macedonia and Hannibal)

[Ptolemy]

"Alexander (the Great)... after talking to the Thessalians and the other Hellenes,... grabbed his spear with his left hand, shifted his right hand to pray to the gods, as Kallisthenes reports, wishing, if he is indeed a SON of ZEUS that they SUPPORT the HELLENES. Aristandros, the priest..."

(Plutarchos, Alexander 33)

[Ptolemy]

Found the following in yahoo.

Macedonians like every other Greeks worshiped the same Gods! The Olympian 12 Gods and various other deities and heroes such as Achilles and Hercules!
Alexander never destroyed any temple of any Greek God!! Even when Alexander destroyed the city of Thebes the Greeks (including Macedonians) decide “to distribute among themselves all the territory, EXCEPT WHAT WAS DEDICATED TO THE GODS; and to sell into slavery the women and children, and as many of the males as survived, EXCEPT THOSE WHO WERE PRIESTS OR PRIESTESESS, ….”

There are a lot of Temples in Macedonia.

The temple of Afrodite in Dion
The temple of Eukleia in Vergina Aigai
The temple of Zeus in Dodoni
The entire complex of Dion was dedicated to Zeus.

In every part of Greece Ares is the same God Ares as the rest of Greeks worship!
Dodonaios Zeus is the same as Olympian Zeus and Dion Zeus!
Athena Parthenos is the same as Olympian Athina and Aigina Athina.
Even a templed build by the Greeks in Troy is called Trojan Athina!!

It is custom in Greece (even today) to use the land name as the epithet of the deity!
It is truth that the Greeks transformed or substitute foreign Gods with Greek ones
The problem with your argument is that the God used both names such as Amon –Zeus, Aphrodite –Istar etc. This was done only with a foreign God. Since Macedonia was Greek as Athens or Epirus the God was the same.

“…HAVING settled these affairs (Alexander), 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;….”
(Arian Alexander’s Anabases)

“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, at the place in Europe whence he started, and at the place in Asia where he disembarked. It is also said that he went up to Ilium and offered sacrifice to the Trojan Athena; that he set up his own n panoply in the temple as a votive offering, and in exchange for it took away some of the consecrated arms which had been preserved from the time of the Trojan war. It is also said that the shield-bearing guards used to carry these arms in front of him into the battles. A report also prevails that he offered sacrifice to Priam upon the altar of Zeus the household god, deprecating the wrath of Priam against the progeny of Neoptolemus, from whom Alexander himself was descended. “
(Arian Alexander’s Anabases)

“..He therefore resolved to build a temple to the Olympian Zeus on the hill, and to erect an altar in it; but while he was considering which part of the hill was the most suitable site, suddenly a winter storm arose, though it was the summer season, loud claps of thunder were heard, and rain fell on the spot where the palace of the kings of Lydia had stood. From this Alexander thought that the deity had revealed to him where the temple to Zeus ought to be built; and he gave orders accordingly...”
(Arian Alexander’s Anabases)