Andrew
04-14-2008, 08:06 AM
At the early cemetery of Pella's Agora ,it has been found -among others- the marble tombstone of little Xanthos. This find is dated at the end of the 5th century BC (about fifty years before Philip's kingship). The marble is secondhand and that indicates that Xanthos' family was relatively poor.
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/5092/90447568ar8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
It is clearly writen in Greek : «ΞΑΝΘΟΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΑΜΑΔΙΚΑΣ ΥΙΟΣ»,
that is "Xanthos son of Demetrius and Amadika".
Note that all the names (Xanthos , Demetrios , Amadika) are greek , the frase does make sense in greek language , and , more important watch carefully the name Αμαδίκα (Amadika). It is a Western Greek female name formed from the homeric verb αμάω/amao = to reap (wheat) and the northwestern greek ending -δίκα/dika , instead of the Attic ending -δίκη/dike. We must also remember that the excavations at Vergina (Aegae) gave us the name of Philip's mother three times as Ευρυδίκα/Eurydika instead of the attic form Eurydike.
By that we can conclude that the members of Xanthos' poor family were greek speakers , had north western greek names , and that undermines the theories that want the Ancient Macedonians a non greek speaking population with a hellenized aristocracy. As the Pella curse table (katadesmos) has also prooved , the Ancient Macedonians were a Northwestern Greek speaking tribe that later simply shifted to the Attic koine (common greek) dialect.
For the whole text in Greek (and soon in English) watch: http://abnet.agrino.org/htmls/D/D009.html
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/5092/90447568ar8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
It is clearly writen in Greek : «ΞΑΝΘΟΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΑΜΑΔΙΚΑΣ ΥΙΟΣ»,
that is "Xanthos son of Demetrius and Amadika".
Note that all the names (Xanthos , Demetrios , Amadika) are greek , the frase does make sense in greek language , and , more important watch carefully the name Αμαδίκα (Amadika). It is a Western Greek female name formed from the homeric verb αμάω/amao = to reap (wheat) and the northwestern greek ending -δίκα/dika , instead of the Attic ending -δίκη/dike. We must also remember that the excavations at Vergina (Aegae) gave us the name of Philip's mother three times as Ευρυδίκα/Eurydika instead of the attic form Eurydike.
By that we can conclude that the members of Xanthos' poor family were greek speakers , had north western greek names , and that undermines the theories that want the Ancient Macedonians a non greek speaking population with a hellenized aristocracy. As the Pella curse table (katadesmos) has also prooved , the Ancient Macedonians were a Northwestern Greek speaking tribe that later simply shifted to the Attic koine (common greek) dialect.
For the whole text in Greek (and soon in English) watch: http://abnet.agrino.org/htmls/D/D009.html