Is Alexandros a Doric name???

[Ptolemy]

Its really interesting that the uncommon name Alexandros is found in ancient Greece in extremely rare cases among people who are considered Dorians. A huge number of modern historians declare their convictions that ancient Macedonians were a Dorian tribe. I was searching through names of ancient Greeks in antiquity and found that Alexandros I the Philhellene wasnt the first one to bear that name.

According to Eusebius, first one in the greek world, was the king Alexandros of Corinth who was the 10th king of this city and he must have lived around the late 9th c. BC. (in the same era of the first Argead Macedonian king as Eusebius informs us)

According to Eusebius Chr.: "anno tertio regni Alexandri regis Korinthiorum Macedonibus regnat Primus"

Its also important to add that the Bacchiad Kings of Corinth were considered ALSO, descendants of Heracles (Heraclides) as the Argead Macedonian Kings!!!!

Another addition to the Dorian ancestry of Macedonians was the fact that the name Archelaos was also a Doric name. Archelaos, except the well known Macedonian kings, was also the name of the 7th Spartan king Archelaos -another Dorian - who came in the throne of Sparti in 886 BC, long before the establishment of the Macedonian state. No need to add that Spartan kings were also Heraclides!!!

[akritas]

I think we must search in the etymology of the name.
Alexandros "defender of men," derived from alexein "to ward off, keep off, turn (something) away, defend, protect" + aner (gen. andros) "man."
I dont know if the alexein is a doric word or this came from text that found close in the regions that lived doric tribes.

[Orphic_Hymn]

I don't think its Doric since we see it in Homer's Iliad 9. 251 :

"Δαναοῖσιν ἀλεξήσεις κακὸν"

[Ptolemy]

Another (coincidence?) is that Alexandros is found also as a surname of Hera, who was worshipped by that name, possibly in Argos Peloponnese. There was a temple of Hera in Sicyon named Hera Alexandros, built by the prince of Argos, Adrastos after his flight from Argos.

Seems the first cases of the name Alexandros in the greek world is strictly among Greeks from Peloponnesos and after a long time we can find it among other greeks (Alexandros of Pherai, Alexandros of Epirus, Alexandros of Acarnania, etc)

[Orphic_Hymn]

We can even take it further back to Paris/Alexander (Troy) found in the form of 'Alaksandu' in Hittite texts..

[Ptolemy]

I know but thats why i wrote solely "in the greek world"

[Spirit]

The name may be translated as 'Protector' _Man_. It may really be in the Illiad as Helen's term for Paris...."My Protector"....thus GREEK there too! actually.




Spirit

[Spirit]

What is "Pezhetairos"

[Ptolemy]

Pezhetairos is Foot companion in Macedonian army.

[Spirit]

Thanks! Did the name come with my Avatar?

How do I get a cap on the 's' of 'spirit'?



Spirit