Macedon

Macedon ( ancient Greek Μακεδών Makedṓn , poetically also Μακηδών Makēdṓn ) is the eponymous hero of Macedonia and the Macedonians in Greek mythology .

According to the pseudo- Skymnos he was γηγενής gēgenḗs , that is, "earth-born" and thus orphaned. Strabo only has to report that he was an old leader in the Emathia region, which was named Macedonia after him. In mythology he is associated with different pairs of parents and, depending on the situation, has different sons, who in turn act as city ​​founders or eponymous heroes.

He was already considered by Hesiod as the son of Zeus and Deucalion's daughter Thyia . His brother from this connection was Magnes and both lived in the area of Pieria and Olympus . In a Scholion at Homer , Amathos and Pieros are named as his sons , while Stephanos of Byzantium is the city founders Beres - in this the historian Theagenes from the 2nd century BC. Following -, Atintan, Europos and Oropos knows.

At Hellanikos of Lesbos , Macedon was one of the sons of Aiolus and thus great-grandson of Deucalion. It is the communication from Hellanikos, going back most into the prehistory of Greece. Perhaps going back to Hellanikos 'genealogy, Pausanias' brother becomes a son of Aiolos.

Aelian and Stephanos of Byzantium also know a descent from Lykaon , who is extremely rich in sons , among whose sons a Makednos is preserved in the library of Apollodorus , while in the Scholion to Dionysios Periegetes from Lykaon Aiakos became. At Aelian, Macedon is the father of the Pindus , namesake either for the river of the same name or the Pindos Mountains.

With Lykaon, the wolf man , another variant of the myths about Macedon can be connected. According to Diodorus , Macedon was the son of Osiris , who left him as ruler in Macedonia. His brother was Anubis , who wore a dog's skin, while Macedon's upper body was in the shape of a wolf. In this tradition, Macedon corresponded to Wepwawet , the Egyptian god of war and death, worshiped by the Greeks as Ophois in the Egyptian Lycopolis .

literature

• Samson Eitrem : Macedon. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIV, 1, Stuttgart 1928, Col. 636 f.
• Alexandra Frey: Macedon 1–4. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 7, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01477-0 , Sp. 726.
• Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Macedon . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, Col. 2291 f. ( Digitized version ).

Remarks

1. ↑ Skymnos, Periegesis 620.
2. ↑ Strabo 7 epithomes 11.
3. ↑ Hesiod, women's catalog fragment 3 in Constantinus Porphyrogennetos , De thematibus 2,48B; Stephanos of Byzantium sv Μακεδονία ; Eustathios of Thessalonike , Commentary on Dionysios Periegetes 427; Scholion to Homer , Iliad 14,226.
4. ↑ Scholion to Homer, Iliad 14,226.
5. ↑ Stephanos of Byzantium sv Βέρης, Ἀντιτανία, Εὐρωπός, Ὠρωπός .
6. ↑ Hellanikos, FGrH 4 F 74.
7. ↑ Bernhard Zimmermann (Ed.): The literature of the archaic and classical times (= Handbook of Classical Studies . Dept. 7, Vol. 1). CH Beck, Munich 2011, p. 335 f.
8. ↑ Pausanias 6:21, 11; See also Paul Dräger: Studies on Hesiod's women's catalogs (= Palingenesia. Series for Classical Classical Studies . Volume 61). Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, p. 49.
9. ↑ Aelian, De natura animalium 10.48; Stephanos of Byzantium sv Ὠρωπός .
10. ↑ Library of Apollodor 3, 8, 1.
11. ↑ Scholion to Dionysios Periegetes 427.
12. ↑ Johannes Tzetzes , Chiliades 4,338.
13. ↑ Diodorus 1,18,20.
14. ^ Anne Burton: Diodorus Siculus. A Commentary. Brill, Leiden 1972, p. 83.