XXI – HELLENE MIGRATIONS – THE DORIANS OF GREECE

XXI – HELLENE MIGRATIONS – THE DORIANS OF GREECE

Ethno genesis and the “Deukalean Flood”

After the Trojan War, a new and nameless Indo-European tribe appeared in the so-called Greek Peninsula, which traveled down the western Balkans and Epirus, through the Pindus Mountain isthmus between Zagora and Tzoumerka and landed in Thessaly, stopping in front of Thermopylae in Ftia. According to Eratosthenes, this took place in 1124 BC.

We have learned a bit about the origin of these people from Herodotus (Herodotus, History, I, 56, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) in the part where he tells us about Croesus (Kroisos), the king of Lydia, before he was dethroned by Persian king Cyrus in 549 BC. When Croesus felt threatened, in order to protect himself, he asked who was the most powerful of the Helens in order to win them as friends.

“While inquiring, I learned that the Lakedemonians and the Athenians are the most powerful people. The Lakedemonians are of Doric origin while the Athenians are of Ionic origin. Those two nations stand above all other Hellenic peoples. The Athenians descended from the Pelasgians and the Lakedemonians are of Hellenic origin. The Athenians have never left their country, while the Lakedemonians are famous for traveling and wandering.

During king Deukalion’s time the nameless tribe lived in Phtiotida and during Dor’s time, son of Helen, they made their home on Mount Os and Mount Olympus in a place called Histieotida. When the Cadmians forced them out, they settled around Mount Pindus in Macedonia. Later they were on the move again and crossed over Driopida, and from Driopida they arrived in the Peloponnesus where they were named Dorians.”

Deukalion - father of the Hellenes

King Deukalion (Deykalion) was considered to be father of all Hellenes. He was married to Pira, daughter of Epimetei and Pandorar and lived in Thessalian Ftia together with the indigenous Pelasgians and later among the Achaean Mirmidonians in their existing cities. According to Homer (Homer, Iliad and Odyssey, II, 681, Novi Sad, 1985. (Prev. Gjurigj MN)), “… Some were from Arg and lived in Pelsgian cities. Some were from Alopa, Al in Trehina, and from Ftia and Hellada. They had beautiful

women. They were called Mirmidonians, Helens and some still called themselves Achaeans. They had fifty ships and their leader was Ahilei.”

From what we know from Homer, it would appear that the cities Arg, Alop, Al, Hellada and Trahin existed in Thessalian Ftia before Deukalean’s arrival. Each place name had special meaning. The word “Ftia” comes from the verb “fino” meaning land of the dead, disappearance, destruction. The word “Hellada” comes from the word “helos” meaning swamp, mud. The word “Trahin” comes from the word “trahus” meaning brittle, rocky. The word “Al” comes from “alos” and “als” meaning salt. The word “Alopa” means salty, salty island. The word “Arg” means white. The river which created the plain where these cities were located was called “Sperhei” meaning fiercely attacking. A mountain to the south bears the name “Eta” meaning misery, suffering. It was on this mountain that Hercules lit himself on fire to escape his pain. This is also the location of the Thermopolis Gorge and where the city Lamia, capital of Ftia, is located. The word “Lamia” is a Macedonian word meaning dragon.

If the toponyms are names associated with real objects and events, then the stories in mythology must also have realistic meaning. And as such the ethno genesis of the Helens can be derived from the myths about who Pindar (Pindar, Olympia, IX, 41), Apolodori (Apollodori, Bibliotheca (I-II) I, 7,2) and others have informed us.

When Zeus decided to flood and destroy the rotten and godless people, he also wanted to preserve mankind in general, so he chose Deukalion and Pira as the only good and pious individuals among all the people to be saved. Deukalion built a large wooden box, according to instructions he received from Prometheus, and got in it together with his wife. Soon afterwards the earth became infested with many problems causing misery among the people. Zeus then ordered the north winds that disperse rain to stop blowing and ordered the South winds to firmly tighten the dark clouds and pour a lot of water on the earth. While rain came down non stop for nine days and nine nights, Poseidon ordered giant waves (tsunami) to slam the Aegean Sea shore and stopped the flow of the Sperhei River at the Malian Gulf. As a result, fields and valleys, towns and villages were all flooded. The earth soon began to transform into a vast sea without shores. In panic, the people ran to the hills to save themselves but their attempts were in vain as the floodwaters covered and destroyed everything. When everything was covered in water only Deukalion and Pira escaped the disaster but found the world a wasteland, surrounded by an awful silence. In gratitude they made many offerings to the gods, while praying for the recovery of humanity. Hearing their pleas, Zeus decided to help them but in order for him to restore mankind, they had to follow his instructions through the goddess Themida. She ordered them to cover their heads, to untie their belts and to throw “the bones of their mother” behind them. For a while they were confused by the enigmatic words until they realized that their mother was the earth and its bones were the stones. And as Deukalion threw stones behind him they turned into men, and those Pira threw turned into women. Later they nurtured many offspring; their most famous being sons Helen and Amfiktion.

According to Pausanias (Pauzania, Periigissis tis Ellados,, 25 (prev. Pasini: Vodič po Heladi), Logos, Split, 1989), Amfiktion was stripped from his throne by Athenian king Kranei, and 10 to 12 years later Kranei’s rule was stripped by Erihtonei.

Helen - king of Ftia

Deukalion (dedicated to God), king of Ftia, was succeeded by his son Helen (swamp) who became the eponimic hero of the Hellenes and ruled Thessalian Ftia. Helen had a son named Dor with Orseida, a forest nymph. When Greece got the name “Hellada” did it get it from the city “Hellada” in Ftia, which Homer mentioned as existing before Deukalian’s arrival, or not? Or was “Hellada” named after Deukalion’s son Helen who, on account of being born in Hellada, was named Helen or the other way around. Thucydides (Thucydides, Povijest Peloponeskog installment, p. I, 3, Dereta, Belgrade, 1991) attempted to solve that puzzle when he wrote: “It seems to me that the entire country was not called “Hellada”, because before Helen, Deukalion son’s time, generally there was no such name, people used to name themselves after other nations, mostly after Pelasgians. When Helen and his sons moved to Phtiotida they were called in accordance with the city the lived in, but some individuals, because of their close friendship with Helen, preferred to be called Hellenes. It took a long time before that name was adopted by many individuals and it eventually prevailed. Homer, who lived a long time after the Trojan War, never called those people “Hellenes” and neither did his contemporaries, except for the Achileans from Ftia, a people who were the first Hellenes. But in their songs the Hellenes were called “Danai”, “Argeians” and Achaeans. Thus the “Hellenes” got their name from the city just as the other people did.”

According to Mpampiniotis (Mpampiniotis, G.: Synhroni gramatiki tis koinis neas Elinikis, Athinai, p. 595, 1967) the etymology of the word “Helen” is of unknown origin, i.e. not of the Indo-European corpus. We, on the other hand, found that “Helen” belongs to the Pannonian Paleo-Balkan Glossology and is derived from the word “helos” meaning swamp. The name of the city Hellada in Ftia is derived from the prefix “Hel” meaning swamp and suffix “ada” meaning island. From this we have Hellada meaning an island in the swamp where Deukalion’s people settled during their migration. Mpampiniotis believes that Herodotus was the first person to use “Hellenes” as an ethnic name for the various people on Greece’s territory.

Mpampiniotis was also attempting to connect the ethnonym “Hellenes” (Ellines) to the toponym “Seli” (Selioi), a village on the slopes of Mount Bermion (Karakamen) in Negush District, found at an altitude of 1000 metres. Mpampiniotis, however, explained that from a “morphological aspect” the words Hellas and Hellenes essentially come from the words Heli (Elloi) and Seli (Selioi), but that these forms too are of unknown origin. However, we know that they are of Slavic origin, from the word “seli” meaning to move, to migrate, or from the Serbian word “seli” meaning “to sit down”.

The toponym “Seli” has helped various people connect the ethnonym “Hellenes” to Homer’s work (Homer, Iliad and Odyssey, XVI, 233, Novi Sad, 1985. (Prev. Gjurigj MN)) in the part where Ahilei offered a sacrifice to Zeus and Patrocles begs him to give him the gift of fame and a happy return: “Dear Zeus, Dodonian king of the Pelasgians who rules cold Dodona from far away, where Seli, your prophets, near you with dirty feet live on bare earth…” or “Ô Dia Dödönai, Pelasgike, pou makria esy meneis / kai ti veryheimöni Dödöni exousiazeis, pou ekei gyrö oi exigitades sou oi Selloi / oi aniftopodoi pou koimountai katagis…”

Homer very explicitly stated that Zeus was king of the Dodonian Pelasgians and the Tesprotians but not of the Hellenes, who, during the Scythian Illyrians in Epirus, moved to Eolia in the Peneus River plain, which has since been renamed to Thessaly. Herodotus (Herodotus, History, VII, 176, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) confirmed this when he described the gorge where the Thermoilite wall was built. “The wall was built by the Fokeidians because they feared the Thessalians, who came from Tesprotia and wanted to settle in the country of the Eolians, where they live today.” In the original text, this reads: “Thessaloi elthon ek Thesprötön oikesontes gen Aiolida (-Pelasgiötis), ten per nyn ekteatai”. “The goat may lie but the horn does not lie!!”

About the Hellenic migrations, Thucydides (Thucydides, Povijest Peloponeskog installment, p. I, 12, Dereta, Belgrade, 1991) cited the following: “… The current Beotians, sixty years after the capture of Ilei (1183 BC), were expelled from Arn by the Thessalians (Tesproti from Pelasgian origin) and settled in present day Boeotia, which formerly was

called Cadmian country and the Dorani (Dorians), in their eightieth year, with the Herculians, occupied the Peloponnesus.”

Dor (Döros) king of the Dorians

During Deukalion and Helen’s time, the Hellenes lived in Thessalian Ftia. However, according to Herodotus (Herodotus, History, I, 56, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988), “… during Dor, Helen son’s time, they lived in the region under Os and Olympus Mountains in the land of the Histieotidi. When the Cadmians expelled them they settled in the Pindus Mountain region in Macedonia. Hence, again they crossed to Driopida and from Driopida went to the Peloponnesus where they were named Dorians.”

This is what the original text said: “... epi de Dörou tou Ellenos ten ypo ten Ossan te kai ton Olympon hören, kaleomenen de Istaiötin ek de tes Istiaiötidos ös exaneste ypo Kadmeiön, oikee en Pindö Makednon kaleomenon...”.

This part of Herodotus’s work has been significantly exploited lately for political purposes, and thus we need to take a second look. According to Eratosthenes, “The War of Seven against Thebes” took place in 1213 BC, when the Theban-Phoenicians were expelled by the Argives (Pannonian origin) they migrated to their relatives in Enheleia, modern day Albania. From this it follows that before this event, the Cadmians expelled king Dor’s Hellenes from Ftia in Hestieotida and then they went to Pindus Mountain in Macedonia.

Stages and routes of Doric migrations (“Wandering people” - Herodotus, I, 56) in Pelasgia in the XIII century BC

Stages:

1. Dodonia 2. Ftiotida (during Deukalion’s time) in 1124 BC 3. Histieotida (during Dor’s time) 4. Pindus (Cadmian expulsion) 5. Driopidika – Doridika 6. Peloponnesus in 1104 BC

Histieotida was located in Thessaly, on the southern slopes of Mount Olympus (2917 m), just south of Macedonia. The Pindus mountain range begins in the northern part of Orestidia (Kostur Region) and Mount Gramos (2520 m) in Macedonia, and extends toward the south to the Corinthian Gulf. The Dorians were probably driven out against the flow of the Peneus River, in Pindus, Timfaia (Tymphaia) and Paravaia (Parrhayaia) Regions in Macedonia which at the time belonged to the Macedonians. The centre of these regions was modern day Metsovo, located between the mountains Tumfa (2497 m), Lugkos (2249 m) and Hasia (1564 m) on the north side and Lakmos (2295 m) on the south side. This part of the mountain range forms the watershed between the rivers Peneus in Thessaly, Haliacmon (Bistrica) in Macedonia, Ahelosa, Arahtosa and Thaumisa in Epirus and Aosa (Voiusha) in Albania.

Herodotus (Herodotus, History, I, 56, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) has provided us with a precise migration route that the Hellenes took from Histieotida in Thessaly to the Pindus Region in Macedonia: “Oikee en Pindö Makednon kaleomenom...” Here the horonym Macedonia is associated with the oronym Pindus but there is no indication that the Dorians became known as Macedonians. The misuse is the verb “kaleomenon” which means “called” from the base “kaleö” meaning “to call”, “to name”. As long as Olympus is a mountain in Histieotida, then the Pindus Mountain is in Macedonia. Modern politicians unfortunately have used this piece of Herodotus’s writing to say that “after the Dorians were named Macedonians, one part of them went east and became the ancient Macedonians, while the second part went south and it became the ancient Hellenes”. We will, however, continue to follow Herodotus.

Later Dorian migration took place out of the inhospitable Pindus towards the south... “From there, again they crossed over Driopida and from Driopida they went to the Peloponnesus where they were named Dorians”. (Herodotus, History, I, 56, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988)

Driopida (drys meaning oak) is a plateau located between the mountains Eta (2152 m), Kallidromo (1373 m), Evardousia (2407 m), Giona (2510 m) and Parnass (2457 m) from where the river Kefis emerges. This is a narrow part... “Approximately thirty degrees wide... located between Malida and Fokida, an area which earlier was called Driopida”. (Herodotus, History, VII, 56, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988)

The eponimic hero Driop was king of Driopida. His daughter’s name was Driopa. Driopa had a son named Amfis with god Apollo. When Amfis grew up he built the temple Delphi for his father and founded the city Eta, where he ruled as king. In memory of his mother he raised a sanctuary for the nymphs and in their honour he established formal games. In his own honour he named his capital city Amfis, capital of Fokida Region.

The Dorians than expelled the native Driopini who moved to Messenia and Laconia, to the cities Hermina and Azin, located across Kardimil. The new lands the Dorians conquered they renamed to Dorida in honour of their eponimic hero and king Dor (Döros) from whom they also received their ethnic name Dorians (Dörieis). After three unsuccessful attempts to conquer Athens, the Dorians tried to take the Peloponnesus by way of the Corinthian Isthmus Istam. Initially they were opposed by king Evristei of Mycenae and later by his successors Orestes and Tisamen from the Pelopidi Dynasty. Then after one hundred years of peace, the “third generation” children of Doric king Aristomah again attempted to conquer the Peloponnesus. Aristomah’s children in mythology were “Herculidians” and their names were Temen, Aristodem and Kresfont. They tried to conquer the Peloponnesus under Oksil’s leadership.

Oksil was a descendent of the Pannonian Lapiti. Oksil’s father was Hemon and his grandfather was Toant, king of the Etolians. Toant was also leader of the Etolians in the Trojan War who fought with 40 ships and excelled in valour and heroism. After Odysseus left Ithaca he found refuge with King Toant, married his daughter and spent his entire life with him. Etol was one of Oksil’s ancestors and eponimic hero of the Etolians who took his Epeian relatives from Elida to the Peloponnesus, where they built their own Etolian dynasty. Oksil was born in that dynasty but lost an eye when he was young. When the Hellenes of Dorida attempted to again conquer the Peloponnesus, they ran into Oksil on the road sitting on a horse with one eye patched. The Dorian horseman immediately recognized Oksil as their leader and asked him to lead them to the land of their ancestors. Oksil agreed to lead them under the condition that the Hellenes, after winning the Peloponnesus, hand over Elida, the homeland of his ancestors back to him. The Hellenes agreed and Oksil steered them through the strait between Etolia and Achaia to the Peloponnesus, where the cities Rion and Antirion were located. This was where the barges built to cross the strait were located. The place was called Naupakt.

The Hellenes, under Oksil’s leadership, crossed the strait and after several severe battles with the king of Mycenae, they conquered the Peloponnesus in 1104 BC. The conquerors then gave Oksil the throne of Elida where he wisely ruled and passed fair laws. He also took back all of the indigenous people who the Hellenes had persecuted and exiled, assumed care of the sanctuary in Olympia and rebuilt the Olympics. After Oksil’s death, the throne of Elida was passed on to his son Laias.

The Hellenic Dorians conquer the Peloponnesus

At the time the Hellenes landed on the northwestern coast of the Peloponnesus, king of Arg and Sparta was Tisamen (Tisamenos), son of king Orestes and Hermiona, Menelaos’s daughter. Tisamen had a brother named Pentil. The Hellenes over-powered the Pelopidi in battle, ruined Mycenae and drove Tisamen and Pentil out. The Pelopidi fled to the Achaeans north of the Peloponnesus and begged the Achaeans to let them settle there. The Achaeans refused because they feared the Pelopidi. The Pelopidi were an urban type people and by that virtue they could have become their rulers. Tisamen died in battle, but his troops overpowered the Achaeans and forced them to move to Asia Minor. Tisamen was buried in Helicon. His son Komet ruled Achaia until he was expelled by the Hellenes. He then moved to Asia where he founded the Pelopida colony. Pentel and his successors established a colony on Lesbos Island.

The Hellenes under Temen’s leadership first conquered Argolida. Temen had many children including a daughter named Hirneta who married Deifont. When Temen became King of Argolida, he loved his daughter more than he did his sons and wanted to leave the throne of Arg to her husband Deifont. Because of that Temen’s sons hated Temen and while he was swimming, they killed him. Later there were fierce clashes between the relatives; brothers Kerin and Falk on the one hand, and Deifont and Hirneta on the other. They where all killed and then buried in an olive garden, near Epidaurus in the Peloponnesus.

The second group of Hellenes led by Kresfont took Mesena. Kresfont then became king of Mesena and agreed to divide the country with the Mesenians. He then married Meropa, daughter of Kipsel of Arcadia and among his other children he had a son, the youngest named Epit. Kresfont ruled in favour of all the people and was a favourite with the poor people, but because of that the rich hated him and had him and his sons killed, except for Epit who at the time was away residing at his grandfather Kipsel’s court. With help from the Arcadians, Epit was able to take back rule of Mesena and punish his family’s murderers and their accomplices.

The third group of Hellenes headed by Aristodem won over Laconia. Aristodem then became king of Sparta. He settled his group of Hellenes in Sparta where they came to be known as Spartans. His wife Argeia gave birth to twins named Evristen and Prokel. Aristodem died soon after the birth of the twins and the Spartans chose both boys to be kings, as was ordered by Pitia of Delphi. After they grew up, even though the boys were brothers, they could not adapt to one another all their lives. Their descendents too hated each other. According to Herodotus (Herodotus, History, VI, 53, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988), “Spartans ... and the remaining Hellenes say that these ancient Doric kings up to Perzei were Hellenes and that is what they wanted to be called…” In further describing them Herodotus says that Perzei was Assyrian and so were his descendants

who were not Hellenes, but, as the Hellenes themselves thought, they were Egyptians.

The fourth group of Hellenes, led by Altei, took Corinth Region and drove out most of the Eolian and Achaean tribes living there. Altei then declared war on the Athenians, during legendary king Kodro’s time, son of Melan of Aeolian origin from Pannonia. Kodro was killed under the city gate and his throne was inherited by his elder son Medont while his younger son Nelei left Athens and went to Asia Minor where he led the Lapiti and Achaean Ionians and settled Ionian Dodekapolis. According to tradition Kodro died either in 1091 or in 1088 BC.

The Hellenes were unable to enslave the mountainous region of Arcadia in the central Peloponnesus. The Arcadians were natives, Pelasgians, and were proud of their origin and eternal freedom. The Spartans often attacked them but always “had it bad while dueling with the Tegeans…” (Herodotus, History, VI, 66, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) “When the Dorians later expelled all the inhabitants from the Peloponnesus, the mysteries (Danai from Egypt) also disappeared, and only the Arcadians were preserved in the Peloponnesus who were not expelled”. (Herodotus, History, II, 171, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, the 1988)

After conquering the Peloponnesus the Hellenes took the islands Ter, Mel, Rod, Kos and Crete, where the Cadmian Phoenicians lived. On the Asia Minor coast the Hellenes took Alikarnas which became an important centrr for further conquests in Pamphylia and Cyprus. Indo-European migrations in the Balkans in XIII-XII century BC led to the exodus and displacement of populations in all directions, especially towards Asia Minor and southern Italy.

“Dark Age in historic Aegean”

The sad fate of the refugees from Mycenae and the Mycenaean world of Peloponnesus was described by logograph Helleniko (406 BC) of Lesbos.

In a survey of the Mycenaean world (Chadwick J.: The Decipherment of Linear B, Cambrudge, 1967) there was no mention of male slaves, so from this we can draw conclusions that after taking urban centres, the Hellenes simply killed all the men and took the women and children into slavery. This disastrous practice not only stalled the development of world civilization, but threw the entire Aegean world into a “historical dark age” which lasted about 400-500 years, thereafter everything had to start from scratch. This period in history is called the “archaic” period where “arch” means start, beginning. The first to take steps towards a new civilization was Homer in the VIII century BC and Hesiod in the VII century BC. With the migration of warfare by the thinly “civilized” Hellenes, there was much destruction causing a breakdown in the old social structures and populations up to the Hellenization of the Peloponnesus.

We have observed significant setbacks in customs, organizations and all areas of life where the Hellenes had settled. (Papastavrou, I.: Istoria tis Arhaias Ellados, p. 55, Hiotelli, Athinai, 1972) The shape of Hellenic communities in the transitional period depended on geographical, economic and socio-political conditions. In time, the political form of community was expressed in terms of “polis-kratos” i.e. City States. The centres of Hellenistic City States that gave rise to historical developments in the Peloponnesus were Sparta, Athens in Attica, which until 405 BC existed as a multinational and multicultural community, and Phoenician Thebes in Boeotia. In Thessaly, Macedonia and Epirus, even in classical times, kingdoms prevailed.

Another place in the Peloponnesus where indigenous people survived the Spartan onslaught was Argolida, ruled by the tyrant Phaedon (Feidönos). According to Herodotus (Herodotus, History, VI, 127, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988), Phaedon introduced strict measures in the Peloponnesus and strongly opposed all Hellenes, by driving the Eleian judges out of Olympia and organizing the Olympic competitions in 776 BC himself. Phaedon was a descendant of the Hellenic Temenidi. After his death Arg’s influence declined. First place in the events in Peloponnesus and beyond was taken by Sparta.

Sparta - a Hellenic City State

There are numerous sources which provide information on the history and activities of the Spartans from the Hellenic migrations to the Peloponnesus to the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Included among those sources are the works of Herodotus, Plutarch, Xenophon, Pausanias, Strabo, Tirtei, etc.

The largest part of the Hellenes remained in Laconia, on the west coast of the Peloponnesus and occupied the fertile plain between the mountains Parnon (1935 m) and Taiteg (2437 m), cut by the river Evrot. These conquerors experienced their greatest resistance at the old city Amikl, which had a strong fortress. This city was established during Amikl’s time, king of the Leleshkian settlers. Amikl was Lakedemonias’s son. After conquering Lakedemonis the Hellenes enslaved the natives, banned their language and the Hellenic language became the language of governance – the official language. (Papastavrou, I.: Istoria tis Arhaias Ellados, p. 52, Hiotelli, Athinai, 1972)

The Spartans founded the Hellenic city Sparta just north of Amikl where the conquerors faced their greatest battle. Later the Hellenes who lived near Sparta received the name “perioikoi”, an area which covered about 100 villages in Lakedemonia. They were free citizens but were obliged to serve in the army, but not in military training and not in command of the army.

The slaves were required to cultivate the land and supply the military and other Hellenes with food and other logistical needs. This freed the Spartans from everyday life worries and allowed them to dedicate their time and attention to establishing strong military forces. Because of this there were no political or social conflicts. Many researchers agree that this constituted the largest military camp with conquering and aggressive intentions. Because they recovered from the big losses suffered during the war with the Tegeans, they, during king Leon’s time (about 600 BC), had many subsequent successes. But... “They lived under the worst constitution... and, finally, a great Constitution was introduced when Lycurgus became legislator...” (Herodotus, History, I, 65, 66, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988.) Lycurgus fixed that problem when he was guardian of his grandson Leobot, king of Sparta. He brought a constitution from Crete, from the city Gorta (Gortis) in which there were civil rights legislated during Minoi’s time. Herodotus continues: “As soon as he became guardian he introduced a new constitution and took care not to violate it. Besides the important issues relating to military exercises of the military units, public areas and important measures, Lycurgus also included senators called geronti”.

“Eugenics” in Sparta

Measures and means of reproduction and refinement of birth were labeled under the term eugenics. According to Lycurgus’s legislation, correct conditions and rules were prescribed for marriage. Taken into account were the ages of the newlyweds, their health, their mental state and the lack of affinity between them. Seven years after their birth, Spartan children were classified into groups (agele - agelas) which, under the leadership of their seniors, would undergo regular gymnastics and military exercises designed to brutalize the body and spirit. After the age of twenty, the Spartans belonged to a group of “young warriors” who, up to age thirty, had to live collectively and feed in a canteen (fidition-sissition), eating black soup and barley bread at their own expense. Living together made these young Spartans develop gentle immaculate love for each other. After sixty years of age they were free with the right to participate in the assembly of the elders.

Parents were asked to give up thin and sickly children and children with congenital anomalies and physically destroy them by throwing them into Evrot from the top of the famous Terpei rock.

In other words, the Hellenic Spartans demanded such a mode of education that would lead them to build great physical strength and good health, in order to create better human beings and save the human race that was born and lived for the country. (Papastavrou, I.: Istoria tis Arhaias Ellados, p. 110, Hiotelli, Athinai, 1972)

Conversely, the Hellenes in Lakedemonia, in multinational Athens, under the leadership of the Kodridi, Alkmeonidi and Pizistratidi, Aeolian descendants of Pannonia, understood the nature of their state in the exact opposite way. Here too they looked for ways to improve and refine their offspring, but, above all, by seeking the beauty of the soul and in mental development as well as in physical training.

What language did the Hellenes speak? According to linguist Mpampiniotis (Mpampiniotis, G., Synoptiki istoria tis Ellinikis glossas, p. 96, Athina, in 1986), they spoke a “Doric language” since 1100 BC, when they conquered the natives of the Peloponnesus. This language was spoken in Laconia, Messinia, Argolida, Corinth, Crete, and the Dodecanese, i.e. wherever Hellenic conquerors landed. Later the Doric language became enriched by the Paleo-Balkan glossology and therefore it became the language most used by authors among the ancient Hellenic dialects. The Spartan poet Tirtei (Tyrtaios) wrote his allegories in this language in the VII century BC, which was full of Homeric words and phrases. Do the following words belong to the Doric language: “psomi” (and not the Paleo-Balkan word “artos”), “Nero” (and not “hydor”), “guruni” (and not “us”), “provato” (and not “ois”), “alogo” (and not “hippos”), etc?

We know almost nothing about the original Hellenic religions. Based on the monuments in Sparta, which, as described by Pausanias (Pauzania, Periigissis tis Ellados, III, II, 12 (prev. Pasini: Vodič po Heladi), Logos, Split, 1989), the Hellenes accepted the Panonian gods of Olympus as follows: Zeus, Hera, Hestia, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, etc. The following information provided by Pausanias (Pauzania, Periigissis tis Ellados, III, 13 (prev. Pasini: Vodič po Heladi), Logos, Split, 1989) is very interesting: “Opposite to Aphrodite the Olympian, was Saviour Kora’s (Persephone) temple. It was said that the temple was built by the Thracian Orpheus. Others however claim that it was built by Abaris (Avaris) who came from the land of Hyperboreans.” This Panonian Hyperborean was a prophet and miracle worker. Along with Zalmoksis and Orpheus, Abaris was a representative of the religious-mystical sect which opposed realistic interpretation of nature and the world, namely the mythological explanation. Abaris cured Athens from the bubonic plague. (Pindar, Fr. 270)

In cultural terms, the Spartans produced the poet Tirtei. The poet Alkman (600) however was Lydian. The Spartans introduced the “Doric” columns in architecture, which were a copy of the Minoan columns of Crete. The Minoan columns were made of wood while the Hellenic ones were made of stone.

Spartan wars

Because the Hellenic Spartans could not subdue the Arcadians, they focused their effort in conquering west of Laconia and in VIII century BC, during the second Mesenian war, they fully occupied Mesenia. The Mesenian refugees who fled the war founded a colony in Sicily and named it Mesenia. New problems arose from the extension of the Spartan frontiers. The Spartans were a small nation, about 25,000 of them (Papastavrou, I.: Istoria tis Arhaias Ellados, p. 110, Hiotelli, Athinai, 1972) and maintaining the conquered regions became a problem. The Spartans feared a slave rebellion (hiloti) because there were more slaves than Spartans. Citing Thucydides, Papastavrou said that during the Peloponnesian War with Athens, the Spartan Hellenes killed 2000 of their slaves (hiloti) “without guilt or remorse”.

The “Peloponnesian League” was created in the VI century BC but it did not include Arg and Achaia. The League was created during king Krez’s (Croesus) time. Krez was a Lydian. Krez had inquired about who in Greece was “most powerful” the Lakedemonians or the Athenians? Since then the Spartans stopped their isolation and became engaged in the internal problems of Sicily and Athens (510 BC), especially when the Alkmeonidians were in power.

Fearing an internal slave uprising inside Sparta, the Spartans did not participate in the fighting between the Athenians and the Persians in Marathon, in September 590 BC. In the spring of 480 BC, however, the Hellenes contributed 300 of their warriors, led by king Leonidas of Sparta, and fought against the Persian king Xerxes at Thermopylae. They where all killed as they manifested their heroic virtues and Spartan discipline. About the Spartan participation in the naval battle of Salamis, Herodotus (Herodotus, History, VII, 43, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) said: “The following ships took part in the war: the Spartans from the Peloponnesus contributed 16 ships, the Corinthians contributed 40, the Sikioniani contributed 15, the Epidavrani contributed 10, the Trezeniani contributed 5 and the Hermioni contributed 3 ships. All of these people, except for the Hermioni, by descent, were Dorani and Macedonians descended from Erineia from the Pindus and eventually from Driopida ... (44). The Athenians by themselves contributed 80 ships, more than everyone else combined.”

The battle took place in September 480 BC. The Greek forces won a triumphant victory but the real winners of this battle were the Athenians.

“Among the 150,000 Greek soldiers involved in the battles in the spring of 479 BC, fought in Platea against Persian military commander Merdonei, 5,000 were heavily armoured Hellenes from Sparta, with 35,000 lightly armed helots, because for every Spartan there were 7 helots.” (Herodotus, History, IX, 28, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) The Spartan army was led by king Pausanei. The Persians were defeated and expelled from Greece. The real winners in this war were the Spartans.

Thucydides (Thucydides, Povijest Peloponeskog rata, p. I, 89-138, Dereta, Belgrade, 1991) is an excellent source of information that covers Greece’s history from the end of the Persian war to the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. Fifty years of great historical importance, rapid and strong development in Athens and the antagonisms between Sparta and Athens as hegemon. The first clashes between two specific ethnic and social systems took place in the spring of 431 BC. Athens was a multi-ethnic and democratic state whose ancestors were Lapiti from Pannonia on one side, and conservative Sparta with a Doric Hellenic national character on the other side. The wars lasted 27 years. Athens was head of the Athenian alliance and Sparta led the Peloponnesian League.

The war was exhausting for both warring sides but Sparta came out as the winner and introduced its own hegemony. However it was a “Pyrrhic victory” because there was a decline in power in Greece which later allowed the Macedonians to conquer it after Philip II’s victory in Chaeronea in 338 BC.

But even before Chaeronea, Spartan hegemony came to an end in 371 BC at the Battle of Leuktra in Boeotia where Spartan forces, commanded by king Kleombot, collided with 7,000 Boeotian troops commanded by king Epiminond. Epominond’s victory meant an end to Spartan and Hellenic hegemony and the beginning of Phoenician Theban rule. This win was a historic milestone in further developments in the situation in Greece, particularly in the Peloponnesus, where there were rebellions against Athens and against the Peloponnesian League and a movement towards the Boeotians. The Hellenes of Sparta were unable to stop the liberation movements in Arcadia, Argolida, Elida and Mesena and Athens was not allowed to interfere so it took a neutral stance. The rebels, on the other hand, called on Boeotian king Epaminond to help them. Sparta failed to resist his large force from entering the Peloponnesus. Sparta then agreed to give the Mesenians and Arcadians their independence. After that Sparta found itself isolated on its north and west and was deprived of the rich Mesenian plain, which dealt it a major blow.

The Spartans however did not remain static. They allied themselves with Athens and Dionysius of Syracuse, and received financial help from Persia. They then declared war on Arcadia and won. At the conference of Susa (367 BC), in which the Spartans, Athenians and Thebans participated, the Thebans were mandated to establish “Imperial” Peace, which recognized the original conditions and independence of Mesena and Arcadia. Thus Sparta, after losing the battle in Leuktra, ceased to be a respectable force. Later, this also happened to Athens and Thebes, which eventually led to the disappearance of the City-States and to Macedonian hegemony.

From our analysis, which is confirmed by Herodotus (Herodotus, History, I, 56, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988), we can conclude that the “Lakedemonians of Hellenic origin”, who used “eugenics”, and whose good soldiers caused interstate conflicts and wars of conquest, are not the creators of the so-called “Greek miracle” in Aegean culture.