XXVIII – ORIGINALITY OF BALKAN MYTHOLOGY – BIRTH OF THE EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION

XXVIII – ORIGINALITY OF BALKAN MYTHOLOGY – BIRTH OF THE EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION

Scientists up to now have studied and indirectly reconstructed the so-called “Greek mythology” using three different types of sources: mythological historical, literary and archaeological. The authenticity and source materials like the “living myth” of the Olympic gods and goddesses are not defined, but then we came to accept the “edited” stories of the oldest witnesses of this mythology, Homer and Hesiod, and later poets, artists, historians and myth writers.

According to Herodotus (Herodotus, History, II, 53, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988), “it was Homer and Hesiod who first created the stories about the origin of the gods, gave them their names, explained their divine honours and skills, described their characters and gave them to the Hellenes.” And where did Homer and Hesiod get these stories? The poets themselves said that all these stories were given to them by the Muses, daughters of eloquent memories who inspired the poets to write about the past, present and future.

Homer’s historical problem

According to numerous studies conducted, Homer lived in the IX-VIII century BC in Asia Minor, near Smyrna, and Hesiod lived in the VIII century BC. While information about Homer’s life is very scarce, reliable information about Hesiod’s life has been preserved in his own works “Theogony” (θεογονία) and “Works and Days” (Ἔργα καὶ Ἡµέραι). From these works we have learned that Hesiod’s father was called Dio and lived in Kima in Asia Minor, with Eolian settlers. Dio worked in maritime commerce. To escape bitter poverty Dio moved to mainland Greece and settled in Boeotia, in the village Askar located between Orhomen and Tespia, where Hesiod was born.

The Boeotian-Thessalian Orhomen is also the place where the “Dimini Culture” carriers the Minians of Podunavie lived, whose culture reached its zenith in 1400 BC. A little north of there, in the Eolian (Thessalian) plain, beside the Minians lived their allies from the Danube; the Lapiti, Tiroi, Flegi and others known under the common ethnonym Eolians.

According to Thomson (Thomson, G.: I Arhaia Eilliniki Koinonia-to Proistoriko Algaio, p. 124/5, 133/4, 285, 387, Athina, 1954), all these Danube tribes migrated from the north, from Pannonia, along the Vardar Valley and through Pieria and Olympus in Macedonia. When they arrived

in Hellada, in Thessaly, Boeotoia, Attica, the Peloponnesus and Crete, they lodged themselves and their language, religion, myths, gods, legends, customs and way of life among the indigenous Pelasgians, Lelezians, Cretans, and Ionians. In addition to that the newcomers also brought with them from their old native soil their heroic epic poems in the form of rhapsodies (from the words ραφω - rapso meaning to stitch together, and ωδη – oda meaning to sing). This is confirmed by Papastavrou (Papastavrou, I,: Istoria tis Arhaias Ellado, p. 62, Hiotelli, Athinai, 1972), who said that the rhapsodies, before Homer’s time, lived in Thessaly, Boeotia and in other neighbouring areas. Because of that their gods originated in Thessaly but their habitat was Olympus. When the Dorian, a new nation, migrated from the northwest Balkans into Epirus and Thessaly they put pressure on the Eolians of Thessaly and, in 1124 BC, they moved to the northwest coast of Asia Minor where they formed Eolia in Asia Minor. When they moved, these Eolians also took with them their rhapsody songs and traditions. This was confirmed by the fact that some historical settlements in Anatolia got their names from the ancient tribes and places in Thessaly; names such as Olympus, Larissa, Magnesia, and others, and the fact that they called their new homeland Eolia confirms their origin.

In the early days the new Eolian settlers were preoccupied with fighting against the Anatolian lords the Frizhani (settlers from Macedonia), the Mishanie (settlers from Posavina) and the Liki. In time the memories of those old days began to take on mythical proportions. The stories of the new struggles inspired stories from older struggles that took place in the old world in Thessaly and in their original homeland Pannonia.

So, as the settlers began to adapt to their new environment and tell their stories about their new struggles for survival, the poetic force that dealt with these stories was also attracted to the heroic content of the Trojan War of 1193 BC, in which the Mini, the Lapiti, the Tiroi of Thessaly, Boeotia, Messenia and other Danube descendants who lived in Hellada participated. Of all the poets and artists to have surfaced in this region Homer was considered to be the best after composing the Iliad. Rhapsody continued to spread, given momentum by Homer’s epic poems, competing in recitals, formal meetings, first under private initiatives and later under state control.

There are many questions surrounding the “Homeric problem”. At the top of the list is Homer’s age, the periods he wrote about, his place of birth, etc. According to historiography, Homer was born in Smyrna in Kolofon or on Hia Island. There are also indications that he was born in Babylon, under the name Tigram, and that he was sold as a hostage (οµηρος - Homer basis; αρ, αραρισκω - ar, ararisko – collateral, guaranty). According to another tradition, the word “Homer” means “blind”.

The Iliad of course was composed during the “Archaic” period which began around 750 BC, when the great Hellenic colonization of the neighbouring coast was taking place. If the Iliad was representative of history, then the Thessalian immigrant struggle in Asia Minor and at the Anatolian coast involving primarily the Mini, Lapiti, Tiroi and Achaeans, i.e. Eolians, against the older population in the region, may be true. The leader of that struggle was Achilles and his people were called Mirmidoni or Achaeans (Αχαιοι – sorrowful), and so were the Hellenes in Troy.

In later times, the Iliad, on many occasions, was recited in royal courts in the various Ionian cities where the kings were Kodridi. It was tailored primarily to the ideals of aristocracy, with content such as knighthood, fighting spirit, heroic characters, conquering aspirations, myths, etc. Almost all researchers of the “Homeric question” claim that Homer’s epics are a mixture of different eras, where the combatants used stone, bronze and even iron weapons. They are a mixture of myth, history and folklore, of gods and heroes, etc. One thing, however, was characteristic in both of Homer’s epics and that was the language they were written in and the names of the gods were the same.

According to Krechmer (Kretchmer, P.: Einletitung ind die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache, Gottingen, 1886) and Mpampiniotis (Mpampiriotis, G., Synopiki Istoria tis Ellinkis glossas, p. 96, Athina, 1986), Homer’s works were composed in the Aeolian-Ionian language with some Attic (Lapit) neoterism. (Shkokljev & Shkokljev, 1997 and 1998.) They were created in Smyrna Region and in Hia, by poets who came from Thessaly, Boeotia and the Peloponnesus. (Thomson, G.: I Arhaia Eilliniki Koinonia-to Proistoriko Algaio, p. 390, Athina, 1954.) There were three distinct periods in the development and evolution of the Trojan myth: The Thessalian period, where the residents were originally from Pannonia; The Peloponnesian period, where the residents were Neleidi and Tiroi (also from Pannonia) and finally the Anatolian-Ionian period during which the Eolians of Thessaly, the Peloponnesus and Ionia left mainland Greece. Homer, in his epics, has given all this definite shape. And as Plato once said, he was not only a tutor to the Hellenes, but also their unifier.

What can we make of Homer’s most ancient verses? The most important information for us is his introduction to the Panonnian Boreans and Hyperboreans. According to Pausanius (Pauzania, Perrigissis tis Ellados, X, 5, 7 (prev. Pasini: Vodič po Heladi), Logos, Split, 1989), they are Olena, Orpheus and Femenoia. Olena first began to foretell and sing at the hexameter in Apollo’s temple at Delphi. Citing verses from Bei’s text, Pausanius said: “Here, where the prophecy is remembered well, the Hyperboreans founded Pagaz and the beautiful Agiei”. Listing other Hyperboreans (from the Danube) at the end of the verse, Bei mentions Olena (Ωλην): “And Olena who first became prophet… again became first in his lyrics and old songs…”

Orpheus (Ορφενς), son of Eagar, was the most famous mythical singer, musician and poet. He was also king of Macedonia and Thrace. According to Diodorus Siculus (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica, Fr. Vogel, I, 69, Leipzig, 1986 and beyond), Orpheus was also inventor of the alphabet. Femenoia (Φηµενοη) was Apollo’s daughter and first prophet (Pitia) in Apollo’s temple in Delphi, who prophesized at the hexametre. The saying “know thyself” is attributed to her.

Hesiod’s myths

While Homer’s works were created in Asia Minor, Hesiod’s epics took shape in Orhomen, Boeotia (Thomson, G.: I Arhaia Eilliniki Koinonia-to Proistoriko Algaio, p. 425, Athina, 1954), suggesting that they were of Minian origin. According to our research the first myth about Evronima, as well as other tales about gods and heroes, were originally created by the Hyperborean people or by the Danuni, creators of the Lipinski Vir, Starchevo, Macedonia and Vinca, or “Old Europe’s” cultures. (Gimbuts, M., The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe 6500-3500 BC Myth and Cult Images, Univ. of California Press, 1982.)

They were the Mini (Minichevo), the Lapiti (Lapovo), the Troi (Sirakovo), the Flegi (Pozharevchani), the Mosiniki (Mosna), the Mizi or Mioni (Mionitsa), the Macedonians and others. During their south, east and west migration from the Pannonian Podunavie in prehistoric times they left behind material culture (pottery, “megaroni”, vaults) as well as their ethnic names, which, to this day, are still present in some toponyms in Serbia and in the surrounding regions. In addition to that and as a result of interacting with their natural surroundings (the Pannonian Sea - Carpathians, the Danube - Gerdap), they created a “mental” picture of the birth of the cosmos and of consciousness, which by observation they, in their own way, tried to explain the secrets of nature, life and death. And from this phenomenon, a spiritual manifestation of the human mind, they created the traditional cosmology and Theogony.

They created an original, unique and autochthonous mythology, religion and cults that represented the archetypal European philosophy, linguistics and prehistory. Their religion was the oldest in the world and represented an autonomous system, such as that of the Danube hydrological system (Dan-Danu-Danubius, or Zeus’s mighty river of life), and was part of the Lipinski Vir Danube civilization. On a symbolic level, the Lipinski Vir Civilization, through architecture, sculpture, rites and customs, carried an image of the cosmos with the sun as a supreme being and the Lipinski Vir as Heliopolis. (Бабовиħ, Љ.: Положај и функција светлишта на Лепенском Виру, Центар за археолошка истраживања универзитета у Београду, XVII 97-108, 1997.)

The events that took place were memorized as stories and passed on from generation to generation through the centuries and millennia, exclusively through oral traditions and as free narratives. And as these stories were told and retold, they evolved according to environment and socio-political conditions. Then, later, in addition to the traditional mythological cosmogony and theogony, new stories began to appear, stories about legends and heroes. Yes, Homer and Hesiod did write these stories down and gave them to the Greeks and yes, as far as the Greeks were concerned, Homer and Hesiod created these gods and the pantheist religion, as Herodotus suggested (Herodotus, History, II, 53, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988), but these stories are original and traditional stories brought down by the Danube settlers, and not created by the Muses, daughters of eloquent memories.

But in reality Homer and Hesoid did not “invent” the myths; they just collected and recorded them. Their importance in history however is not minimized because had they not recorded the stories we would not have known about them. These myths are a collection of events observed by the eyes and concocted by the minds of the people who experienced them. Without them we would not have known that they originated from Pannonia and that the Athenian Pizistrat was of Pannonian origins. And Aristotle and the Academy of Sciences in Alexandria may not have existed without them.

If we were to compare the archetypical Pannonian “Lepenska” mythology, otherwise known as “Greek mythology”, to other old mythologies such as the Jewish mythology, developed under the influence of the Babylonians and Egyptians, or to the Roman mythology which evolved while being influenced by the Lipinski culture in the Balkans from which the newer Western mythologies developed, we will discover that the archetypical Pannonian mythology is the oldest and most original. The myth of Evronima, an archetype of the Olympic myth, with a feminine principle replaced by three male principles (Uranus, Cronus and Zeus). This, after all was an oral tale derived from folk tales, which ingeniously Homer, Hesiod, Euripides and many others synthesized. When they put together their stories they had no model to follow such as the ones from Asia and Egypt, so they wrote down what they discovered, mixing fact with fiction as their fertile imagination allowed them. But in order to get to the bottom of this story, we need new information and further research in order to supplement our knowledge and to open new possibilities for interaction. With understanding and acceptance of the scientific facts that the birth of European civilization occurred in this region, we can form an original image of the original European hierarchy and how it interacted in the Balkans.

Archaeological studies done in Lipinski Vir, Vincha and Starchevo, taken together with the onomastics discovered in the Pannonian Danube hydrological system, taken together with the original works of the ancient chroniclers, are the best sources of material to study the “living myth” of the Balkans.