Makedon (mythology)

Makedon, also Macedon (Ancient Greek: ) or Makednos (Μακεδνός), was the eponymous mythological ancestor of the ancient Macedonians according to various ancient Greek fragmentary narratives. In most versions, he appears as a native or immigrant leader from Epirus, who gave his name to Macedon, previously called Emathia or Thrace.

Both proper nouns Makedṓn and Makednós are morphologically derived from the Ancient Greek adjective makednós meaning "tall, slim", and are related to the term Macedonia. The adjective is traditionally derived from the Indo-European root *mak- or *meh2k-, meaning "long, slender", cognate with poetic Greek makednós or mēkedanós "long, tall", Doric mãkos and Attic mẽkos "length",Makistos, the mythological eponym of a town in Elis and an epithet of Heracles, Avestan masah "length", Hittite mak-l-ant "thin", Latin macer "meagre" and Proto-Germanic *magraz "lean, meager". The same root and meaning has been duly assigned to the tribal name of the Macedonians, which is commonly explained as having originally meant "the tall ones" or "highlanders" in Greek.

The seventh fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, quoted by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, states: " Macedonia the country was named after Makedon, the son of Zeus and Thyia, daughter of Deucalion, as the poet Hesiod relates; and she became pregnant and bore to thunder-loving Zeus, two sons, Magnes and Macedon, the horse lover, those who dwelt in mansions around Pieria and Olympus ". The poetic epithet " hippiocharmes " can alternatively be translated as " fighting on horseback " or " chariot-fighter " and has also been attributed to Aeolus son of Hellen, Troilus and Amythaon. A fragment of the Macedonian historian Marsyas of Pella (4th century BC), through a scholiast of Iliad xiv 226 confirms the genealogy as found in the Catalogue of Women: " Makedon son of Zeus and Thyia, conquered the land then belonging to Thrace and he called it Macedonia after his name. He married a local woman and got two sons, Pierus and Amathus; two cities, Pieria and Amathia in Macedonia were founded or named after them ". The rare name of his mother Thyia, has been corrupted in transmission to Aithria or Aithyia through the phrase " kai Thyias, and Thyia ". Thyia in the Delphic tradition was an eponym naiad of the Thyiades, alternative name of the Maenads in the cult of Dionysus, certainly practiced also in Macedonia.

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