DORIANS
(Macedonians were Dorians as were the
Spartans)
Legends which survived among the Dorian's and
which have come down to us through Pindar, Herodotus and
other ancient writers, say that the earliest ancestors of
the Dorians were Makednoi (that is, Macedonians), who
migrated to Doris from Pindos, more precisely from the
Lakmos region. Since it has already been seen that the
Dorians took their name from Doris, where they formed
themselves into one ethnic group by the union of the local
inhabitants and the newcomers, it can readily be inferred
that the name Makednoi and the mention of Pindos as their
original homeland do not refer to the whole of the Dorian
tribe but just to one of its component groups - not the
Hylleis, however, because these had settled in present-day
Sterea Hellas earlier. Ancient texts containing echoes of
fragments of a very old lost epic about Aigimios say that
the Dorians stood in danger of attack by the Lapiths, that
the king of the Dorians, Aigimios, sought the help of
Heracles in return for the reward mentioned above, and that
Heracles repulsed the Lapiths and established the Dorians in
a region from which he had driven out the Dryopians. It
follows that the race which was led by Aigimios and helped
by Heracles was not yet the Dorians but the Macedonians.
Heracles here is no more than the representative of a people
in central Sterea Hellas. One of the texts mentioned above
says that Aigimios people at the time of the Lapith attacks
were in Histiaiotis; others imply that they had already
reached the northern part of present-day Sterea Hellas. The
second version must be the earlier one, because it tallies
with the mention of the alliance of the people who are
represented by Heracles. The mention of the Lapiths as
enemies of the Dorians, i.e. the Macedonians, does not
conflict with this version since, as we have seen, there are
traces of Lapith settlements in the Spercheios Valley.
The Dorians of the historical period were
divided into three tribes: Hylleis, Dymanes, and Pamphyloi.
The eponymous heroes of the Dymanes and the Pamphyloi were
believed to be the sons of Aigimios who had led the Dorians
to Doris. The eponymous hero of the Hylleis was said to be
the son of Heracles who had acquired one third of Aigimios
kingdom for helping him against the Lapiths. |
