donnie
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Post by donnie on Jan 17, 2008 7:30:39 GMT -5
Reading Albanian epics, the word drangua or drangue often crops up when describing heroes. Phrases like "trim si drangue" are not rare in epics. My grandmother also uses it, as it is an archaic term.
Then suddenly, while reading about the mafia in Italy and Sicily, I came across the term 'Ndrangheta. It is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Italy along the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Neapolitan Camorra and so forth. According to a wiki article, the term has its origins in the Greek word andragathía, a word for heroism and virtue. Describing protagonists as heroic and virtuous is popular in epics, and so I was intrigued by any eventual connection between the Greek word and our Albanian word drangua.
Or could drangua be just a version of the word dragoi, i.e. dragon. "Trim me fletë" (Hero with wings) is also a common description of heroes in Albanian epics, speaking in favour of the latter theory. Is there any certainty regarding the origins of the word drangua as far as you are aware?
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Post by kasso on Jan 17, 2008 7:33:04 GMT -5
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PARIS DIO_MYSUS!
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It's Nice to be Important but It's more Important to be Nice!
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Post by PARIS DIO_MYSUS! on Jan 17, 2008 11:04:34 GMT -5
For Albanians the word Kreshnik means Christ and that means Hero! Krishna=Christ=Hero Firstly, that has been proved here to this Web Page, www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/MysiansGlory to The Lord MYSUS On High! Cheers, MysELf, MYSUS CHRIST
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Post by meltdown711 on Jan 17, 2008 15:01:36 GMT -5
Two pointless replies.
Anyway, I dont really see much of a mystery in it.
Most probably... andragathía -- the very word implies hero(andros -- man, hero). I dont know what gathia means, but I know that kalokagathos means nobleman.
Perhaps a Greek member here can help or Albquietman.
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Post by albquietman on Jan 17, 2008 16:23:11 GMT -5
"Agathos" in greek means good, kind. So the whole word "andr(a)agathos" is supposed to mean good man or kind man if we translate every word separately. I don't think there is such a word in use in todays Greece, but still there are greeks here that can prove me right or wrong.
The word "dragua" that we use in albanian doesn't have the same meaning. Dragua sounds to me more like slavian than greek, and as a matter of fact Dragan is a popular name in Serbia if I'm not wrong.
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Post by meltdown711 on Jan 17, 2008 16:29:48 GMT -5
Yea, your prolly right. Hoiwever, the Slavic itself comes from Latin (Draco/Draconis)
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Post by kasso on Jan 17, 2008 16:35:22 GMT -5
Toskali711,
In what sense was my reply pointless?
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Kanaris
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Post by Kanaris on Jan 17, 2008 17:50:40 GMT -5
Agathos.... we use the word often.... it also ,I think it means innocent... .. ALbQ.... where did you get the notion that we don't use the word? It's a common word.. used every day.. in fact if you watch the Greek news... you will often hear it... Melty,Donnie..... check this out...scroll down to the word 'good'
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donnie
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Post by donnie on Jan 17, 2008 17:58:59 GMT -5
I doubt it is Slavic AlbQ. Even if it is, as Toskali said, the origins of the word dragon comes from Latin. The name Dragan comes from the Slavic word for love. I think a translation of the name would be 'lovable', 'the loved one' or something similiar.
But thinking some more, I can conclude that the word drangue is just another version of dragoi. In Albanian mythology, the drangue is often described as a good creature in continuous battle with the evil kulshedra (quite alike, in description, the Greek Hydra).
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PARIS DIO_MYSUS!
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Post by PARIS DIO_MYSUS! on Jan 17, 2008 19:32:41 GMT -5
Toskali quote: Two pointless replies ____________________ Living side by side for very long time Greek language is mixed and turned into Albanian. Aga+thos=gentleman means richman that we call in Albanian AGA. Agathia is the same for womam that in English is Mem. Jesus is pure Albanian word tha means You're God.(Je+Zot=Je+Zeus) And the name Jesus deticated to MysELf MYSUS means GOD MYSIA. MYS=MYS-I-A SUS=GOD iclg.brinkster.net/LORD-IESU/Greeks been calling MysElf Iesus means Je-Sus! In greek Ie is the same pure verb in Albanian Je. PoliKalla!
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Post by albquietman on Jan 17, 2008 23:06:57 GMT -5
Agathos.... we use the word often.... it also ,I think it means innocent... .. ALbQ.... where did you get the notion that we don't use the word? It's a common word.. used every day.. in fact if you watch the Greek news... you will often hear it... Melty,Donnie..... check this out...scroll down to the word 'good'I ment "andragathos" not "agathos". I might be wrong, but as far as I remember (last time I was in Greece was more than 11 years ago), I haven't heard the word "andragathos" in Greece... Dijedon, I thought that slavs use "luba" for love...
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Post by Teuta1975 on Jan 17, 2008 23:18:36 GMT -5
Long but nice...I thought it may help...I also thought you had read it...if so, sorry for posting it twice. I know Toskali read it ;D
How true is it?
Fantasy Elemental Dragons
"Dragon" is a Greek word (drákôn), but the Greeks may only have been thinking of snakes. Mediaeval dragons, which give us the images of dragons typical in the European tradition, may actually have come from China, brought with steppe migrants like the Huns and Alans. Chinese dragons -- -- in popular religion tended to be associated with water, rivers, rain, etc. I don't think we get Chinese dragons breathing fire. That may be peculiar to European dragons, with the fire derived from images of Hell. In the association with the elements, however, the archetypal Chinese dragon is associated with the East, and with the element Wood. The color that goes with this can be read as either blue or green, so we alternatively hear of the Blue or the Green Dragon. But there are also Chinese Imperial dragons, where the Imperial color is yellow. All in all, a fan of dragons begins to yearn for dragons more systematically matched to the elements and the colors. A Blue Dragon, using the colors from the Fantasy Seven Element Theory, sounds more like water. A Red Dragon certainly goes with fire. A Yellow Dragon goes with air, and a Green Dragon with earth.
Chinese river dragons lived, of course, in rivers. A Rain Dragon (the name of Judge Dee's sword), like European fire-breathing dragons, can be imagined flying in the sky, like the Yellow Dragon for air. An earth dragon is something else. In John Boorman's movie Excalibur [1981], Merlin seems to be saying that the whole world rests on a great dragon, which is responsible for creation. Merlin's "charm of making" draws out the "dragon's breath." This is very evocative. Merlin's dragon is also pretty much invisible, which we would expect for a dragon under the earth -- it is disturbed, throwing Merlin off balance, when Excalibur is thrust into the earth by Arthur. To complete the image, fire dragons and water dragons can be imagined linking sky and earth, since volcanoes definitely contain fire, but erupt into the air, while water dragons, although a lot of water is low lying, must be in the air also as rain. Air dragons can be seen in the wind.
A Red Dragon occurs in the Bible, in the Book of Revelations:
(Revelations 12:3) And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon [drákôn pyrròs mégas], having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. (12:4) And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
(12:5) And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
(12:6) And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
(12:7) And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
(12:8) And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
(12:9) And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil [Diábolos], and Satan [Satanâs], which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
This Red Dragon is Satan, and we have the account of the revolt of the angels and the casting of Satan out of Heaven, later elaborated by Milton in Paradise Lost. The modern incarnation of this, however, is not Satan, but a serial killer, the human devil of Red Dragon [1981] by Thomas Harris, now a successful movie [2002], with Anthony Hopkins again playing Hannibal Lecter, a character famous from The Silence of the Lambs but first introduced in the Red Dragon. The symbolism of Red Dragon also includes the Mah Jongg tile called the "red dragon," one of the set of red, green, and white tiles called "dragons" in the game. This name of the tiles, however, does not seem to originally be Chinese but was introduced by Western players of the game. So this doesn't involve a connection, as we might think, back to Chinese dragons.
Something more obscure but formerly quite widespread does apparently go back to Chinese dragons. According to my colleague Gunar Freibergs ("Why Are There Two Other Dragons at the Slaying of Fafnir? Tracing the Migration of a Dragon Motif Across Eurasia"), a decorative motif of two dragons, with tails intertwined, arching down over a scene, occurs early in Chinese art and later turns up in Sythian, Sarmatian, Celtic, and even Viking art. In China, it was often an arching, two-headed dragon, which is actually found as a character on Shang oracle bones. This was often reproduced in decorative pieces in jade or bronze from the Chou all the way down to the T'ang Dynasties. Gunar quotes Victor Mair, of the University of Pennsylvania, that this character, pronounced huáng, meant "rainbow." This apparently is character number 2299 in Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary [Harvard University Press, 1972]. The dictionary definition is curious: "Ancient ornament of jade, of a semi-circular shape; it was hung up as a tinkling pendant." Since the actual heads of the dragons can be discerned on many of the ornaments, the definition is curiously agnostic. That this was supposed to be the rainbow may be something that has dropped out even of Chinese consciousness, though that the rainbow should be dragons seems quite reasonable in the context of the tradition.
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PARIS DIO_MYSUS!
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Post by PARIS DIO_MYSUS! on Jan 18, 2008 9:06:14 GMT -5
Dragon is not a word that can be describe and stands for Hero. As I said that is an Albanian name Kreshnik that means Hero and CHRIST. Albanians should describing and say there is Kreshniku i Maleve as a Hero.
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