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Post by Emperor AAdmin on Jan 1, 2008 18:58:49 GMT -5
Real Illyrian(1/8/03 7:02 am) Ethnology.—Little can be learned from written sources of the origin and character of the lllyrians. The Greek legend that Cadmus and Harmonia settled in Illyria and became the parents of Illyrius, the eponymous ancestor of the whole Illyrian people, has been interpreted as an indication that the Greeks recognized some affinity between themselves and the Illyrians; but this inference is based on insufficient data. 33.1911encyclopedia.org/I/IL/ILMENAU.htm
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Post by Emperor AAdmin on Jan 1, 2008 19:00:32 GMT -5
Real Illyrian(1/8/03 7:25 am) Cadmus killing the dragon of Ares While they were in Illyria, Cadmus and Harmonia 1 were turned into serpents as he had been warned after slaying the dragon of Ares: "Why, Cadmus, do you gaze on the serpent you have slain? You too shall be a serpent for men to gaze on." [Athena to Cadmus. Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.97] -------- Harmonia 1 was daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, or of Zeus and the Pleiad Electra 3, who sometimes is called nurse of Harmonia 1. --------- Bill for destroying the dragon But Cadmus, because of having slaughtered Ares' darling dragon, had to atone for it, being forced to serve the god for what was called an eternal year, which is equivalent to eight regular years. Kingdom and bride After having paid this penalty Cadmus, with Athena's help, became king, receiving Harmonia 1, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, as wife from Zeus. ----- Illyrius is the last child of Cadmus and Harmonia 1. He was born in Illyria. homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Cadmus.html
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Post by Emperor AAdmin on Jan 1, 2008 19:05:28 GMT -5
Real Illyrian(1/8/03 7:42 am) [4] But Cadmus and Harmonia quitted Thebes and went to the Encheleans. As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had Cadmus and Harmonia as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And Cadmus reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him. But afterwards he was, along with Harmonia, turned into a serpent and sent away by Zeus to the Elysian Fields.1 ---- 1 As to the departure of Cadmus and Harmonia to Illyria and their transformation into snakes in that country, where their tomb was shown in later ages, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.516ff.; Dionysius, Perieg. 390ff., with the commentary of Eustathius, Comm. on Dionysius Perieg. v.391; Strab. 1.2.39, Strab. 7.7.8; Paus. 9.5.3; Athenaeus xi.5, p. 462 B; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Durrachion; Tzetzes, Chiliades iv.393ff.; Ov. Met. 4.563-603; Hyginus, Fab. 6; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. iii.290; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 48 (First Vatican Mythographer 150). Euripides mentions the transformation of the couple into snakes, but without speaking of their banishment to Illyria (Eur. Ba. 1530ff. ), probably because there is a long lacuna in this part of the text. According to Hyginus, the transformation of the two into serpents was a punishment inflicted by Ares on Cadmus for killing his sacred dragon which guarded the spring at Thebes, which Hyginus absurdly calls the Castalian spring. It is a common belief, especially among the Bantu tribes of South Africa, that human beings at death are turned into serpents, which often visit the old home. There is some reason to think that the ancestors of the Greeks may have shared this widespread superstition, of which the traditional transformation of Cadmus and Harmonia would thus be an isolated survival. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed. i.82ff. www.perseus.tufts.edu/ - link --------- Mythological stories concerning the name of IllyriaMarjeta Šašel Kos Definitions of Illyria, Illyricum, and the Illyrians are still a puzzle in scholarly literature, despite several books having recently been written about the Illyrians, and partly perhaps because of this. The name must have carried a political prestige and contained a broad enough geographical and symbolic significance, as well as a kind of magnetism that it could denote, at the expense of other geographical names between Noricum and Pannonia on the one hand, and Epirus and Macedonia on the other, at one time or another so many different regions. Appian of Alexandria, a Greek historian of the 2nd century AD, was the only ancient historian to have written a history of Illyria. Although he explicitly stated that many mythological stories concerning the name of Illyria were still circulating in his time, he chose for his audience a genealogical story, which included most of the peoples who inhabited the Illyricum of the Antonine era. They all descended from the son of Polyphemus and Galatea, Illyrius. Unfortunately, of all the stories referred to by Appian, merely one more concerning the eponymous ancestor of the Illyrians has to my knowledge been preserved to date; this is the legend of Cadmus and Harmonia and their son Illyrius. By way of introduction, some other myths and legends related to the lands of Illyricum will be briefly considered, those which have a broader significance and are not only of limited local interest. Interestingly, all of them refer to the regions along the Adriatic, which additionally confirms the extreme importance of maritime routes used by travellers, merchants, and explorers; even northern ports may have been at least to some extent known to the Greeks at a relatively early date, while the interior of Illyria had for a long time remained terra incognita. These include the legend about the Hyperboreans, a mythical blessed northern race, dwelling beyond the mountains from where the northern wind blew, with whom Apollo had stayed for a period before his ceremonial arrival in Delphi, and further the legend about the return journey of the Argonauts. The worship of the Greek hero Diomedes was related to both Adriatic coasts, while the legend of the Trojan Antenor, whose route led him along Dalmatia, was particularly important for the history of Venetia and the western Adriatic coast. A legend has been preserved about the mysterious Ionius of the Illyrian race, the eponym for the Ionian (ie. the Adriatic) Sea; he may have once ruled over Issa, but according to the earlier variant he was inadvertently killed by Heracles in Dyrrhachium. Hercules was connected with other places along the eastern Adriatic coast, and so was his son Hyllus. The most important passages follow, referring to the legends of Illyrius, the son of Cadmus and Harmonia, and Illyrius, the son of Polyphemus and Galatea. Mythological Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus (3.39.2) : “Cadmus accompanied by Harmonia left Thebes and went to the Enchelei. They were at war with the Illyrians who had attacked them, but they had been advised by a god that they would defeat the Illyrians if they were led by Cadmus and Harmonia. They trusted in the prophecy and appointed them as leaders against the Illyrians, who were then defeated. Cadmus ruled over Illyria and had a son Illyrius. Afterwards, together with Harmonia, he was turned into a serpent and Zeus conveyed him to the Elysian Fields”.Commentary to Virgil’s Aeneid, Scholia Vaticana (to verse 1.243; II p. 311 Lion): “When Cadmus the son of Agenor, accompanied by his wife Harmonia, left Thebes, and bearing his unjust fate passed through the territory of Macedonia, he left a young son borne to him by Harmonia by the Illyrian River. A serpent twined around this son and, until he had grown, nursed him in the embrace of its body and filled him with the power to subdue this entire country. It named him Illyrius after itself.” Appian, Illyr. 2.3–4: “It is said that the country received its name from Polyphemus' son Illyrius; the Cyclops Polyphemus and Galatea had the sons Celtus, Illyrius and Galas; they left Sicily and ruled over the peoples who were named after them: the Celts, the Illyrians, and the Galatians. This mythological story pleases me the most, although many others are also told by many writers. (4) Illyrius had the sons Encheleus, Autarieus, Dardanus, Maedus, Taulas, Perrhaebus and the daughters Partho, Daortho, Dassaro and others, from whom arose the peoples of the Taulantii, Perrhaebi, Enchelei, Autariatae, Dardanians [and Maedi], Partheni, Dassaretii and Darsi. Autarieus himself had a son Pannonius or Paeon, who in turn had Scordiscus and Triballus, from whom nations also were descended who were named after them. But I shall leave this subject to the antiquarians.”www.msh-alpes.prd.fr/balkans/Resumes/SaselKos.htm_____________ Polyphemus and Galatea------ Polyphemus in Greek mythology, the most famous of the Cyclopes (one-eyed giants), son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the nymph Thoösa. According to Ovid in Metamorphoses , Polyphemus loved Galatea, a Sicilian Nereid, and killed her lover Acis. When the Greek hero Odysseus was cast ashore on the coast of Sicily, he fell into the hands of Polyphemus, who shut him up with 12 of his companions in his cave and blocked the entrance with an enormous rock. Odysseus at length succeeded in making Polyphemus drunk, blinded him by plunging a burning stake into his eye while he lay asleep, and, with six of his friends (the others having been devoured by Polyphemus), made his escape by clinging to the bellies of the sheep let out to pasture. www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=62262------- HarmoniaThe daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. She married Cadmus (son of Agenor and King of Phoenicia and later Thebes). From Aphrodite she received a necklace made by Hephæstus originally worn by Europa (Cadmus' sister) which gave irrisistable loveliness to its wearer. Athene gave her a magic robe, giving her divine dignity. Cadmus and Harmonia's children were Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave, Polydorus and Illyrius. She left Thebes with her husband in old age and were received in the Islands of the Blessed in the form of serpents. www.sulkyblue.co.uk/classics/encyc/h.html----- Agenor(I) - The King of Phoenicia, son of Poseidon. He was married to Telephassa and their children were Cadmus and Europa. (II) - Son of the Trojan Antenor and Theano www.sulkyblue.co.uk/classics/encyc/a.html#agenor
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