Athamanians or Athamanes (, ''Athamanes'') were an
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...
that inhabited south-eastern
Epirus
Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...
and west
Thessaly
Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...
. Today, the municipal unit of
Athamania in
Central Tzoumerka
Central Tzoumerka () is a municipality in the Arta regional unit, Epirus, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Vourgareli. The municipality has an area of 509.231 km2. The municipality is named after the Tzoumerka mountains.
Muni ...
and the community of
Athamania in
Pyli
Pyli () is a municipality in the Trikala regional unit, Greece. Situated 18 km west of Trikala, right at the bottom of two mountains Itamos, and Koziakas, which mark the beginning of the Pindos mountainline, Pyli marks the entrance to a grea ...
are named after them.
History
Although they were regarded as "
barbarians
A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice.
A "barbarian" may ...
" by
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...
and
Hecataeus of Miletus
Hecataeus of Miletus (; ; c. 550 – c. 476 BC), son of Hegesander, was an early Greek historian and geographer.
Biography
Hailing from a very wealthy family, he lived in Miletus, then under Persian rule in the satrapy of Lydia ...
, the Athamanians affirmed that they were
Greeks
Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...
and they were also seen as
Greeks
Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...
by
Plato
Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
who stated "the descendants of Athamas are Greek, of course" (Οι έκγονοι του Αθάμαντος, Έλληνες γάρ). In addition, modern scholarship considers the Athamanians to have been a
Greek tribe.
The existence of
Greek myths
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories concern the ancient ...
about
Athamas
In Greek mythology, Athamas (; ) was a Boeotian king. Apollodorus1.9.1/ref>
Family
Athamas was formerly a Thessalian prince and the son of King Aeolus of Aeolia and Enarete, daughter of Deimachus. He was the brother of Salmoneus, Sisyph ...
and
Ino in Achaean
Phthiotis
Phthiotis (, ''Fthiótida'' ; ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Φθιῶτις) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece (administrative region), Central Greece. The capital is the city of La ...
suggests that the Athamanians were settled there before 1600 BC.
[.] They were an independent tribe (except during their subjugation by Pyrrhus of Epirus in 281–272 BC and by the Macedonians in 191 BC),
[; Diodorus Siculus. ''Bibliotheca Historica'', XIV.82.7 and XVI.29.1.] and were occasionally allies of the
Aetolians.
[.] Amynander and
Theodorus of Athamania Theodorus of Athamania (Greek: Θεοδώρος Αθαμανίας) was king of the Athamanians in south-eastern Epirus. He is known otherwise only from the Delian temple inventories: his daughter Phila
Phila most often refers to a shortened name ...
are reported kings of the Athamanians.
Timeline
See also
*
Aetolians
*
List of Ancient Greek tribes
The ancient Greek tribes () were groups of Greek-speaking populations living in Greece, Cyprus, and the various Greek colonies. They were primarily divided by geographic, dialectal, political, and cultural criteria, as well as distinct tradition ...
*
Molossians
The Molossians () were a group of ancient Greek tribes which inhabited the region of Epirus in classical antiquity. Together with the Chaonians and the Thesprotians, they formed the main tribal groupings of the northwestern Greek group. On t ...
*
Northwest Greek
Doric or Dorian (), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. Doric was spoken in a vast area, including northern Greece (Acarnania, Aetolia ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Greek tribes
Ancient tribes in Epirus
Ancient tribes in Thessaly