Basil Chulev

•∘⊕∘•

ANCIENT MACEDONIA

The Gods of Macedon

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Basil Chulev

Ancient Macedonia
The Gods of Macedon

From the oblivion of immemorial past until today forms of religion

Chronological and unfolding retrospective across the everlasting
continuity of human beliefs and Macedonic traditions in the past
millenniums

MMXVI
“By what names shall I address you? Some call you Lydian, some Delian,
some Ascraean, some Actian. Others call you Amyclaean, the Pelasgians
Patroos, the Milesians Branchiate. You control every city and land and
nation. You control the whole inhabited earth … The Persians call you
Mithras, the Egyptians Horus, the Macedonians Ares, the Thebans Dionys,
the Delphians honour you by the double name of Apollo and Dionys … The
Chaldaeans call you the leader of the stars.” – 3rd century AD Menander
Rhetor epideictic praisе to the god Apolon.
Above: Bronze head of young Dionis. Archaeological Museum of Republic of
Macedonia
Contents

Introductionary foreword .................................................................................................. 9

Gods before the gods – the Great Mother Goddess, the Horned God, Elen of the Ways,
the Holy Trees and Sacred Groves ................................................................................... 13
Old Macedonic Rituals .................................................................................................... 52
The Macedonic Pantheon evidence ................................................................................. 69
Father Gods of Macedon ................................................................................................. 81
Samothrace, the Macedonian Olymp ............................................................................. 111
List of known and unknown Macedonic deities ............................................................ 122
The Macedonic Pantheon in Ptolemaic Egypt ............................................................... 149
References ...................................................................................................................... 162
Introductionary foreword

From the purely mythical ages, which lie far beyond the reach of our human memory,
down to the borderland of history, there‟s still an enormous gap of untold secrets and
countless layers filled with obscurity. Most of what we think we know about our distant
past still comes from the observance of traditional mythologies, misbegotten legends, and
that infinite conundrum of folk-tales. But, the very definitions of these popular categories
are quite disappointing in this regard, and in rather sober way explain why they‟re not so
reliable as we want or expect them to be.
Myths are misinterpreted or mistaken explanations of phenomena, whether of human
life or of external nature. By being founded on ignorance and misapprehension they are
always false, for were they true they would cease to be myths.
Legends are oral traditions, whether oral or written, which are related to the fortunes
of real people in the past, or which describe events, not necessarily human, that are said
to have occurred at real places. Such legends contain a mixture of truth and falsehood, for
were they wholly true, they would not be legends but histories.1
Folk-tales are narratives invented by unknown persons and handed down at first by
word of mouth from generation to generation, narratives which, though they profess to
describe actual occurrences, are in fact purely imaginary, having no other aim than the
entertainment of the hearer and making no real claim on his credulity. In short, they are
fictions pure and simple, devised not to instruct or edify the listener, but only to amuse
him; they belong to the region of pure romance.
Theocrasia and Syncretism are yet another very common religious phenomenona, of
fusing of one god with another, through amalgamation of different religions, cultures, and
languages. These intransigent policies were vigorously implemented and exploited
throughout the ages, and additionally complicate the research of different religious
manifestations and their true origins. They are maybe the worst mythological practices,
which undermine every serious attempt for more profound and truly objective evaluation
of different (or similar) gods between different religions and cultures. Thus, only for the
sun god we have hundreds, if not thousands different multiforms and names. Let alone in
Egypt there are 7-8 or more different sun-gods.
These are just some of the most common basics of every ancient religion and
pantheon. Generaly, the overwhelming part of them are just blatant fairytales and colorful
lies, meant for the sake of fairytale enrichment or literary effect by countless tale-tellers
and transcriptors. Their true beginnings, if any, are enshrouded in mistery and veiled
pristine. On the other side, gods are more of a reality than a mere abstract ideas, and they
have quite other and more vital reinvigorating powers than the barren subtlety abstract
idealists ascribe to them. The abhorrence of all reality, which directly may ruin the
spiritual through any contact with it, must naturally blind the eye to the origin of evil too.
Every Idealism, if it‟s not grounded in a vital realism, will become just an empty and

1
For example Homer‟s „Iliad‟ and „Odyssey‟ are classic legends.
attenuated sham. That‟s why the Nature is a key to any theory of the divine: “We have an
earlier revelation than any written one – nature. If the understanding of that unwritten
revelation were inaugurated, the only true system of religion and science would appear.”
2
The only problem is to find the right path throughout the mythological labyrint, and to
filter out all the impurities that deposited above the supposed original source. Throughout
the ages myths developed and inevitably remained a very important part of the
testimonies studied by comparative sciences, which assist considerably the reconstruction
of our most distant past. Nonetheless, religion always was a very important and
inseparable part of human society and history, and it had exerted enormous influence on
the development of the historical events in the past and more recent times. Our innate and
ceaseless curiosity of what and who we are always poses more and more questions about
the very beginnings of the religion, and in that way always reaches in for more older and

Above: the syncretic conceptualization of рrimordial god

older layers of the past times. Thus, in order to fully understand our history, it is
inevitable task to research the origins and evolution of this human phenomenon, no
matter how misapprehending it might be. The same is true for Macedonian history – in
order to reconstruct it as much as possible we must inevitably reconstruct the ancient
Macedonic Pantheon as well, no matter how deep it is enshrouded in mistery.
Macedonian tribes were distinctive ethnicity already in the 1st millennium BCE, and
reconstruction of their old beliefs is actually reconstruction of themselves and their

2
“Inquiries” by F.W.J. Schelling.
national history. Testimonies from ancient monuments, countless artifacts, popular
traditions, ancient authors, and other sources brought us the evidences of distinguished
Ancient Macedonian Pantheon, which emerged from the most archaic and prehistoric
ages. It is a hermeneutic faculty needed to study primordial myths and legends with the
method required for studying the hidden strata of human beliefs. A real “chronological
abyss” thus opens up infront, an unintuitable realm of mistery and immeasurable
conspiracy. Behind the impenetrable curtain of past millennia lies the immense world of
human fantasy, wondrous interpretations of natural forces and elements, dreams, magic
beings, monsters and spirits.
To submerge deep below the surface of mythology never was an easy task. The
mysterious realm of deified beings stretches all the way to infinity and beyond. The gods
were immortal not because they never perished, but because they always reincarnate from
the ashes of the succumbing civilizations and lost cultures into new ones. Those that
followed always recycled them from the ruined temples and graves of those before them
who perished, and transformed them by their own judgement and new phonologies.
However, with every new discovery many new incongruencies and unanswered questions
open. Many myths, deities and semideities appear not to be what they appeared to be.
Furthermore, the misinterpretations of conventional historians from the 19th century and
the political agenda of their criminal masters and church, have intentionally messed up
the ancient realities and surrealities, in order to serve their hunger for profit and power.
On the other side, rediscovery of the forbidden truth about our distant past have never
been so vigorous. In the past decades Historical Revisionism had gathered under his aegis
many empirical sciences and new means for the restitution of Ancient History Model.
The overthrow of the backwater colonialistic mindset and the end of the medieval-
minded 19th century Conventional Historiography is developing fast. And the research
for forgotten Macedonic gods and goddesses is just a tiny but very important contribution
toward the honorful and decent restitution of truth to the Macedonian people and world
science.
Gods before the gods – the Great Mother Goddess, the Horned God, Elen of the Waуs, the
Holy Trees and Sacred Groves

Before the review of the archaic and ancient pantheon in the realm of Macedon, first it must be
commenced a fair elementary foreword regarding the very beginnings of the religion and the oldest
human beliefs. What we know about them is quite foggy, but from the found artifacts and surviving
traditions some general conclusions can be drawn. The immemorial timeworn creation myths of the
world, of the Supreme Kreator-God from the sky, the Great Mother-Goddess of the Earth, the birth and
rebirth of the young Sun-God, myths of the Stars and the Moon, that gets to the earth and turns into a
cow, conception of the months as divine creatures, Zodiac systems – they all have central role in each
nation collective conscience. These primordial abstract ideas gave us the notion of the beginning of the
time, the emergence of the order from the chaos, and are the very beginnings of our eternal struggle for
understanding and comprehension of the world that surrounds us. These first spiritual beginnings of the
religion, from prehistoric cultures of Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic ages, are also referred to as
Primitive. In that unknown epoch, when the distant ancestors of the Macedonians were still undivided
and one with the mythological Belasgians (Lat. Pelasgians) and Hyperboreans, they were worshipers of
the primordial mythical beings and gods of nature, animals and woods, and other demigod members of
the archaic Barb-Aryan pantheon. Intrinsically connected to the forces and elements of the nature,
countless bards and storytellers patiently created and transmitted incredible fantasy worlds of magical
beings and gods with supernatural forces. Gods of sun and thunder, ghosts and spirits of the woods and

mountains, giants, dwarfs, elves, were all but allegoric interpretations of the things that were impossible
to understand for the primitive humans. The archaic religious organization in those times was still
merged with the most primitive social structures, horde and tribe. Thus, the most prevalent forms of
religious behavior among these primitive cultures were expressed throughout rituals and animistic
worship. The bulk of them were actually based on our most profound fears from the terrifying wild
beasts, the dark of the night, or simply the winter cold or other elementary forces and catastrophes of the
nature, which the primitive people couldn‟t possibly explain to themselves as why and how they happen.
Thus the mythical rituals and animistic worship function was to be the bridge between the hope and
ruthless reality. In this regard maybe the fairest description of religion, as a state of mind, was given by
Sigmund Freud – “Religion is a collective neurosis.” The frantic participants in the prehistoric rituals
identified themselves with the wild animals and tree spirits, fantasy-mythical beings, and there were no
priests and no spectators, all the present were involved. They were becoming one with the myth,
performing actions that served to reinforce the solidarity of their society, inspiring them to fight the
most innate fears from the forces of nature, and to induct initiation of the young, in order to exert their
accession to the norms of horde/tribal behavior. Аvailable evidence of these prehistoric rituals is very
limited and any plausible reconstruction remains highly speculative. However, distant echoes of these
remote times and rituals can still be observed even today among the primitive hunter-gatherer tribes that
still live in Amazonian jungles and different regions in Africa. Some of these Stone Age human relics
still exist, and they still practice similar animistic and spiritual shamanic rituals like many millennia ago.

Two main characteristics of this earliest mythical world of primitive religion were so far detected by
the modern scholars. The 1st is the very high degree to which the mythical world was related to the
detailed features of the actual world. Not only is every horde or clan and local group defined in terms of
the ancestral progenitors and the mythical events of settlement, but virtually every mountain, river, rock
and tree is explained in terms of the actions of mythical beings. Which is basically the very definition of
religion – a set of symbolic forms and supernatural acts that actually relate man to the ultimate natural
conditions of his bare existence.
The 2nd main feature, related to the extreme particularity of the mythical material, is the fluidity of
its organization. We meet here the typical lack of precise definition of the gods in the popular traditions,
as well as in other sources. They‟re sometimes associated with the first humans, and sometimes said to
be quite different, so, god may in some sense be associated with any ancestor from the distant past,
and/or any element, animal or plant which is considered appropriate at some particular given moment.
The fluid structure of the myth is almost consciously indicated through the world of dreaming, animism,
magic, etc. Both the myths particularity and the fluidity, then, help to account for the volatile closeness
of the world of myth to the actual world.
Thus, despite their constant metamorphosis and fluidity the myths were firmly anchored to the
natural world and to all the things and elements that surrounded humans – lakes, mountains, forests,
animals, etc. Virtually everything was explained in terms of the actions of mythical beings, and the
animism, defined simply as belief in the existence of spiritual beings, is considered as the first “religion”
that attributed the “soul” to all things.
Historians, archaeologists and linguists have most probably even discovered and confirmed the first
ever syllabic words that meant „spirit' and/or „plenty, many, a lot‟, and „(holy) mother‟ - “Shu-Nun”,
which is related or gave the descent to “Shu-Ma” (i.e. „HolyMother (of ) Plenty‟, or „forest‟ in today
plain Macedonian)3, which in today Chinese we found as “Shù Mù”(树木) - „trees‟4; hence also “Sha-
man”5 (a „Druid‟, i.e. „priest of the forest spirits‟), “Shamash”, “Šemvila/Samovila”, “Shash”6 (and
probably “Bush” too), etc. Even in ancient Egypt the “Sho-Mu” was the „harvest season‟, thus
designating again „a plenty‟ of something. Through metathesis of the syllable “Shu/Sha” this word root
for “forest” became today “Du-Sha” (pronounced „Dousha‟) - „soul‟ in plain Macedonian [from the root
verb “Dishi/Duva” - respectively „respiration/blows‟, as onomatopoeic („douhhh-shoa‟) of the wind that
blows in the woods and mountain peaks and animates them; syntaxed as “Dah/Duh” - respectively
„breath‟/„spirit‟ in plain Macedonian]7; Sanskrit: Dhiša, - all of which describe the anima, inner
spirit/being, divinely inspired soul/psyche.
The “Shu-Nun” site of Kamenaya Mogila or Kamyana Mohyla („Stone Mausoleum‟ in plain English)
– a colossal sanctuary hill made of heaped megalithic sandstone slabs, located beside the river Molochna
(„Milky river‟) is accordingly called “Shu-Nun” – „the Plenty/soul (of) Mom/Mother Superior‟ (also
Mkd. nina -„aunt‟, Lat. nonna -„grandma‟ i.e. „female monk‟, anglicized: nun).8 The Rock Art writing of

these primitive Mamooth hunters and maybe the first “priests”, was well established in this monument
of the so called Aratta Culture (as designated by today scientists), long before it spread elsewhere.
There, at “Shu-Nun” (the ancient name of the site deciphered by the Paleolinguists and Archaeologists)
or Kamyana Mohyla, as early as 20,000 BCE the prehistoric worshipers inscribed a primitive but rich

3
http://www.makedonski.info/search/%D1%88%D1%83%D0%BC%D0%B0
4
https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=trees
5
A person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits.
6
Bushy, dense, not very high flora.
7
http://www.makedonski.info/search/du%D1%88a; English exclamation syllables “Shoo” and/or
“Shun” (Old English scunian - „to seek safety from enemy‟) have the same root.
8
abbess, prioress, Reverend Mother, etc.
petroglyphic library of their primitive law codes, mysterious idols, rituals and hunting stories. “Shu-
Nun” site remained very well preserved under the millennial layers of dirth and soil, and was unknown
until it was rediscovered in 1889. Maybe this gigantic pile of stone slabs was once structured in a more
ordered way, but today it appears just as it is on the image above. That the syllable “Shù” meant „heap‟
or „gatther‟ of something, hence also „forest (sanctuary)‟ and/or „Sacred grove‟, we find in the ancient
sources (Pliny, Dion Cassius, etc.) which describe the foundations of almost all Sacred Places being in
the Holly Groves, preferably in the forests (i.e. „Shu-ma‟9 in plain Macedonian) of oak trees. Relics of
the “Shu-Nun” prehistoric site of Aratta Civilization were identified in Ukraine, from where it radiated
its primordial culture into India, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Western China and across Europe, and it gave us
perhaps the most ancient evidence of the prehistoric “religion” before the religion.10 Amazingly enough,
and rather astonishing fact is the pilgrimage of Budist monks from Tibet, who regularly travel and visit
this sacred place, for which they claim that was their homeland in the immemorial distant past.
Although, many other remnants of the first totems and altars, and what appear to be some kind of
primitive “temples” (rather an animistic-totemic worshiping places and/or astrologic observatories) were
already found by the archaeologists in the Neolithic layers. And majority of them were simply in the
middle of the long-gone woods (Sacred Groves) or with hypaethral (roofless) architectural design, in
order to observe the stars, which were an important part of the predictions and rituals. According to later
architectural designs, hypaethral edifices were constructed explicitly to honor the Thunder God [Tarhun,
Perhun, Ur-An (Lat. Uranus), Marduk and/or Jupiter…], the Sky-Father of Heaven [Utu or Anu/An, Ur-
An, Dya(us), …], and/or Sun (Il/Ilios/Helios, Tiyaz, Dionis, Mitra, Ra…); further the Moon (Losna,
Luna, Selene…), but also different stellar constellations and Zodiacal appearances. For the most part the
worshipped divine powers in these sacred places were still in animal or vegetal form, which is the only
clear conclusion that can be drawn from the available definitive evidence. Before that maybe the only
two clearly distinguished deities, or however they might‟ve been called many millenniums ago, were the
Great Mother Goddess - the She-First, a procreatrice of every living thing, and the (celestial) Horned
God - transcendental He-first, i.e. Principle (the primordial kreator deity) of the infinite time and space.

9
http://www.makedonski.info/search/%D1%88uma
10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPiuS6UUc1Q
They are the oldest of the old gods of which we have the notion only from popular traditions and
numerous amulets, as any other surviving material or written evidence is almost totally absent. For more
than 20,000 years they were the only known, but still nameless gods that had been remembered and
honored in every era and continent. The Horned God was identified with the Sky, and even the later
historical authors and their mythologies repeat again and again this primordial patern: according to
Hesiod (Theogony 126) the Sky [Lat. Uran(us)] was a son of Earth [Gea], but afterwards lay with his
own mother and had by her Cronus, the Titans, the Cyclopes, and so forth.
For the Great Mother Goddess there has been gathered a fairly more material artifacts and other
testimonies. But of the Stone Age celestial Horned God there's little material evidence left, and the
records of the ancient authors are precarious too. Nevertheless, his sturdy continuity in the popular
traditions is very important testimony and adamant example of how these most primordial deities and
animistic spirits remained with us from the Stone Age until today. This sturdy male god remained
horned even in the archaic period, but now he was symbolized by the celestial bull. However, he
remained both 'Lord of Heaven' and 'Thunder god', the 'Sky Father' and 'Supreme Kreator', a self-
experiential time transcending and universe-unifying deity, that lasted for over 12,000 years under many
different forms and names (Adad, Atum, Dze/Dzevs, Ra/Amon-Ra, Dionis/Sabazius, Ur/Uran/Uranus,
Tharun/Perun, El/Il/Ilios/Helios, Tinia, Jupiter, etc.). The Horned God announced the decline of female

Above: Neolithic idols with real horns made of plastered bull skulls, from the Čatalhöyük
archaeological site in Asia Minor. 7000 BCE, Ankara Museum
power and the virtual disappearance of the female mother goddess, which may also be called the Liliths
or Matriarchs. His tyrranical male power slowly but inevitably removed from the popular tradition and
from the historical archives all the traces of the Great Mother Goddess ruling era. But long before his
Bull-avatar, an exceptional testimony of this primordial omnipotent animistic deity is probably the
famous Shigir Idol, found in the 19th century by the gold prospectors in a pit bog of Shigir, on the
eastern slope of the Middle Urals approximately 100 km from Yekaterinburg.11 It was painstakingly
reconstructed in 1914 by the archaeologist Vladimir Tolmačev, who integrated the remaining wooden
fragments. His reconstruction suggested that the original height of this totem pole was at least 5,3 m, and
the carbon dating proved that it was 11,600 years old, making it by far the oldest wooden statue in the
world. In addition, at the same spot a decorated antler was found, also dated to the same period and most
probably part of the totem, but the damaged surface of the wooden pole couldn‟t reveal where and how
these antlers were attached.

Above: imagined reconstruction of the Shigir Idol possible appearance in 11,600 BCE

11
https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/the-awesome-shigir-idol-depicting-the-
ancient-spirit-world-originally-stood-tall-beside-a-paleo-lake/
The Shigir Idol was most probably abundantly depicted too, but again, any traces of pigments have been
irreparably lost with the remorseless passing of the millennia. The researchers also noted that the Shigir
Idol's carved decoration is similar to that of the oldest known monumental stone ruins at Gobekli
Tepe in Turkey, thus chronologically confirming its cultural horizon and common features of the Old
Stone Age hunter-gatherers society. The only substantial difference is that the Shigir Idol is clearly
anthropomorphic sculpture with several human faces incised, while the monument at Gobekli Tepe in
Asia Minor has no carved faces or other human features whatsoever, it is still a strictly zoomorphic
monument. This fact implies that at that time human communities of the northern Eurasian hemisphere
were at higher development stage than those in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. It is also a legitimate
supposition that this was the totem-idol of the primordial supreme Sky-father Horned god, undisputed
lord of heaven and thunder, protector of hunters, animals and forests. The last forays of these steppe
people into the Macedonian Peninsula12 occured between 4200 BCE and 3900 BCE, when the first cattle
herders equipped with reindeer, horse or ox-drawn wagons crossed the Dniester and Danube rivers, and
evidently destroyed or trespassed the Old Europe Neolithic settlements of the Gumelnitsa, Varna and
KaranovoVI cultures in Moesia (today Eastern Romania and Bulgaria). A climatic change resulting in

colder winters during this exact period probably pushed the steppe herders to seek milder pastures for
their stock, while failed crops would have led to famine and internal disturbance within the lower
Danubian and Dniester communities. Although, the ensuing Černavoda (Blackwater)

12
"Balkans" as of 19th century. The concept of the "Balkans" was created by the German
geographer August Zeune in 1808, who mistakenly considered it as the dominant central
mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea.
culture (CopperAge, 4000-3200 BCE), Kukuteni-Tripolje culture (Copper to Bronze Age, 3500-2500
BCE) and Ezero culture (Bronze Age, 3300-2700 BCE) in modern Romania, seems to have exerted no
influence on the more southwestern Amzabegovo and Porodin cultures, renown worshipers of the Great
Mother Goddess with continuity from the Neolithic. But, they surely were the intermediary linkage
between the northern pastures and primitive Mamooth hunters, the successive semiagricultural/cattle
herders, and the more southern Bronze Age agiculturalists around Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean and
Mesopotamia.
However, these prehistoric northern invasions apparently did influenced the „Old Europe‟ core
culture situated in the Aegean and Central regions of Macedonian Peninsula. After all the found material
tools and other artifacts had proven that since the Paleolithic prehistoric people have always traveled
across central Europe. The „Amber Road‟ and eastern waterways toward Russian stepes are still the
main inerland routes even today. Similar Megalithic monuments found all around Europe also confirm

the uninterrupted communication between different European regions. Linguistic affinities as well
confirm this incessant continuity through space and time. For example: “Menhir” means „tall stone‟,
“Dolmen” means „stone-table‟, but only “Kamen”13 in plain Macedonian means simply „stone‟, and the
Macedonic “kamen” is the closest metathesis form of the deduced PIE root word for stone: *hekmo-;
then we also have the Macedonian “Akmak” - „anvil‟, which is obviously from the same root.14 Thus, the
obvious Macedonic origin of this word in other languages is rather evident.

13
http://www.makedonski.info/search/kamen
14
ἀκμον (akmon), *ak/hekmo-PIE (ak) – anvil and/or stone respectively; in today Modern
Macedonian: akmak [onomatopoeic; compare to English „smack‟], antonym: tokmak - „hammer‟
(today only the word for hammer - “tokmak‟ preserved its original meaning, while the archaic
meaning “akmak” declined into informal noun for insult, meaning something similar to English
'blockhead' in plain Macedonian) http://www.makedonski.info/search/tokmak; see also “čakmak”
- „a lighter‟; from the plain Масеdonic verb “aknе” - „to crash/smash, to hit‟
http://www.makedonski.info/search/akne; Phrygian: Akmonia, Basque: akain, Latin: acere.
The megaliths are another emblematic artifact of the Stone Age that remained a solemn reminder of our
most distant past. In Macedonia there is also an obelisk left by the prehistoric people on Kožuf
mountain, near Gevgelija, dated 5000 BCE. It was broken in half by the unknown tomb riders, possibly
with some auxiliary mechanization, in search for hidden treasure inside the stone. They were ignorant
enough not to know that there was no way to find any treasure on a site that dates back to prehistory.
The two destroyed parts of the obelisk, which was 5.5 meters high, are still there, on the archaeological
site called "Milisin".

Above: the drawing of Milisin obelisk on Mt. Kožuf

Next page: the „Elephant‟ megalith near city of Prilep, Republic of Macedonia
In the Macedonian folk tradition, sacred stones were revered because of their distinctiveness from the
surroundings and other items in the nature, and were regarded as symbols of supernatural power. Due to
its hardness and durability the stone was considered impervious to changes, and in the consciousness of
the primordial man generated religious awe and respect. Thus the strange rock formations, hilltops, or
particular stones or megaliths in nature were always preferred places of religious veneration. The
ritualistic worship of sacred stones is still widely present in the modern Republic of Macedonia.
„Kokino‟, „Tsotsev Stone‟, „Cattle Rock‟ in Ovče Pole, the „Elephant‟ near city of Prilep, are just some

of the prehistoric examples of Megalithic monuments across Macedonia. Around them are regularly
found traces of archaic sacral structures and settlements, and numerous votive artifacts from the past
ages have been excavated. Beginings of the cultic activities around these places descend back in time

Above: The „Giant Briarey‟, one of the many Megalithic monuments in Republic of Macedonia on
which are visible traces of human craft and pagan worship; from still undetermined period and
function in the prehistory or ancient history

to the most remote epochs of humanity. The evidence of horned idols and unknown gods and goddesses
appeared very early in the human prehistory. The so-called Horned Sorcerer petroglyph dates from
perhaps 10,000 BCE.15 Further, twenty-one red deer headdresses, made from the skulls of the red
deer and likely fitted with leather laces, have been discovered at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr. They
are thought to date from roughly 9,000 BCE. The first Bronze Age votive objects from 3rd-2nd
millennium BCE continue the same animistic symbolism, but with rather new materials provided with
the discovery of metallurgy. However, the horned animals and their horns remained privileged symbols
of higher magical power and great spirituality. The bare fact that horns grow high upwards and appear
like a crown on the head of animals, especially the deer antlers, made of them self-evident objects of
worship and a kind of religious item par excellence.

15
One of the names for an enigmatic cave painting representing a shaman or magician found in the
cavern known as 'The Sanctuary' at the Cave of the Trois-Frères, Ariège, France.
Further the acceptance of astrology led to a growing belief that the dwelling place of the gods was in the
realm of the stars/heaven. It was during the second half of the first millennium BCE that it became the
standard practice to call the planets by the names of various gods, such as Jupiter and Ares/Mars.
Astrology also encouraged a new conception of life after death, according to which the soul did not go
to the underworld, as had earlier been believed, but rather rose through the planetary spheres to the
sphere of the fixed stars and then to the paradise that lay beyond the outermost sphere. In time this
journey came to be imagined as difficult and dangerous, with secret passwords required to cross each
planetary threshold (Ulansey 1989, 133).

Below and on the next page: Neolithic ceramic heads of prehistoric horned giraffes or
sivatheriums from the site of Veluška Tumba, Macedonia (6000 BCE); and Hittite animistic stag
standards made of bronze (2200 BCE) used as a tip of priest‟s staff, and Horned God petroglyph
We read of other sanctuaries of the Horned God throughout antiquity in Homer, where he reports about
the Horned Altar made from animal horns, at island of Delos (Odyssey 6.162-63; Theogony 347). In the
ancient world the Horned God was most probably renamed as Dionis, and/or Apolon, whose epithet was
Kerneios or Kereatas („Horned‟) too, and who is similarly associated with male animals, particularly
the stag, and accordingly with vegetation, trees and fertility. In some dedications found in Apolon‟s
sanctuary at Xerolimni of Kozani, the god is called Μεζωπίζκῳ or Μεζζοπίζκῳ. Hatzopoulos plausibly
interprets this epiklesis as a derivate of a compound of μέζζο- < PIE *medʰjo-, and ὄπορ (< PIE *her)
meaning literally "a place in the middle of the mountains" („Medjugorje‟ in today Macedonian). His
sanctuary was discovered as far south as in Ciprus as well, where the statue of the Horned God was
buried intentionaly by the users of the sanctuary. The sanctuary at Delphi, which initially was a Pelasgic
sacred grove, was also dedicated to him, and generally the deer frontlets were common holy garments in
the antiquity. There was also the Dionisiac stag cult of Actaeon, a hunter who was transformed into a
stag because he accidentally saw Artemis bathing.
Of all the names by which this Horned Sky-Father is known throughout the epochs, those which
designate him as the „First Source‟ and the „Centre of Universe‟ are most often encountered. He was
known by various names in different cultures and in different regions of the world, but they never
revealed him by name, only by nature.

Above: imagined reconstruction of two of the numerous Ancient and Medieval sacrificial
sanctuaries (i.e. Trebishte/Kapishte) discovered in Central Euope – Uherskе Hradište (i.e.
“Gradište” - „city ruins‟ in plain Macedonian)16 and Pohansko sanctuary in Breclav,
Czechoslovakia

Why were the horns so much exploited as a holy item, as if in them was concentrated some divine
potency? Because, it can now be seen, they were a permanent concentration, an outcrop, of the growing
power of the life-substance in the body; they were also the virile strength and were obvious
manifestation of that strength that every spring regrows infront of their eyes. Primitive humans couldn‟t
possibly realize that these hard protuberanies were actually of the same material like their hair. Thus the
early god‟s standards and totems were horned animals – the Sacred Bull, Ram, Goat, Elk, Aurochs or

16
http://www.makedonski.info/search/%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%88%
D1%82%D0%B5
Bison, because the most basic aim of every power, religious or warlike as it might be, is rather simple –
to appear bigger, stronger and taller, in order to impress and stupefy the worshipers (or enemies) infront

of them. Even the animals, carnivorous or grazing ones, usually do not attack other animal that is
notably bigger then themselves, and the biggest and strongest males always have the greatest chances to
mate. And exactly like the male horned animals, which are embodiment of the sexual virility and raw
natural power, their horns were used too as potent symbols of that supremacy, but also as a phallic
symbols and surrogate of accentuated social importance. Especially the horns of deer, which fall in
winter and grow back again to a such extent in spring time. This cyclic transformation of such a potent
growth has been seen as the very divine act, a sign of fertility and supernatural force. No wonder that
even today horns are still considered a powerful aphrodiziac by numerous primitive societies and
religions worldvide. The horns were also a primitive prototype of the crown (an item that was much later
re-invented as horned-like distension but of more sophisticated metal imitation of horns). 17 The horned
god(s), their priests and priestesses, the tribal

17
„Crown‟ actually originates from „Horn‟; from common PIE *k̑r̥no- and/or *ker-, which is
conventionally agreed etymon for the term „horn‟ (and/or „crown‟). But due to the Christian-
political bias this fact is omitted by the modern Eurocentric linguists, and substituted with rather
ignorant term and chasing-the-tail explanations: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=corona .
čelniks (i.e. leaders)18, were equally horned/crowned with the animal horns (or oreols made of plants),
also because this was the most common and easily manageable gadget that was sufficiently plastic and
handy as material before the invention of metallurgy. Horns/crowns as status symbols accentuated their

higher social importance among the other members of the community, simply through increased
visibility. Thus, the god(s), priests and tribal chieftains instead of horned with time became crowned.
Further, the Paleolithic male deities as vehicles for fertility and potency rose to prevalence at the
emergence of widespread agriculture. It was also the period when people realized that it wasn‟t some
unexplainable miracle or the mother a sole creator of the life, but that the sperm of man was the vehicle
which makes the miracle of creation possible. Hence the question of the descendency and fatherhood

18
N.G.L. Hammond noted that the ancient Macedonians called their commander “tchelniku”
https://archive.org/details/geniusofalexande00hamm, which in modern Macedonian means
"somebody who leads" – “chelniku” – „frontman‟, literally a „forehead‟:
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-angliski/%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%BE*
http://www.makedonski.info/search/%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA
arose, which marked the end for the undisputed hegemony of the primordial Great Mother Goddess cult
of fertility.
Today this clearly primordial Horned God is described with its much, much later conventional name
'Cernunnos/Ceraunnus', or in corrupted Latin as “Dio Ceruninco”, an exonym that comes from the
reconstructed common PIE *k̑r̥no- and/or *ker- (see also Macedonian “Kûr” - „penis‟19), which is
conventionally agreed universal etymon for the term „horn(s)‟20 and an improvised Latin name for the
Horned God as well; but also for the crown, trumpet21, and - meat22. Even if this Latin exonym is now
used as established nomination for the Horned God, no one can actually know what his real Paleolithic
name (or names) was. Latin 'Ceraunnus' i.e. 'Horned God' are rather descriptive terms of his
aproximative appearance during the rituals, not his real names. The historian Ronald Hutton has
suggested that it instead came from the Arabic term Dhul-Qarnayn which meant "Horned One". This
term had been used in the Quran to refer to Cyrus the Great, or alternatively Alexander the Great, who
considered himself the son of the horned solar deity Amon/Apollon, and wore horns as a part of his
regalia. It is also found as “Qrn” – „horn‟ in Hebrew, which again finds its reflections in “Trn”23 -
„thorn‟ in plain Macedonian.
Last but not the least, another word used in the poetic works: κεπαςνόω referred to as “being hit by
solid object”, is intricately connected with the later Dithyramvic literary form, as well as with both
Dionisiac mythology and cult practices. These elements of primordial Horned God worship were present
as indicated by the finds of pieces of stone axes, since the ritual killings were carried out to resemble a
lightning strike, i.e., the thunder of the Father Sky-god. Importantly, the word “God” at that point of
time denoted as being able to „shine like lightning‟ and „hit as thunder‟. Thus, with the domestication of
animals the celestial Sky-father Horned God avatar gradually from wild horned beast became the strong
Celestial Bull. In the Hinduism too, the Horned God is referred to Pašupati -„the lord‟ (pati) of the

19
http://www.makedonski.info/search/kur#%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%80/%D0%BC
20
It is actually linked to the vernacular Macedonic etymon “kora” - „cortex, bark‟, which through
metathesis evolved in today “rog” - „horn‟ in plain Macedonian; from this Macedonic “kora” root
word in Septuagint Koine it derived as “κέπα” and/or “keratin” (a fibrous protein forming the main
structural constituent of hair, feathers, hoofs, claws, horns, etc.); in Рroto-Semitic *qarn-, etc. This
etymon also appears in both Gaulish and Galatian branches of continental Gaulic as “karn” -
„horn‟. Hesychius of Alexandria glosses the Galatian word “karnon” (κάπνον) as "Gallic horn/
trumpet", that is, the Gaul military horn listed as the carnyx (κάπνςξ) by Eustathius of Solun, who
notes the instrument's animal-shaped bell. The same etymon, through partial metathesis of its Latin
version “corona”, derived into “crown” as well. http://www.makedonski.info/search/kora
21
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_(instrument)
22
Italian/Latin word for meat is “Carne”, clearly resembling the same “Corno/Ceraunnus” words. It
is because almost all the animals we humans use for food are horned, thus Horn/Corno equals
Carne i.e. „meat‟. Hence also „Carnival‟ - from the Late Latin expression „carne levare‟, Old
Pisan „carnelevare‟, Lombardese „carnelevale‟, which means "removing (the) meat", a vernacular
etymology derived from the days of feast which meant "eating/farewell to the meat". In either case,
this signifies the approaching feast.
http://www.etimo.it/?term=carne&find=Cerca
It can‟t be omitted the possibility of the etymology for the word carne to be in relation with the
Macedonic root word “Krv” - „blood‟ in plain Macedonian:
https://mk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%B2 , utterly related to Sanskrit “Kravya” -
„flesh‟: http://sanskritdictionary.org/kravyam
23
http://www.makedonski.info/search/trn
„animals‟ (pasu)24‟, but the grasing ones.25 It was also referred to by its Biblical name, Tubal-cain, who,
according to the Bible was the first blacksmith, but generally he was the good god of nature, life and
fertility. And his totem-animal aspect remained horned, although as the potent but more domesticated
Bull. (below: Hittite and Minoan bull-gods)

As from the prehistory sanctuaries or Trebishta (places for animal/human sacrifice and other
offerings)26 dedicated to this and other anonymous archaic gods were scattered all across the Europe and
Asia, and their archaeological remnants are regularly found by the researchers. – Why anonymous?
Because in all old cultures the soul or „astral body‟ bore a relation to the private personal name, and it
was conferred or came into existence with the name; and for this reason the personal name was sacred
and rarely uttered. This is a particularly common practice in Macedonia even today, where in everyday
communication the usage of nicknames instead of someone‟s real name is preferred habit par
excellence. Someone‟s name remains not exactly a taboo, but it‟s rarely mentioned, and usually by
someone who‟s not familiar with the person in question. Thus, the name in antiquity was believed to be

24
http://sanskritdictionary.org/pasu
25
http://www.makedonski.info/search/pasi
26
from “Treba” - „need‟ in plain Macedonian;
a very intimate part of the individuality, and through it the soul could be injured.27 From philological
evidence it was discovered that Barb-Aryans and other peoples from the most archaic times believed
that not only that the name was a part of the man/god, but that it was that part of him which is termed the
soul, the breath of life. Thus, the dislike of hearing their names mentioned was not confined to human

Above: another well-preserved and reconstructed „Trebishte/Kapishte“, a sanctuary/sacrifice

place of the Great Father Gods from the perhistoric and prechristian period
beings, but gods as well. Knowing the name of a god implies having power over that god, which was of
course a forbidden and/or imposible task for mortals. Archaic people believed that they must keep gods
true names secret, in order to avoid their ire to fall upon them. It was the fundamental reason why the
real names of ancient supreme gods were known but to a chosen few. Today interpretations are nothing
else but pure improvisation of later historiographers and transliterators, which in lack of better testimony
with time invented feeble and rather fantasmagoric substitutes for the god's real secret names. Probably
the oldest known testimony of the Horned God‟s name is reported by Erodot (Lat. Herodotus) as the
Skythian name version of the great Sky-father god and the supreme kreator, with its Eurasian

27
Even Ra, the great Egyptian Sun-god, declared that the name given to him by his father and
mother „remained hidden in my body since my birth, that no magician might have magic power
over me.‟
northeastern syllabic-epithet “Papa” (Lat. Papaius)28; Sanskrit “Pa” [exclamative] - „attention, watch
it!‟, but also “Papis” - „sun‟. It is a legitimate conjecture to presume that this was the same supreme
Horned God and primordial Sky-father (later „Celestial Bull‟) of which many sources and traditions
testify. However, this “name” reported by Erodot was just another votive adjective/epithet of this
primordial deity29, because in plain syllabic Macedonian it simply means “Upper-Upper” and actually
stands for “Highness-Highness”. And “Pa” is the common syllable for “up” which we find in many
words even today.30 This glorifying double appellation remained in use in Macedonia even today, in
another similar double-epithet in the title of the actual Patriarch of the Macedonian Orthodox Church –
“Gospodin-Gospodin” (i.e. „Sire-Sire‟), and as vernacular wondrous exclamation “Paa-paa!”31 (which
by the way also stands as adopted title of the highest instance in the Roman-catholic church – the
“Papa”, anglicized - „Pope‟), or even vernacular triple “Paa-paa-paa…” – as exaggerating exclamation
of ulterior wonder, close to disbelief. The closest correspondence to this syllabic praise is the English
“Wow!” If the testimony of Erodot is correct, then this Macedonian votive syllabic exclamation of praise
is at least 3,000 years old.

Similar to Scythians he was allegedly called Pan in Moesia (according to Ausonius, 4th c. AD). This
archaic epithet-term is still in use even today in Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Czechoslovakian, etc., but today
has far more modest meaning of „Mister‟, which is in fact only a weakened form of „Master/Lord‟.

28
“In the Scythian language, Hestia is called Tabiti, Zevs (in my judgment most rightly so called)
Papaios, Gea is Api, Apollo - Goitosyros, Aphrodite Ourania - Argimpasa, and Poseidon -
Thagimasades.” Herodotus (4.59)
https://brill.com/previewpdf/book/9789004295902/B9789004295902-s005.xml

29
Koine: Παπαῖορ ; Herodotus,1998: IV. 59.
30
For comparison see also the obsolete “Patagon” - denoting a member of a native people alleged
by travelers of the 17th and 18th c. to be the tallest known (in Patagonia accordingly); also
“Palace” from Latin Palatium -„high, hill‟, etc.
31
It describes extreme astonishment or admiration:
https://www.facebook.com/iNFOMAX.mk/posts/1640712839384893/
Another votive version of this supreme deity is the one of the Aryans. Ancient authors claim that the
Barb-Aryans called their supreme celestial Sky-father “Dyaus Pitar”. But again, having in mind the
well-known inviolable secrecy over the true names of the great ancient gods, this is suspected of being
just another transcription-imposed latinization. It is most probably a later conventional term coined by
different transcriptions throughout the ages. However, the simple plain translation of Barb-Aryan
“Dyaus Pitar” is „Soul/Spirit Father‟.
In order to understand the onomastic complexity and secrecy of the ancient gods here is how
Menander Rhetor epideictic praised the god Apollo Sminthios in the late 3rd century AD:
“By what names shall I address you? Some call you Lydian, some Delian, some Ascraean, some
Actian. Others call you Amyclaean, the Pelasgians Patroos, the Milesians Branchiate. You
control every city and land and nation. You control the whole inhabited earth … The Persians
call you Mithras, the Egyptians Orus (Lat. Horus), the Macedonians Ares, the Thebans Dionys,
the Delphians honour you by the double name of Apollo and Dionys … The Chaldaeans call you
the leader of the stars.”
The most original preserved and credible version however, of the Horned God, and its only surviving
original name as from 2nd millennium BCE (which isn't a mere epithet, or hasn't been Latinized as
“Ceraunnus”) is “Veles”, and it survived across the Middle Ages as Central and Eastern-European god
of woods and animals par excellence. It was testified as early as in Hittite as 'Walis' – the god of forests,

Above: the forest god Veles, and Czech illustrated book “V lese” (“In the forest”)

cattle and harvest. His very name 'Veles'32 reveals precisely what his divine mastery was and accordingly
it means the “Great-(of the)-forest” - „Ve-les‟ in plain Macedonian, where the syllable 'Ve' stands for
“Veliki” - the „Great‟, while the “Les“33 is 'forest'34 (both in Macedonian, Russian, Czech, Polish,

32
Volos, Vörsa, Leshy, etc. were other vernacular versions of his name.
33
https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=cs&tl=en&text=Les
Slovakian, Slovenian, etc.). Already Max Vasmer back in 1979 has argued the fact that the origin of the
name of Veles derives from old-Macedonic syllable for “Velik” - „the great‟. For comparison we find the
same Macedonic word-composition in “Velemaster” - 'Grandmaster'; “Velegrad” - 'Big-city'35;“Velmoţ”
i.e. "Veliki Mouţ" literaly 'Great-man' (i.e. duke, a lord); “Veleposlanstvo” - 'Grand-embassy', “Velebit”
mountain in Serbia, etc. In the later traditions he was asigned as the firstborn son of Zemun, the celestial

cow of fertility, and Rod, the supreme primordial cretator god [comparable to Uran(us) and/or
Saturn/Cronos]. Thus, the Horned god Veles was the Great-Lord of forests, and personification of the
life force energy in animals and wilderness, their protector, but also the protector of domesticated cattle.
Comparable to the Roman god Saturn, his sacred tree is the willow. Veles is also nicknamed the
Hyperborean Dionis (another Latin-corrupted form of the Barb-Aryan “Dyaus Pitar”), believed also to
be interrelated to the Persian-Hittite-Macedonic sun-god Mitra, and like him punishes the oath-breakers
with diseases.36 Accordingly to his solar nature Veles‟s symbol was the Swastika.
Apart from Hittite clay tablets from the 2nd millennium BCE, the “Primary Chronicle”, a historical

34
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0*; Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovenian,
Ukrainian, etc. “V lese” (“In the forest”): https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/1183053
35
http://www.makedonski.info/search/velemajstor,
http://www.makedonski.info/search/velegrad
36
The Barb-Aryan sun-myths, as has been mentioned, went with the Aryans when they settled in
Persia, and became the religion of the ancient Parsees. Mitra was the name which the Persians gave
to the Sun. After ages had passed, it was utterly forgotten that Mitra was the Sun, and it was
believed that he was the only Begotten Son of God, who had come down from Heaven to be a
mediator between God and man, to save men from their sins. The 25th of December was said to be
the day on which this God-man was born, and it was celebrated with great rejoicing.
record of the early Kievan Rus, mentioning a primordial god named Veles several times, is the earliest
preserved and most important historical record of this deity. He later became “St.Vlaho”, patron saint of
Croatian city of Dubrovnik, and also a Russian saint “St.Vlasiy”, portrayed as an old shepherd guiding
his sheep. The temple of St.Vlasiy in Novgorod was built on exactly the same spot where the Veles idol
stood for many centuries. In other places it even took over the role of St. Basil. According to the
researches conducted by archaeologists, Moscow was literally built above the rests of ancient pagan
temples. And they existed almost until the time of the “Troubles” (Christian pogroms over pagans) and
the coming to power of the Romanov dynasty. For example, tsar Alexei Mikhailovich wrote to the
voivoda Shuisky in 1649, complaining about the huge pagan festivities on December 22-2537 that
celebrated Kolyada (“Slaughterday”), Usenya (i.e. Usil the Sun-god in Etruscan, Istanu in Hittite, Isa in
Sanskrit38, Pan/Dyaus; found also as the name of the later Dion/Dionis, Xanthus39, Bachus, etc.), and the
"Plov", who celebrated and played Skomrachy (bacchanalias and buffoons)40 everywhere. Among the
areas in Moscow covered by the pagan celebrations “Primary Chronicle” indicated: the Kremlin, Kitay,
the Byelii and Zemyanski suburbs, that is almost the entire territory of Moscow in those years. The
tenacity of these ancient traditions was explained also by the fact that Moscow was founded on a place
where there were more shrines of the great ancient gods then usual, it was a single sacred complex of
about 8 square kilometers, built as an image of the laws of world rotation. It is precisely known that
these were the seven deities: Rod, Veles, Kupalo, Yarilo, Mokosh, Perun and Troyan41, a distant
reflection and medieval theonyms of the ancient seven gods, the seven planetary powers from the
Pelasgic creation myth of Eurynome, and of her setting a Titaness and a Titan over each planet/day of
the week, thus the Seven Cabeiri (Kabeiri) of Samothrace, and seven great gods celebrated by the
Hittites, the Mesopotamians, and many others, to whom they used to sacrify four (4) rams or goats, the
same way we do today in Orthodox Christianity after 3000 and more years, when we celebrate our
modern saints. Their divine roles and names reshuffled in different epochs and in different popular
traditions diverged a lot from place to place, but generally they were the same old primordial divinities
of heaven, sun, earth, thunder, forests, rivers, etc. These were the Great Gods of the east, the primordial
seven Kabeiri.

37
On the 22nd of December the Sun enters the sign of Capricorn, and appears to remain in the same
place for three days and three nights, and then begins to ascend. Aryan sun-god Vishnu, being
moved to relieve the earth of her load of misery and sin, came down from heaven, and was born
of the virgin Devaki (i.e. „Girl‟ in Sanskrit and Macedonic languages, “Devojka” in plain
Macedonian) on the 25th of December. The Horned Sun-god Dionis was also born on 25th of
December; demigod Irakles as well. It is noted that the Barb-Aryans too had the same date
festivities of their supreme Heaven-God (Dyaus Pitar/Papaios) and father of all gods, when the
Sun begins its apparent annual northward journey on the 25th of December. No matter where or
how he was called, this day of rebirth and new hope was said to be his birthday, and it was
observed with great rejoicing.
38
http://sanskritdictionary.org/isa
39
“Xantic” - „yellow‟ (like the sun). Ushas is the name of Aurora, the blushing dawn.
40
Scomrachy, the later Bogomils and their dialect forms, as well as Carnivals, Peripetias, Badnik,
Kolede, and other prechristian manifestations for celebrating the Solstice, Summer, Sun, Forests,
etc.
41
https://slawa.su/letopisi/669-moskva-postroena-na-drevnem-kapishche.html
The name of Veles appears in the toponyms too, the best-known of which is the city of Veles in
Republic of Macedonia, over which looms a hill of St. Elias the Thunderer. Other examples are Veles in
western Serbia, Velesnica on the Danube, Velesovo in Krajina, Velesto in Russia (Smolensk region),
and Velestovo in Montenegro, Velebit mountain in Croatia42, etc. There‟s also the township of Velestino
(Βελεζηίνο, today disgraced as “Feres”), bearing the testimony of a Macedonic layer in the original
settlement of Thessaly (ethnically Macedonian, until the creation of “Greece” in the 19th century).
He is also testified in Lithuania as Velinas, Velnias, Vels, Old Lithuanian Velionis - „deus animarum‟
(„god of animals‟), and he protects the catle. In doing this he (again) assumes the shape of bull.

42
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velebit
Ferdinand de Saussure was apparently the first to suppose the genetic relation of Veles/Velinas with
Vedic Varuna. This ingenious and phonetically impeccable conclusion deserves additional attention in
order to interpret the morphological components of the nouns in question. – The n-sufixes with variable
vowels in their onset (Varunas, Velinas, Taranis, Perun, Uran…) are typical of Indo-European
mythological names. Compare Latin: Fortuna, Sanskrit: Varuna, Hittite: Tharunnaš, Slavic: Perun,
Gaulic: Taranis, Horned God: Ceraunus, etc. Also the sovereignty over the other world draws the Vedic
god Varuna together with Velinas/Veles and his numerous other avatars.43

Right: ancient stone idol from Ukraine

Seen the impossibility to eradicate its widespread popularity, the cunning church institutions in the west
with time have shamelessly assimilated, refurbished, and transformed the Horned God/Veles/Vołos into
St. Nikola (today utterly humiliated and reduced to a clownish „Santa Klaus‟, alluding to „clown‟). And,
as if this wasn‟t enough, Coca-Cola Company painted him in red when they started to use him in the

43
“Contributions to Comparative Mythology: Studies in Linguistics and Philology” by Stephen
Rudy.
Christmas advertising campaing as of 1930‟s. Thus, his original dignified appearance, millennial beliefs,
and holy name of this powerful primordial deity were forbidden and systematically eradicated by the
monotheistic Catholicism. Instead of powerful Horned God/Veles the western church promoted a
mockery-substitute of the same, with pretty much similar attributes, and celebrated at the very same date
(22-25 December), but absolutely unrecognizable and re-branded as “Christian” and under completely
new name. The pledged millennial genocide for extermination of all the other polytheistic religions was
merciless, the church and Inquisition systematically hunted down and condemned every original credo,
and all of the celestial Horned God/Veles manifestations and his original appearances were portrayed as
“demonic” or “Satanic”. Only the new Christian-re-branded “Santa Klaus” version, with no apparent
links to its original pagan form, was admitted. And not only! Monotheistic as it is, Christianity however
reserved and monopolized the 25th December as the exclusive birth date of their only god and the last
avatar of all the previous Horned gods and/or Sun-gods, only now under the name of Jesus Christ.

Above: delusional modern allusion of the primordial Horned God, which today is the
“Christian” look-alike Santa Claus (St. Nicolas), accordingly in a slide pulled by reindeer

To make a point of these religious and linguistic intransigencies, locked between the millenniums-old
past and today Macedonian language and Macedonians in general, there are many other examples.
Beside the above mentioned primordial Horned God/Veles there is also the primordial Horned Goddess,
Elen, (Lat. Nehalen), praised as the goddess of the ways, roads and hosts, but also the wisdom,
wildwoods and paths that cross both nature and human soul. She was also known as the Etruscan deity
Voltumna, or as the horned goddess “Kern”, which is again a Latin exonym of later period. And once
again, the name “Elen” in other modern languages has no meaning whatsoever, that can be related to her
mythological but apparent deer-like features, but, it has exactly the expected sense in Macedonian,
where the word “Elen” accordingly means and is correctly „deer‟ or „stag‟.44 But that‟s not all. There‟s
also another more plausible explanation in Macedonian etymology of why the word “Elen” is related to
the ways, roads, deer and hosts. It reveals its original sense from totally another perspective. Namely,
the conventional dictionaries claim that “Elen” comes from “Helen”45, which is further explained as
corrupted version of “Selene” - a „goddess of the moon‟, which is falsely „explained‟ as “Greek word for
moon” stops there. The farce scheme of “it’s all Greek to me” doesn‟t explain how or which part of
selēnē has something to do with the moon. It presumes that selēnē means 'light', and the conventional
scholars even searched support-words for this theory in Sanskrit and other sources. The bottom line of
this improvised western-Eurocentric theory, offered as an excuse by today western scholars, is always
and again their universal escape-container “of Pre-greek origin”.46 Their blatant manipulation – the
same word (selēnē) is actually aplied for the sun too (Mkd. “Solntze”, Lat. Solaris, Koine Ilios), thus it
is nothing else than another misrepresentation of the older non-"Greek" word.

On contrary, in Macedonian we find the true meaning of the root-word “selen” which means „displaced,
moved”47, and is of course exactly what moon does across the sky. But, not only the moon, the sun, stars
and planets do that too – and also the big herds of prehistoric and today reindeer and other horned
beasts, which moved and still move around seasonally, often covering large distances, exactly as the big
herds of reindeer and caribou still do today. And as we all know the reindeer is the only cervid used in a
pastoral economy that is still largelly exploited by the Nomad tribes across Siberia and Mongolia as a

44
http://www.makedonski.info/search/elen, https://glosbe.com/en/mk/stag
45
https://www.behindthename.com/name/helen
46
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%83%CE%AD%CE%BB%CE%B1%CF%82
47
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD*
riding and draft animal.48 However, the domestication of animals over many millenniums resulted in no
significant change in the local nomadic mode of subsistence in the rarely inhabited Siberian and Arctic
regions, which remained focused on hunting, fishing, and gathering. The cultural shift from foraging to
pastoralism happened very slowly, and actually in the case of reindeer never came to a full completion
like with other adomesticated animals. Many tribes eat both domestic and wild reindeer and keep few
decoy animals in their herds for hunting.The inate desire to crowd is the reason why the reindeer is the
only cervid used in a pastoral economy. At the end of the 17th century, most Arctic and Siberian peoples
were still hunter-gatherers with small herds of roughly 20-30 reindeer. But, the majority are refusing to
eat their herds, which are considered as the status-symbols of social achievement and wealth, and the
widespread preference to eat other game than the domesticated animals was certainly strengthened by
religious taboos on slaughtering domestic reindeer (like the horses in Europe). As attested by an Evenki
nomads myth that relates how the great deity who gave domestic reindeer to humans forbade their
slaughter: „If you kill them, there will be trouble – I shall cast you down to the lower world‟ (Vasilevich
1963: 71). Thus the domestic reindeer were preferentially used for transport, as decoy animals to attract

wild reindeer, and (in some cases) for milking. These primordial half-wild animals remained maybe the
only surviving link with the old world, because, as the specific Ice Age-shaped animals they cannot be
held and in no way treated in farms like the fully domesticated cattle. Simply, they‟re not stable animals
like horses and cows (once wild animals too, but now artificially breeded and fully exploited). They can
be only domesticated outdoors and used as source of food, milk and other purposes, but they cannot be
quartered out of their natural environment. And same like in the primitive Neolithic comunnities they
are considered common good and status symbol, and kept alive by all means, thus explicitly killed only

48
“The rise of reindeer pastoralism in Northern Eurasia: human and animal motivations entangled”
by Charles Stepanoff, 2017.
for sacrifices or when the game is short, and in this case, only the old or injured reindeer are slaughtered.

Amazingly enough, this robust and resistent animal it is also widelly used by Russian Army, for
everyday military patrols on the border even today.

As reminder of these long ago past times, Maria Gimbutas, (1989) notes that the Great Mother Goddess
as doe (Macedonian/Sanskrit: brest feeding, milking)49 is widespread in historical sources and folk
memories, and the deer-doe was one of the primary forms of the birth-giving goddess from the
Paleolithic era. Her research revealed that the earliest traces of deer cults are found in the Neolithic,

49
http://www.makedonski.info/search/doi, Ѕаnskrit: doha - http://sanskritdictionary.org/doha
dating about to 14,000 years ago. The evidence from the above mentioned „Shu-Nun‟ (Kamenaya
Mogyla) site, from Cantabrian Spain, and east of the well-known Alta Mira cave-painting site consists
of ritual burial of deer remains in an egg-shaped depression decorated with colored clay and carved deer
antlers; another site reveals sandstone plaquettes with engravings of deer, reindeer, and other animals.
The Sami people of Lapland still see the Reindeer Goddess as linked with the sun Goddess, Geijen-
neite. But not only the deer was horned animal totem. As we saw above, from the Neolithic artifacts in
Macedonia (p.23), other horned animals like giraffes or extinct sivatheriums were equally used as
horned totems. The later (sacred) bull was venerated too as horned totem also because of his horns.

The deer/reindeer myth was found as far south as Macedonian Peninsula, as shown in the image below
of the hunting goddess Artemis/Diane holding the game of panther and hind, underlining the
immemorial prehistoric times when the large herds of Ice Age animals were still roaming across the
whole Europe.
Today modern Europeans have erased from their minds every memory of the ancient ways of herding
and animal-transportation, by which our distant ancestors traveled and migrated from place to place. The
natural rhythms of migration of the big herds of horned and other grazing animals (wild horses for
example) dictated the movements of the people too in the distant past. With the passing of millennia,
these migratory routes were determined jointly by adomesticated animals and their natural needs and
memory, and by herders‟ choices, which are described as a „cyclic circulation of wills‟ between humans
and animals. Hence also this forgotten (but ultimately not „horned‟ or „light‟) meaning in today slightly
corrupted Macedonian word for deer - “Elen” that descended from “Selen” - „resettled, migrated‟.
Accordingly, the romanticized “Elen” (or Helen/Selene) of the ways, roads and hosts, logically finds its
hidden primordial reflections in the following Macedonian words: “Selenye”50 - „migration, moving
away‟, “Naselen”51 - „settled‟, “Odselen”52 - „moved away, migrated‟, “Doselen”53 - „settled (here),
immigrated‟, “Selo”[abrev.]54 - „a village, rural settlement‟, “Naselba”55 - „urban settlement, suburbia‟,
but also “Delen”56 - „separated, divided‟, and “Vselena”57 - which means „whole inhabited (by moving

50
http://www.makedonski.info/show/%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%9A%D0%B5
51
http://www.makedonski.info/search/naselen
52
http://www.makedonski.info/search/otselen
53
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD*
54
http://www.makedonski.info/search/selo
55
http://www.makedonski.info/search/naselba
56
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD*
stars)‟ i.e. „universe‟ (which is of course full with moving stars and planets). And last but not the least,
there‟s the ancient popular Macedonian fairytale of Silyan (another corrupted vernacular form of
“Selen”) the Stork, a folk story of a guy that transforms himself into a stork and travels to a faraway
island, where he turns back into human. „Silyan‟ was actually the one who is “Selen” - „migrated‟. All of

these popular traditions and words, from “Elen” to “Silyan” tell us the story of moon, stars, (horned)
animals, and human‟s traveling and settle, ways, roads and hosts. However, the common association of
later “Elen” is Mother Deer, a figure of folklore, also related to fertility, lactation, and childbirth. These
attributes all point to her real prehistoric origin and hidden personality – the Great Mother Goddess. She
is often described in the literature as a goddess figure, but whatever the state of religious belief in pre-
Christian times, something we don‟t really know, her origins are not religious but social. She is a
totemic figure and a founding ancestor of the group. This is more in complying with the tribal cultures
before the advent of great monotheistic religions reshaped these older ideas. And off course, Elen is just
another archaic version of Cybele/Artemis/Diana, an ancient forest goddess of wild animals and trees.
In the folklore of Eastern Europe she is also known as the 'Golden Granma' ('Zlatna Baba',
'Zolotaya Baba'). Her pagan sanctuaries were to be found everywhere on the outskirts of the Old
European civilization and Russian empire farther in the east. Mačiej from Miechów wrote about her in a

57
http://www.makedonski.info/search/vselena
Latin treatise on 'Two Sarmatias' published in 1517: "Behind the earth known as Wiatka, on the road to
Scythia, stands the great pagan lady-goddess Golden Granma [...]. Surrounding peoples venerate this
idol, and everybody passing by or hunting animals will not leave without making a sacrifice. Even when
there is no precious gift, one makes a fur of an animal or even a thread drawn from clothing and,
bowing with reverence, goes away." People say that the dream of Golden Grandma is of her as a statue
with the appearance of the old woman, holding her son on her lap, and one more child about whom they

say that it is her grandson. Furtherrmore, the popular tradition says that she supposedly puts some
instruments here and there in the forests, so they can constantly sound in the wind like drums, trumpets
and horns. And accordingly, the primitive instruments were usually made of animal horns and bones off
course, but also of wood too.
The equation of horns with trees is another aspect of the prehistoric horned deities. And accordingly,
the next adamant evidence of these primordial indelible ties to the nature, animals and woods, a
testimony still stubbornly preserved throughout past millennia in its most original archaic form, is the
Macedonian word for „ancient‟ – “Drevno”, which is related and still has the same meaning with the
Macedonian word for tree - “Drvo”58. Simply, the trees longevity surpassed the life expectation of the
primitive Homo Sapiens for many generations59, and to our distant Macedonic ancestors it seemed that
the trees, which naturally live for centuries, are almost eternal, and accordingly, they related the idea of
„ancient‟ to the trees. This concept, and the word for „ancient‟ which descended from the word for trees,
remained the same in all Macedonic languages until today - Drevno.

58
„Tree‟ – in Hittite “Daru”; in Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian “Drvo” (pronounced „drrvō‟);
Russian “Derevo”; Bulgarian “Dervo”; Czech “Dřevo”; Slovak “Drevo”. Anglicized “tree” has
the same root; the word for “Druid” (or “Derwydd”) also derived from “derw” (pronounced
„derroo‟), which is “Gaulic(?)” for „tree‟ and/or „oak‟ (“Dab” in plain Macedonian). “Druids”
were the woods-priesthood, and presided over the secret mysteries of the consecrated groves.
59
From here also the modern Macedonic greeting word for „hello/hi‟ - “Zdravo” in plain
Macedonian, which simply means „health‟, salute, well-being; see “Zdravstvo” – „sanity‟ in plain
Macedonian.
The trees were common objects of worship among all European peoples as well (before their alienation).
By watching their cycles of growth, shedding of leaves, and re-flowering in the spring, humans have
long perceived the trees as powerful symbols of life, death, renewal and eternal life. Nonetheless, since

the beginning of time people have had a sense that trees are sentient beings just like us, that they can feel
pain, and they bleed when they are hurt. The forest has been the backdrop for poetry, stories and art
since the most ancient times. Mythologies always mention trees, often linking them symbolically to
Creation and the World Tree in one design or another. Wood was also conceived as „containing‟ light
and heat that could be released. This is the „burning bush‟ from the Bible. Fire is often a religious
symbol for God‟s creative power (Agni or Mercury are fire gods). Trees, for example, can be ascribed
with elements of personification, through their potential function as the sitting place of ancestors; thus
they can assume the status of an ancestral shrine.By having their roots stuck deep in the ground, and by
growing up high above, the trees were also seen as the natural conduits between the holy spirits of the
earth and sky. Dionis, whose death and resurrection were celebrated across Macedonian Peninsula and
elsewhere, was worshipped throughout ages as “Dionis of the Trees (Pine and Ivy)”, and his animal
totem par excellence was the Panther, a reknown tree-climber, as the very Macedonic root word from
where originates “Pentari” - „climbs‟60 testifies it. The goddess Ištar, was represented as originally
dwelling in a tree. It was an ancient custom to use trees as gibbets for crucifixion (or, if artificial, to call
the cross a tree), the tree being one of the symbols of nature-worship, which denoted the fructifying
power of the Sun. All over the world sacred trees were or still are protected by a system of taboos and
ceremonies which were developed to prevent any damage. The worship of sacred trees was widely
practiced all over the Europe as well, until institutionalized Christianity and organizations as Inquisition
severely forbid any idolatry and animism.

60
http://www.makedonski.info/search/pentari
However, in the Near and Far East the trees are still respected and adored as real deities. The trees are
the abode of the souls of a righteous persons, and are regarded as the home for the souls of ancestors and
local saints known as Wellis (compare to Veles!). And, even if it‟s superfluous and from today
perspective rather embarrassing as a fact, it is worth mentioning that long before the rational human
thought developed, and long before the first manifestations of civilized human behavior was ever to
appear, more than any other place that our most primitive ancestors used as hideout from dangerous wild

beasts were – the trees. Unaccountably, by struggling for bare survival, our ancestors found the ulterior
shelter by hiding themselves high up in the trees. The early tree-dwelling hominids, before evolving into
more able Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens, were truly living up there. Thus, in our collective
subconscious memory, buried deep inside our hearts and souls, the trees are still our primal home. The
innocent childhood games of climbing on the trees were once not just innocent plain games, but life
saving dash.
It should be noted that in many depictions of „Sacred Trees‟, a great serpent is said to reside at its
base. These serpents typically guard a forbidden knowledge which only a select number of mortals have
ascertained (it was under the Bodhi tree that the Buddha was said to have gained enlightenment, Adam
and Eve attained wisdom by eating fruit, offered by serpent, from the tree of knowledge, etc.). And as
the tree branches were associated with the antlers of the deer and Horned God, the snakes were seen as
related to the tree roots and mother earth. That was the basic thing that connects the trees and serpents,
their de facto chthonic nature. In the distant past primitive people related the plants growt from the
interred seeds to the possible reincarnation-parallel of their dead, and that‟s how actually the burial
rituals in the ground were introduced at first. In the Macedonian language the relation of the snakes with
earth is even more obvious – the Earth is “Zemya”61, the Snake is its metathesis - “Zmeeya”62, and
Dragon is “Zmey”, all derived from the root verb “Zema”63 - 'it takes', as the earth is where every living

creature goes back to when it dies, and where everything turns back at the end, thus the chthonic earth is
the one that takes back (Mkd. „zima‟) everything at the end. Accordingly, both the trees and snakes were
considered as mystical beings in direct relation with the underground, and they were seen as a conduit to
the world below the earth‟s surface, and in relation to the mythological creatures that inhabited that
mysterious world.

61
http://www.makedonski.info/search/zemja
62
http://www.makedonski.info/search/zmija
63
http://www.makedonski.info/search/zema
To the ancient Macedonians of all the trees especially holy and utterly worshiped was and still is the
oak, which is always prized as the most sacred tree in Macedonia. Oak longevity, attested durability and
extreme hardness, were decidedly appreciated and considered as the most practical attributes for a wood.
And the Oak tree did helped them to build strong weapons and durable homes, temples and palaces (it is

known fact that Oak hard wood is incredibly resistant to worms and many other external influences,
which different types of wood cannot withstand). Oak logs, despite the abundance of other tree species,
were specifically used to cover the burial chambers. Macedonian tribute to their par excellence sacred
tree can be clearly seen in the royal golden crowns of the Aegead (Lat. Argead) dynasty, discovered in
some of their royal tombs. Their golden diadem-crowns are made in the form of oak branches and
leaves.

Above: two of the Macedonian royal diadem-crowns in a form of oak leaves

Plants and animals remained the basic source for people‟s embodiment and praise of the forces and
elements of nature. Their images are found on innumerous artifacts, sacred objects, statues, or coins.
And even though we don‟t worship them anymore as we used to in the prehistoric and ancient times,
they‟re still predominant and omnipresent emblems of success, force, speed, sexuality, etc.

Above: zoomorphic coins from Metapontum in Lucania (550-500 BCE), from Akantion (400 BCE),
and „Pan‟ from the city of Ichnani in Lower Paionia/Macedonia

Below and on the next page: zoomorphic symbolism and animal images used in today marketing
as embodiment of the strength and success of today modern centers of wealth and power
Old MACEDONIC RITUALS
Rather than being altered, vestiges of the past are almost unchanged in some rural areas, as are
Macedonian folk beliefs. Indigenous traditions of the ancient Macedonians abounded with numerous
ritual activities, although some correspond with the customs of other ancient peoples. However, these
practices do have specific features that characterize the folk tradition of the ancient Macedonians
interpreted, and can be seen as guardians of the Macedonian identity. Nontheless, 2,000 years have
passed from the ancient period to the present, and it is a bit hypothetical to interpret the rudiments of
customs and celebrations from that time, but we can allow ourselves to conclude that certain ritual
actions from the ancient period, even if modified, still largely correspond to the current Macedonian folk
customs and beliefs, both in terms of the time of celebration and in terms of ritual actions, procedures
and symbolism. Their continuity reflects the historical Macedonian identity, from antiquity until today. 64

Step by step the prehistoric peoples were discovering and conquering not only the living space around
them, but also their way into the reasonable explanation of the things and forces of Nature. Questions
were countless, plausible answers few. Lacking the necessary level of knowledge and technical means
that could‟ve offered them a rational comprehension of the natural forces, the primitive humankind first
turned to Cultic practices and Rituals, by symbolic imitating of the animals, plants, and elements
behavior in general. In strive to explain everything that surrounded them, lacking a minimum of
scientific clue, through a lot of ignorance and frustrated fantasies humans avenged into unprecedented
intricate worlds of mystification and magic. A ritual worship system that gradually emerged was
characterized by primitive ideas concerning a multitude of ghosts and spirits of animals and/or other

64
“Customs of the Ancient Macedonians in Macedonian National Traditions” by Lidia
Kovacheva, 2016.
natural forces and elements. What prevailed in connecting different animals and plants with the basic
elements of nature were their obvious and most accentuated attributes. Thus, the Ant, Vulture, and the
Snake were chthonic creatures in relation with the underground and the dead, the Horse was associated
with the water (it was even recorded by ancient authors that the Macedonians fed their horses with
fish!)65, the Ram and the Bull were animals commonly paralleled and favored as the symbols of the Sun
and/or Thunder, because of their most obvious nature – they charge unstoppably and hit straight ahead,
directly and with ardor, exactly like the Sunrays and/or Lighthning, cow and pig were related to fertility,
Lion with fire, etc.

In order to bind together, the first primitive communities had established a cultic animism, totemism,
and other ritual practices that after while became a worship. In its earliest form they were based on the
most primitive beliefs and linked to practically everything – the earth, hills, mountains, caves, rocks,
streams, lightning, wind, the sun, the moon, and many more things (beside the animals and plants). They
were all considered to be alive, or possessed by spirits, and to all of them were attributed look-alike
mythological personalities and corresponding nomenclatures. The very first words were also different
forms of the basic abstract ideas about the most basic things and elements. For example the tree, “Drvo”
in plain Macedonian, it gave also the base for the abstract concept of “Tvrdo” [Metathesis of „drvo‟] -
„hard‟66 and/or “Zdravo” - „healthy, strong‟, and it also gave the base for the concept of „ancient‟ -
“Drevno”, as already mentioned in the introduction above. Thus the priests of Woods were the “Druids”
(from Macedonic “Drvo” - tree), the priests of Dionis were known as “Koryvantes” – i.e. „Ivy-bearers‟
(from “Korov”- ivy and other invasive plants, generally „weed‟ in plain Macedonian)67; the celestial Bull
was Ur (hence Urus and Ta-urus)68 because when thunder hits from the sky and when the enraged bull

65
https://vetzoo.lsmuni.lt/data/vols/2008/44/en/antikas.pdf ; Herodotus‟s in his “Histories”
recorded the habit of ancient Macedonians to feed their pack horses with fish.
66
Or vice versa, maybe the concept for „hard‟ (i.e. “Tvrdo”) was the basic idea in defining the
„tree‟ (i.e. “Drvo” ) in plain Macedonian.
67
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2*
68
https://www.wordnik.com/words/urus
charges – it demolishes/crashes everything – “Uriva” in plain Macedonian69 (see also “Urto” in
Italian)70. The archaic etymology of all these common words hides the testimony and indelible links
with our most distant past.

Above: an Ibex petroglyph and ancient statue of mythological 3-headed

Aion/Dionis/Osiris, with Macedon (Wolf) and Anubis (Dog)71

Further, the very root of the words for holy rite, i.e. Sacred and Sacrifice, reveals their Macedonic
origin: PIE *seh2k-/ *sh2k- [verb; Macedonian “Seči” - „cuts‟; also “Sekna” - „sudden interruption,
abrupt halt (literally „cutting the flow‟)], “sekol ” - „(was) cutting‟ > Hittite šāklāi - „sacrifice rite‟ (the
act of immolation) > modern Macedonian “zakla, zakoli ” - „slaying/cutting (the throat)‟; but also
“sakat”72 - „mutilated, crippled‟ in plain Macedonian; Tocharian B sākre - „happy, blessed‟, same in

69
http://www.makedonski.info/search/%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%B0; hence also
“Rovya” - „thunder‟ in plain Macedonian:
http://www.makedonski.info/search/%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%84%D1%98%D0%B0
70
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/italian-english/urto
71
Diodorus Siculus (90-21 B.C.E.) in "The antiquities of Egypt", 1st chapter of his 'Bibliotheca
Historica' which is based mainly on 'Aegyptiaca' of Hecataeus of Abdera. Diodorus in 18.1 relates:
"Osiris was accompanied on his campaign, as the Egyptian account goes, by his two sons Anubis
and Macedon, who were distinguished for their valor. Both of them wore the most notable symbols
of war, taken from animals whose character was not unlike the boldness of the men - Anubis
wearing a Dog's skin and Macedon who wore the fore-parts (the paws) of a Wolf; and it is for this
reason that these animals are honoured among the Egyptians. Macedon his son, moreover, he left
as king of Macedonia, which was named after him." According to Erodot (lat. Herodotus)
"Osiris/Bousiris" was the Egyptian Dionis, and the house of Ptolemies claimed their descent from
Dionis.
72
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%82*
Macedonian “Sreken”73 - „happy‟, hence Latin sacer and/or sacrum/sacrificum - „to be sacrificed‟,
further related to sancire - „to punish‟ (see „sanction‟ for example). Killing was and still is the macabre
other side of every religion throughout ages – animal and human sacrifice for satisfying the “god‟s will”
is long practiced, and still is a shocking human behavior even today in the 21st century AD. Without
remorse or minimal reasonable excuse, after thousands of years of human history, it remains one of the
most horrid and dark side of our primitive nature.

One such primitive sacrificial tradition, but undeniable striking testimony of the original ethnic oneness
and most profound traditional connections across the Macedonic Aegean urheimat, is the particular
apotropaic lustration-ritual of the Hittites and Macedonians. A rite of purification by passing the whole
army, headed by their king, between the two separated раrts of the sacrificed dog cut in half.74 Practiced
by Macedonians before the war campaigns, or regularly in the dog-month of Perit (January)75 according
to the ancient Macedonian calendar, this flagrant animalistic-magical ritual of purification is firmly
reported by the ancient sources as common Hittite/Macedonic custom par excellence. Ritual‟s name
“Peripetia” survived until modern times, but it lost its original prehistoric meaning, and today is only a
Macedonian word for „a thrill, a hurdle‟. In the Hittite ritual of the Routed Army76 we see a typical dog-
severing ritual: if the troops were defeated (or before the campaign) they must pass through a “gate”
made of haw-thorn. The purpose of the gate with its thorns is to „scrape off the impurity‟ from the
offerants as they pass through. The halves of the severed animal were placed on either side of the thorny
gate, in order to absorb the impurity that falls from the passerby. It had been also suggested by some
scholars that the passing between the two pieces of a severed dog was actually an admonition, as
example of what awaits the army if they don‟t act united and strong.

73
http://www.makedonski.info/show/%D1%81%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%9C%D0%B5%D0%BD
74
Nade Proeva (1997, 168); see also Billie Jean Collins “The puppy in Hittite ritual” (1992).
75
Lat. “Peritios” which now corresponds to the modern Julian-calendar month of January; today
“Pess” - „dog‟ in plain modern Macedonian; see also Spanish “Pero” - „dog‟, remnant of the
ancient pre-Latin Iberian idiom.
76
Thus named by some Hittite scholar, although the logic of this assumption it is not clear.
Above: ancient votive dog statue from Asia Minor. Museum of Louvre

The Romans, who also adopted this ritual from the Macedonians, due to calendar reforms introduced by
them, practiced it one month after under the name of “Februa” (Februalia, also Februatio) and/or
“Lupercalia”, and the Macedonian rite thus became known as „Februa/Lupercalia‟. Thus „februa‟ was
purification feast held in this month. Etymologicaly is related to “trebva”, modern Macedonian “Treba”
- „needs‟, which remained in use until today and is recognizable as widespread Macedonic toponym
“Trebishte/Trebenishte”. Places named “Trebishte” or “Trebenishte” denote a „needs-place‟ for
sacrifice, and are present across the whole central, soutneastern and eastern Europe. According to Ovid,
„Februare‟, as a Latin word derives from an earlier Etruscan word referring to purging, and as we know
Etruscans resettled to the Apennine Peninsula from the Aegean region too.77 Actually, it is known that
Etruscan deity Februus was a god of the underworld and of purification, and is practically oversea
version of Zagreus, the first Orphic Dionis from the prehistoric era. Month of February, which was his
sacred month, was named after him. Roman priests were forbidden to touch or mention dogs; Brahmans
in India too, for yet unknown to us reasons they must not read the sacred Vedas when they hear a
barking dog.
However, this particular Hittite-Macedonic dog-sacrifice ritual and its religious or spiritual aspects
are yet to be fully understood. Because as we know the dog is the first ever animal that humans managed
to domesticate as from the early Stone Age, and the origins of this by all means very archaic ritual is
undoubtedly rooted in the very antecendent period of human history. Recent findings showed that dog‟s
relationship with humans date back to at least 40,000 years ago.

77
https://www.definitions.net/definition/februa
Above: Polychrome tracing made by the archaeologist Henri Breuil from the cave
painting of a wolf-like canid discovered in the Font-de-Gaume cave, Dordogne, France
dated to 17,000 years ago

Another incredibly primitive ritual, which by its nature was recognized as exceptionally primordial
practice that descends from the Neolithic, if not the very Paleolithic, is the purification ritual of the “Life
Fire” (in some places also known as “Wild Fire”). From its very “invention” the fire was worshiped as
deity, and its elemental power was unquestionably feared and respected by the primitive people through
numerous beliefs and apposite customs. One of these rituals, which survived countless millenniums, is
the “Life Fire”. As purification tool and remedy against demons, deceases, and even epidemies
indifferently for humans and animals, the “Life Fire” was evoked and strictly obtained by rubbing of
two dry pieces of hazle wood. The very mode in which this “Life Fire” is made, points to an
unprecedentedly old ritual, which is prohibitively behind our possibilities for comprehensive
chronological or historical dating. The ritual was usually performed when unexpected epidemic or other
unwanted misfortune would‟ve hit the cattle or people, instigated by the primordial belief that the “Life
Fire” is the only sure remedy. In order to make it function all other fires must‟ve been extinguished,
even the smallest candle or thiniest spark. Then two chosen, usually young and healthy male persons,
were committed to go in some hidden place, in order to avoid any external influences and
contamination, where they would‟ve make a fire by rubbing the two dry pieces of hazle wood. After
obtaining the fire they were transporting it to a previously prepared ritual big fireplace, usually on a
nearby hilltop close to the village, where the purification of the cattle and people was performed by
passing all of them bellow the burning “Life Fire” in a specially dug ditch. All the people from the
village would‟ve then toke the burning pieces of wood from the big “Life Fire” to relight the
extinguished fires in their homes. The big fireplace of the “Life Fire” was then left to extinguish by
itself. The ashes that left after the fire went off were equally considered healthy and beneficial, and they
were spread in the stables and with cattle, around the bee hives, in the planted fields and gardens, and
infront of the house doorways, etc. The last known and scientifically documented practice of the “Life
Fire” ritual was recorded in 1970 in the village of Podmol, near the city of Prilep, Republic of
Macedonia.78 It remains a legitimate proposal to seek the origin of this ritual within the elemental forces
and mysteries of the Great Gods Cabeiri/Kabeiri from Samothrace.
Many of these rituals were performed at pits, sites that were created to represent a closeness
between the man and the gods, particularly those that were chthonic, or related to the earth. This type of
pit ritual is known as "necromantic,” because they were attempting to commune with gods of
the Underworld and summon them to the living world. Even though for the most of these prehistoric
rituals and cults we don‟t have the ultimate evidence and absolute certainty of their precise meaning and
exact arrangement. But from the countless dedicated artifacts, which had been agreed that have no
practical utility other than the religious one, the overall general conclusions and guidelines were
inevitably postulated. The belief in the relationship between humans and animals and plants account for
and explain many of the myths and superstitions of early man. Indigenism (Continuity Theory) proved
that these strong primordial myths were transmitted from generation to generation throughout the
millennia. The primordial gods and goddesses that sprang from the context of Neolithic cattle herding
and first agricultural settlements were merely a continuation of the older rituals and traditions of
Fertility Cults, Animism and Shamanism. Today Kukerski, Baburski, Brumalia and Russalia animistic
cults and rituals are nothing else but the reduced form of these same, most ancient Macedonic traditions,
which survived until our time.

The early agricultural communities then attached significance to the risings and settings of fixed stars
and star-groups (Pleiades, Hyades, Orion, Sirius, Arcturus, etc.). The gods and goddesses were related to
the animals as well as to the celestial bodies, constellations, and their movements and rotations. Platon,
Aristotel, Theophrast, all used risings of stars and solstices to specify times of the year. Thus, the
zodiac/zoomorphic attributes and animistic features of the ancient pantheons persisted throughout
following epochs also thanks to the Astrology.

78
“The Ritual-Magic meaning and practice of the „Life Fire‟ in Prilep region” by Velimir
Nikolov Plamenski, 1981.
All that changed with the emergence of a two-class system, itself related to the increasing density of
population made possible by agriculture. Other social changes, such as the growth in the market
resulting from the first widespread use of coinage, the development of bureaucracy and law, as well as
new levels of urbanization, are less directly associated with religion but are part of the same great
transformation that got underway in the 1st millenium BCE. Accumulation of the cultivated goods
created more free time other than that implied in the mere search of food. Free time activity spawned
myriad of specialized activities, different craftsmanship, and finally – social classes. The gods also
fragmented into numerous classes and covered different rituals and belief features. And often they were
simply called by different names, even though it was the very same divinity. Derveni Papyrus from
Macedonia clearly states that the Earth (PIE *Ghe-, Γε), the Mother (Mater, Μήτηπ,
Deamater/Demeter), Rǽa (Pέα), Íra and/or Zeirene were one and the same. Her different double/triple
nature was even represented with images of her with two or three and more faces or heads, than also she
appeared as the 3-headed Hecate. In many cases this multiple interpretations and transliterations while
migrating from one region to another could be applied for other gods and goddesses too: Macedonic
Nina - Etruscan Uni - Roman Juno; Macedonic Ares (from “Yarets” - „capricorn‟ in plain Macedonian) -
Roman Mars, Egyptian Horus; Hittite Tharun - Macedonic Perun (i.e. “Striker”) - Roman Saturn -
Christian St.Elliah; etc. Soon, the wealthier upper-status group tended to monopolize political and
military power, and toke the advantage of superior religious status as well. This transformation is visible
in the cult objects and tokens, which gradually passed from their primitive animistic shape toward the

anthropomorphic. An example of this irreversible transition from animism toward the anthropomorphic
religion is offered by that prodigious and cosmopolitan Macedonian, Alexander the Great. As founder of
the city of Alexandria, while in Egypt, he refused however to pay tribute to the bull god Apis,
“declaring that he was accustomed to worship gods, not cattle”. His prophetic statement was utterly
confirmed in the coming ages, and the mighty bull from sacred became just a sacrificial item, first of
Mitra, who was the next one in the lineage of solar avatars of the celestial bull-gods (Papaios, Ceraunus,
Dionis…), and thenafter just a common oblation for all occasions. This was due to the complete
extermination of the big wild beasts, and utter domestication of what remained from nature‟s assortment
of animals that were suitable for controlled cultivation.
Purely anthropomorphic deities were slow to develop, gods and goddesses were almost always
viewed as hybrid forms, part human and part animal. Beside different names, they could‟ve still take the
shape of all the animals, birds, fishes, trees, stones, and all the gods could‟ve take all and any known
form at will. Egyptian and Hindu gods could do the same. The primordial animistic aspect of the
religion was further preserved through public animal sacrifices to the gods, macabre rituals stubbornly
practiced even today, in the 21st century, in some retarded regions of the world.
Gods were still an assemblage of natural forces, and it is only human‟s disdain for nature‟s kingdom
(its “abhorrence of all reality”) which has blinded it to the fact that nature recapitulates in God(s). The
emergence of true cult with the complex of gods, priests, worship, sacrifice, and in some cases divine or
priestly kingship, were the religion next characteristic features. The earliest depictions of gods in human
form show a body usually without separate limbs. Small bone or clay figurines, most of them depicting
anthropomorphic totems or gods, that have been interpreted as votive offerings in the places of worship.
Also the tattoos from the very few preserved prehistoric mummies testify the first primitive votive
designs and magic symbols dedicated to unknown early gods and demigods.
From that unclear primordial cauldron of nameless spirits, animal deities and anthropomorphic
totems, first to evolve into easily recognizable deity in the Neolithic Age was the Great Mother Goddess.
The Great Mother Goddess was regarded as immortal, changeless, and omnipotent; and the concept of
fatherhood had not been introduced yet into religious thought. She took lovers, but for pleasure, not to
provide her children with a father. Men feared, adored, and obeyed the matriarch; the (fire) hearth which
she tended in a cave or hut being their earliest social centre, and motherhood their prime mystery. Thus
the first victim of an ancient public sacrifice was always offered to her.
Her prehistoric role was generally a fertility fetish, worn or worshiped as a magical object or amulet
to ensure birth, and she bear no clear markers of divinity. Not only the moon, but, to judge from
Imera/Himera79 and Grairme of Ireland, the sun, were the goddess‟s celestial symbols. Her own
sacrificial animal was a domestic pig and/or cow. She never takes part in wars or disputes. Like Artemis

79
According to Hesiod she was a daughter of Ereb and Nikta ( the goddess of the night) and Talasa
her child; same also in “De Natura Deorum” by Cicero.
Above: Some of the numerous early Neolithic figurines of the Great Mother Goddess,
Archaeological Museum of the Republic of Macedonia

and Athene, moreover, she has always resisted every amorous invitation offered her by titans, gods, or
others. However, numerous votive places on the hilltops and sacred groves, and first primitive altars and
temples dedicated solely to the Great Mother Goddess were frequent already in the Neolithic. Today
remnant of her worship is the popular forest fairy, which in plain Macedonian is now known as
Samovila (or Šemvila), a clear declension of the Pelasgo-Phrygian Zemela/Semela, the mythical mother
of Dionis.
The rite of passage from childhood to maturity in Macedonia was also closely related to the observance
of the primordial cult of Dionis, and that can also be seen in Erodot, as described by the Persians who
came to the Macedonian king Aminta to demand land and water. Aminta invited them to attend a lavish
banquet, to which they asked to be escorted by Macedonian girls. But, Alexander, son of Aminta refused
to let the girls to be ravished, and instead ordered several beardless boys to dress in female clothes and
sit down with the Persians in disguise. When the Persians tried to defile what they believed were girls,
the disguised boys jumped up and beat them. In today Republic of Macedonia, the ancient custom of
pretending has been slightly transformed in the times of modern society, and it is practiced during the
Christmas holidays, specifically in celebration of the holiday “Vasilica” during the so-called
"Unbaptized days"(Mkd. „Nekrsteni denovi‟) which are the twelve days from January 7th till “Vodici”
(Epiphany) on January 19th. In that period, according to various folk beliefs, various evil spirits enter
the homes of those participating in holiday feasts and try to harm the people inside. In Gevgelija, a city
in southern R. of Macedonia, these days are known as “Pogani days”, “Ristosovi (Christ‟s) Days”, and
so on.
However, according to the etymologists and anthropologists, rites of passage from childhood to
maturity in the Republic of Macedonia are the distant observance of the prehistoric cult of Dionis. These
primordial beliefs, rituals and myths showed sturdy vitality and survived numerous conquerors and
influences of various new religious forms. Like the Zodiac and its unprecedented and uninterrupted
observance that descends from the most distant prehistoric times, zoolatry concepts are still deeply
engraved into the subconscious collective memory and traditions of the people. The previous myths and
complex ritual characteristic of primitive religion continued to exist within the structure of Archaic
Religion, when it was systematized and elaborated in new ways.
The transition from nomadic hunter-gatherers way of life to more sedentary pastorial one brought
the fast development and overall progress of the human society and its structures, and a new
environment appeared – the house. Thus, the previous archaic religion and cults blended within this new
structure that became a focal point around which the humanity found its new endowment. The house as
intentionally built functional home, made of hard immovable material, became the new dimension of
humanity and civilization. Thus, astonishing is the example of the primordial Neolithic cult of the Great
Mother Goddess of the House/Home, of which a sanctuaries and statue-altars from as back as the 7th
millennium BCE were found in the archaeological sites of Tumba Madžari (Macedonian Cyrillic: Тумба
Маџари), Porodin, Velušina, Vršnik, Vrbjanska Čuka, and other prehistoric settlements located all over
the Republic of Macedonia. Her altars and worship-places are found again and again along the timeline
and across the territory of Macedonia, even outside of the urban settlements, like in the cave „Dren‟ near
the ancient city of Stena (today Demir Kapia), or above Stobi on the holy hill known as „Klepa‟.

Next page: different altars of the Great Mother Goddesss of the Home from Neolithic
Macedonia, 7th-6th millennium BCE. Inside were poured libations and food offerings. Her
worship as the „Magna Mater of Pessinus‟ was first rendered at Rome as late as 204 BCE
For comparison, the animistic Asia Minor goddesses found in Haçilar, were dated by radiocarbon to
5500-5400 BCE. That‟s more than 1000 years after the appearance of the Goddesses of the Home from
Macedonia, which underlines the incomparably more advanced development of the Neolithic cultures in
Macedonian Peninsula, as well as the first agricultural settlements, long before the Mesopotamian. The
antecedent prehistoric and later archaic goddesses (much later emerged as Kubaba/Kibela, Armaiti,
Demetrа, Isis, etc.) have nothing in common with the modern day religions, such as the Christianity or
Budism, but they are rather based in the phylogenetic archetypes which are same in all cultures and open
to different interpretations. The displayed female figurines and statues of the primordial Great Mather
Goddess present her as the centre of fertility, exposing her round belly or the womb. This distant epoch
was the time of the Matrilineal worship, imagined as the time of peace and prosper. Of other
anthropomorphic deities or cults from Neolithic there‟s very little or no evidence at all.
But, the great leap forward that happened particularly in Neolithic Macedonia, consisted in the fact
that the Great Mother Goddess began to be specifically related to the completely new concept of
„home/house‟, and became the mistress of the house – the first-ever built urban construction with
specific purpose in human history, that appeared some 9000 years ago in prehistoric Macedonia. Thus,
it‟s not by chance that the Macedonian root word for „home‟ is “Doma” > „do-ma‟ –
„beside/close/next(to)-mom‟ (hence Latinized Domus and Anglicized Domestic).

Below: more altars of the Great Mother Goddess of the home, many of them incomplete
of the roof (made probably of wood or hay) and lacking the goddess torso
Above: another complete altar of the Great Mother Goddess of the Home from the
village of Porodin, near Bitola. 7th millennium BCE, Republic of Macedonia
First historical-known name of her was maybe Estia of the Hearth (koine: Ἑστία; Latin: Hestia,
Babylonian: Ishtar, Phoenician: Astarte, Egyptian: Ast–>Isis). This root word has allegedly two
meanings – „Opening‟ (of the hearth) and/or „Fireplace‟ (of the hearth). She also presided over the fire,
cooking of bread, and the preparation of the family meal. Hestia was also the goddess of the sacrificial
flame and received a share of every sacrifice to the gods. She was thought to be the daughter and
firstborn child of the titans Kronos and Rhea, and in later mythology she was transformed into Roman
Vesta Iliaca („Vesta of Troy‟).
This name of her is directly related to the Macedonic root word “Usiae/Syae” - „heats/shines‟
(antonym “Ostine” - „cools out‟, literally “Osti-not” - „hot-not‟) from the verb “Usviti”-„to glow‟. From
this syllable "es/is/us" we can see derivatives in Xantus (or Xandos) – considered to be another
manifestation of the sun-god, of light and fire, but also of moonlight – in Sanskrit: Canda -„moon‟80; he
is Istanu in Hittite and found in the Etruscan pantheon as Usil81 (or Usenya in Russia, hence Uspenie in
Christianity; or Isa in Sanskrit82). All these derivations originate from the simpliest syllabic cry
"es/is/us", which is onomatopoeic wow of the sound that produces water when comes in contact with
fire or any hot/incandescent surface (see also the Italian cry "Ostia!").83

Above: Estia (Lat. Hestia, behind Iris); with Xiron,Thebe, Dionis, Leto, Chariclo, Demeter and Iris

Vestiges of the prehistoric Nature Goddess, worshipped by Neolithic and other peoples for millennia
survived the Roman period and influenced development of Christianity. While a male-dominated
religious ethos supplanted goddess religion in the West starting in the Bronze Age, goddess beliefs and
practices persisted underground. Evidence is drawn from the existence of the Great Mother Goddess
(Magna Mater) symbols in catacombs, other early church art, and basilica art from the early Byzantine
era; extant folklore and folk traditions; magic and other quasi-religious practices evident in early

80
http://sanskritdictionary.org/canda
81
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/327217/unknown-maker-applique-depicting-the-sun-
god-usil-etruscan-500-475-bc/
82
http://sanskritdictionary.org/isa
83
http://www.etimo.it/?term=ostia&find=Cerca
Christian traditions and rituals adopted and preserved by the church. They all hide within and deep
inside the omnipresent traces of the prehistoric Great Mother Goddess.
The MACEDONIC PANTHEON
evidence
The history of Macedonia is in many ways a history of misunderstandings as the Macedonian culture is
viewed and perceived from the City-states and Roman outside. Due to the loss and lack of Macedonian
reports, these City-states and Roman texts are the main literary sources. But, they preserve the cultural
perceptions and judgments of the authors through prism of their contrastive and rather hostile
sociopolitical bias. Their poliscentered interpretations and manner of perception is often an obstacle to the
understanding of the true Macedonian beliefs and culture. The City-states authors clearly tend to express
the differences of the Macedonian culture through open criticism, and in the same way they criticize the
differences of the Persian culture, as foreign. Thus, their emphasizing of the different cultural background
between Macedonia and the more southern City-states on Peloponnesus must be inevitably underlined. In
his 6th book Erodot (Lat. Herodotus) has the following perplexing passage on the subject: “The “Persians
affirm that Perseus was an Assyrian by birth, becoming afterwards a „Greek‟, although none of his
ancestors were of that nation.” This testimony confirms once again the common knowledge of the ancient
authors and sources – they didn‟t even had a word for this post factum Roman exonym and subsequent
genealogical construct of the later historiographers and 19th century romanticists.
The ancient Macedonian Pantheon had no less different treatment, and was therefore intentionally
neglected or misinterpreted by the ancient and modern non-Macedonian sources. But still, many
testimonies of its particularity miraculously survived until today. One such astonishing and undeniable
record of the mysterious but existing Macedonian Pantheon is the one on the Mt. Nemrod (also
Nemrut or Nemrud)84, in the ancient Macedonic kingdom of Commagene (163 BCE - 72 AD) in Asia
Minor. The eternal testimony written in stone was left by the Macedonian king Antiochus the Great, son

of the king Mithridates I Callinicus and queen Laodice VII Thea of Comaggene (from the Macedonian
dynasty of Seleucids), who erected an enormous sepulchral tumulus with giant statues of gods, and
inscriptions on which is written as it follows: “…all of the father-gods of Macedonia, Persia and our

84
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nemrut
own country of Comaggene will continue to bless their children and their grandchildren…”85 This very
rare preserved passage, an exceptional testimony that clearly mentions the “father-gods of Macedonia”,
is the undeniable proof that the exclusive and proper Macedonian Pantheon existed, apart from other
ancient pantheons and despite all the historical misfortunes and political difficulties in reconstructing its
precise function and original mythological magnificence.

Left: sun/moon rays falling on the sacred bull

Who were these Father-gods of Macedonia (and Persia and Comaggene) mentioned by the king
Antiochus I Theos, and why there‟s not a trace of them to be found in their homeland Macedonia? Is it
possible to reconstruct the mighty Macedonian pantheon of gods and titans, whose names were even
forbidden to pronounce by the mortals?
The ancient Father-gods of Macedonia were remnants of the legendary times before the written
history. In their names it is preserved a primordial system older than all written systems and documents,

85
“I pray that all the ancestral gods, from Persia and Macedonia and from the native hearth of
Kommagene, may continue to be gracious to them in all clemency.”
which is the common source of all religious doctrines and manifestations. Initial etymological analysis
revealed that their nature operates over a time-span too great for reasonable representation and human
comprehension to bear. Over the millennia they were described in rather misterious ways and had their
origins in the most primordial ideas about the movements of the elements, the variations of day and
night, summer and winter, and other natural phenomena, which were in time, through the modification
of human ideas, transformed into the doings of a throng of deific beings. The primary religious ideas of
Macedonic peoples from the Archaic and Classic era were undoubtedly much the same. They talk about
gods, giants and titans, powerful beasts and incredible mythological beings, whose names were
whispered in secrecy, or completely hidden and forbidden to be pronounced (as already mentioned
above).86 Gods actually often had many names and titles. „Many-named‟ in fact appears as a divine
epithet in both Vedic and Macedonic languages. And until we find inscriptions of their names the only
tools at our disposition which can reveal their secret names are the guesses offered by the Comparative
and Paleo-linguistics.

Above: Nike and Zeirene/Ceres

Archaic religion toke the form of cult by further distinction between the men as subjects and gods as
objects (of worship). The PIE *deiwo- or Diy celestial god (Mkd. Dīv/Deva87, Lat. Dīvus, Skr. Devás,

86
This was the common pattern in ancient religions. The Romans too held their city to be under the
protection of a deity whose name was a closely guarded secret, and Rome itself had an alternative
name that was uttered only in secret rites, in case an enemy should learn it and so acquire power
to harm the city.
87
http://www.makedonski.info/search/diven, http://www.makedonski.info/search/deva,
http://www.makedonski.info/search/zdiv
etc.) as it was seen, were originally and by etymology the celestial ones. On contrary man was „the
earthly‟, designated by a derivative of the oldest known word for earth, *dheghom- / *dhghm-. It finds
direct reflection only in today Macedonic word “Digam” - „(I) lift‟ in plain Macedonian (in its bi-
syllabic „up-from-ground‟ sense composed of the particle “Di” - „move/go‟88 and “Gam/Gom(no)”89 -
„earth/turd‟). This is exactly the same source of words for „man, human being‟ and/or „earth‟ in various
languages and forms: Brygian/Phrygian zemelos, Macedonian zemen; Old English dūn (hill) and Old
Irish duine (hence dune), Welsh dyn, Breton den (< *gdon-yo-); Latin homo (cf. humus „earth‟), Oscan
humuѕ, Serbo-Croatian humka (a mound, amassed earth), Umbrian homu; old Lithuanian ţmuo, plural
ţmones; Gothic and Old English guma, but also Gnome; Old Norse gumi, Old High German gomo (<
proto-Germanic *guman-) – related to Macedonic gumno90 - „threshing floor/ground‟, a centered hard

ground for mechanical separating of the grains of wheat from the rest of the plant (by using horses or

88
Macedonian “Odi” - „walks‟, “Vadi” - „pulls out‟, “Vodi” - „leads‟, “Brazdi” - „plows‟, “Brodi”
- „navigates‟, etc. http://www.makedonski.info/search/odi
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-angliski/%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8*
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8*
89
See also Italian “Gamba” - „leg‟.
90
a hard, leveled floor of beaten ground on which corn or other grain is threshed with a flail, or
mules and/or horses running in a circle.
http://www.makedonski.info/show/%D0%B3%D1%83%D0%BC%D0%BD%D0%BE/%D1%81
%D1%80
flail); but also gomno - „dung, manure‟ in plain Macedonian91, as our and animal excrements are earth-
like, and in one way or another, at least in the past, excrements were finishing directly under the earth
and were returning earth again (animals are also known for instinctively covering their excrements with
dirt too); hence Macedonian gnoivo92 - „organic compost, fertilizer‟ too, from the verb gnie93 - „rot‟ and
noun gnilo94 - „rotten‟.
And if human beings (Homo Sapiens = „Earth that Knows‟) are „terrestrials‟ by contrast with the
celestial gods, so they are „mortals‟ by contrast with the immortal deities. Generally „mortal‟ (Lat.
mort/mors) became an ordinary word for „man‟: Old Persian martiya-, Sogdian mrtyy, Sanskrit mrta,
Macedonian marva95 (“Mrtov” -„dead‟, from the syllable root verb “Mre” - „die‟96). Similarly in
Armenian, mard, though this is a loan or calque from older Phrygian/Brygian mrt. Hence also the
personal names Marvyn, Mortimer, Morticia97, Murto/Murdo98, etc. But, also “Mravki” - „ants‟ in plain
Macedonian.99 Seen as the chthonic beings from the underground, the Ants, “Mravki” in plain
Macedonian (PIE *morwi-, Sanskrit Vamrah100) were observed as the undertakers of the dead things and
bodies in decomposition, by carrying them from surface under the ground. Thus, this chthonic insect
was named accordingly as mravka (e.g. „mortifica‟)101 - „deathka‟ in improvised translation from
Macedonian. Hence also the corrupted Latin/Italian word for „ant‟ - “formica” [a metathesis
transcription of Macedonic “mravka”: mrafca-morfica-formica].102 As an attribute of the earth goddess
Zeirene (Lat. Ceres), ants were even utilized in soothsaying.

91
http://www.makedonski.info/search/gomno
92
http://www.makedonski.info/search/gnoivo
93
http://www.makedonski.info/search/gnie
94
http://www.makedonski.info/search/gnilo
95
https://glosbe.com/en/mk/marva
96
Today “Umre” - „died‟ in plain Macedonian: http://www.makedonski.info/search/umre
97
https://www.behindthename.com/name/morticia/submitted
98
https://www.behindthename.com/name/muiredach
99
Family Formicidae, order Hymenoptera.
100
https://www.etymonline.com/word/Formica?ref=etymonline_crossreference
101
i.e. “Mortification” Latin “mortificare” - to „kill, subdue‟; from mors/mort - „death.‟ Koine
myrmex, Old Church Macedonic mravi, Old Irish moirb, Old Norse maurr, Dutch mier…
102
Macedonian verb “oumre” - „dies‟ reflects perfectly in the Italian “omertà” and/or “morte” -
„death‟ https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=omerta; see also Macedonic “omorina”,
“umor”, “zamor”, “odmor”, etc. http://www.makedonski.info/search/omorina
http://www.makedonski.info/search/umor
This archaic religious action toke its form of Cult when the distinction between humans as mortal
subjects and gods as immortal objects became much more definite than in primitive ritualistic religion.
Because the division was sharper the need for a communication system through which gods and men
can interact became much more acute. Worship and especially sacrifice are precisely such
communication systems. A relatively stable symbolic structure was established through the emergence
of new classes - the priests and priestly (divine) kingship. With the emergence of religious systems the
cosmological monism of the earlier stage was slowly devoured by the priesthood classes, and an entirely
different realm of universal reality was proclaimed. In order to monopolize political and military power
noble families claimed their divine descent and superior religious status. While in primitive rituals the
individual was in harmony with the natural divine kosmos, now the new priestly classes demanded
salvation through sacrifice, of others. Apart from primordial gods a mystery cults (Kaveiri/Kabeiri,
Dionis, Eleusian mysteries, etc.) also appeared, as an embryo of the future heresy movements and
alternative to the ruling religious classes in later antiquity.

The word „myth‟ has been also carefully studied by various scholars. Its meaning is one and clear:
“Muti” - to „muddle up (stir)‟. It describes the fantasy process by which the initial meaning changes
from one thing to „imaginative tales‟. The very first creation myth of Eurynome and the serpent Ophion
was also Pelasgic, thus Macedonic too – the (Pelasgic) plain of Pelagonia is still there in the middle of
Macedonia (see the map below), immediately northwest from Mt. Bora. Further the story narrates that
the primordial goddess coupled with Ophion (i.e. Boreas), and in the form of a dove laid the Universal
Egg. When the egg hatched, out tumbled all things that exist, her children: sun, moon, planets, stars, the
earth with its mountains and rivers, its trees, herbs, and living creatures. Thus she created the seven
planetary powers too, setting a Titaness and a Titan over each. Theia and Hyperion for the Sun; Phoebe
and Atlas for the Moon; Dione and Crius for the planet Mars; Metis and Coeus for the planet Mercury;
Themis and Eurymedon for the planet Jupiter; Tethys and Oceanus for Venus; Rhea and Cronus for the
planet Saturn. Then, the ancestor of the Pelasgians, first man, was Pelasgus; he sprang from the soil,
followed by certain others, whom he taught to make huts and feed upon acorns, and sew pig-skin tunics
such as poor folk still wear. This Pelasgo-Macedonic myth survived in literature, the largest being the

Apollonius Rhodius's Agronautica and Tzetzes, but it is implicit in the Orphic Mysteries, and can be
restored from the Berossian Fragment and the Phoenician cosmogonies quoted by Philostrat(us) and
Damasci(us). These „imaginative tales‟ are all we got left from the immemorial times of human
prehistory, when the first human thought was forged by the forces of nature.
The Macedonic gods according to Erodot too were initially Pelasgic103 gods, and basically their
names (those known) were all syllabic and self-explanatory [for example: Mō/Ma - the Great Mother
Goddes, Dze - Macedonic sun-god; hence Latinized Dzevs/Zeus, thus Dze-Ra-Apis/Serapis, etc; Il/El -
the Sun-god again; Vō or Gō and/or Rod (later SwaRoGo) - the Sky-god and supreme kreator, etc.].
Countless generations have contributed this perpetual mythological renaissance 104 again and again by
adding numerous tall tales and elaborate fantasies. And no one knows how many changes were muddled
between the original material and the final tally tale by countless trancriptors.

103
The first people, descended from the mythical Pelasg (Latinized „Pelasgus‟) - the first man of the
antiquity, comparable to Adam of Christianity.
104
“Re-born”, from Latin “Re-nascentia” – „re-birth‟.
Thus, hence the titans existed before the gods, and before any other term for “god” was invented,
there was the name “Titan”, said to have denoted „king‟. Nor did the word designate a specific kind of
god but more properly the „great god(s)‟ in general, like the Latin Deus among the Romans and Dyaus
Pitar among the Barb-Aryans. This is consistent with the suggestion advanced by Paul Kretschmer; in
the name “Titan” he recognizes a Pelasgian forerunner of the later word for heavenly gods.
The Etruscan name for the supreme Thunderer and Sky-father god on the Apenninic Peninsula,
“Tinia”, would be the most direct cognate of this first primordial theonym “Titan”. The Etruscans were
originally from the Aegean basin urheimat, where we find also the Hittite cognate-god
“Tarun/Perun/Uran”, the Thunderer. It appears then that in “Tarun/Titan/Tinia” we have the original
Hittite-Pelasgo-Macedonic theonym which comprehended the pre-Olympian gods and by which they
were invoked. The simple exam of the (Macedonic) etymology of these similar words shows that they
are related to the onomatopoeic Macedonian verb “Tatni ” - „thunders‟105, and are plain metathesis of the
same – “Tatni <=> Titan” (hence also the Latin „Tuono/Tuonare‟106 and anglicized „Thunder‟).
This theonym is confirmed from the opposite side too, from the east, where the Titans ('kings') and
Titanesses had their counterparts in early Mesopotamian astrology. There they were deities ruling the
seven days of the sacred planetary week (of 7 celestial bodies that human eye can see without telecope);
and they may have been adopted (or introduced)107 by the Hittites, who settled the Aegean at the Isthmus
of Corinth early in the 2nd millennium BCE. In Mesopotamian myth the planetary rulers of the week,
namely the Titans Šamaš, Šin, Nergal, Bel, Beltis, and Ninib, were all male, except Beltis, the Love-
goddess. But in the Tungrian week, which the Tungrians (Lat. Germans) and Gauls had borrowed from
the Eastern Mediterranean: Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday were ruled by Titanesses, as opposed to Titans.
Classical astrologers conformed with the Pelasgo-Macedonian/Mesopotamian titans, and awarded the
planets to Ilios (Lat. Helios), Selene, Ares, Apolo, Ze(us), Aphrodite, and Cronus, whose Latin
equivalents Sol Invictus (i.e. „Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn still name the
French, Italian, and Spanish week days Sun-day (i.e. Ilios/Helios), Lunedi (or Moon-day/Monday),
Martedi (Mars or Tuesday), Mercoledi (Mercury or Wednesday), Jiovedi (Jupiter or Thursday), Venerdi
(Venera or Friday), and Saturday (or Saturn). And once again the circle closes with these same deities
that were those same seven planetary powers from the Pelasgic creation myth of Eurynome, and of her
setting seven Titaness and a Titan over each planet/day of the week, thus the Seven Cabeiri (Kabeiri) of
Samothrace, and seven great gods celebrated by the Hittites, Mesopotamians, and many others. With the
reminding that the Pelasgic Myth of Creation is the oldest one known until now.
The very term that denotes /god/ in Macedonian is simple and syllabic too: “Bogo”108 is comprised
of two syllables Bō - „soul‟ in archaic Macedonian109, and Gō - „golem‟, i.e. the „great‟ and/or „goren‟
(„upper, high‟ in plain Macedonian).110 Thus “Bo-Go” means „Soul-Great‟ i.e. „the Great-Soul‟ in

105
http://www.makedonski.info/search/tatni
106
http://www.etimo.it/?term=tuonare&find=Cerca
107
There‟s no sufficient evidence to support either of the theories, of what is known is that Hittites
came from north too, same as the Zodiac.
108
Prehistoric universal “Boggo”; „Baga‟ in old Persian and Avestan, Sanskrit: „Bhaga‟ - “Lord” and is
epithet both of mortals and gods; hence Roman „Bacchus‟, Chinese „Bagua, but also „Bogat‟ - “rich” in
plain Macedonian.
109
Noted as „Ba‟ - a word for „soul‟ in ancient Egyptian too; the mythological and religious texts
contain indications that the Egyptians believed in what may be described as a "World-Soul," which
they called „Ba‟. It‟s symbol was a bearded man-headed hawk, and it was identified with more than
one god.
110
The ancient syllable „Gō‟ that stands for the Macedonian adjective „golem‟ (i.e. „great‟) further
English, and in the ancient Macedonian and other archaic scripts it was commonly represented by a
syllable in a form of three vertical lines - III. For example the ancient Chinese symbol for „Heaven‟
(Qian/Tian), one of the famous “Bagua” („Godly, divine‟) trigrams is exactly the same, only horizontal.

derived into modern Macedonic „Gospod‟ – „lord/god‟ in plain Macedonian, and utterly in the
anglicized „God‟. Hence also the word for „cattle‟ both in Macedonian: “Goveda” and as „cattle-
herd‟ in Sanskrit; “Govinda/Gopala” https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/5435/govinda are
both related to plain Macedonian “Golem” - „big, huge, large‟
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BC*
; also “Godan” was noted as the Longobardic main deity.
Left: another example of “III” from the river Indus valley

One of the rare stone reliefs of this prehistoric divine-heavenly symbol was found carved on the
Neolithic sanctuary on Markovi Kuli (Mark‟s Towers) in Republic of Macedonia. There is no other
plausible explanation for these inscription, nor any practical function whatsoever for this arcane relief
artifact, other than the divine three-lines symbol. The precise date cannot be determined with certainty,
but from the surrounding Neolithic settlement and the artifacts found in the close vicinity it can be
presumed that this ideogramic inscription (picture below) could easily be dated as much as 8000 or more

years ago. The most obvious example of its voicing and meaning is preserved in yet another Macedonic
language, namely the Russian, where the word for „thanks‟ is „Spasibo‟, an archaic term comprised of
one word and one syllable: „Spasi‟ – „save (us)‟ and „Bo‟ – „soul‟ i.e. the syllable meant for the (soul of)
god - Bo(Gō). Much later his name changed again, and as „Rod‟ („kin‟ in plain Macedonian) and/or
„Svarogo‟ [abrev. from “Svag-Roda-Gospod” - „(Of)All-kin-lord/god‟ in plain Macedonian] was still the
supreme „Prabog‟ (i.e. „Pre-deity‟ in plain Macedonian) long after the appearance of Christianity.
These interpretations are fully paragonable to the name of the Egyptian supreme deity, Amon. The
explanation of the nature of Amon coincides with the testimony of Diodorus, who professes to borrow
his accounts from the Egyptian writers; that is, from Egyptians of the Ptolemaic age, who were learned
to read and write in Old and New Macedonian (Koine) script. He informs us, that the Egyptian
philosophers reckoned five elements, adding to the four commonly enumerated, of which one they
termed “Ba” or „spirit‟.111 This is the same as the celestial ether or „soul‟ described as “Bo” by the
Macedonians, which was supposed to fill the highest regions of the heavens (venerated also as the
supreme Sky-father god, known as the primordial Aion/Cronos/Deiwos/Saturn/Rod… - the creator of
everything in all prehistoric and ancient religions). Hence a quickening or enlivening influence of this
spirit was supposed by the Egyptians to be derived into all animated creatures. This vital ether, or
principle of life, according to Diodorus was also called Ammon-Zevs. Iamblichus gives a similar
interpretation of the name of this god.

Above: the human soul - Ba, seen as a bird, hovering over his newly mummified master
Next page: the sun-god Ba-Neb-Tatau – the “Soul-(of) Heavenly-Father” (in plain Macedonian:
“Bog-Nebo-Tato” - „God-Sky-father‟)112 in his divine Ram appearance

111
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_concept_of_the_soul#b%EA%9C%A3_(person
ality)
112
http://www.makedonski.info/search/ba, http://www.makedonski.info/search/nebo,
http://www.makedonski.info/search/tato
The Father Gods of MACEDON

The oldest known myth of creation, the one of the Pelasgians, equally confirms the Macedonian
Peninsula and the wider Aegean region as the homeland of the pre-Olympian gods: “In the beginning,
Eurynome, the Goddess of All Things, rose naked from Chaos, but found nothing substantial for her feet
to rest upon, and therefore divided the sea from the sky, dancing lonely upon its waves. She danced
towards the south, and the wind set in motion behind her seemed something new and apart with which
to begin a work of creation. Wheeling about, she caught hold of this North wind, rubbed it between her
hands, and behold! the great serpent Ophion. Eurynome danced to warm herself, wildly and more
wildly, until Ophion, grown lustful, coiled about those divine limbs and was moved to couple with her.
Now, the North Wind, who is also called Boreas, fertilizes; which is why mares often turn their hind-
quarters to the wind and breed foals without aid of a stallion. So Eurynome was likewise got with
child.” – As expected in this most archaic religious system there were, as yet, neither gods nor priests,
but only a universal mother goddess. Fatherhood was not honoured, conception was attributed to the
wind, the eating of legumes, or the accidental swallowing of an insect. Inheritance was matrilineal and
snakes were regarded as underground incarnations of the dead, and in the same time the intervening
vehicle of fertility, as the earth-born Pelasgians, whose claim seems to have been that they sprang from
the demiurge serpent Ophion's teeth. And again, as all this was not enough – an exact fertility ritual
involving snakes is still observable even in the 21st century Macedonia (see below on p. 61).
Now, apart from the fairytale there‟s a topographic detail that gives the precise location of where
this creation act may have occurred. That‟s the north wind Boreas, which blows down through Thermaic
and Strumaic gulfs into the Aegean Sea. And because the wind is not a very substantial thing to grasp
on, there is accordingly the nearby Mount Bora from where this prodigious and fertilizing wind comes.

Above: Mt. Bora (today Mt. Payak) in Almopia, a mountain in the middle between Lower
Macedonia and Upper Macedonia. North from there was actually the Hyperborea, which is in
Upper Macedonia, today Republic of Macedonia. The rest is romanticized fairytale
Actually, the location, as probably was originally given by the ancient authors, and which, as expected,
wasn‟t a wind at all, is a solid mountain from where the wind comes and its name originates. So, after
all, the actual Hyperborea place from where this quite regular and local wind blows is not so “far, far
north” as the countless storytellers embroidered, but right here in Macedonia.
Further, the primordial most archaic Pelasgo-Macedonic titans/gods par excellence were: - the
Supreme creator and Sky-father God Vō (or Gō and/or Dyaus/Dyauš Pitar); - the Great Mother Goddess
Mō (i.e. Ma and/or Zeirene); - their solar and prodigious son and God of the first light, the truth and
honor, Dionis, Dze and/or Mithras, (i.e. Bahus, Dyaus, Dion, Sabazius/Salvazius, Zagreus,
Osiris/Horus, Utu, Usil, Esmun/Osmion, etc.); - then the God of war Ares; goddess of the earth, living
energy and fertility Ka, Kubaba/Kybela/Cybele; - the Stormgod of thunder and weather
Titan/Tatni/Tarun/Perun/Ceraunus, etc. Although, these are just partially their names, most of which
are only transliterated epithets and descriptive or onomatopoeic appellations developed in the different
regions of the Aegean urheimat. For example, at a very early period there was an exceedingly ramified

differentiation between the Day-sky god and the Night-sky god (or goddess as it might be), and such
incongruencies were at least 10 times more numerous than the sole name of the gods. “There are,” says
Hesiod, “30,000 gods on the fruitful earth.” But lets start from the top above and one by one…
Gō (i.e. Gōlem - „the Great‟ and/or referring particle suffix “Go” - „of him‟ in plain Macedonian)113
and/or Vō114 - was the Supreme Creator-God and the uppermost universe deity par excellence.
Represented in the Ancient Macedonian syllabic-script by the simple vertical line “I” which also had
meaning of letter „A‟ and/or „He-first one‟; and/or sometimes described with the syllable “”- which
reads as “Gō” i.e. “Gōlem” - „the Great One‟. This fair and square upright symbolism of the supreme
sky-god creator appears in all the prehistoric beliefs (see above on page 18). For example, the center of
the paragon-cult of Ra in Egypt was in the city of „Anu‟115 (Koine Iliopolis; lat. Heliopolis) which means
the “(city of ) Pillar”, as the symbol of the Sun-God Ra was again vertical, i.e. the upright obelisk - “”.
But the cult of standing stone, totem pole or pillar, was much older than the cult of Ra and/or Gō(lem),
and superseded him by a long shot. Pillars of this supreme sun-sky-god were to be found across the
Macedonian Peninsula and central Europe long before and still after the event of Christianity. In the
Macedonic Pantheon he was the highest absolute ruler and supreme celestial kreator. He was the
Supreme Creator-God, grand-grandfather of all other gods. It fits perfectly with his northeastern
version-epithet “Papa” (Lat. Papaius), which is reported by Erodot as the Skythian name of the great
Sky-father god and supreme kreator, but it is just another fascination adjective of him.116 It simply
means “Upper-upper” or “Highness-highness”, and even today remained as vernacular wondrous
exclamation: “Paa-paa!” in plain Macedonian.117 However, it appears under many different names and
was intermingled as PIE *Dyaeus-, Pelasgic Dyaus Pitar, Paionian Deivos, Brygian/Phryigian Sabazius,
Skythian Papaius, Egyptian Amon Ra, Macedonic Dze(us), later as Il (Ilion/Ilios/Helios), Phoenician El,
Finno-Ugric Ilmari, Gaulic Nuada, Koine-“Greek” Uran(us), Roman Jupiter, etc.
The Bogo Gō/Vō was that almighty god of heaven, the Sky-father, and lord of all other deities, the
Great Mother Goddess Mō comprised. His full epithetic name was the „1st Great One‟ or “Bo-Gō-Vō” -
„the Great spirit Vō‟ (see the Scandinavian Vodin and Pelasgian Da-Wō too), from which descends the
today universal Macedonic word for „god‟ - Bogo (marked with the syllabic ligature represented by
three vertical lines - III ); it was also known in the later historiography as the Macedonic god
Dion/Dyaus or Deiwos, with Koine epithets Etaireios118 Hyperberetas (“the heroic one who bestows”).

113
http://www.makedonski.info/search/golem, https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%B3%D0%BE*; example: “Go muti,” – „it bothers him‟
https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=mk&tl=en&text=%D0%B3%D0%BE
%20%D0%BC%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8
114
The syllable „Gō‟ [Goo] was interchangeable with „Vō‟ [Voo]; this is still observable in the Old
Church Macedonic, as well as in Russian (for example: “segodnya”- today, is pronounced
„seevodnya‟), where many words still contain this archaic „go/vō‟ interchangeable syllable in
function as epithet-suffix at the end of the word: „Svyatogō‟ [i.e. „of (his) holiness‟, „appertaining to
(his) holiness‟] - is equally pronounced „Svyatovo‟ e.g. „of the Holy-great‟; „Ruskogō‟ - „of the
Russia-great‟ (i.e. „of Great Russia‟, „appartheining to Great Russia‟) - is pronounced „Ruskovo‟,
etc.
115
From the syllabic etymon “An” (i.e. A - „the 1st one‟ + N(i) - „of us‟ in plain Macedonian: )
through “Anu” into “Amun” and “Amun-Ra”, all the names of the Sun-god.
116
Koine: Παπαῖορ ; Herodotus,1998: IV. 59.
117
For comparison see also the obsolete “Patagon” - denoting a member of a native people alleged
by travelers of the 17th and 18th c. to be the tallest known (in Patagonia accordingly); also
“Palace” from Latin Palatium -„high, hill‟, etc.
118
The epithet „Etaireios‟ shows clear onomastic relation to the „Etairoi‟, a Macedonian Royal
institution par excellence. There are also records of the homonymous Macedonic festivity called
„Etairideia‟.
He was the supreme sky-father god and solar divinity par excellence, comparable also to Marduk of
Babylonia, old Egyptian Ra, Sumerian Anu, Etruscan Ani and/or Tin, Venetic Svantevith, Russian
Rod/Swarogō, Pelasgian Da-Wō and Wodeen (Odin) of Scandinavian mythology. In Egypt in the time of
Akenathen119, the cult of this specific prehistoric Proto-Macedonian solar/sky-god - the 1st Great One
(I), was introduced by Akenathen‟s mother, who at that time became a Macedonic-Hittite queen of
Egypt, like Kleopatra VII fourteen centuries later. This episode happened when Amenophis III, the son
and successor of Thothmes IV, found it necessary to secure his kingdom by entering into matrimonial
alliance with the powerful Macedonic-Hittite king of Naharina (i.e. Mesopotamia -„between-two-
rivers‟). Amenophis IV, the son of Amenophis III and grandson of Thothmes IV, was educated in the
Macedonic-Hittite faith of his mother, and after his accession to the throne endeavored to impose this
new solar credo upon his unwilling subjects. The powerful priesthood withstood him for a while, but at
last he assumed the name of Khu-n-Aten (i.e. Akenathen) – „the refulgence of the solar disk‟, and after
quitting Thebes and its ancient temples he built a new capital dedicated to the new divinity. It stood on
the eastern bank of the Nile, to the north of Assut, and its long line of ruins is now known to the natives
under the name of Tel el-Amarna (“of the Ama-Urites”, i.e. Hittites). The city was filled with the
adherents of the new creed, and their tombs are yet to be found in the cliffs that enclose the desert on the
east.

119
“The heretic pharaon” who ruled Egypt in 14th century BCE.
Mō (or Ma) - the universal Great Mother Goddess of earth, fertility and motherhood, spring waters,
mountain tops. She is worshiped as long ago as from the prehistoric Macedonia; also transliterated as
Aithyia, or Cabiro/Axiero(s) (one of „the great gods‟ i.e. Cabiri/Kabiri, i.e.)120; Phrygian Amas/Amaia,
comparable to Mesopotamian121 Astarte/Ishtar; Egyptian Hathor; later she was transliterated into
Macedonic-Hittite as Kubaba, Phrygian Kibela; i.e. Latin-Roman Cybebe/Cybele; Pelasgian Damate or
I-da-ma-te;122 and finally into Demetra (i.e. Dea-mater)123; Skythian Argimpasa; also Etruscan Uni
(thus Roman Juno) the supreme mother goddess; and much later as the Medieval Kupalo, etc. Alongside
these indications of the mother-goddess we come across forms of address of her daughter, again, this
time Ti-ni-ta or Carthaginian Tanit, and Nu-da or Egyptian Nut. In this connection it came to attention
that Tanit (also vocalized as Tinnit) represents again the chthonic aspect of celestial Astarte, who is

referred to in Cretan hieroglyphic by her symbol the Star - . In similar vein, the Egyptian goddess
Nut is identified in the inscriptions from Byblos with Hathor or Baªalat - “the Mistress”, of which the
first in later times is also addressed with the byname Isis – all indications of a youthful goddess
comparable to later chthonic Proserpina. This daughter-goddess, then, is presumably paired with her
mother in the expression Da-du-ma-ta “(the goddesses) of the home(s)”, which again explicitly and
inevitably turns back to the Macedonic composite root word of Do-ma-ta [which is articled of Do-ma] -

120
The first mentions of the Cabiri/Kabiri is in the Aeschylus piece “Kabeiroi”, of which are
preserved only fragments. Erodot also confirms that the people od Samothrace were adept to
veneration of the Great Gods of Pelasgians.
121
“Mesopotamia” i.e. „Meso-potamos‟ - „between (the) rivers‟; today Macedonian “Megyu” -
„between, in-the-middle‟, and “potok” - „stream, river‟ in plain Macedonian.
122
Damater and i-da-ma-te, or “Ida e mater” - „the Idaean Mother‟
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ida
123
as Persian goddess Astarte she was represented sitting on a lion, her head surrounded with rays
and in one hand a thunderbolt, in the other a sceptre. She was also Kibela (lat. Cybele), the
universal mother goddess of the Phrygians, seated on a throne with two lions beside her feet, and
as the great nature goddess had many attributes and was worshipped at Rome as a sacred black
stone which was solemnly brought from Phrygia in 204 BCE. It was the first Oriental Religion
adopted by the Romans and she received the name of “Mater Magna” (the Great Mother), and
remains of a temple built for her on the Palatine Hill still exist; in Thebes the Great Goddes was
named Demeter Cabiria (Dea Mater Kabira, Kabirian Demetra); also called by Etruscans Uni (by
Romans „Juno‟) and by others Venus, or also known as the Ephesian Diana.
„the home‟.124 The first Linear A inscription which comes into consideration in this connection is the
Pelasgic one on a steatite vessel from Kythera (KY Za 2), dated c. 1600 BCE, which reads Da-ma-te, on
pair to the Pelasgian Da-Wō for the male supreme god. Clarification of the legend as an instance of the
divine name Demeter lies at hand, disassembled into its original (Macedonic) syllables: Do - „next to,
close/beside‟, and Ma/Mō - „mother‟ (compare the switch Mo <=> Ma with anglicized Mom).125

Above: one of the many Neolithic altars of Mō, the Great Mother Goddess of the Home
(“Doma” - „home‟ in plain Macedonian)126 unearthed in Republic of Macedonia, 7-6 millennium
BCE

Now, according to the most plausible analysis this divine name bears testimony of a reflex da- of the
root *gda-, which is (again) in turn a reflection of the PIE *Dheghom- “earth” characterized by
metathesis and attested for the Phrygian place-name Gdanmaa, and PIE *méhter- i.e. „mother‟. It flexes

124
http://www.makedonski.info/search/doma
125
http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Goddess-and-God-A-Holy-Tension-in-the-First-Christian-
Centuries-ISSN-
126
http://www.makedonski.info/search/doma
further into Macedonic “Gaia” - the famous Earth Goddess of the antiquity, which also comes from the
syllabic verb “Gai ” -„nurtures‟ in plain Macedonian127; and also “Gaj ” - a „dense grove‟ (one of her
elementary-natural dwelling places and deeply secret locus of her sanctuaries), where everything grows
uninhibited; but also “Guia” - „(poisonous) snake‟, as the snakes are chthonic animals that are in the
most direct relation with the earth (see also the passage on the next page).

Above: different ancient 'Snake-goddesses' (or priestesses of the Great Mother Goddess Mo)
from left to right: two Snake-goddess figurines from Knossos; and Angitia ('She-strangler'), a
Snake-goddess of the Abruzzi (Italia)

As IE Anatolian definitely lacks a reflex of the given root for “mother”, the divine name must be
assumed to originate from an Indo-European language other than the Anatolian ones. If we further
realize that the (so-called “Greek”) reflex of *gda- is ge or ga instead of da-, attested already for the
Macedonic divine name Ma-ka (i.e. Ma-Ga) - “Mother Earth” in Linear B texts from Thebes, this so-
called “Greek” language also seems to be excluded.128 By means of education, then, only the pre-
“Greek” Pelasgian language comes into consideration for the origin of the divine name Demeter, which
inference can be backed up by mythical evidence as preserved in ancient literary tradition according to
which the cult of the goddess is particularly associated with Pelasgians. Discovered and thought to be
the very same goddess also in the Egyptian pantheon as As (Lat. Isis i.e. Ast, or Astarte in
Mesopotamia), and in the Sumerian pantheon as Ki - the primordial goddess of the earth (which name
reappeared as later Kybela/Kibela, thenafter transliterated in Latin as Cybebe/Cybele/Semele i.e. Zemela,
Zemlya - „earth‟ in plain Macedonian) is said to be the mother of Dionis, and consort of Dion/Dyaus, the
supreme celestial kreator god. Her annual festival was from March 21 till 24 (the New Year eve of the

127
https://glosbe.com/en/mk/nurtures
128
https://www.etymonline.com/word/Gaia
ancient Macedonic calendar, still celebrated as today festivity of „Mladenci‟ in R. of Macedonia), and
her chief cult center in the Macedonic-Hittite Empire was the city of Karčemiš (anglicized
Kartchemish). Korivantes/Koribantes was one of the names given to her priests, who performed wild
dances on the festival that celebrates her - Koryvantika. In fact, Clement of Alexandria specifies that
“Korivantes/Koribantes were called Kaviri/Cabiri, and they transmit the mysteries”.

Left: Hygeia (hence „hygiene‟) the goddess of health

As the chthonic goddess of the earth/soil, her cult in ancient Macedonia was equally zoomorphic and
strongly related to - snakes. Figurines of this “snake goddesses” depicted as playing with snakes were
found in many of the archaeological localities across eastern and central Mediterranean.

Right: Ceres (Etruscan Zeirene129) with snakes and grain

The snake is animal that crawls and it‟s in immediate close contact with the earth. Even the very
Macedonian term for Snake - “Zmiya” (hence also “Zmey” - „dragon‟) in all Macedonic languages is
directly related and descends from the word for „earth‟ - “Zemiya” in plain Macedonian.130

129
From “Zerno” - „grain‟ in plain Macedonian, plural “Zerna”. Exactly the same meaning was
preserved in Latin-corrupted form “Cereal” - „grain‟: http://www.makedonski.info/search/zrna
130
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%BC%D1%98%D0%B0*
Accordingly, right in front of the eve of her birthday (the Old New Year Day), on 23rd March131, every
year in today Republic of Macedonia there is still the archaic tradition of “Mladenci”132 when this
strange chthonic usance is observed – people leaving parts of their clothes or personal objects in the
places where the snakes dwell, so the snakes can pass over their clothes and objects, which is considered
as a good omen and blessing to fertility.

Above: Macedonian chthonic Snake-ritual observance on the night between the 23rd and 24th of
March, the ancient birthday of the Great Mother Goddess

131
The New Year's Day was changed from March 25 to January 1 only in 1752, and dates using the
new calendar were designated „New Style.‟
132
„Youngsters-day‟ in plain Macedonian.
Depicted also as Potinia Theron (abbreviated form of Macedonic “Despotinya/Gospoghinya Zveroi” -
„Mistress of the beasts‟, see “Despotinya”, hence “Despotism”133, and PIE *Ghver-Zver -„beast‟)134 is,
in any case, often represented in the Macedonian, Hittite, Minoan and Mycenaean art. Known as "Lady
of the wild things", "Lady of the fairs", "Lady of the mountain" she was also called Britomarti (literally
"Sweet-girl-daughter") or with many other similar epithets. These expressions gain impetus in the late

Above: the holy throne stone remnants of the chthonic Great Mother Goddess sanctuary, and
presumably a hypaethral astrological observatory on the hilltop of Kokino in Republic of
Macedonia, 3rd millennium BCE

Iron Age, and tend to expand into long aretalogical praises, notably in the cult of As/Isis. The prayer to
Isis in Apuleius Met. 11.2 exemplarily summarizes the fixed scheme of numerous hymnic prayers:
“Whether thou art Ceres, … or heavenly Venus, … or the sister of Phoebus, … or Proserpina … by
whatever name or ceremony or visage it is right to address thee”.135 Isis too owed one of her fixed

133
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despotism
134
PIE *ghwer-PIE (gwer) – beast; in today Modern Macedonian: zver [-gh- > -d- > -z- phonetic
mutation].
135
“quoquo nomine, quoquo ritu, quaqua facie te fas est invocare.” - The Isiac Hymn of
Isidorus (Totti 1985 no. 21).
epithets, „murionymos‟, to the enormous variety of her names. Their numbers seem to be liable to
infinite multiplication as a result of a peculiar phenomenon that we have come across in passing. If
Nausicaa had been a goddess and if Odysseus‟s guess had been correct, that would have been the end of
the story: Homeric theology knows only one Artemis. The rest of it is rich transcription-postdated
constructions.
The enigmatic moment of so many different representations of the Great Mother Goddess as
iconographical problem was first posited by Chapouthier in 1935, whose identification was generally
explained as a „Moon Goddess‟, or as Helen, the sister of the Dioskouroi, later equated with Selene. The
central goddess on the monuments from Macedonia also has often been recognised as Artemis/Diana,
but these are very late Latin/Roman denominations. In order to reveal the hidden identity of the central
Mother Goddess deity, it must be additionally considereed the earlier appearance of Kibela/Cybele.
Taking in account the relationship of Kibela/Cybele with the Dioskouroi/Cabiri, as well as some
iconographic analysis in a wider context, another interpretative perspective opens. After all,
Kibela/Cybele was present as Kubaba/Cabiro at least 1000 years before the “Artemis/Diana”. As a
younger group the Semitic “Greex” have naturally borrowed and addopted many ideas from the more
advanced nations of Asia Minor and Macedonian Peninsula.

But why all these different epithets and not proper name(s)? Because the name of so important
deity was kept in secrecy, and pronouncing it in public was the worst sacrilege. The figure of a goddess
of nature, of birth and death, was dominant throughout the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. In the later
historical times, all these various Mother Goddesses136 of the earth and animals still wielded immense
power and were equally worshiped. But in a male-dominated pantheons. The ѕеrene epoch of Neolithic
Matrilineal kingdom of peace and prosperity has been lost forever, in front of the tyrannical supremacy
of ancient masculine war-gods…
One fact must be emphasized here and again – the above two primordial supreme deities
Macedonic names (Gō/Vō and Mō) are distant remembrance of how the gods were named with their
prehistoric most basic syllable names, and confirm the rule, of almost all of the primordial gods at the

136
Innana/Ishtar/Astarte/Agartis, Asherah, As/Isis, Anat, Nut/Nekbeh, Rhea, Ira,
Cybele/Kibela/Cabiro/Kupalo/Kubaba/Cybebe, Demetra, Uni/Juno, Magna Mater,
Zeirene/Ceres, etc.
dawn of humanity, which all had very short monosyllabic names: As – the original Egyptian name of
Isis/Ishtar/Astarte; Baal – Phoenician fertility god; Tin – the supreme Etruscan creator and father-god of
thunder; Ur – Mesopotamian bull sun-god; Nu – Egyptian maker of the universe and prokreator of the
gods; Ptah and/or Ra – Egyptian sun-god; Ea – Mesopotamian water god, Slavic Rod (later SwaRoGo)
– the Sky-god and supreme kreator, etc. In correspondence to the syllabic simplicity of the early Proto-
Language, today known under the term “Nashinski” (Lat. Nostratic), the early gods had very clear
monosyllabic names too. The later names of the gods are generally compound words containing again
within them the syllabic names of the sun-gods: Ab, Ak, Am, Ar, As, At, El, Il, and On. In Homer, priests
of Jupiter, who were also called „Elloi‟ from El or Asel, the Sun; Εlli, Elle (ελε), „alea‟ or „halea‟ (αλεα),
and anglicized „halo‟, mean the same. We have the Etruscan Usil, and Ausel, names of the sun again.
Dion or Dionis – the young sun, supreme celestial sun-god of the fertility and wine, mythological father
of Macedon, was the next great primordial god that appears from the immemorable prehistoric times.
He is the old Macedonian Dionis, Pseudanor; Paionian Dyalos/Dyaus137; Etruscan: Fulfuns; Latin:
Dionysus/Bachus; Brygian/Phrygian: Atis, Sabazius/Salvazius138 and/or Zagreus; Egyptian: Osiris/Orus
(Lat. Horus), Esmun/Osmion/Thoth, Serapis, Sirius; etc.

137
Note that the letter /Y/ originally was pronounced /U/, so „Dyaus‟ is actually pronounced
„Dooauš‟, directly related to „Douh/douša‟ which in plain Macedonian means „Spirit/soul‟. Thus
“Dionis” literally means “Duh-naš” – the „Spirit/soul-of-ours‟; see also Dyaus Varuna.
138
His Phrygian name was later adopted by the Romans as the name for Silvanus (Lat. Silvaticus -
„of the woods‟; from silva - „a wood‟), and through Old French was corrupted into „sauvage‟ and
finally „savage‟ in today plain English, as a synonym for the animal force of nature.
As/Az – „The 1st‟ was yet another if not the first of his appellations. The mystery cult of Dionis is one of
the oldest mythological appearances known to humanity. His name is shrouded in immemorial timeworn
forgotten past. According to his astrological and animistic attributes, the time frame of his conception
coincides with the Zodiacal Era of Bull, which spans from 4th to 2nd millennium BCE, but the symbols
with his attributes, maybe marking him as a god under yet another name unknown to us, were found
even earlier. A sanctuary of Dionis, that can be traced back to the 15th century BCE, has been
discovered on the island of Keos. Dionis himself was somewhat of a shape-shifter, and is often
portrayed with wings, grapes, as well as sacred serpents growing from his head. He liked to ride
dolphins, another of his special companions. But, as a forest dweller, and residue from the prehistoric
hunter era, his totem animal par excellence was the Panther139, an agile tree-climber and famous hunter.

The Macedonic Aryans (i.e. Barb-Aryans) gave the origin of the syllabic name Dya-us (Paionian
Dyalos), from a root-word which means „soul-shine‟, divided in elementary syllables: Dua/Douh -
„soul‟140, and Us/Lus - „ascent‟ and/or „incandescent‟ (like the sun)141. Same meaning is to be found in
the Sanskrit word „Vas-anta‟ - spring, from the IE word root „vas‟ - shine, heat.142 His other Macedonic
name “Zagrei” (lat. “Zagreus”) means the same: “Zagrei” [intrans.] - „to heathen-up‟ in plain
Macedonian, comparable only to modern Macedonian verb “izgrei”- „(sun)rising‟ and noun “izgrev”
[vernacular] - „sunrise‟;143 also known as “Esmun” i.e. “Osmion” - the „eight-one‟ in plain Macedonian.
The moon god Thoth, protector of Hermopolis Magna, had for a title in the inscriptions the sign of the
number eight too. “The god Thoth,” says Salvolini , “was regarded in ancient Egypt as the protector of

139
Metathesis from Macedonian “Pentari” - „climbs‟: http://www.makedonski.info/search/pentari
140
Modern Macedonian Duh [dūh] - soul, breath; Russian Dlya [dlyā] - preposition; eng. „to‟-
identifying the person or thing affected.
141
Usviten [ouswitten] - adjective, Usvity [ouswitty] - verb; emitting light as a result of being heated,
„heated-up‟ in plain Macedonian (see also Uspenie -„ascension'); Usil - the Etruscan sun-god; present
as „lux-‟ or „lus-‟ in Latin, hence lucere - „shine‟, lustrare - „illuminate‟, etc.
https://glosbe.com/en/mk/incandescent
142
see also Macedonic „Vasiona‟ - space, kosmos.
143
From Macedonic word “Gree” [verb] - to make or become hot or warm; thus “izgrev”- „rising heat‟
(of the sun) as only the sun rises to heat the earth; compare also to Macedonic “izvor”- „water-source‟,
from “iz”- „from‟, and “voda”- „water‟.
the city of Hermopolis Magna; on this account , he everywhere receives in the inscriptions the title
which is ‘lord’, followed by the number 8 (adopted into Latin as corrupted form of „Thoth‟ it‟s today
“otto” - 8 in Italian;144 hence anglicized “eight”). That the reader may understand the origin of the use of
the number eight in the expression of this divine title, it will only be necessary to remind that the (older)
Egyptian name of Hermopolis reads SCHMOUN (i.e. “Osmion/Osum” - „eight‟ in plain Macedonian), in
the Coptic as well as in the Egyptian a word identical with this name indicates the number 8.” 145 It can
only be presumed that Dionis/Thoth was the 8th in rank of the categorization of gods. Who were the first
seven we can only guess.

Russian prominent linguist Vadim Tsymbursky proposed yet another plausible interpretation of the
name Dionis on the basis of Macedonic onomastics: “Our God”.146
When these first Barb-Aryan Pre-Indo-Europeans fashioned the other gods out of the forces and
forms in nature, this root-name was implied for Dionis as well. Other etymological and more plausible
explanation is through the IE word root for blow/breath/soul: Deuh [doūh], as shown in Hittite “Tuhhai”
(i.e. “duvai” in plain Macedonian, Sanskrit vaya) -‘gasp‟, thus the Old Church Macedonic Dusha/dishe -
„soul, breath‟, and finally as Koine „theo(s)‟ [deo(s)] - „god‟, until the anglicized „Death‟.
Dionis appears in at least four different characters: 1st, as the respectable patron of the festivals,
theatre and the arts; 2nd, as the effeminate, yet fierce and phallic mystery-god of the bloodthirsty
Maenads; 3rd, as the mystic solar deity with attributes of the celestial bull and son of the supreme
creator god in the temples of mother goddess(es) Axiero/Cabiro/Kibela/Kubaba/Cybele, Demetra/Dea
Mater, etc.147; and 4th, as the divine sun-savior who died for mankind and whose body and blood were
symbolically eaten and drunk in the eucharistical rituals of the Orphic celibates. Orphic priests founded
their hopes of the purification and ultimate immortality of the soul somehow different. Their mode of
144
Example: “Ottocento” – literally „800‟ (shortened from „milottocento‟ - 1800), used with
reference to the years 1800–99.
145
Salvolini, „Analysis of egyptian texts‟ p.230.
146
Based on „Dio‟ - god, and „Ni-Se‟ or „Ni-e-se‟ - „to-us everything‟ or „to-us is everything‟ in plain
Macedonian. Other proposed evidence of this syncretism is found by linguists on the clay tablets from
the Mycenaean period in the name Di-wo-ny-so, formed from the IE element Diwo - „Giant, Titan‟ (as
it is known Dionis was the descendent of Titans) and noun Nyso - from „Nysa‟, the holy mountain
(today Mt. Nidţe in Macedonia) where, according to the legend, the Nysiades nursed the child Dionis.
147
Also known in Latin as “Dioscuri” – from “Dio” -„god‟ and “scuri” - „dark, obscure‟.
celebrating this worship diverged from the popular rites of Bacchus/Dionis. The Orphic worshippers of
Dionis did not indulge in unrestrained pleasure and frantic enthusiasm, but rather aimed at an ascetic
purity of life and manners. They wore white linen garments, like Oriental and Egyptian priests, from
whom, as Herodotus remarks, much may have been borrowed in the ritual of the Orphic worship.
Beyond that, almost all Barb-Aryan nations had their own versions of Dionis under many different
names. And yet there is a simpler explanation – Attis148, Adonis, Bachus, Bromius, Horus, Tammuz,
Orpheus, Osiris, Osmion, Pan, Pater Liber, Sabazius, Serapis, Zalmoxius, Zeus, (and Jesus Christ
himself ) – are replicas of their grand primordial archetype, Dionis. And all the variations which appear
among them resulted from the transplantation of this great son of the heavenly Supreme God-creator
from one region to another, from one language into another.

All these specific names reflect simply the specific local needs of his multifarious worshipers. In the 4th
century AD, Ausonius explicitly treats this prominent god of several nations as the same deity under
different votive names:
“Ogygia me Bacchum vocat
Macedon Dion gloriam
Osirin Egyptus putat
Mysi Panacem nominant;

148
From Atta – „father‟.
Dionyson Indi existimant149
Romana Sacra Liberum,
Arabica Gens Adoneum.”

“Ireland calls me Bacchus

Macedon prize me Dion
Egypt thinks me Osiris
Mysians name me Pan;
Indi consider me Dionyson
Roman Sacra call me Liber
Arabian race, Adonis150.”

The Rhodian oracle declares Atys or Attis to be Adon-is , Bacch-us, and/or Dionis-us: “Magnum Atten
placate Deum qui castus Adonis Evius est, La rgitor Opum, pulcher Dionisus.”
It is noted that Macedonians worshiped Dionis long before the immigrant Semitic Danaans (so called
“Greex” 151) ever came from Africa. It was noted that these Semitic immigrants in Athens were punished
with impotence for dishonouring the god‟s cult.152 In Lower (Aegean) Macedonia already in the second
half of the second millennium BCE a famous sanctuary dedicated to his cult was known in the city of
Kissos (in the vicinity of Therma/Thessaloniki), at the foot of the homonymous mountain. That is seven
(7) centuries before the appearance of the so-called “Greex” in Peloponnesus.
Dionis birthday was celebrated on 25 of December (but only on every third year!) 153, same as the
birthday of Hittite-Phrygian-Zoroastrian god Mitra, and same as the birthday of Sol Invictus, the sun-god
of the later Roman empire. The Mithraic worship of later antiquity, which symbolized the passage of the
Sun into Taurus by the figure of a sacred bull slain by a man, wasn‟t the last survival of a faith that had
once penetrated deeply into the minds of the people. This perpetuated astrological animistic rite
persisted for thousands of years, and was continuously transmitted in different sanctuaries and temples
of the prehistoric, ancient, medieval and modern world. The winter solstice once celebrated as Dionis
and Mitra‟s birthday is still here, and the 25 of December is still celebrated in modern times, but now by
the Christians as the birthday of Dionis‟s last-fashioned avatar - „Jesus Christ.‟ On the reproach that the
Christians began to celebrate the day of the sun just like pagans, Saint Augustine (ex-pagan himself,
practicant of Manichaeism and Neo-Platonism) laconically replied: "We observe it not as pagans
because of the Sun, but because of the one who created the Sun.“

149
Under “Indi” here are meant the Aryans from Indian subcontinent. Note the sameness of the
Macedonic “Dion” and Aryan “Dionyson” (where the suffix “-yson” is nothing else but a typical
Latin transliteration add).
150
Here Ausonius clearly underlines the African origin of the Semitic Danaans (i.e. “Greex”), who
adopted Adonis/Dionis from the Barb-Aryans.
151
Why parenthesis? Because of the fabricated ethnogenesis of the so-called “ancient Greex”
which is misleadingly based on the composition of the participants in the Trojan War, such as
the Dannans, Achaeans, Argaeads etc., who were mentioned by Homer in his “Iliad”. The
politically biased modern historiography misrepresents them as “Greex” or “Hellenic people”,
but this is a blatant forgery – according to all the ancient sources “Hellenes” did not colonize the
Peloponnesus until 80 years after the Trojan War.
152
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dionysus
153
As reported by Evripid (Lat. Euripides) in his treatise “Bachanae”.
Festivals of Dionisiac mysteries in Kissos were also known because of the abundance of ivy (Koine:
κισσορ) in that region. Ivy was the sacred plant of Dionis, and accordingly, the participants in these
archaic Dionisiac festivities were famous as the Kissophoros (Koine: κισσουόπορ) - „ivy-bearers‟. They
were also known in other places as Kurvantes or Koryvantes, the Curetes, and Idaean Dactyli, and are
said by many persons to be the same as the Caveiri/Cabeiri, the gods worshipped in Samothrace.
Although, due to their profound mystery veil, no one is able to explain who these Caveiri/Cabeiri were.
Accordingly, the names by which mysteries of these mystic festivals were designated in Macedonia are
known as Mysteria, Teletai, Orgia (Orgy), Peripetia, etc.

One of this mysteries, the festival Agrionia, was celebrated at Orchomena, in Boeotia, in honor of
Dionis, surnamed Agrion. A human being used originally to be sacrificed at this ancient festival, but this
sacrifice seems to have been avoided in later times. One instance, however, occurred in the days of
Plutarch. Nevertheless, the main festivals of Dionis were five in number: the Rural or Lesser Dionisia,
the Lenaea (Linaia), the Anthesteria, the „Great Dionisia‟, and the quinquennial “Brauronia”. The
season of the year sacred to Dionis was winter, during the months nearest to the shortest day; and the
Dionisiac festivals were accordingly celebrated in the months of Audonaios or Poseideon (i.e.
December), Peritios/Gamelion (i.e. January), Dystros/Anthesterion (i.e. February), and
Xantikos/Elafebolion (i.e. March).
The 1st festival, Rural or Lesser Dionisia, a vintage festival, was celebrated in the various districts of
Macedonia in the month of Audonaios/Poseideon (today December, i.e. the 10th month), hence one of
Dionis‟s epithets was Adonai, like the month, and this festival was under the superintendence of the
several local magistrates, the Demarchs. This was doubtless the most ancient festival of all, and was
held with the highest degree of merriment and freedom; even slaves enjoyed full freedom during its
celebration, and their boisterous shouts on the occasion were almost intolerable. It is here that we have
to seek for the origin of „comedy‟, in the jests and the scurrilous abuse with which the peasants assailed
the bystanders from a wagon in which they rode about. The Dionisia in the Peiraeus, as well as those of
the other districts in Attica, belonged to the Rural Lesser Dionisia. It is still celebrated in today
Macedonia under the name of „Badnik‟ and/or „Vasilitsa‟, although the dates are not in the 10th month
of December anymore, but now they‟re falling in the first half of January, due to the delay accumulated
by use of different calendars in the last 2000 years.154

154
Just the switch from Julian to Gregorian calendar in 1582 added 10 days of difference. Then
after, in 1752, more days were added and the New Year's Day was changed from March 25 to
January 1, and dates using the new calendar were designated „New Style.‟
The 2nd festival, the Lenaea (from Linos, the winepress, from which also the 11th month of Gamelion
was named: from the verb “ga-meli” - „it-squeezes/mashes‟ in plain Macedonian155; thus the month
when the grapes are pressed for wine; which in corrupted Ionian was called Lenaeon), was celebrated in
the month of Peritios/Gamelion (January, the 11th month). The most noteworthy evidence of
winemaking early attempts is from the 7-6th millennium BCE, since excavations of archaeological sites
of that era found remnants of grape cultivation in Macedonia. We can point to some verbal forms,
characteristic to the territory of the ancient Aegean and Asia Minor. The word “vino/вино” - „wine‟ in
all Macedonic languages, is similar to Mycenaean wo-i-no, Pylosian dialect we-je-we, Latin vinum,
Ugaritic yēna, Hittite wi--ya-na-a/wa-ā-na-as, Luwian wintar/winiyanda, and Cretan dialect genitive
foino. The clear Macedonic etymology is rather simple and descriptive: “Vieno”[adj.] - „bended,
looped‟, from the root word “Vie”[verb] - „twists, bends‟, as the grapevine plant actually does. Linear B
tablets from Pylos revealed the word “Wo-no-wa-ti-si” – „wine area‟. In the Homeric period as well as in
Middle Ages, the archaic Macedonic word “Medovina”, the synonym for Proto-Indo-European *médʰu-
(honey; mead) stands for strong intoxicating drink made from a mixture of honey and wine (i.e. Med and
Vino in plain Macedonian), product of honey/wine fermentation - or „drunken honey‟ (honeywine). In
the beginning honey drink and grape wine were inseparable until the human selection of wild grapes led
to cultivation of varieties that produced higher sugar content, requiring no additional ingredients to
create higher alcohol concentration in the fermented beverage. The place of its celebration was the
ancient temple of Dionis Limnaeus (from „Limny‟, as the district was originally a swamp). This temple
was called the Lenaeon. The Lenaea were celebrated with a procession and scenic contests in tragedy
and comedy. The procession probably went to the Lenaeon temple, where a goat was sacrificed (Tragos,
whence the chorus and tragedy which arose out of it were called Tragikos Horos, and Tragodia), and a
chorus standing around the altar sang the dithyrambic ode to the god. As the dithyramb was the element
out of which, by the introduction of an actor, tragedy arose [CHORUS], it is natural that, in the scenic
contests of this festival, tragedy should have preceded comedy. The poet who wished his play to be
brought out at the Lenaea applied to the second archon, who had the superintendence of this festival, and
who gave him a chorus if the piece was thought to deserve it.

The 3rd festival, the Anthesteria, was celebrated on the llth, 12th, and 13th days of the 12th month of

155
https://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-
angliski/%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5*
Dystros/Anthesterion (today February). It was the Festival of Flowers in honor of Dionis as the spring
god. The second archon likewise superintended the celebration of the Anthesteria, and distributed the
prizes among the victors in the various games which were carried on during the season. The first day
was called Pithoigia, the second, Koes and the third, Kutroi, The 1st day derived its name from the
opening of the casks to taste the wine of the preceding year; the 2nd from kous, the cup, and seems to
have been the day devoted to drinking. The third day had its name from Kutros, a pot, as on this day
persons offered pots with seeds, or cooked vegetables, as a sacrifice to Dionis and chthonic Hermes. It is
uncertain whether dramas were performed at the Anthesteria; but it is supposed that comedies were
represented, and that tragedies which were to be brought out at the great Dionisia were perhaps
rehearsed at the Anthesteria. The mysteries connected with the celebration of the Anthesteria were held
at night.
The 4th festival, the Great Dionisia, was celebrated about the 1st of the month of the new year,
Elaphebolion (March), but we do not know whether they lasted more than one day or not. The order in
which the solemnities took place was as follows: the great public procession, the chorus of boys, the
comus [CHORUS], comedy, and, lastly, tragedy. Of the dramas which were performed at the Great
Dionisia, the tragedies at least were generally new pieces; repetitions do not, however, seem to have
been excluded from any Dionisiac festival. The first archon had the superintendence, and gave the
chorus to the dramatic poet who wished to bring out his piece at this festival. The prize awarded to the
dramatist for the best play consisted of a crown, and his name was proclaimed in the theatre of Dionis.
As the great Dionisia were celebrated at the beginning of spring, when the trading season was re-
opened, cities were not only visited by numbers of country people, but also by strangers from all parts of
Aegean, and the various amusements and exhibitions on this occasion were not unlike those of a modern
fair.
The 5th festival, „Brauronia‟ was a quinquennial festival (held every 50 years) which was celebrated by
men and dissolute women at Brauron, in honor of Dionis. Brimming with virility he was the god most
favored by women. Maybe the German word for woman, “Frau” originates from this theonym.
According to Heisychius, Dionis was the son of Dyaus Pitar/Dion and Aithyia. Most probably his
name is the corrupted form of Macedonian phrase „the son of Dion‟ i.e. “Dionof-sin” in plain
Macedonian, thus erroneously transliterated as “Dionysin” and further corrupted in Latin as “Dionysus”.
According to other sources he was the son of Kadmo and Harmonia. In later traditions he is the Amon-
Zevs, Adonis, Ilios and Osiris-Serapis, and also Deuspater (i.e. Jupiter) or Liber Pater to the Romans.
We find him described in the Orphic hymn:
”Haste, blest Dionis, of the thunderbolt
Engendered, Bassarus or Bacchus called,
Bull-visaged, king of many names and powers.”

The animal-totem of Bull was the most visible symbol of this multitude-form solar deity. Dionis
himself was also imagined to be the bull-headed. The bull is a symbol of cosmogony, of the high god,
the paradise mountain, primordial reality and unity. He is also known as the symbol of Uran(us), the
heavenly supreme god-creator of Indo-Mediterranean areal. The same bull-god that was celebrated in
the prehistoric sanctuary of Čatal Hüyük (Asia Minor) was Apis of Egypt, and much later the Bull
Osiris-Serapis. It has the characteristic trinitarian nature: 3 heads or even 3 bodies united to one. This
trinity spreads across all the ancient world and was preserved throughout later Macedonic (so-called
„Slavic‟) mythology as Triglav and/or Svyatovid. The supreme creator god astrologically has triple
animistic nature as well - “became a lion in the lion's skin of Leo the lion, as he became a ram in Aries,
or a bull in Taurus.”

Above: Bel Merodach, the divine bull-god of Babylon

Bel Merodach (i.e. Ze or Jupiter) as supreme god of Mesopotamia was also the divine bull with
triple nature. In Egypt, as the new moon (the god Khensu at Thebes) he is likened to a mighty, or fiery
bull, and as the full moon he is said to resemble an emasculated bull. As the "Bull of his mother" (Isis) he
was identified with Amsu-Ra, and was regarded as the brother of the Bull of Osiris. Later the sacred bull
in Egypt appears also as Montu, and Api (Lat. Apis).
The stars are herds of cattle, Dawn‟s rays are cows, or steers drawing her car, the rain-clouds are
cows, and so on. As for Heaven and Earth, Dze/Dyaus and Mō (Ma) respectively, they too are
occasionally represented as a bull and cow respectively. Balaat, Cybele, Io, Inana, Ishtar, Astarte, Isis-
Hathor, Nut, etc. along with other Mother Goddesses had also the animistic and chthonic aspects of
celestial cow, and snake or vulture. In Egypt (where the vulture is also a hieroglyph-symbol of the vocal
„A‟) it was the animal totem of the Great Mother Goddess Nekhbet.

Left: the vulture goddess Nekhbet, Mother of mothers of Upper Egypt

Nonetheless, despite the passing of the millenniums, the prehistoric cult of bull-god is still
preserved and celebrated in Macedonia on 24 February as “Mukovden” - the day of the bulls; as well as
in Spain, where the most primitive ceremonial bull-fighting, namely the famous “Corrida”, is still
practiced even today in the 21st century. Its traces today are still stubbornly present in the Macedonian
traditions. And, although the rite of slaying the sacred bull/calf is abandoned in modern religions and
society, the memory of it is well preserved until today within the Macedonian popular song “Kolede”,
still sang in today modern Republic of Macedonia, but now as а “carol song” under Christmas.156
Amazingly for the 21st century, this innocent-looking ritual song discovers the story of the calf that
begs for mercy when is about to be slain. And weirdly enough, it was adopted and camouflaged as a
carol song by the very institution that eliminated all the pagan traditions from religion - the church.

156
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6smq-0tZtio
Starting with the cult of Dionis and his mythical son Macedon157, who lived in the 13th century
BCE, these presumably real persons158 and ancestral kings that became Macedonic gods laid the
foundations of the first great European state and empire, Macedonia. In „The Glory of Generositie‟ by
Sir John Ferne, London 1586, about the CoA of Makedon we read: “Macedonus king of Emathya,
beareth sable, a Wolfe, rampaunt argent. Me thinkes, his Arms be fet uppon a Targe or Buckler.”
The same testimony of Dionis/Osiris/Serapis son, and his wolf-insignia, is found in Diodor Siculus
(90-21 BCE): “18.1 Osiris was not alone in his campaign, he was accompanied by his two sons Anubis
and Macedon, (once again - the holy trinity!) which differed in their guts. Both wore the most
remarkable military symbols taken from some animals whose nature is like the courage of the people
wearing it - Dog for Anubis and Macedon who wore front parts (the paws) of a Wolf. For this reason,
these two animals were also celebrated among the Egyptians.” And accordingly, the ancient cult of
Wolves is still preserved and celebrated in Macedonia on 24 November, as “Wolf festivity”.

157
According to later genealogy brought to us by Hesiodus in Eoiae or Catalogue of Women, Thyia
was the daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha and mother of Magnes and Makednos by Ammon-
Zeus.
158
St. Augustin and St. Cyprian mention a letter supposed to have been written by Alexander the
Great, from Egypt, to his mother Olympia. In this epistle the emperor of Macedon communicates
a most important discovery, made to him by an Egyptian hierophant. The secret was, that not only
the demigods, but also the gods of the greater families were in reality only mortal men. St.
Augustin adds that the priest, fearing lest the secret which he had communicated should be
divulged, begged Alexander to request his mother Olympia to burn his letter as soon as she had
read it.
Above: Wolf, the animal totem of Macedon, prince of Emathia / Æmatia (the most archaic known
name of Macedonia before him)

The oldest Sanskrit writings speak of the Ancient Cushite people, calling the country they inhabit
Cusha Dwipa, the country of the Cush people. They called Europe Varaha Dwipa. In very ancient times
there was a ruler, long before Kephas, called Dionis, the god of wine, called in India Bacchus. At the
time he lived he had dominion over upper Egypt; lower Egypt was an arm of the Mediterranean, and its
lands were low and swampy. He is called, in Egyptian mythology, Osiris, and was deified. There are
legends of him in Asia Minor and in Macedonian Peninsula. Thymates of Asia Minor wrote a history of
Dionis, which is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, written prior to the Ionian settlements. The history of
Dionis was given in a poem entitled „Phrygia‟.
It was commented by Diodorus Siculus that Thymates took pains to secure the most accurate
information relative to Dionis when he visited Mt. Nysa, where Dionis was born. Auman, married Rhea,
sister of Cronus, king of Italy, Sicily and part of northern Africa. He became enamored of the maiden,
Amalthea, and Dionis was born to them. Rhea separated from Auman thereupon, and was married to
Cronus. Cronus made war on Auman, and marched with an army against Nysa. Young Dionis took the
field against him, and seated Ze (lat. Zeus), his son, on the throne which had been occupied by Cronus.
Dionis succeeded his father as ruler at Nysa, and became the greatest of sovereigns in ancient times. He
extended his dominions over all neighboring lands, made conquest of India, where he spent three years
and built the Indian city of Nysa. He afterwards went to Egypt, where he ruled the land.
Cronus is said to have introduced agriculture, social life and manners to Italy. His reign was filled
with plenty, the Golden Age of Italy. He died and was deified. The Egyptian, Macedonian, and Roman
legends made Dionis contemporaneous with Cronus and Saturn. Fresnal in his journal „Asiatiqui‟
identifies Dionis with the Hamitic Dhou Nerwas and Afrikas.
Wilford supports the claim that Dionis is the person referred to in Sanskrit as Deva Nahusha, long
prior to the time of the Aryan invasion of India. When Deva Nahusha had conquered the world he
visited Africa and the south of Egypt, the abode of his grandfather Arti. Because the place was going to
decay, he directed his engineer, Vivasa Carma, to rebuild the city and call it Deva Nahusha Nagara.
Wilford claims that these references are important, as they are recollections of an earlier period.
In the olden writings of Indian traditions, Dionis is held to be the founder of the 1st monarchy in
India; when he left India he established on the throne Spartemtas, one of the priests, who reigned 53
years, and was succeeded by his son, Budzas. Budzas reigned 20 years, and was succeeded by
Cravedvas. This dynasty continued to flourish in regular lineal descent many generations, to time of
Alexandria.
Dionis cult was so profoundly practiced in Macedonia that his worshipers were even called Maketai
(because they were Makedones of Makedon). In fact, in Indo-European languages exists base PIE root
word *Magh/Makh- “tall, big”, from which came the modern Macedonic words like „Moќ‟- power,
strength, „Moќen‟ - powerfull, „Moga‟ - “I might/can” (i.e. „capable‟), and „M’rga‟ - a “big powerful
wilderbeast”. Dionis is followed by pair of panthers or lions (animistic, but trinity again), or even lynx‟s.
He is also the solar god of life, in the form of the divine bull or calf „Bougenæs‟. Nimrod, the mighty
hunter, is seen attacking this same bull with a club in the sign of the constellation of Taurus. Gilgameš
and Irakle (lat. Hercules) did the same. This was the winter bull, which symbolically dies with the sun.
Primordial Zagreus, was murdered by the Titans and torn in pieces, but he still lives in a thousand
forms, chiefly in the shape of a bull.159 Apis was the sacred bull of Memphis – the soul of Osiris-Serapis
passed after death into the body of Apis, and as often as this sacred bull died his soul passed into the
body of his successor.
According to Erodot (Lat. Herodotus): “Osiris” was the Egyptian Dionis, and the house of
Macedonian dynasty of Ptolemies claimed their descent from Dionis. Evripid (Lat. Euripides) introduces
a chorus of Bachantes, inviting Bacchus to appear in the form of a bull, a dragon or a lion. The sun god
when anthropomorphized had a representation of a man-bull, and the Dionis, Osiris and Baal have bull
horns upon their heads. This bull was the symbol of the sun, the great male generative principle, as the
moon or the earth were symbols of the great female fertility principle represented by cow or a horse. The
divine bulls were adored by the Sumerians and bull gods existed with the Hittites (Kitti/Khati).
Sculptures found at the palace of Euyuk in North-Western Cappadocia prove that the Hittites
worshipped the bull and sacrificed rams to it.

Left: Winged Solar Disc with Bull horns and snakes

The most famous holy places, where the chthonic Dionisiac mysteries and rituals were practiced,
were in the holy Macedonic cities of Dion (or Dium) and Dionisopol (lat. Dionysopolis), which bear clear
Macedonic theonyms of this god. But also places like Thebes and the islands of Samothrace and Lemnos,

159
This first Orphic Dionis was linked to the most archaic Dionysiac rites, in which small
animals were torn limb from limb and their flesh devoured raw, "not as an emanation of the
classical Dionysian religion, but rather as a migration or survival of the original prehistoric
rite".
as well as one place also mentioned by Homer: Mt. Nysa160 (today Mt. Nidže) in the highlands of Upper
Macedonia. These were the „dwelling places‟ of the Great Gods of Dionisiac Mysteries, that have been
also identified as Cabiri/Kabiros/Kaviroi, and also known as Demons/Daimones (various deities distinct
from other divine groups as the Phrygian Kurvantes/Korybantes, Trojan Dakttiloi, Danaan Olympians,
etc.) and Dioscuri.

According to another ancient tradition Macedon was the son of Ananetsa161 (the real Egyptian name
of Dionis-Osiris or Busiris), whom Egyptians called Djed (also spelt Djedu) - a „Grandfather‟ in plain
Macedonian (see Mkd. „Dedo‟). Hesychius Alexandrinus in his „Lexicon‟ describes the Paionian god
„Dyalos‟ as the “Paionian Dionis” with these words: “the god of wine Dionis was called Dyalos by the
Paionians”.

160
Nisa or Nyseion, a mythical mountain not just in one place; it exists actually in Macedonia
(today Mt.Nidže).
161
Ananetsa and Ananetcha, i.e. Osiris and Isis, in plain Egyptian, as mentioned on the
Rosetta Stone middle text.
Apart from Dionis and Macedon, and as already mentioned above, the supreme goddess of pure
Macedonic origin was the primordial Great Mother Goddess Mō162 or Ma, of which, beside in
Cappadocia and Macedonia, there‟s no other testimonies to be found elsewhere. She was the goddess
with solar and military attributes (Solar crown, shield, armor, spear and sword). Except in Macedonia she
is totally absent in the other parts of Macedonian Peninsula, and in the later “Hellenistic” or Roman
pantheons there‟s no records whatsoever of a such divinity.163 Nonetheless, her worship was brutally and
persistently suppressed by the Roman invaders, who feared the rebirth of Macedonian empire and
reunification of the Macedonians under her aegis.
Nonetheless, cult of the Great Mother Goddess reemerged again as „Demeter‟ (Dea-mater) and
Kibela (Kybela/Cabiro//Kubaba/Cybele/Cybebe) that spread in Asia Minor. Her exquisite Macedonic
origin is testified with numerous material artifacts across Macedonia, that are resilient back to Neolithic
and much far older, and they underline the different historical trajectory of the Macedonian Culture from
the southern Peloponnesus and the northern regions of the Lower Danube mainland in the Bronze Age. 164

162
Hence „Mother‟, „Mom‟; also as goddess Mokosh, a protector of women in later “Slavic“
pantheon, etc.
163
“The goddess Ma in Cappadocia and her cult in Macedonia” by Nade Proeva, 1993.
164
"Why was there no „Dark Age‟ in Macedonia?" by Antonis Kotsonas, Solun Archaeological
Museum.
In later traditions she was equally interpreted as Estia (Lat. Hestia), Phrygian Kibela or Demetra (Lat.
Demeter and/or Magna Dea Mater), Ceres, etc.
Samothrace, the Macedonian olymp

The Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the tiny, windswept island of Samothrace in the northeastern Aegean
Sea, was home to one of the most important Pelasgo-Macedonian religious community of antiquity. The
Great Gods mystery cults were practiced there from the most archaic immemorial ages. Initiation rituals
promised to the initiated salvation as well as the opportunity to become a better and more pious person.
Secret names of the powerfull ancient deities were invoked by initiated under the most severe conspiracy
and immense spiritual commitment. People from all around the Mediterranean arrived there in search for
salvation, protection, and to bring their offerings and prays to the Great Gods. The Sanctuary of the Great
Gods on Samothrace rose to prominence in the late 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, with the construction of
splendid marble buildings, connected by the special allegiance of the Macedonians, when the Sanctuary
became an international center of the Macedonian royalty. Nonetheless, indications of religious activity
in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace dates back at least to the 7th century
BCE, but construction of the monumental buildings is dated in the 4th century BCE, during the
Macedonian Empire most magnificent period.
This development is associated with the munificence and the political interests of the royal house of
Macedon, as early as the reign of Filip II (382-336 BCE).165 Alexander‟s successors continued the
tradition, and royal patronage of the sanctuary, which attained its greatest glory in the 3rd and 2nd
centuries BCE.166 Beside its rule as the preeminent sanctuary of the Pelasgo-Macedonic primordial
pantheon, several other factors also indicate the highest status of the island of Samothrace as religious
holy place par excellence of the Macedonic world. Namely, Pelasgo-Macedonian settlers populated the
island at least as early as the 9th century BCE. That coincides precisely with the Macedonian Brygians
time of migration to Asia Minor, where they became known as Phrygians. The island of Samothrace was
just their intermediary steppingstone between the coast of Macedonian Peninsula and Asia Minor coast.
As of the Early Iron Age settlements on the island show Macedonian mainland styles, and dwellings on
Mt. Sao(s) have distinct pre-“Greek” constructions and tribal names. And the Macedonic prefix “Samo-”
from the island‟s name Samothrace is firmly attested only in one other word, in the noun “Samovila” – „a
fairy‟ in plain Macedonian167, which is utterly explained further below (on page 114). Apart from the
purely Macedonic name of the island, Mt. Sao(s) too resembles the name of yet another mountain in
Macedonia - the Mt. Scard(us) (today Mt. Shar -„colorful mountain‟ in plain Macedonian; comparable to
the anglicized „Shards‟).
There‟s also the first-hand most exceptional testimony, in the form of magnificent nearly 3 meters tall
statue of the Macedonic goddess of victory Nika (or Nike)168, commissioned by the Macedonians in 323

165
Filip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, met his future wife Olympia during their
initiation on the isle of Samothrace.
166
“The sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace, Greece: an extended marble provenance study”
by Y. Maniatis, D. Tambakopoulos, E. Dotsika, B. D. Wescoat and D. Matsas.
167
http://www.makedonski.info/search/samovila
168
Found in 1863 by M. Champoiseau. Broken into several pieces, it was lying in a rectangular basin
located on a windy ridge that overlooked the Samothracian Sanctuary of the Great Gods. Today is in
the Louvre Museum, Paris.
BCE, to celebrate their victory in the naval battle with the city-state of Athens in the Hellespont.169 The
isle in subsequent centuries it became a pilgrimage place even for the Romans, who traced their
legendary ancestry to the island and the kin of Tyrsenoi (i.e. Rasena Lat. Etruscans). This very ancient
mystery cult lasted thousands of years, until the Roman emperor Theodosius II banned cult religions at
the end of 4th century AD.

Above: The statue of Nike from the island of Samothrace, 323 BCE. Today at Louvre Museum

On the island of Samothrace170 some of these Great Gods were explicitly mentioned by Manasias
(i.e. Mnaseas) of Patara with the following names: - The primordial great mother Cabiro (a corrupted
form of Kibela/Kubela/Cybele) – yet another appearance of the primordial Great Mother Goddess

169
Actually this battle ended in a draw, but ultimately led to the final decline of the Athenian navy and
its fast fall from the historic stage.
170
The identity and nature of the deities venerated at the Samothrace sanctuary remains largely
enigmatic, in large part because it was taboo to pronounce their names. Literary sources from
antiquity refer to them under the collective name of "Cabeiri" (Kabiri, Káviri), while they carry the
simpler epithet of Gods or Great Gods, which was a title or state of being rather than the actual
name on inscriptions found on the site.
(associated with the goddess Mo or Ma)171, also found as Axiero - a wife of Vulcan, and mother of
Axieroy and Axiokersa (the „Dioskuri‟), as well as the younger deity Kadmilo (Lat.
Kadmilos/Kasmillos). His name means “the Eastern” or “the ancient god,” from the Phoenician Kedem
(„east‟ and/or “ancient”). He was worshipped as a god not only at Samothrace (Plutarch Pelopid. 19), but
also at Lemnos, Sparta (Pausanias, III.15), whither the influence of the Phoenician colony on Kythera had
extended, and, under the form of Kadmilos (Kedem el - “he who is before God”), corrupted into
Kasmilos, was another one of the Cabiri/Kabeiri of Samothrace. Then also there was the goddess Pallas,
on which the safety of Ilion (Troy) was believed to depend, and Dardan(us) who is sometimes described
as a Cretan (Serv. ad Aen. III.167), sometimes as an Asiatic (Steph. s. v. Dardanus; Eustath. ad Dionys.
Perieg. 391), while Arrian (ap. Eustath. p. 351) makes him come originally from Samothrace. In addition
to promising enlightenment if not actual resurrection, all these gods transmitted such skills as wine
making, metallurgy, alchemy, mathematics, masonry, astronomy and calendars. They were mentioned
also by Erodot (Lat. Herodotus) as thought by Pelasgians172 to the men from the isle of Samothrace:
"…and those who are initiated in the mysteries of the Kabeiri will understand what I am saying; for the
Pelasgians formerly inhabited Samothrace, and it is from them that the Samothracians received their
initiations.” Тhus, the epicenter of their veneration was the Northern Aegean, on the islands of Lemnos
and Samothrace, which were originally Pelasgo-Macedonic ethnically. They were conquered and
colonized for some time by the city-state of Athens starting in the 6th century BCE. Nevertheless, cult of
Cabeir/Kabeiri predated the arrival of Semitic “Greex” by a long shot, and wasn‟t part of their pantheon.

Above: Computer-generated reconstructon of one of the temples from the isle of Samothrace

171
Kibele or Cybele; according to the images on the ancient coins from the isle of Samothrace that
show Axiokersa with the same attributes binding to Phrygian Kibela and/or Hittite Kubaba.
172
Yet another name for the Pre-Indo-European inhabitants of Macedonian Peninsula and Aegean.
with the 'rotonda' amphitheatre infront

In order to understand how complicated and intricate was the mystery cult of these Great Gods, we must
cite here the writer next to Erodot, Stesimbrot(us), who speaks about the Cabeiri, and whose statements
we possess in Strabo (p. 472), though brief and obscure. The meaning of the passage in Strabo is
(according to Lobeck) as follows: “Some persons think that the Corybantes are the sons of Cronus,
others that they are the sons of Dze(us) and Kaliope, and that they (the Corybantes/Korovantes) went to
Samothrace and were the same as the beings who were there called Cabeiri.” But as the doings of the
Corybantes/Korovantes [i.e. „Those dressed in ivy‟ (“Korov” - „chaf‟)173 in plain Macedonian] are
generally known, whereas nothing is known of the Samothracian ones, those persons are obliged to have

recourse to saying, that the doings of the latter Corybantes/Korovantes are kept secret or are mystic.
However, this opinion was contested by Demetri(us), who stated that the mysteries has revealed nothing,
either of the deeds of the Cabeiri or of their having accompanied Rhea or of their having brought up
Dze(us) and/or Dionis. Demetri(us) also mentions the opinion of Stesimbrot(us), that the sacred rituals
were performed in Samothrace to the Cabeiri, who derived their name from Mt. Cabeir(us) in Phrygian
173
http://www.makedonski.info/search/korov
Berecyntia. But here again opinions differ, and some believed that the Sacred Kabeirôn were thus called
from their having been instituted and conducted by the Cabeiri, others thought that they were celebrated
in honour of the Cabeiri, and that the Cabeiri belonged to the great gods.
Transmited legends testify that the Samothracian Mysteries themselves were born from a great
convulsion of nature. And the Kabeiri were described as evil titans/daemons of fire who shaked the earth
and expelled fire from the depths of the earth and the sea. At that immemorial time, when large tracts of
Asia would have been covered with water continuously, others for a time, the lowlands of Samothrace
also were inundated, as the indigenes reported; on the highest mountain peaks they had sought aid with
persistent vows to the native gods. Diodorus Siculus adds that around the circumference of the whole
island still stand altars, which identify the limits of the peril and the deliverance. According to F.W.J.
Schelling the secret names of the Cabiri commemorate and bear witness to this ancient natural
catastrophe. As Schelling himself writes, the Deluge was “transmuted into monuments exhibited in
commemoration.” For example, the name Axiokersa contains the PIE root *hrs- which, in turn, is
connected to fire (Horus/Ares/ Mars), and, in this way, it manifests the ancient wisdom that (according to
Heraclit): “The world is an eternal living fire, which at intervals… flares up and is extinguished.” The
(justified) suspition of Shelling is that the catastrophic unruliness of nature is implicitly contained in
these names, and to etymologically analyze them is also simultaneously to reveal the workings of nature
itself, preserved in the secret names of the Cabeiri as “a primordial system older than all written
documents, which is the common source of all religious doctrines and representations.” Their secret
names, in fact, are the unruly ground of this natural catastrophe recapitulated. According to Shelling the
Great Gods of Samothrace are analogous to the elemental forces of nature.174
The first difficulty that arises with these Cabiri/Kabiri theonym is their however unclear etymology.
Strabon, citing the Demetrio of Scepsi, gives a supposed relation to the Mt. Kabiros (or possibly Mt.
Cybistra?), in Phrygian (i.e. Brygian) Berecyntia.175 Nevertheless, this euphemic epithet is found both in
the literary and the epigraphic sources, and is equally transcribed as the “Great Gods”. For the sake of the
truth, it must be also mentioned here the phonological congruency of the Cabeiri/Kabeiri with the
Hebrew term Kabala, which denotes the ancient Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible
by using similar esoteric methods like the ones of the mystery cults from the island of Samothrace.
Further, the Great Mother Goddess was either Cabiro or Axiero, depending on the source, and with
time the twins Axieroy and Axiokersa became syncretized with the Dioskouri, and in the later
historiography they transformed as the twins Castor and Pollux, who were seen as the protectors of
sailors, thus underlining their watery attributes. The above mentioned secret names of these “Great
Gods” inevitably suggest strong etymological connection of the root word *axio- („axle‟) with the ancient
name of the main Macedonian inland artery and river-god Axios176, and once again points to their
Pelasgo-Macedonic origin. As known fact, all these places around Axios (today river Vardar) were, and
they still are, originally inhabited by pre-Hellenic peoples, i.e. the indigenous Macedonic population, also
known as Belasgians (Lat. Pelasgians), Brygians, Paionians, Hyperboreans, etc. When ancient texts
suggest an ethnicity for the Cabiri/Kabeiroi, they are Phrygian, Pelasgian. Apolon and Artemida had

174
F.W.J. Schelling, “The Deities of Samothrace”.
175
Berekyntes is the ethnonym of an ancient tribe in Phrygia, possibly of Brygian or Hittite descent.
176
Since in the Latin there‟s no etymological sense linked to this name, the only plausible is through
the earlier Koine term Axos [Aξορ] - tree or timber, which explains perfectly the widely known
status of the ancient Macedonian kingdom as the primary supplier of the Aegean coastal cities with
the ship-building material, i.e. wood, that was shipped to the Thermaic Gulf along the river Vardar.
Hence the corrupted Koine-Latin name of Axiοs for this river (Vardar or „Bardarios‟).
spent their childhood among their kin in Hyperborea (Hesiod Teor. 404; Herodotus IV.32.). Homer tells
us also that the kin of the Paionians was generated in the marriage of Axios and the nymph Perivoia (i.e.
„The-first-one‟), etc.
Another clear mark of the distinguishable Macedonic character of Samothrace, as already mentioned
above, is the very name of the isle. Namely, the only other existing IE word that contains the prefix
„Samo-‟ is once again Macedonian. That‟s the composite Macedonian word for fairy - „Samovila‟177,
where the meaning of the prefix “Sa-Mo” (i.e. „With-Mo‟) clearly depicts the being(s) that appertain to or
“are with Mo” (the Great Mother Goddess of Macedonia), thus „appertaining to the Mo(ther)‟. The
second part of the word - „vila‟ means just simple „fairy‟ in plain Macedonian178, but it is rarely used
separated. Samovila‟s were winged spiritual beings from the woods, with great powers, comparable to
angels. Thus, having in mind the meaning of “Thrace” too, the island of Samothrace full name meaning
is the “Great Mother Goddess’s Angels tract-across Ki(tim)”, in this case a “land-tract across the sea”.
Although the names of the Great Gods or Cabiri/Kabiroi were enshrouded in mystery, there‟s clear
undeniable evidence of their Macedonic origin. For example, even the word „Mystery‟, which originally
appeared in Koine in the plural, Mystêria, as the name of the festival that we currently call the Eleusian
Mysteries (Ch. I) just as other names of ancient festivals are in the plural, such as Anthesteria, Thargelia
and Dionisia. Generations of scholars have connected /mystêrion/ with the Koine verb /myô/
[pronounced „mōuó‟], which means „to close the lips or eyes‟, and they have explained it as referring to
Demeter‟s commandment in her Homeric Hymn (478–479) to keep the rites secret.179 Accordingly, the
Macedonian verb for saying „close-your-eyes‟ is - „Miţi‟ [meeˈjie], and the term for „close-your-
lips/mouth‟ is - „Muči‟ (modern „Molči‟). This assumption is utterly correct as „mystêrion‟ doesn‟t
contain a secondary -s-, like many other Koine words. And there‟s yet another possible etymological
explanation. More recently, Hittite scholars have explained the Koine term from the Hittite verb
„munnae‟, meaning „to conceal, to hide‟, to „shut out of sight‟, rather than „keep secret, be silent
about‟.180 And once again we find the very same word in modern vernacular Macedonian: “Mani ” i.e.
„Munny‟ in anglicized spelling [pronounced „manee‟] - „put away, dispose, left off ‟.181
Common origin of the Macedonic, Pelasgic and Hittite languages are clearly seen through toponyms
as well. Like in the Hittite holy royal capital of Cybistra, which resembles the homonymous toponyms
of Mt. Bistra, village, and river Bistritsa in Macedonia. The Hittite language and race are still under
discussion, but a great preponderance of scholastic opinion appears to declare that neither the one nor
the other was Semitic “Greek”. The above etymological correspondence with Macedonic shows their
common origin.

177
There‟s also the Sanskrit term for goddess, “Samodeva”, but this obvious relation with the
Macedonian “Samovila” still lacks the minimum of scientific review.
178
http://www.makedonski.info/search/vila
179
In the „Preface‟ of “Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World” by Jan N. Bremmer.
N. Oettinger, Die Stammbildung des hethitischen Verbums (Nuremberg, 1979) 161–162; J.
Puhvel, „Secrecy in Hittite: munnai- vs. sanna-‟, Incontri linguistici 27 (2004) 101–104 and Hittite
Etymological Dictionary, M (Berlin and New York, 2004) 188–192; A. Kloekhorst, Etymological
Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon (Leiden, 2008) 587–588; R. Beekes, Etymological
Dictionary of Greek, 2 vols (Leiden, 2010) 2.988. I am most grateful to Norbert Oettinger for
advice regarding the etymology.
180
Ibid.
181
Example: “Mani mi se od tuka!” - „Get away from me and here!‟ in plain Macedonian.
Error!

Above: Dionis with a thyrsus in a panther-drawn chariot. A bronze coin from Sebaste (Phrygia)

Similarities between the Hittite gods and gods of kingdom of Macedon prove again and again their
prehistoric relations and common origin. Both Macedonians and Hittites celebrated the same Supreme
Father God of the thundering sky, the very same Mother Goddess, and their divine son and Sun-God,
lover of the goddesses - a Hittite Dionis from the village of Ibreez. The statue of deity, some fourteen feet
high, is a bearded male figure, wearing on his head a high pointed cap adorned with several pairs of
horns, and plainly clad in a short tunic, which does not reach his knees and is drawn in at the waist by a
belt. His legs and arms are bare, the wrists are encircled by bangles or bracelets. His feet are shod in high
boots with turned-up toes (Macedonian popular shoes, „Opintsi‟ in plain Macedonian). In his right hand

Above: ceramic Hittite boot model from the second millennium BCE, and on the right -
today souvenir Opintsi-shoes from the market in Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia
he holds a vine-branch laden with clusters of grapes, and in his raised left hand he grasps a bunch of
bearded wheat, such as is still grown in Cappadocia, the ears of corn project above his fingers, while the
long stalks hang down to his feet. That the god of Ibreez, with the grapes and corn in his hands, is
identical with the Baal of Tarsus and/or Dionis, who bear the same emblems, may be taken as certain.182
Furthermore, in the inscription attached to the colossal figure of the god at Ibreez two scholars have
professed to read the name of Sandan or Sanda. Needless to mention that the name Sande is still a very
common male name in Macedonia, and only in Macedonia.
Beside the praised Macedonian dedication represented by the marvelous statue of Nika, there are at
least four other important Macedonic tributes to the great gods of Samothrace. One is in the form of
sanctuary built by Filip III of Macedon and his nephew and son of Alexander the Great, Alexander IV;
then the propylon (propylaeum) built by Ptolemy II, Macedonian king and pharaon of Egypt; the rotunda
dedicated to Arsinoe II, the second daughter and youngest child born to Macedonian king Lysimachus
from his first wife, Nika of Macedonia; and a Column monument to Filip V. One of the artifacts found, a
tiny gold Persian lion, was dedicated by a Macedonian soldier upon his return from the campaign under
Alexander the Great. From this can be seen the overall Macedonic attributes of the great Sanctuary on
the isle of Samothrace.
Other monuments on the isle of Samothrace are unattested and designated merely as “Hellenistic”(?)
by the conventional historians. The historical buffoonery of this irrational claim lies in the contradictory
fact of misappropriated use of the term for designating as “hellenistic”183 the periods which are not.184
Numerous other gods and demigods worshipped by the Ancient Macedonians were part of a local
Macedonic pantheon. There are numerous testimonies of these Macedonic deities brought to us by

182
An interesting Hittite symbol which occurs both in the sanctuary at Boghaz-Keui and at the palace
of Euyuk is the double-headed eagle. In both places it serves as the support of divine or priestly
personages. After being readopted as a coat of arms by the Macedonian dynasty that ruled in the
Middle Ages Byzantium, it passed into Europe with the Crusaders and became in time the
escutcheon of the German, Austrian and Russian empires, and later on passed again as emblem of
the new nations created by the above mentioned empires: Serbia, Montenegro; and lastly as
“national” flag of Albania.
183
The “Hellenistic” is an adjective which designates “the time-period after the death of Alexander
the Great in 323 BCE until the battle of Azio (Actium) in 31 BCE and Roman empire conquest of
the Egypt.” - citation from the „Lezioni di Arte‟ (Lessons in Art) Vol.1, 'Dall'arte arcaica al
gotico' p.45: 'Il grande impero di Alessandro e i regni hellenistici'. Electa/Bruno Mondadori,
edition 2002)
184
"Finally, two points of terminology. We use the word 'Hellenistic' for no better reason other
than out of the force of acquired habit, but of course the word and the concept are modern
inventions that were unknown to the ancient world. The continued use of the word perpetuates
misleading assumptions, and there is a serious case for avoiding it altogether, though the
impracticality of this is obvious..." - M. M. Austin "Hellenistic Kings, War, and the Economy",
The Classical Quarterly New Series, Vol.36, No.2 (1986), p. 450. Published by: Cambridge
University Press.
"We are now able to say, with some certainty that the 'Greex' were, empirically, wrong: this
ancient model of continuity between the 'heroic age' and the present day is not a true historical
chronology, but a 'chronology of desire'. For historians today one such a privileged moment (of
places and monuments as 'clasical') is 'Clasical Athens', the Athens of the 5th and 4th centuries
BCE. But when and why is so regarded? Was 'Clasical Athens regarded as 'Clasical' already in
antiquity? By whom?..." - 'The Birth of Classical Europe: A History from Ilion to Augustine' by
Simon Price, Peter Thonemann.
ancient historiographers or from numerous artifacts found in recent archaeological excavations A
notable influence on Macedonian religious life and worship was from neighboring Thessaly, the two
regions shared many similar cultural institutions. Ancient Macedonians were tolerant of, and open to,
incorporating foreign religious influences. The prehistoric sun-cult worship originally celebrated by the
Macedonic Paionians from Upper Macedonia is example of continuity through incorporation of
primordial deities into ancient world. The universal solar symbols such as the swastika or the Paionian
Solar-disc for example, were used in Macedonia from the most archaic times, and they were also used as
the dynasty symbol of the Aegead (lat. Argead) royal family. As cosmopolitan society Macedonians also
worshiped neighboring tribes gods, such as the “Thracian185 rider”, Bendion, and other cult figures. One
unsurmountable obstacle in discovering the original names and titles of the ancient Macedonian gods is
the tradition of keeping their names SECRET. It was extremely prohibitive to pronounce their names,
and it was considered as a very bad omen and great misfortune for those who pronounce them. In many
respects the issue of divine names appears to be a far more disquieting problem than we tend to realize
or acknowledge. Their names were hidden behind symbol-syllables worn on amulets. The only source
from were we can deduce their existence are the Interpretatio Graeca and Interpretatio Latina, thus, the
way in which the foreigner Semitic “Greex” and Romans used to call them. Through these highly
corrupted and unclear interpretations from different non-Macedonic sources we painstakingly
reconstruct the secrets of ancient Macedonian Pantheon. Another obstacle is presented by the diversity
of the forms and attributes of the same gods in different countries, different forms and of different
epochs.

185
On difference from “Brygian”, “Macedonian”, “Paionian” or “Pelasgian”, the “Thracian” isn‟t
a proper ethnonym. The (multiuse) term 'Thracia' used by ancient authors as well as their modern
counterparts, traced the territory of 'Thracia' totally differently, depending on whether they
referred to ethnic or political boundaries. They differ from source to source. As a geographical
name its etymological meaning was “the land” or “the coast”. This can be seen from Hecataeus
(Hec., ap. Steph. Byz., s.v. Darsioi: ethnon Thrakion („Daorsoi‟ were living on the left bank of
the river Neretva to the Adriatic cost in Dalmatia). Apollodorus also used the term „Thrakes‟ for
„Histri‟ on the Histrian Peninsula (Istra in today‟s Croatia). These two examples evidenced that
this designation had no obvious ethnic connotations, and should be translated as “Landers”,
“Mainland tribe” or “Coastal tribe”, i.e. a tribe living on the mainland or on the coast. This
interpretation can be emphasised by data from Herodotus (Her., VII, 185) who describes the
Thessalian tribes as “those Thracians living on the Thessalian Coast along the sea”. It was very
well known to Herodotus‟ audience that the Thessalians are not „Thracians‟ in ethnical sense. -
“On the Names of Thracia and Eastern Macedonia”, ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΟΣ, Сборник в чест на професор
Петър Делев, София, 2017, рp. 75-82 N. Proeva 2017.
Above: Golden Macedonian royal larnax with the 16-ray sun, a solar symbol of the
Aegead (lat. Argead) dynasty

Gods, as we saw, were occasionally exalted as being Polyonymous (i.e. Polynomial - „of many
names‟). In fact, practically all gods were entitled to that qualification due to the fact that, in prayer,
ritual and literature, they were referred to with a variety of predicates, epithets and surnames. The
Macedonians too, often represented the same god(s) under different forms and undetermined attributes;
this is because they were not the same everywhere across the Macedonian Peninsula, nor in charge of
the same tasks. As mentioned before “There are,” says Hesiod, “30,000 gods on the fruitful earth.”
Hittites too, they were also proverbial with their “1000 gods”. For example, the differentiation between
the Day-sky god and the Night-sky god (or goddess) was later forgotten, at least in speaking, and it is
chiefly from preserved funeral texts that we learned that a distinction between them ever existed.
Minucius Felix, a Christian theologian, who in his „Octavius‟ 22.5, after derisively listing different
Diana‟s (Diana pictured as a huntress, Diana Ephesia with many breasts, Diana Trivia with three heads)
and Ioves (Jupiter Ammon „with horns‟, Jupiter Capitolinus „with a lightning‟, Jupiter Latiaris
„sprinkled with blood‟, etc.), ends up with the firm conclusion in order not to dwell excessively on these
many Ioves: “there are as many ‘monsters of Juppiter’ as there are names (et ne longius multos Ioves
obeam, tot sunt Iovis monstra quot nomina).”
One Macedonian region that today boasts a „St. George‟ in antiquity housed a goddess named
„Mother of the Gods‟ (Γεμεηηπ Θεῶν Αὐηόσθων), as well as a „Macedonian Dionis‟. Incidentally, the
Macedonian Great Mother of the gods had to face competition from the Lydian Mother of the Gods
(Μηηπὶ Θεῶν Λςδ[ίαι]) as this goddess is known from an inscription from the region of Sardis. In that
region she was associated (if not identified) with „Rhea‟, the same goddess who is often referred to as
Phrygian Goddess Mother (Φπύγιαε Γεα Μαηεπ), i.e. the Mother of the Gods, Cybele, and was already
called Supreme Goddess (ἐπισωπίη θεόρ) of Sardis by Erodot.
However, the clear Macedonic nature of different (father) gods can be deduced from their
Macedonian mail suffix /-ON/ ("he" in plain Macedonian). For example: Aton, Acmon, Ammon,
Akhenaton, Danaon, Dion, Makedon, Mygdon, Orion, etc.
The list of known and
unknown Macedonic deities
What follows is the incomplete list of different Macedonic deities, or different namings of the same
deities, as reconstructed from many ancient sources (Homer, Amerias, Hesichuius, etc.). Probability of
their original naming is very slim, due to the countless centuries of transcriptions, altered interpretations,
latinization, and ulterior anglicization. The theonyms below are the best guess that can be drawn from all
the data at our disposal:

As/Az – “The1-st”, the Supreme/Solar/Celestial God-kreator, the highest „upper one‟; generally noted
as the oldest syllabic appellation for the later polynomial appearances of Aplu/Apolo/Apolon, Ares,
Dionis/Bachus, Ill/Illiy/Ilios/Helios, Xant(us), Dze/Ze(us), Uran(us), Taranis/TarunPerun, Sol Invictus,
Varuna/Veles, etc.
Aton (i.e. A-to-on - “First-he”, also spelled Aten in ancient Egyptian religion, and/or Phrygian Atis in
corrupted Interpretatio Graeca) – Sun-God, depicted as the solar disk emitting rays terminating in
human hands, whose worship was brought to Egypt by a Macedonic-Hittite princess. It was briefly the
Egyptian state monotheist religion. The pharaon Akhenaton (reigned 1353-1336 BCE) returned to
supremacy of the Sun-God, with the startling innovation that the Aton was to be the only god (see Ra).
To remove himself from the preeminent cult of Ptah of Memphis i.e. Ammon-Ra at Thebes, Akhenaton
built the city Akhetaton (now Tell el-Amarna) as the centre for the Aton‟s worship.186 According to the
tradition (same like Dionis and other solar gods) Aton/Atis was slain by the boar's tusk of winter, a
common winter solstice sacrifice-reincarnation rite found also in Dionisiac and all other sun-gods
traditions related to the Winter Solstice.
Athos (maybe just another version of Aton) – was one of the primordial titans. He is most known for
the attempted but discarded by Alexander the Great creation of Mt. Athos, a mountain and peninsula in
southern Macedonia, today known as "The Holy Mountain", which is located on Halkidiki peninsula in
Lower (Aegean) Macedonia.

Above: The Colossus of Mt. Atos

Acmon of Phrygia – a Fire-God, was a Macedonic-Phrygian god, a deified king who gave his name to
the district known as Acmonia; he was the father of Mygdon, his successor.187

186
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/41851/Aton
187
Phrygians anciently migrated to Anatolia from the Balkans. Erodot says the Phrygians were
Ade – God of the Underworld; „behind‟ in old syllabic Macedonian, today “Otade” - „beyond‟ (also
“kade” - „where‟ in plain Macedonian). It‟s yet another Dionisiac deity. Heraclit says explicitly “Ades
and Dionis, for whom they go mad and rage, are one and the same.” For Heraclit, Dionis is the god of
insane wildness, the god of which the Manasias and his affiliates also say “This god is the same god as
Ade”. Roman equivalent Pluton, maybe related also to the Asyrian god Adad. Like Baal in Ugarit
coming to the threshing ground as leader of the dead spirits, the repha'im, Dionis is coming as the leader
of the satyrs, who are half men, half horses, the horse character stressing their strong ties to the realm of
death. The sacrificial goat is also a symbol of the dying Sun/Dionis.
Adon (Adonaios) / Adonis (i.e. Poseidon) – the Macedonian god of the seas. Also noted as a name
Adon of an Armenian general and a Phrygian flute-player (Kretschmer 1916, 1920), thus of undisputed
Macedonic origin; most probably just another (older) name of Dionis, who liked to ride dolphins,
another of his special companions.
Apolon – another Macedonic sun-god, patron of music, poetry, medicine, pastoral life, archery,
prophecy, and associated with the sun; also another name of the mysterious primordial Horned God
and/or Dionis/Orpheus. Like Dionis he was the son of the supreme Sky-father god and was the leader of
the Maenads/Muses. During the 5th century BCE, Apollo became known as the god of Sun, becoming
one with the god Ilios and/or Mitra/Sol Invictus. Zodiac sign Leo.
Ares (Hittite „Yarri‟, in Egypt known as „Oru‟, latinized: „Horus‟188, Hebrew „Hrs‟, Asyrian „Asur‟;
hence the corrupted „Ares‟ and later Roman „Mars‟) – the Macedonian god of war was directly related
to the month of March. This is deduced from the name of this month in the Thessalian calendar –
Απειορ , as well as from his animal-symbol – ram, since the March is the Zodiacal sign of Aries. In
Ancient Macedonian calendar his erroneously Koine-transliterated name for the month as
“Artemision” barely hides his original name, which actually descended from the Macedonian “Yarets”
- „Capricorn‟. Why this Aries-Capricorn duality? It is an etymological glitch, as the Macedonic
“Yarets” is actually an epithet which descends from the term “Yara” - „rage/heat‟ in plain Macedonian,
while in Macedonic-Hittite pantheon he was “Yarri” - god of war/pestilence. It can be concluded that
the epithet “Yarets” - „raging‟ was rightfully given to both Ram and Capricorn animal totems, as well
as to the war god. With time this became his only and principal name as corrupted “Ares” (hence
“Aries” and Latin: “Mars”). According to ancient tradition it is said that Ares was born as
parthenogenetic child of the Great Mother Goddess, the same feature that we find in Mitra and Jesus
Christ.
Areton/Araton – the Macedonic god of strength and power mentioned in Hesychius Glossary, in later
genealogy attested as “Erakle/Irakle” (Etruscan Hercle; Latin: Hercules).
Axiy or Axios – the archaic river god of the homonymous river, today known as river Vardar in
Macedonia. Etymology of Axios/Axos - „wood, timber‟ survived in another modern Macedonian words
“Les/Lesky”- woods, and “Daska/daski” - flat pieces of wood (hence „dash‟ too).
Briarey (Lat. Briareus)189 the ‟50-strong‟, also called Aegaeon („Aegean‟, clear Macedonic
appellation) – a Titan (Giant) with 50 heads and 100 hands*, a demigod; among Brygians (later
Phrygians in Asia Minor) he was one of the „100-handed ones‟ that according to Hesiod fought against
the Titans. Hesiod's „Theogony‟ (624, 639, 714, 734–35) also reports that the three Hecatoncheires, or

called Bryges when they lived in Europe (i.e. Macedonia).

188
This the root word for „horror‟ as well, „orrore‟ in plain Italian.
189
Comparable to the Dionisiac „Brauronia‟, a quinquennial festival (held every 50 years).
Storakite (100-handed ones), Briarey, Kot and Gig, became the guards of the gates of Tartarus.
According to one myth Briarey became the son-in-law of Poseidon (i.e. Adonis/Dionis), who gave him
"Kymopoliea („Godfathers-gray‟) his daughter to wed". But Hesiod‟s is obviously just another
Interpretatio Graeca, a Metathesis of their role. Originally in Virgil's „Aeneid‟(10.566–67), they fought
on the side of the Titans rather than the Olympians; and Aeneas is likened to one of them (to Briareus,
known here as Aegaeon); Virgil was following the lost Corinthian epic „Titanomachy‟ rather than the
more corrupted account of Hesiod.190 Other accounts make Briareoy (or Aegaeon) one of the assailants
of Olympus. After his defeat, Briarey/Aegaeon was buried under Mount Aetna.
*It is a legitimate assumption to explain these “50 headed and 100 handed Giants” as a real combat
units made of 50 men, probably a Brygian tribesmen-warriors organized in a tight formation squadrons.
The story of these hard to defeat legendary Macedonic „Berzerkers‟ from the distant past reached our
days transformed into supernatural beings through the fantastic mythological hyperbolization of
countless generations of story tellers and oral traditions.
Vedu [“Ve” - stands for “Veliki” - „Grandmaster‟ (of the) “du(h)” - „soul, breath‟] – according to
Neanthes of Kuzik (Lat. Kysikenos) Vedu was the life-breathing deity to which Macedonians prayed for
mercy of them and their children. But, Clement from Alexandria claims that Vedu (hence Voda - water)
was Macedonic-Phrygian word for water, and strong watery cult was truly testified among both the
Macedonians and local Macedonic tribe of Brigyans (that later settled as Phrygians in Asia Minor).
Watery demigods as Sileni and Nymphs constituted great part of the mythological panorama in
Macedonian Pantheon. Toponyms as Edessa (i.e. Voden in plain Macedonian) make strong case to this
claim. In the northeast (in what is now Bosnia and Croatia) Silen (Lat. Silenus) became the supreme god
known as Silvan (Lat. Silvanus), imagined as hairy male being with goat legs and horns. Probably just
another of the many versions of the primordial Horned God. His companion Thana (Lat. Diana) was
goddess of hunting with an arrow in her hand. Over 300 monuments dedicated to them were found all
over Bosnia. Silen was undoubtedly a resemblance of the similar Macedonic minor deity, testified on the
numerous ancient Macedonian coins.
Vendida (latinized Bendida) – was attested in the valley of the river Strumon (today Struma) in
eastern Upper Macedonia. From here through the Macedonian dynasty of Ptolemy she was introduced in
Egypt, where a Macedonic temple dedicated to her was built near Alexandria. Her influence was
recorded also in the region of Bithynia in Asia Minor, where the local Macedonian community of
Bithyni, originally from the Strumon valley, settled.
Vran (Vrana,Vranec; Lat. Phoroneus) – Raven-god, in Latin „Phoroneus‟, which have also been a
title of Cronus, with whom the crow and the alder are also associated and therefore the Titan of the 7th
Day. Later also noted as a divine emblem of Apollon; also an etymon for “black stallion” used as name
for a variety of Macedonian red wine - Vranets; found also as Gaulic raven-god Bran191 or Vron.

190
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanomachy_(epic_poem)
191
In Antiquity the letters U and V were previous and interchangeable with B, as also L and R
which have been rather confused before they became clearly differentiated. Thus we have Dunav
for Danube, Vizant for Byzant, etc.
Voda (Vedi/Bedi/Bedu) – god/goddess of the waters.
Vō – the primordial supreme creator Sky-god; homonymous to Scandinavian Vodin (i.e. Odin).
Voltumna – a god or goddess (maybe a hermaphrodite deity) of the wisdom and advice; accordingly her
name is derived from the Macedonic noun umna192 [feminine] - „clever, rational‟ in plain Macedonian
(see also razumna)193 which underlines her/his attributes of wisdom. A god with strange and contrasting
features, primordial Voltumna was represented sometimes as a maleficent monster, at others as a god of
vegetation; of uncertain sex, or as a great war-god/goddess. We have here a typical example of the
process of the regionalization and folkloristic transformation of originally one and the same chthonic
deity. She/he even became the supreme god of the Etruscan pantheon, the Deus Etruriae Princeps,
according to Varro. At the Fanum Voltumnae a festival of Ludi (i.e. Crazy) were held, the precise nature
of which, whether apotropaic, athletic or artistic, is unknown. In the Roman Forum, near the Temple of
Castor and Pollux stood a shrine dedicated to Voltumna in the Vicus Tuscus. She/He was the equivalent
of the later Roman Vertumnus - the god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and
fruit trees. Sh/he could‟ve change form at will using this power, according
to Ovid's „Metamorphoses‟ (XIV). Varro was convinced that Vortumnus was Etruscan and a major
god. This originally Macedonic-Pelasgian cult arrived in Rome very late, around 300 BCE.

192
http://www.makedonski.info/advsearch/%D1%83%D0%BC%D0%BD%D0%B0?where=lexem
,derivation,flexion&position=start
193
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B7%D1%83%D0%BC%D0%BD%D
0%B0
Gaia – goddess Earth herself; from “Gai ” - „nurtures‟ in plain Macedonian, but also “Guia” -
„(poisonous) snake‟, as the snakes are chthonic animal that are in direct relation with the earth.
Gyga (later transliterated as Athena) – goddess protector of the royal court.
Geazora (Gea + Zora (dawn); also Gozoria) – a goddess of hunting equated with Artemida (Lat.
Artemis); also a theonym of the ancient Paionian city of Gozoria, paragonable to Belazora („White-
dawn‟), another ancient city in Upper Macedonia. According to mythology she spent the childhood
together with her brother the Young Sun Apolon in Hyperborea (i.e. Upper Macedonia).
Darron – Macedonic demigod or „daemon‟ to whom Macedonians prayed for health and healing.
Macedonic etymology reveals his attributes, as „Dar‟ in plain Macedonian is „gift‟, thus Darron is the
„Giver‟, he who gives (health or beneficence).
Dea Pasikrata – an almighty goddess that was witnessed on the ancient inscriptions in the city of
Bitola, and in Thessaly as clearly Macedonic influence.
Dionis/Adonis (metathesis from Macedonic “Dedo-ni-Ze” -„Grandfather of us the Sun‟)194 – the
supreme primordial sun-god of the fertility and wine, lord of the wild beasts, hunt and orgies,
mythological father of Macedon. He is the old Macedonian Pseudanor, the Paionian Dyalos/Dyaus195;
Hittite Istanu/Tharun (later Perun), Carthaginian Don, Brygian/Phrygian: Sabazius/Salvazius196, and/or

194
Zē – Macedonic syllable that marks the Sun (Lat. Zeus); hence „Zenit‟ too. In today
Macedonian “Sonze” http://www.makedonski.info/search/sonce
195
Note that the letter /Y/ originally was pronounced /U/, so „Dyaus‟ is actually pronounced
„Dooauš‟, directly related to „Douh/Douša‟ which in plain Macedonian means „Spirit/Soul‟. Thus
“Dionis” literally means “Duh-naš” – the „Spirit-of-ours‟; see also Dyaus Varuna.
196
His Phrygian name was later adopted by the Romans as the name for Silvanus (lat. Silvaticus -
„of the woods‟; from silva - „a wood‟), and through Old French was corrupted into „sauvage‟ and
finally „savage‟ in today plain English, as a synonym for the animal force of nature.
Zagreus from the days of primitive hunters – the ultimate predecessor of the later classical Dionis,
mentioned as the highest of all gods. He was also known as the Esmun i.e. “Osmion” - the „eight-one‟ in
plain Macedonian. In Egyptian he was the Osiris and/or Thoth (hence again the Latin “Ohto”, later
“Oto” - „eight‟ in today Italian), Serapis, Sirius; in Latin: Dionysus/Bachus; later Macedonic sun god
Yarr/Yarrilo, and/or woods-god Veles; and finaly occupied by Christianity and deformed into Santa
Klaus and/or Jesus Christ.
Danaon (or Davlion/Davlo) – the god of death; from PIE “dhau” - to „suppress or slay‟; “davi”-
„strangles/drowns‟ in plain Macedonian; Phrygian “κun dαvlο”197 - „dog strangler/choker‟ and “daos” -
wolf; Koine: Thaulos/Thanatos; Dacian: Kan-daon (from Macedonic “Kunče”/Lat. „Canis‟- dog/wolf,
and Macedonic „davi‟ -strangles); the mythological wolf-god. His Koine appellation is obviously later
interpretation of the animal-emblem of the god Makedon; comparable to Egyptian Anubis.

197
“Kuna”[archaic] - „weasel/bear‟; “Kuče” - „dog‟ in today Macedonian (corrupted form of
outdated “Kunče” [diminutive] - „small weasel/bear‟).
Above: an ancient Macedonian coin with Silen on the obverse

Dea or Thea Almopia – was noted as goddess from Mt. Pangea.

Dioskuri – Upper Macedonia name for the great gods of Samothrace (Kabiri); actually misinterpreted
(and latinized with "Dios") form of Persian "kuros" - 'lords'.
Drakon and Drakayna – serpentine gods of healing.
Dze (Lat. Dzeus/Zeus) – the sun-god of the morning light and Sunlight, of the Summer; the very root
of the word “see” in English. Probably just another theonym for Dyaus/Dionis.
Favlo (Favlos) – god of war. Probably just another corrupted name of Danaon/Davlion/Davlo.
Enodia – goddess of roads and crossroads, comparable to Elen of the roads mentioned in the
Introduction, but also goddess of death; she evolved slowly into national goddess of Macedonia and
Thessaly. Her name reveals unmistakable Macedonic etymology, and her cult was autonomous until the
late Roman period and the event of Christianization in 4th century. At Thebes of Phthiotis or Pagassai,
Enodia Patroa, was worshipped as the national goddess. At the city of Larissa, she was worshipped as
Enodia Astike. As Enodia Stathmia, she was worshiped at the city gates paired up with Hekate. As
Enodia Mykaike198 she is associated with the underworld and related to Poseidon and earthquakes, and
acted as the goddess of the funeral rites (Sophocle, “Antigone”, 1199), and as the goddess of cemeteries
and ghosts (Euripide, “Ion” 1048–52); as Enodia Alexeatis she is an apotropaic character. And of
course, she was largely worshipped in her homeland Macedonia. At Pella as Beroea-Hosia, Eordaia,
Derriopos, Elimeia, and Mygdonia she was the goddess who supervised purification rites and burial
customs. Thus she was related to Pluton as well.
The Horse and the dog were animals sacred to Enodia. On a coin from Pherai, Thessaly, the head of
Enodia on the body of a dog is seated below the Hypereia spring. This coin was circulated during the 4th
century BCE. The goddess and a dog are shown on a marble votive relief from Larissa, Thessaly, also
dated to the 4th century BCE. On a marble votive relief from Krannon, Thessaly (360–350 BCE), a
torch bearing Enodia is accompanied by both a horse and a dog. From Perseis, modern Debrešte, R. of
Macedonia, two terracotta busts of Enodia dated after 183 BCE show her with a horse, and a dog
jumping over her shoulder. On a marble inscribedrelief votive (2nd century BCE) from the area of
Exochi village, Eordaia, the goddess is escorted by her sacred animals, a dog and a horse (Museum of

198
“Muka” – „anguish‟ in plan Macedonian.
Kožani, Macedonia). Also from Exochi is an inscribed marble altar with a hunting scene involving hare
and dog, also dated to the 2nd century BCE. A seated dog is shown with the goddess on a marble statue
dated to classical times from Pella, Macedonia (Archaeological Museum of Pella). Enodia and a dog are
shown in relief on a marble altar from Mygdonia, Macedonia (Archaeological Museum of Solun). From
Elimeia, the village of Ayia Paraskevi, in Macedonia, comes a marble votive relief showing the goddess
astride a horse, with a dog walking in front of them (Museum of Kožani). Finally, on a statue which is
dated to c. 300 BCE, two dogs are seated with two women who are facing each other; one of whom is
likely Enodia (Museum of Louvres).
Enyo (Lat. Enyalius) – god of the battles, son of Macedonic god Ares, and/or also equated or epithet
of Ares199. Dionis, too, is said to have been surnamed Enyalius.

199
Ares - the Macedonic God of war; note the Macedonian etymology from „Jarec‟ (pronounced
„Yarets‟, koine-corrupted „Ares‟) - Capricorn; the prophet Daniel describes Macedonia under
the emblem of a Goat with one horn, and it is therefore of great consequence that this symbol
should be proved to be that proper to Macedonia; the following observations on an ancient
symbol of Macedon, by Taylor Combe, Esq. F.A.S. will be found useful: " I had an
opportunity of procuring an ancient bronze figure of a goat with one horn, which was the old
symbol of Macedon ... It was dug up in Asia Minor, and brought into this country by a poor
Turk. Not only many of the individual towns in Macedon and Thrace employed this type, but
the Kingdom itself of Macedon, which is the oldest in Europe of which we have regular and
connected history, was represented also by a Goat, with this particularity, that it had but one
horn." From the "Dictionary of the Holy Bible" by Augustin Calmet, p.648. As confirmation
of this claim is the famous inscription of Alexander III of Macedon in conquered Athens,
which reads: "If thy strength had only been equal to thy purposes, Demosthenes, never would
the Athens have been ruled by a Macedonian Ares." See also “The impact of Ares Macedon
on Athenian sculpture” by Olga Palagia and Stephen V. Tracy. Also Pan, a god of flocks and
herds was worshiped in the form of Goat.
Evropa (from Æropoi) – is yet another deity whose ethnonym is attested in Hesychius Glossary,
where he testifies the homonymous Macedonian tribe of Aeropes (or Aeropians) which probably
received their name after their king Aerop I (Koine: Æropos). According to other traditions she was the
lost sister of Kadmo (Lat. Cadmus) the Phoenician, founder of the second Thebes (on the Ionian Sea
coast). Evropa was also known as Phoenician moon goddess Astarte or Ashtaret, with the crescent
horns, wooed by the sun god, whose symbol was the bull. In Homer she is the daughter of Phoenix and
Echoea, etc. How and why this name became the name of the continent Europe no one knows.
Above: Evropa riding on a bull

Illiy, Ill (Illion/Illios) – a Titan deity, the sun itself, the God of the Sun, probably another name of Bo-
Gō-Vō or Dyaus Pitar/Papaius.. Mentioned by many ancient sources, celebrated even today as St. Illia
(St. Elijah/Elias/Ilias), he is one of the oldest known primordial gods whose name survived until today.
Babylonian Ilou, supreme deity.
Ira [Latin: Hera]200 i.e. Irene/Zeirene – here we have once again one of the many regional
names/atributes of the Great Mother Goddess, which gave the birth to a miriad of „different“ godessess
(Luta, Gea, Hera, Hestia, Mathera, Demeter, etc.) variations of the same powerful goddess, a sister of
Dze(us) and the daughter of Cron(os) and Rhea.
Kabiros or Kaviros – the Great Gipds ir Cabiri from Samothrace were evil titans of fire who shaked
the earth and expelled fire from the depths of the earth and the sea. The Cabeiri were the protectors of
sailors, the solvers of calamities and the demons who punished perjury and profanity. Earthquakes and
fires were attributed to them.

200
Roman version, meaning 'rage' in today plain Italian.
Kotis (Latin: Kotys) and Kotida – Aedonic deities; maybe just another Latinized name of the Giant
Kot.
Leto – 'Summer' in plain Macedonian, a Hyperborean goddess par excellence; also 'Latona'; Bouto
(the 'Fool Moon') in the Egyptian pantheon.
Luta – goddess of anger, as recorded in Homer.201
Macedon – mythical forefather god and theonym of the Macedonians.
Maia – chthonic or earth goddess.202
Mitra – sun-god; yet another cult derived from the Orpheic, Dionisiac, and other mysteries;
deity Mitra appears in the historical record of the original proto-Macedonic/Hittite/Phrygian pantheon. It
appears for the first time on clay tablets records found in Hittite capital city of Hatuša around 1380 BCE,
in a peace treaty between the king of the Hittites and the Mitani king, where he, as god-protector of
treaties, is invoked among other Aryan deities to honor the contract between two rulers. Then after
Alexander III of Macedon and his campaign in the east contributed to the larger expansion of the
Macedonic Mitra worship and popularity. “It was undoubtedly during the period of moral and religious
fermentation provoked by the Macedonian conquest that Mithraism received approximately its definitive
form.”203 As protector of the warriors he was widely accepted by Macedonian soldiers and worshiped
among Alexander‟s feared Phalankas. When after 8 years of war campaign in Asia the Macedonians
returned back home they spread further the Mitra‟s cult in Europe too. The continuity of his worship is
also confirmed in the post-Alexander era, in the Macedonic successor kingdoms. As in Macedonic-
Persian kingdom of Commagene, where Mitra was worshiped in continuity in following centuries of the
common era. As of the late 1st century AD it continues to be worshiped in Phrygia and the rest of Asia
Minor; it was promptly adopted by Roman soldiers stationed there, and by them was distributed like a
forest fire across the Roman empire. The main reason why the Mitraism became and remained
exclusively mail-practiced cult is precisely the simple fact of the worshipers that were predominantly
soldiers. Nevertheless, Mitra‟s unmistakably Phrygian hat, his pure Macedonic name204, and gods close
relation with Silen (Lat. Silenus/Silvanus), as well as other attributes, underline his original Macedonic
nature, regardless of the fact that his cult transformed into a Roman-styled admixture of Pelasgo-
Macedonic-Phrygian, Zodiacal, and Zoroastrian traditions from the immediate neighborhood - all of
which indistinctively centered around the universal Mediterranean rite of Dionisiac frenzy and sacrifice
of the sacred bull. Cumont writes: “it is certainly during the period of the moral and religious
fermentation promoted by the Macedonian conquest, that Mitraism received its more or less definitive
form”.

201
The very same word, Luta, even today still means „she-angry‟ in plain Macedonian.
202
Originally, in pre-Homeric times, a mountain spirit. Possibly origin of the name for the month
of May.
203
“The mysteries of Mitra” by Franz Cummont.
204
Still common as a mail name “Mitre” and/or “Mitar/Dimitar” in Republic of Macedonia, with
meaning “Durable, Persistent” (from the verb “trae” - „persists, lasts‟, thus “Mi-trae” -„it
persists (of/to) me‟).
Above: Mitra (wearing typical Phrygian hat) slays the bull within the Zodiacal ring, with
the inscription and portrait of Silenus/Silvanus on the left side of the ring

An exceptional showcase of the undisputed Mitraic worship among the Macedonian soldiers was the
Mitra's most recognizible symbol, that mark of undisputed power of acting without the constraint of
necessity or fate, and benchmark of the unchalenged reliance par excellence - the typical “Phrygian”
(i.e. Macedonian) helmet of the falankas of Filip II and Alexander III of Macedon. Bare naked evidence
which is in front of the eyes of everyone. Worn by the large majority of the Macedonic soldiers, so
called “Phrygian” helmet was a standard military equipment of the Macedonian Armies in 4th and 3rd
centures BCE. Macedonian helmet weird shape can hardly be explained as a technical improvement for
the mere protection, as using of so much additional material (Bronze) with its strange shape cannot be
justified with plausible structural excuse. Moreover, this more than obvious Mitra-fashioned military
ordnance is still intentionally neglected as de facto Mithraic. This heavy-duty version of the Phrygian
cap, and its widely recognised symbolic importance is altogether ignored by the modern scholarship and
politicaly biased historiographers.
Above: Macedonic “Phrygian” helmets from the 4th century BCE; its shape was a
universal symbol of undisputed freedom and firm reliance among the Macedonians, and a
distinguished mark of the oath between equals205
However, reshaped and deliberately adopted by the Romans, Mitraism found its reinvigorated fame as
one of the main Latinized religious movements in the 2nd-4th centuries Roman empire. Shrines of
Mitra are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for
some Mitraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the Mithraeums structure.
Mō or Ma, also Mokosh and/or Moma – the Great Mother Goddess.
Nika – goddess of victory.
Oinopion (i.e. Vinopion -„wine-drinking‟ in plain Macedonian) – Dionis‟s son.
Oeagreus/Oeagrus (antonym Zagreus) – god of the dawn, father of Orpheus; “Ogrea” - „sun rising‟
in plain Macedonian.
Orion – god of the forests and hunt, one of the primordial titans. Likely just another avatar of the
primordial Horned God. The myth of Orion’s birth is perhaps more than a tale modeled on that of
Philemon and Baucis (Ovid: Metamorphoses), and told to account for the first syllable of his ancient
name Urion - which derived from Macedonic “Urni”[verb] - “falls down, disipates (down)”, which
accordingly is the same root-word for “Vrni” (UV transition) - „rains‟ in plain Macedonian; hence

205
Primus inter pares - Even the great Alexander was only the “first among equals”, according to the
ancient codex of behavior of the Assembly of Macedonians Under Arms.
Latin-anglicized “urine/urinate” derived from the same Urni/Vrni root. The Orion (i.e. Urion) was a
son of Poseidon, the water-god, another clear allusion to his rain-making powers.
Orphei (“Goro-pei” i.e. „Mountain-singer‟* or “Gore-pei” - „upstair-sings‟ in plain Macedonian) –
god of poetry and music, as well as the writings. Legend tells that he made the trees move and
charmed the wild beasts. As sacred king he was struck by a thunderbolt, that is, killed with a double-
axe, in an oak grove at the summer solstice, and then dismembered by the Maenads of the Dionisiac
bull cult, like Zagreus; or of the stag cult, like Actaeon; the Maenads, in fact, represented the Muses.
In a vase-painting of Orpheus‟s murder a Maenad has a small stag tattooed on her forearm. Later
Orphic priests, who wore Egyptian costume, called the demi-god whose raw bull‟s flesh they ate
„Dionis‟, and reserved the name Apollo for the immortal Sun: distinguishing Dionis, the god of the
senses, from Apollo, the god of the intellect. This explains why the head of Orphei was laid up in
Dionis‟s sanctuary, but the lyre in Apollo‟s. Orphei did not come in conflict with the cult of Dionis; he
was Dionis, and he played the rude alder-pipe, not the civilized lyre. Thus Proclus (Commentary on
Plato‟s Politics) writes: “Orpheus, because he was the principal in the Dionisian rites, is said to have
suffered the same fate as the god”, and Apollodorus credits him with having invented the Mysteries of
Dionis.
* - See Homer form of Oros, Mountain; Macedonian adverb “Gore” - „up‟ is directly related to the
noun “Gora” - „mountain‟.

Sibila (Cybelle, obvious Latin alteration;) – „Samovila/Šemvila‟ in today modern Macedonian - „a

fairy‟, female semideity;
Sita – goddess of the (earth) abundance and fertility; from the adjective “Sit” -„sate, satiated‟ in
plain Macedonian; probably just another epithet-name of the primordial great mother goddess Mō or
Ma, (also Mokosh and/or Moma)
Touros – was allegedly the Pelasgian name of Macedonian „Ares‟ (Latin: Mars), the god of war;
also noted as Etruscan Turan (hence Roman Saturn); it is most probably just another etymological
glitch between „Taur(us)‟, „Yarets‟ and/or Hittite/Aryan/Macedonic thunderer, the god known as
Istanu, Tharun/Perun in Sanskrit: Indra. In today Macedonian: Uriva;206 hence Latin "Taurus" - 'bull'
(one of the animal totems of Dionis), actually from the descriptive-root word *Ur- which denotes
'demolishing/dissipating' and/or crush', as a description of the (Celestial) bull terrific destruction force
when charging, hence "Ta-Urus", "Hurrah", etc. but also in Macedonian words: "Uriva" -
'demolishes", "Urok" - 'bad say, curse" (but also a 'lesson'), "Istura" - 'dissipates, pours', etc.207 See
also Italian: urto - „collision, impact‟.208

206
http://www.makedonski.info/search/uriva
207
http://www.makedonski.info/search/istura
208
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/italian-english/urto ,
http://etimo.it/?term=urtare&find=Cerca
Totoi – goddess of dreams, a chimerical daemon made of different animal parts.
Thalassa – the Sea-goddess was another primordial Macedonic deity. Accordingly 'Talas' in plain
Macedonian even today means a 'wave'. She was scarcely personified, because her form was elemental,
the body of the sea itself. Thalassa was later depicted in Roman-era mosaics as a woman half
submerged in the sea, with crab-claw horns, clothed in bands of seaweed, and holding a ship's oar.

Xantus or Xandos – considered to be another manifestation of the sun-god, of light and fire, Istanu in
Hittite; found in the Etruscan pantheon as Usil209 (or Usenya in Russia, hence Uspenie in Christianity; or
Isa in Sanskrit210), where he appears as rising from the sea too. But, he is also the moon or 'shining' in
Sanskrit: Canda211, thus Chandra in Hindi. Also a mythological golden horse born from the sea. Posibly
a distant reflection or another avatar of the Hindu war god Skanda, first son of Shiva. Basically the word
root of Alexander‟s epithetic name – A-Le-Xand-Ro:
“A” – „1st‟, “Le” – votive particle, “Xand” – „sun‟, “Ro” – „kin/king‟.
Note: Generaly Az, As/Us (or Ah) are nothing else but different syllabic names of the sun. It is found in
Assyria and other countries generally. As/Is-is was the Egyptian sun goddess.

209
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/327217/unknown-maker-applique-depicting-the-sun-
god-usil-etruscan-500-475-bc/
210
http://sanskritdictionary.org/isa
211
http://sanskritdictionary.org/canda
Above: Etruscan bronze figurine of the sun god Usil

Zeirene212 (Etruscan Ziran/Zerera; Roman Ceres Eleusina) – goddess of beauty, love, and tranquility,
equated to Aphrodite/Cybele/Kibela. Most probably just another syllabic name/appearance of the
primordial Great Mother Goddess (“Zee” - „sun, sun-goddess‟ and „irene‟ - „tranquility, peace‟). But
etymologically related also to “Z’rno”213 - „grain‟ in plain Macedonian, and/or “Zreano” - „mature
(fruit)‟; thus maturing – “Zreene” in plain Macedonian214; Etruscan Zerera, Roman Ceres (also
Macedonian “Creša” - „cherry‟; hence „cereals‟, „create‟, „increase‟, and „crescent‟ too); but also

212
Her name also resembles a Siren, a being similar to mermaid, born in the water, but the one of
the river; beside the Macedonic etymology, her link with the watery element is clear indication of
the river cults from Macedonia. Accordingly, her later version, Aphrodite, was born out of the sea
foam.
213
http://www.makedonski.info/search/zrno
214
http://www.makedonski.info/search/zreen
“irene” - „calm, peaceful‟.215 Her Zodiac sign is Virgo. In all the polytheistic antiquity the feast of
Zeirene/Ceres Eleusina was most celebrated. The ceremonies of this festival were called, by way of
eminence, „the mysteries,‟ from being, according to Pausanias, “as much above all others, as the gods
are above the men.” Their origin and institution are attributed to Zeirene/Ceres herself, who, in the reign

Above: coin depicting Ceres, where PAN-SA stands for „All/Mistress (of the) Plants/Planting‟

of Erechtheus, coming to Eleusis, a small town of Attica, in search of her daughter Proserpine, whom
Pluto had carried away, and finding the country afflicted with a famine, invented corn as a remedy for
that evil, with which she rewarded the inhabitants. She not only taught them the use of corn, but
instructed them in making the bred out of it.
Hymns were sung in honor of the goddess, accompanied with dancing, and other extraordinary
marks of rejoicing. It was also a capital crime to divulge the secrets and mysteries of this feast. During
this festival it was prohibited, under very great penalties, to arrest any person whatsoever, in order to
their being imprisoned, or to present any bill of complaint to the judges. The initiations were often
restricted to women members. It was regularly celebrated every 5th year, that is, after a revolution of 4
years, and it is supposed to have been finally suppressed by Theodosius the Great, as were all the rest of
the polytheistic solemnities.

215
https://www.behindthename.com/name/irene hence “Miren” - „calm‟ in plan Macedonian:
http://www.makedonski.info/search/miren
Ancient Macedonian mythology also had a myriad of Fauns, Nymphs („Pipleiai‟, „Thourides‟ in Pieria,),
Sileni, Satyrs, and other legendary creatures that were described by different ancient authors and
historiographers. There are several motifs that are reminiscent of ancient Macedonian mythology: the
griffon (mythological creature with lion body and head and wings of eagle); the lion (which existed in
ancient Macedonia and is frequently present in the Macedonian folk stories, as well as in heraldry); the
king with the horn (dedication to Alexander the Great); the lynx; the philosopher; the three brothers
(taken from Erodot story about the foundation of Macedonia); the cult of the water (seen in river-gods as
Erigon, Axios and Strumon), the sun, and many others. Thenafter there are many other mythological
creatures:
Div and/or Gin (i.e. Giant) - a gigant or Titan (“Div” it also means „wild/untamed‟);
Kondžul/Karakondžul - dark-haired big head daemons with bright eyes;
Navi - demons created from the souls of born-dead childs;
Narečnici - invisible ghostlike mythological entities;
Noken - night (noќ) demon of the waters, lakes;
Samovila - fairy;
Senište – shadow spirit from parallel dimension which intersects with ours; it appears on midnight;
Stia (plural Stii) – mermaid look-alike creatures which live in dead waters;
Talasami – damned places where someone is killed and buried by thieves;
Tsoglavtsi (psoglavi) – dog-headed dwarfs that live in the beech‟s roots;
Vešterki – witches;
Železzubi – iron-teeth' daemons;
Zmei (and/or Lamya) - the Dragon ('Exhidna') is a mythological reptile that was hyperbolical allegory
of the snake - "Zmia" [pronounced 'Zmeeya']216 in plain Macedonian; comparable to the Hittite Illuyanka
(same etymological meaning as “Zmiya”)217 - the serpent god; and/or Egyptian Uraeus.

Above: Ancient mythological creatures from the Museum of Anatolian Civilization

216
The very term for „Snake‟ in the Macedonian language is clearly chthonic/earthly, i.e. directly
related to the earth/ground - “Zemya” in plain Macedonian.
217
As “Ilovača” (a type of clayish earth) is just another Macedonic term for “earth/ground”; thus
again “Illuyanka” describes a chthonic being that crawls close to the earth/ground.
The animal symbolism and transformations underlay all the principal mythologies before the ancient
period, and are older even than the Zodiac. The explicit example of such Macedonic mythological
creature is the demigoddess Totoi, a divine female daemon with prehistoric attributes of multiple
animistic motifs. This daemon of dreams and death (i.e. „eternal dream‟) is presented as a hybrid animal
with body of a lion and 3 heads - of female, crocodile and goat, wrapped with snakes and snake-tailed,
with scorpions between the legs, etc. Totoi appear to be the common mythological proto-archetype of
the Chimera, a later Etruscan version of obviously the same Hittite-Pelasgo-Macedonic creature. These
same prehistoric attributes (snakes, scorpions, etc.) are also present in the Macedonic-Phrygian cult of
Mitra. A Totoiti/Chimera has been found carved on the walls of a Hittite temple at Karčemish, and, like
such other composite beasts as the Sphinx and the Unicorn, originally have been a calendar symbol:
each component represented a season of the Queen of Heaven‟s sacred year.

oni oni
Above: Totoiti, Teo (of) Dai M Ypnoi [“Goddess (of) the M(aked) Sleep”] – a goddess of
dreams and nightmares with prehistoric animistic attributes, and next page: the (Etruscan)
bronze Chimera from Arezzo, Italy. 5th-4th century BCE
Nonetheless, Etruscans are attested as originally from Aegean, i.e. Macedonic population (see
Syromacedonians too) from the Asia Minor ancient region of Lydia, where they were known as
Tyrseni.218 Homeric name for the Lydians is Maiones, which can be compared homonymously only with
the Paiones, yet again just another Macedonian tribe par excellence. Later in Macedonic Cilicia the
divine bull is hunted down and killed by Mitra who is followed by the divine twins and by lion, dog,
snake and raven, a Totoes-like menagerie. This mixture of animals, and especially the snake and/or eel,
are all symbols of Dionisiac ecstasy, of man being changed to an animal of prey, a ferocious killer. Like
the snake raised along the spine (also chthonic attribute of the previously mentioned Great Mother
Goddess of the earth), or the raised tail, which are symbols of pure animal appeal and ecstatic Kundalini
power. In Čatal Hüyük (Turkey) the famous goddess enthroned with a leopards to her right and to her
left, also has the tails of the leopards raising along her back and coiling round her shoulders. Certainly
the raised tail same like the phallic horn(s) transmits a potent sexual appeal by itself, and is an important
symbol of attraction power personified by the goddess.

218
Of clear Macedonic etymology: Tursenoi > Thursene > Thersene - “Tersene” [nickname] - „heavy/dificult‟ in
plain Macedonian. The other meaning-possibility is again Macedonic, and offered by Homer – Thyrsus, using
folk etymology Homer gives us another pre- or non-„Greek‟ substitute word - Aigaion (Aίγαίων)218, interpreted it
as "stronger than others”, while other historians just equate it with “Giant” (Titan) and „father of gods‟, or the
Pelasgians from the land of Aigathyrsi (Aiγάθςπσοι), a country of the first deified ancient kings (Ωγενορ Aπσαiορ);
Radermacher also considered him to be a pre-„Greek‟ deity.
Above: another prehistory chimerical being - Hittite „Imdugud‟, an eagle with lionesses head

In preliterate epoch, by the time of Homer, word Thyrsus and its original meaning was nearly lost.
However, Homer gives us the pre- or non-„Greek‟ substitute word - Aigaion (Aίγαίων)219, using folk
etymology and interpreted it as "stronger than others”, while other historians just equate it with “Giant”
(Titan) and father of gods, and Pelasgians from the land of Aigathyrsi (Aiγάθςπσοι)220, a country of the
first deified ancient kings (Ωγενορ Aπσαiορ). Radermacher also considered him to be a pre-„Greek‟
deity.
Presence of Tyrseni/Maionians (Thyrsenoi, Teucri, Thraci, Latinized: Etruscans, etc.) is confirmed
both in the ancient sources and through the archaeological artifacts, from Lower Danube in the northern
Balkans until the coasts of Asia Minor. From there they spread around Mediterranean and settled in
greater number as Etruscans on the western coast of the Apenninic peninsula. Etymology (origin) of this
word thyrs/đyrs/durs is based on its reference in the language which, to be believed, formed the Indo-
European language group in a territory through which flowed river Tyras/Dyras, i.e.
(Var)darias/Bardarios.221 This word means "Giant, Shaman/sorcerer” and “Titan", preserved as a relic
in Old High German (duris-es) and Old English (đyrs), with clear Macedonic etymology, and was
borrowed from Pre-Indo-European language substrate of the southern Aegean area. It also resembles the
word “thersene” – „difficult‟ in plain Macedonian.
The close relations and undeniable homogeneity of the Macedonic population around the Aegean
region also finds firm and undeniable evidence through archaic toponyms, as in the very obvious
example of yet another common name that survived until our days - Ionia / Ionian, is how the Persians
called Macedonia and the Macedonians: Yauna thus “Ionians” (i.e. “Yountsi” - „calfs, youngsters‟ in
plain Macedonian) and/or Yauna Takabara - „Ionians with hats‟. And according to the survived

219
modern Macedonic Dţin (Cyrillic: Џин), Gigant; Italian Gigante; Arabic Jinn, Genie; etc.
220
Accordingly the first capital of Macedonia name was Aigai (or Aegae).
221
also found in the names of Macedonic gods Darron or Dardanus.
toponymic evidence, this name from archaic times is found in the toponyms that stretch across the whole
northeastern Mediterranean area:

It was undoubtedly during the period of moral and religious fermentation provoked by the Macedonian
conquest that other oriental deities mixed with the autochthonous Macedonic ones. The cosmopolitan
policy of Alexander the Great removed the barriers between the Macedonians and their suzerains, and
paved the way for cultural unification in his vast Macedonic empire. Kingdoms that superseded him
spread the Macedonian culture and civilization together with the Macedonic gods and beliefs beyond the
national boundaries. The inherited power and innate cosmopolitanism of the Alexander‟s generals, now
independent Macedonian kings, obliterated the separation between the conquering and the conquered
races in Persia and Egypt, and fuse their pantheons as well, if possible, into one. Macedonians were
favorably disposed towards the creeds of other nationalities under their dominion. Thanks to their broad-
mindedness and tolerance, which had become traditional in Macedonic kingdoms of Ptolem and Selevk
(lat. Seleucus), Macedonic and Oriental culture could flourish side by side. Ancient sources are often
contradictory and the gods have been identified with a variety of Macedonian and Persian/Egyptian gods
based on supposed similarities. Nevertheless, their spread all over Mediterranean is attested by
numerous archaeological sites of great significance. The temple of the Samothracian gods at Seuthopolis
might probably be connected to the special interest of the Macedonian kings during the 4th and 3rd
century BCE. The inscription is indeed dated to the end of the 4th century BCE, and is the earliest
known example of an inscription mentioning the Great Gods outside Samothrace (Cole 1984, pp. 59-
60).222
As already mentioned above, an astonishing and undeniable example of the spread of Macedonian
religious influence and interactions between the Macedonic and other local gods is the one on the Mt.
Nemrud, in the Macedonic kingdom of Comaggene in Asia Minor. Here we found the testimony of

222
“The Samothracian cult and the maritime world (4th century BCE - 2nd century AD)” by Dies
van der Linde, p. 6.
Macedonian king Antiochus the Great, son of the king Mithridates I Callinicus and queen Laodice VII
Thea of Comaggene (from the Macedonian dynasty of Seleucids), who erected an enormous sepulchral
tumulus with giant statues of gods and inscriptions on which is written as follows: “…all of the father-
gods of Macedonia, Persia and our own country of Comaggene will continue to bless their children and
their grandchildren…”

Above: the giant statues in front of the enormous tumulus built by Antiochus, Macedonian
king of Comaggene. On the Mt. Nemrod, part of the Taurus range, 2nd century BCE

This interaction practice between Macedonic and others gods is also visible in the case of the Persian
creator Sky-god Ahura Mazda which met with the traditions and the prehistoric Macedonic rites of
sacrifice and offerings. The chthonic earthly nature of the Great Mother Goddess was represented by the
underground Mithraeums, and the very Mitra was born in the underground cave too; Mitra also adopted
the tauroctony of the goddess Nike, the immortality and reincarnation of the sun-god Dze, the eternal
signs of the Zodiac – they all melted and further transformed into one with Mitra, a sun-god of light,
truth, and honor. This last solar-chthonic cult has been found established in an entire series of ports on
the Mediterranean. Indigenous Pelasgian Macedonians from Phrygia reinvented and adopted back their
traditions through the cult of Mithra from Persia, and reintroduced it in Dionisiac manner in certain
regions of Macedonia and other provinces of the later Roman empire. His festival was celebrated on the
same day of the winter solstice like Apollon, like Dionis, like the Horned God, like Orion, etc., and his
birth had brought light into the world. Mitra‟s greatest deed was to slay the mystic bull Apis, the source
of fertility. The concurrent causes of the spread of the Mithraic Mysteries overlapped from the previous
Eleusian, Dionisiac and Orphic Mysteries.
Same principle of Macedonic cosmopolitan interaction was applied for the Macedonian Sun-God Dze
(Illiy, Ilou, Ilion, Elliah, El, etc.) in Ptolemaic Egypt, where he became one with Osiris and in different
regions influenced by Macedonic Pantheon transformed into Dionisiac Osiris-Serapis (Dze-Ro-Apis223
thus „Serapis‟), but also as the “Roman” Mithras and Sol Invictus in Dalmatia, Pannonia, and further.

Above: fragment of a sepulchral slab with the Alexander-styled Sol Invictus

223
Dze (and/or Zee; Anglicized: See; Dutch: Zien; German: Sehen) - „all seeing, staring‟, Ro -
„kin‟ („Rod‟ in plain Macedonian), and Apis - the sacred bull, hence „Se-Ro-Apis‟ - Serapis.
The MACEDONIC PANTHEON in
PTOLEMAIC EGYPT
The myths and divinities were international matter even in ancient times, they were borrowed and
interchanged between the different communities in antiquity, along with the trade routs, thru wars and
occupations, migrations, and other socio-economic manifestations of human behavior and thought.
Many authors remark the similitude which the ceremonies in honor of the Egyptian Osiris bore to those
of the Syrian Adonis or Macedonic Dionis. Typhoon stands opposed to Osiris, just as Ahriman does to
Ormuzd in the myths of Persia. Both Dionis and Osiris were cut to pieces and reborn by putting the
pieces together. Phrygians worshipped Attis224, and the Mother of the gods, with similar rites. “Now the
common time,” says Plutarch, “for the solemnization of all these festivals, was within ‘Jiat’ month in
which the Pleiades appear, and the husbandmen sow their corn, which the Egyptians call Athyr, the
Athenians Pyanepsion, and the Boeotians, Demeter (Dea-mater). The Phrygians,” he continues, “also
suppose their god to sleep during the winter, and to awaken in the summer, and at one time they
celebrate his retiring to rest, and at another, with mirth and revelry, rouse him from his slumbers. The
Paphlagonians pretend that he is bound and imprisoned in the winter-months, and fliat in summer he is
restored to liberty and motion.” Also, Plutarch informs us that the Egyptian philosophers regarded
Osiris as a river-god too. Accordingly, one of the Dionis attributes was the watery element.
After Alexander the Great conquest, the Macedonic gods of the ruling Macedonian classes replaced
(or fused with) the Egyptian divinities, and the learned natives of Egypt were attracted by the
magnificence of the Ptolemies, to the schools of Alexandria. There they imparted their knowledge of
astronomy and other branches of science to their conquerors, and acquired the Macedonian Koine
language, which continued for a thousands of years to be the medium of learned conversation and
writing through a great part of the civilized world.225 Here they were encouraged to transfer the
memorials of their past dynasties, and the institutes of their ancient hierarchy into the Macedonic
language. Egyptian gods had become the subject of vague conjecture in the time of Plutarch. The two
independent principles reconciled with the genius of the Pantheistic system. This is evident, from the
variety of meanings assigned by authors of that period to a single epithet, and from the doubtful terms in
which they offer their interpretations. Ptolemy I Sotir created a new Macedonian god who was in the
same time of Egyptian origin. Osiris at that period was the great god of Egypt, and Memphis was the
religious centre of the cult of sacred bull Apis, the representative of Osiris.
Ptolemy I Sotir showed to the Egyptians that Osirapi or Osiris-Apis226 was also sacred to the
Macedonians, and convinced them to identify him with the supreme Macedonian divinity. Thus, the
Macedonian deity Dionis (Dyaus), for the purposes of local acceptance was renamed into Serapis, and in
addition also identified with the later Roman Pluton227, the god of underworld (i.e. Hades or Adad).
Through clever coup de religion maneuver Dionis (syllabic Dze) was made one with Osiris-Apis, thus
224
Ad, or At, is Atys and/or Attis, i.e. Adad, the sun, i.e. Adonis/Dionis.
225
It is well known from the Roman sources that the Cleopatra VII of Macedon, the last queen
and
pharaon of the Ptolemaic dynasty, still spoke the Macedonian language of her ancestors.
226
i.e. Ananetsa, Amon-Ra, “the second Ptah”, Amun/Amen, Sirius, etc.
227
found also in „Plug‟ - a „plow‟ in plain Macedonian; syllable “Pl-” is also found in the
Macedonic verbs “Plovi”- floats, “Pliva”- swims, etc.
becoming Dze-Ro-Apis i.e. Serapis. The lingual similarity and the fact that Osirapi was the god of the
Egyptian underworld made the unification acceptable. However, Egyptians were forced to renounce
their sacred bull Apis to this avail. Macedonic Dionis as Egyptian Osiris reassumed the popular visage
of a bull in the form of anthropomorphic Serapis. It appears to have been to the interest of all parties to
welcome Serapis, and Ptolemy succeeded in making this Macedonian deity accepted by the Egyptians in
spite of the fact that the Macedonians were the foreign rulers of the country.
This fusing of one god with another is called Theocrasia, and nowhere was it more vigorously
implemented than in Macedonic Alexandria. Ananetsa (i.e. Osiris, Ammon-Ra, Sirius)228, a god popular
with the Egyptian commonalty, was already identified with Apis, the sacred bull in the temple of
Memphis, as the remnant from the Horned God and Zodiacal era of Bull (roughly 4000-2000 BCE), and
somewhat confused with the supreme sun-god Ammon. Under the new name of Serapis he became the

great god of Alexandria. Fused with the Osiris-Isis cult and the sacred bull Apis, but without his retarded
animal appearance which was dropped by the antrpomorphic order imposed by Macedonian rule; and as
the Dionis-Serapis (thus Dze-Ra-Apis > Serapis) he was intermingled and reshuffled as Macedonic-
Egyptian deity. It can be also assumed that the Zodiac too was already brought and firmly introduced
into Egypt long ago, first probably during the Hittite period, and then again during the Ptolemaic period.

228
Ananetsa - as written on the Rosetta Stone middle text. ‘Osiris‟ is later Koinezation, i.e.
„Interpretatio Graeca‟.
The historical records of this Theocrasia-Pantheistic transformation in the 3rd century BCE are
numerous, yet unclear, due to the different interpretations and fanciful transliterations of the later
historians and tell tales.
Thereby, a very important (but yet to be fully interpreted and understood) breakthrough, which
decisively contributed to the better understanding of the ancient Macedonic Pantheon in general, and
especially the one in Ptolemaic Egypt, was the study of the Rosetta Stone made by the two scientists
from Macedonia, academician T. Boševski and prof. A.Tentov. Their revolutionary decodification of the
middle text from the Rosetta Stone was crucial achievement in the further reconstruction of the overseas
development of Macedonic Pantheon as it was interpreted under the Macedonian dynasty of Ptolemies
in Egypt. Thus, in the Rosetta Stone middle text we have the transcriptions of the syllabic names in
ancient Macedonian script and language (so-called “Demotic”) of the two primordial supreme deities of
Ancient Macedon, and another twelve Macedonic deities, which coincide with the twelve signs of
Zodiac and the later twelve apostles of Christianity. Their aegis encompassed over the existing Egyptian
deities. The reconstructed scheme of the Macedonic pantheon in Ptolemaic Egypt seems to be as it
follows:

Bogo Vō (and/or Gō, i.e. Gōlem - „the Great‟ and/or as referring particle suffix “Go” - „of
him‟ in plain Macedonian)229 – the Supreme Father God of the Sun and Sky, the Creator of
the Universe; homonymous to Pelasgian „Da-Wō‟230, Scandinavian father-god „Vōdin‟ (i.e.
„Odin‟), etc. He is either marked with the syllables as: VIII (← from right to left) - „Bogo
Voo‟, or as the supreme creator marked as - „Goo‟. The all-seeing protector (Lat. Protis);
comparable to Egyptian Amun, Ptah or Ra (Amen-Ra or Amun-Ra); later Roman Jupiter.
Zodiacal sign Pisces. He was the principle and almighty father of all the things and gods,
beginning and the end.

Bogo Mō (and/or Mō-Dea)– the Supreme Mother Goddess of the Earth and motherland of
Macedon. She was particularly popular in Upper Macedonia, so popular that the Roman
Senate forbid her with a decree after the occupation of Macedonia in the 2nd century BCE.
She is inscribed on the Rosetta Stone with the syllables ʃIII (← from right to left) - „Bogo
Moō‟ i.e. „the goddess Mō‟ and/or „Mo-Dea‟: −∕\ʃ (← from right to left). She was the
Nekhbet, Mut or Ma’at in Egypt, Kibela/Cybele in Phrygia, Hittite Kubaba in Khatti, Ishtar
in Babylonia, Astarte in Phoenikia, and/or Ma in Macedonia and Cappadocia; Zodiacal sign
Taurus. The Ancient Macedonians called themselves (transliterated in Latin): “DeTsaMō” -
„Children(of)Mother‟, hence the Koine-abbreviated term “Demo(s)” - „populace‟. Today we
will say: “Detsa na Mo Dea” - „Children of Mother Dea‟ in plain Macedonian.
The Supreme Creator Vō and the Great Mother Mō have also created Macedonia and they incarnate in
the personages of the king and queen of Macedonia. From the Samothracian Mysteries, which seem to
have been the most anciently established ceremonies of this kind in Europe, we are informed by Varro
that the Heaven and Earth were worshipped as a male and female divinities; also as later Koine „Uranus‟
and „Gea‟ and as the parents of all things. Phoenician theogony of Sanchoniatho was founded on the
same principles. Heaven and Earth, Uran and Ge, father and mother of everything, and parents of the
gods after them:

229
http://www.makedonski.info/search/golem, http://www.makedonski.info/search/go
230
Reference from the ancient Pelasgian sanctuary at Hagia Triada (Holy Trinity).
Bogo Dze – the Sun-God of Summer and the Sunlight („Bogo Leto‟ was his other appelation
in plain Macedonian), celebrated as Supreme deity in Lower Macedonia. The „all seeing‟
(from Macedonian “Zēe” -„stare‟; in Dutch: Zien, in German: Sehen, English: See…)231, and
all sustaining deity of Macedonia. In Macedonic syllables from the middle text of the Rosetta
Stone: III (← from right to left) - „Bogo Dze‟ (hence Latinized “Dzevs/Zeus”) was the
firstborn son of the Great Mother Goddess and one of the higher gods of ancient
Macedonians. Thus he was also called „The First‟.232 Actually, he is Paionian Dyaus and/or
Dionis, and/or later Egyptian Osiris-Serapis (corrupted from Dze-Ra-Apis, who was "the
renewed life of Ptah" or “the second Ptah”). The same appellation and attributes are applied
and comparable to the Persian sun-god Adad, Egyptian Khnemu, Khensu or Aten, Phrygian
Attis; Zodiac sign Aries.

Bogo Dzee – the Goddess of the cold sunlight; comparable to Egyptian Her-shef or Tefnut. In
Macedonic syllables from the middle text of the Rosetta Stone: III (← from right to left) -
„Bogo Dzee‟ („God Ze‟).

Bogo Ze – the God of the young (morning) Sun; comparable to Apollon and/or Egyptian
Horus. Zodiacal sign Leo. In Macedonic syllables from the middle text of the Rosetta Stone:
III (← from right to left) - „Bogo Ze‟ („God Ze‟).

Bogo Zee – the Goddess of the cold Moon-light; comparable to Persian Adargatis (Syrian
Agartis/Ashtarte/Ishtar), consort of Adad. In Macedonic syllables from the middle text of the
Rosetta Stone: III (← from right to left) - „Bogo Ze‟ („God Zee‟).

Bogo Žee – the Goddess of the earth‟s vital energy, i.e. the life („Ţivot‟ in today plain
Macedonian); comparable to Egyptian Isis („As‟) and/or Roman Vesta (i.e. Vesna - „spring‟
in plain Macedonian). In Macedonic syllables from the middle text of the Rosetta Stone:
III (← from right to left) - „Bogo Ţee‟ („God Ţee‟).

Bogo Ve233 – the God of the building masons and architects; comparable to Egyptian
Imhotep, Roman Minerva. Zodiacal sign Aries. In Macedonic syllables from the middle text
of the Rosetta Stone: <III (← from right to left) - „Bogo Ve‟ („God Ve‟).

Bogo Vo – the God of Water („Voda‟ in today plain Macedonian)234 and watery
constructions; comparable to Babylonian Ea and Egyptian Hapi. In Macedonic syllables
from the middle text of the Rosetta Stone: >III (← from right to left) - „Bogo Vo‟ („God Vo‟).

Bogo Hō – the Goddess of the writing and scripts; comparable to Egyptian Toth, Roman

231
https://glosbe.com/en/mk/stare
232
This theology is completely in line with the Dionysian mystery schools to which belonged
Olympia, the mother of Alexander the Great, which is mentioned by Plutarch in his text
“Life of Alexander”.
233
Vešt [vesht; adjective] - able, skillful in plain Macedonian; also Veština [pronounced
Veshtina] - craftsman.
234
http://www.makedonski.info/search/voda
Mercury. Zodiacal sign Gemini and Cancer. In Macedonic syllables from the middle text of
the Rosetta Stone: III (← from right to left) - „Bogo Ho‟ („God Ho‟).

Bogo Džō – the God of animals and panagyurs (carnivals). Later known as „Pan‟;
comparable to later Orpheus; Zodiacal sign Capricorn. In Macedonic syllables from the
middle text of the Rosetta Stone: III (← from right to left) - „Bogo Dţo‟ („God Joe‟).

Bogo Ka – the Goddess of Health („She-Dragon‟, the Supreme deity in Upper Macedonia;
Latin Hygeia); also noted in the Egyptian mythology and depicted as a drop, representing the
concept of vital essence which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead
person, with death occurring when the „Ka‟ leaves the body. In Macedonic syllables from the
middle text of the Rosetta Stone: III (← from right to left) - „Bogo Ka‟ („God Ka‟).

Bogo Sa235 – the Goddess of planting (agriculture); comparable to Egyptian Sati in

connection with the scattering and sowing of the seeds. Etruscan Zeirene, Roman Ceres. In
Macedonic syllables from the middle text of the Rosetta Stone: ⇂III (← from right to left) -
„Bogo Sa‟ („God Sa‟).

Bogo Gya – the God of war (i.e. Gyavol - „devil‟ in today plain Macedonian); comparable to
Babylonian Nergal, Egyptian Astharthet and/or Paprem. Zodiacal sign Scorpio. In
Macedonic syllables from the middle text of the Rosetta Stone: III (← from right to left) -
„Bogo Gya‟ („God Gya‟).

How this Macedonic system worked and transformed the mythological and religious realities in
Egypt is perfectly described by the ancient authors like Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch from Ironea,
Cornelius Tacitus, Macrobius, etc.:
235
Sadi - „sowing‟ in plain Macedonian.
“The first generation of men in Egypt," says Diodorus, “contemplating the beauty of the superior
world, and admiring with astonishment the frame and order of the universe, supposed that there were
two chief gods that were eternal, that is to say, the Sun and the Moon, the first of which they called
‘Osiris’, and the other, ‘Isis’, both names having proper etymologies; for Oziris, in the Macedonic
language, signifies a thing with many eyes236, which may be very properly applied to the sun, darting
his rays into every corner, and, as it were, with so many eyes viewing and surveying the whole land
and sea; with which the poet agrees, who says “Riding on high, the Sun all sees and hears”." Some
also of the ancient Macedonic mythologists call Osiris, „Dionis‟, and surname him „Sirius‟, amongst
whom Eumolpus, in his Bacchanalian verses: “Dionysius darts his fiery rays,” and Orpheus: “He is
called Phanetes and Dionysius."

Above: images of Dze-Ra-Apis or Serapis, the one on the right in typical Macedonian uniform

236
Astonishing is the fact that even in today modern Macedonian the verb „ozari-se‟ means
exactly „gaze around, stare‟; future imperfect tense from the Macedonic verb “dze”(ze) - „see‟
(Dutch: zien; German: sehen; Anglicized: see). It is also found in the Macedonian “Prozor ” -
„window‟ and “Ozero” - „lake‟, as the lakes were considered the eyes of the Great Mother
Goddess of the Earth. In ancient Egypt of Ptolemies Macedonic Dze in comutation with Ra
easily became transfigured into Ozeiris and/or Dze-Ra-Apis – Serapis.
Plutarch of Ironea (Lat. Chaeronea, in AD 46-120) tells us the following in his essay on Isis and
Osiris, at pages 69-73: “Ptolemy I Sotir saw in a dream the colossal statue of Pluto in Sinopê, not
knowing nor having ever seen how it looked, and in his dream the statue bade him convey it with all
speed to Alexandria. He had no information and no means of knowing where the statue was situated,
but as he related the vision to his friends there was discovered for him a much travelled man by the
name of Sosibius, who said that he had seen in Sinopê just such a great statue as the king thought he
saw. Ptolemy, therefore, sent Soteles and Dionis, who, after a considerable time and with great
difficulty, and not without the help of divine providence, succeeded in stealing the statue and bringing
it away. When it had been conveyed to Egypt and exposed to view, Timotheus, the expositor of sacred
law, and Manetho of Sebennytus, and their associates, conjectured that it was the statue of Pluton,
basing their conjecture on the Cerberus and the serpent with it, and they convinced Ptolemy that it
was the statue of none other of the gods but Serapis. It certainly did not bear this name when it came
for Sinope, but, after it had been conveyed to Alexandria, it took to itself the name which Pluton bears
among the Egyptians, that of Serapis. Moreover, since Heracleitus the physical philosopher says,
“The same are Hades and Dionis, to honour whom they rage and rave,” people are inclined to come
to this opinion. In fact, those who insist that the body is called Hades, since the soul is, as it were,
deranged and inebriate when it is in the body, are too frivolous in their use of allegory. It is better to
identify Osiris with Dionis and Serapis with Osiris, who received this appellation at the time when he
changed his nature. For this reason Serapis is a god of all peoples in common, even as Osiris is; and
this they who have participated in the holy rites well know.
In the Phrygian writings it is said that Serapis was the son of Heracles, and Isis was his
daughter, and Typhon was the son of Alcaeus, who also was a son of Heracles; Phylarchus, writes
that Dionysus was the first to bring from India into Egypt two bulls, and that the name of one was
Apis and of the other Osiris. But Serapis is the name of him who sets the universe in order, and it is
derived from "sweep" (sairein), which some say means "to beautify" and "to put in order." As a
matter of fact, these statements of Phylarchus are absurd, but even more absurd are those put forth
by those who say that Serapis is no god at all, but the name of the coffin of Apis; and that there are in
Memphis certain bronze gates called the Gates of Oblivion and Lamentation, which are opened when
the burial of Apis takes place, and they give out a deep and harsh sound; and it is because of this that
we lay hand upon anything of bronze that gives out a sound. More moderate is the statement of those
who say that the derivation is from "shoot" (seuesthai) or "scoot" (sousthai), meaning the general
movement of the universe. Most of the priests say that Osiris and Apis are conjoined into one, thus
explaining to us and informing us that we must regard Apis as the bodily image of the soul of Osiris.
But, if the name Serapis is Egyptian, it denotes cheerfulness and rejoicing, and I base this opinion on
the fact that Egyptians call their festival of rejoicing sairei. In fact, Platon says that Hades is so
named because he is a beneficent and gentle god towards those who have come to abide with him.
Moreover, among the Egyptians many others of the proper names are real words; for example, that
place beneath the earth, to which they believe that souls depart after the end of this life, they call
Amenthes, the name signifying "the one who receives and gives." Whether this is one of those words
which came from Macedonia in very ancient times and were brought back again we will consider
later, but for the present let us go on to discuss the remainder of the views now before us.”237

237
A new study of DNA recovered from an ancient Philistine site in the Israeli city of Ashkelon
confirms what we already know from the Bible and other ancient sources – that the origin of the
Philistines is in southern Europe. https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Netanyahu-
Archaeology-DNA-prove-Palestinians-not-native-to-Land-of-Israel-594872
Cornelius Tacitus (AD 56-117) in his Histories, Book 4, Chapter 17, pages 81-84 relates a story
concerning the Serapis in Alexandria in the year AD 69. The story resembles the tale told about
the visit of Alexander the Great to the shrine of the god Ammon at the Oasis of Siwa, Egypt in 331
BCE. Tacitus tells us the following: “Page 83. Where the god Serapis came from the Egyptian priests
give the following account. It concerns Ptolem I Sotir, the second Macedonian ruler of Egypt, who did

much to develop the country. While he was engaged in providing the newly-founded city of Alexandria
with walls, temples and religious cults, he dreamed that he met a young man of remarkable beauty and
more than human stature, who instructed him to send his most trusty courtiers to Pontus to fetch a
statue of himself. This, he said, would cause the kingdom to prosper, and whatever place gave the
image shelter would become great and famous. Thereupon, continues the account, this same youth
appeared to ascend into heaven in a blaze of fire.
These signs and wonders impelled Ptolemy to reveal the nocturnal vision to the Egyptian priests
whose practice it is to interpret such things. As they knew little of Pontus and foreign parts, he
consulted an Athenian of the clan of the Eumolpidae, one Timotheus, whom he had brought over to
supervise ritual, and asked him about the nature of this worship and the identity of the god. Timotheus
got into touch with regular travellers to Pontus and from them found out that the country contained a
city called Sinope, near which was a temple long famous in the neighbourhood and dedicated to
Jupiter Dis. The identification was borne out, they added, by the presence nearby of the statue of a
goddess commonly described as Proserpina. But Ptolemy was just like a king: though easily upset, on
recovering his nerve he showed himself keener on pleasure than religion. Thus he gradually put the
matter out of his mind and devoted himself to other business. But in the end the same vision appeared
before him, now in a more terrifying and urgent aspect and threatening both king and kingdom with
ruin unless its orders were obeyed. Then Ptolemy had ambassadors and gifts assembled for an
approach to king Scudrothemis, the then ruler of Sinope, instructing his envoys as they embarked to
visit the shrine of Pythian Apollon. The travelers were granted a favorable passage and an
unambiguous answer from the oracle. They were to go on their way and bring back the image of
Apollon's uncle, leaving that of his sister where it was.
Page 84. On reaching Sinope, they addressed the offerings, requests and instructions of their king
to Scydrothemis. The latter found it hard to make up his mind. At one moment, he was frightened of the
divine will, at another terrified by the threats of his people, who opposed the transaction; and often he
found the gifts and promises of the deputation tempting. In this way three years passed by without any
diminution in Ptolemy's enthusiasm and appeals. The status of his ambassadors, the size of his fleet
and the weight of his gold were ceaselessly augmented. Then a dreadful apparition confronted
Scydrothemis in a dream, forbidding him to delay further the purposes of the god. When he still
hesitated, he was vexed by all manner of disasters, by plague and by the manifestation of a divine
wrath which became daily more grievous. Then he called his people together and explained to them
the orders of the deity, his own vision and that of Ptolemy, and their ever growing afflictions. The
common folk, turning a deaf ear to their king and jealous of Egypt, staged a sit-down strike around the
temple in self-defence. At this point, the story became even more impressive, telling how the god
embarked of his own accord upon the fleet, which was moored by the coast. Then comes the
remarkable account of their sailing into Alexandria after completing the long voyage in only three
days. A temple worthy of a great metropolis was built in the quarter called Rhacotis, where there had
long been a chapel dedicated to Serapis and Isis.
Such is the favorite version of where Serapis came from and how he reached Egypt. I am aware
that some authorities hold that he was brought from the Synan city of Seleucia during the reign of the
third Ptolemy. Yet another story speaks of the initiative as coming from the same Ptolemy, but makes
the original home of the god Memphis, a city once famous as the capital of the Old Kingdom. As for
the identity of the god, he is equated by many with Aesculapius because he heals the sick, by some with
Osiris, who is the oldest deity known to the Near East, by not a few with Jupiter owing to his all-
embracing powers. But the prevailing identification of Serapis as Prince Dis is based on the attributes
clearly portrayed in his statues, or esoteric lore.”

Right: Isidi Serapidi Oppiae Uhin238

238
“Isis-Serapis opium ear” - a square relief made of white marble, from the temple of Isis at
Stobi, Republic of Macedonia.
Macrobius has preserved one of the most ingenious of these materialistic interpretations (Sat. I., 20):
“The city of Alexandria pays an almost frantic worship to Serapis and Isis; yet all this veneration they
prove is but offered to the Sun under that title, both by their placing the corn-measure upon his head,
and accompanying his statue by the figure of an animal with three heads. Of these, the central and the
largest is a lion's; that which rises on the right is a dog’s, in a peaceful and fawning attitude; whilst
the left part of the neck terminates in the head of a ravening wolf. All these animal forms are connected
together by the wreathed body of a serpent, which raises his head up towards the god's right hand, on
which side this monster is placed. The lion's head typifies the Present, because its condition between
the Past and the Future is strong and fervent. The Past is signified by the wolf's head, because the
memory of all things past is snatched away from us and utterly consumed. The symbol of the fawning
dog represents the Future, the domain of inconstant and flattering hope. But whom should Past,
Present, and Future serve except their author? His head crowned with the cakzthus typifies the height
of the planet above us, and his all-powerful capaciousness, since unto him all things earthly return,
being drawn up by the heat that he emits. Moreover, when Nicocreon, king of Cyprus, consuetude
Serapis as to which of the gods he ought to be held, he thus responded:

A god I am such as I show to thee,

The starry Heavens my head, my trunk the Sea,
Earth forms my feet, mine ears the Air supplies,
The Sun's far-darting, brilliant rays, mine eyes.

Hence it is apparent that the nature of Serapis and of the Sun is one and indivisible. Isis, so universally
worshipped, is either the Earth, or Nature, as subjected to the Sun. Hence the goddess's body is
covered with continuous rows of udders,' to show that the universe is maintained by the perpetual
nourishment of the Earth or Nature."

The following passages are taken from the book entitled “The History of Magic,” Vol.1, (published
1856) by the distinguished German physician, Joseph Ennemoser, at pages 246-249: “Another, no less
celebrated, divinity was Serapis, who is by some confounded with Oziris. He was particularly in great
renown among foreigners; and he maintained his influence over men much longer than any other of
the gods. Several temples were sacred to him in Egypt, and, at a later time, in Macedonia and Rome.
According to Jablonski, 24 Serapeums (Serapis temples) were dedicated to him, of which those at
Memphis, Canopus, and Alexandria, were the most celebrated.
According to Sprengel Serapis originally meant a Nile measure, or the Lord of Darkness, because
the rise of the Nile was traced to the Egyptian horizon; he was therefore the symbol of the sun below
the horizon (coinciding with the Zee – the Macedonian god of the cold sunlight). Serapis was called
Dionis/Osiris, Zevs Ammon, Pluton, by the Macedonians, Bacchus and Aesculapius by the Romans.
One of the most celebrated temples was at Canopus, and another at Alexandria. In the temples
of Serapis, as well as in those of Isis, a statue was generally erected with its finger on its lips,
representing Silence. This silence does not probably mean that none were to speak of these divinities
being mortal, but that the Dionisiac secrets of the temple were to be preserved. "In this temple," says
Strabo (XVII. 801), "great worship is performed, many miracles are done, which the most celebrated
men believe, and practice, while others devoted themselves to the sacred sleep."
“Eusebius calls Serapis ‘the prince of evil spirits of darkness’ (Praparat. Evang. 4), who sits beside
a three-headed monster, which represents in the centre a lion, on the right a dog, and on the left a
wolf, round with a dragon winds, whose head the god touches with his right hand.” At
Canopus, Serapis was visited by the highest personages with great veneration; “and in the interior
were all kinds of sacred pictures, portraying miraculous cures.” Still more celebrated was the temple
at Alexandria, where the sacred or temple-sleep was continually practiced, and sick persons were
entirely cured. It was here that a blind and a lame man received the revelation that the former was to be
touched by the spittle, and the latter by the foot, of the emperor Vespasian, and, according to the
accounts of Strabo and Suetonius, they were thereby cured. (Sueton. in Vespas. c. 7) Although in the
past Apis was another divinity, worshipped under the shape of a spotted ox, under Macedonians his
attributes were relegated to Dionis/Serapis. Several temples were sacred to him, of which that at
Memphis was the most celebrated. Here Aescylapius is said to have acquired his skill. Apis, however,
also came to be considered to actually have been Serapis, and the temples of Osiris, of Serapis, and
Apis, were the same, though under different names. The bull was actually the Dionis‟ animal avatar.
For after the death of Osiris, when his body was to have been buried, an ox of remarkable beauty
appeared to the Egyptians, and was regarded as being Osiris, and therefore Egyptians worshipped him
in the form of Apis. Augustin (De civitate, Kb. XVIII) says, that Apis was a king of Argo, who then
after it was introduced by the Macedonians and became Serapis in Egypt, and was celebrated as the
greatest Egyptian god.

Pliny (lib. III. c. 46) says as follows: "In Egypt, an ox, which they call Serapis, receives divine honors.
He has a brilliant white spot on the right side, which begins to increase with the new moon. According
to Herodotus, he is quite black, with a square mark on the forehead, the figure of an eagle on his back,
and, besides a knot under the tongue, has double hairs in his tail. He can only reach a certain age,
according to Pliny, when the priests drown him, and seek for another to succeed him, with
lamentations. After they have found one, the priests lead him to Memphis, where the oracle predicted
of the future by signs and symbols. They prophesied from the various movements and actions of the ox,
giving him consecrated food. From his inclination to take or refuse this the oracles were drawn. Thus,
for instance, he pushed away the hand of the Emperor Augustus, who shortly afterwards lost his life.
Apis lives in great seclusion; but when he breaks loose, the lictors drive the populace from his path,
and a crowd of boys accompany him, singing verses to his honour, which he appears to understand."

Above: 3rd century seal representing the Macedonic Orpheus

Bakikos (i.e. Bachus) crucified and on seventh heaven
(symbolized by 7 crosses)
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