(from Abbott's book, Macedonian Folklore, Cambridge 1903, p. 279-289)
"Anything smells Antiquities", says Abbott, "attributed by the villagers of Macedonia in two great kings of this country. The songs and their traditions, for which they are very proud, consider that relate to "years of Philip and Alexander-and of Hercules", a condensed period in which share all remnants of the past with impeccable fairness.
Going from Drama to Kavala, and a little aside from the road, are the compact remnants of an ancient gate that faces towards the ruins of Philippi. This building remnant known in the popular masses as "the Palace of Alexander the great".
In Ntemir i.e. "Chissar Sidirokastro», on the railway line Thessaloniki-Serres, There are remains of an old Castle or fortress, overlooking the Gorge, on the sides of which the town is wedged. These ruins are attributed to King Philip. A stone container that was discovered in the Gorge a while ago, immediately dubbed safe or vault of King Philip. The same romantic tradition distinguishes, two smooth stones that lie on the rocky shore of a local river which crosses the Gorge, "laundry room" on which the King's daughters, the daughters of King Philip, go and leykainan their clothes, just like they do the "Macedonian women" until our days.
The two individual rocks on the plain of Serres, already mentioned as «Drakopetres»(1), called by residents of Nigrita "Stones of Alexander the great", implying that he has thrown. Didn't had lived in an era in which, According to remarks from a agwgiati, «God tried them antreiwmenoys»;.
Also, near the village Cross, on the East coast of Halkidiki, just north of the location where they are placed by many stageira, the birthplace of Aristotle, an unnamed mountain rises on maps that are known to the villagers as "the Mountain of Alexander ' or, less rightly, "Alexandra", a designation of particularly successful in a range of associated
with the name of the famous teacher of Alexander.
South of the Cross lies the village Lymtziasda, locals trace the name of the mother of Alexander (the Olympiad), a reduction of the ' not unlikely "according to Leake. The browser that renders, less well, the name of the village as Lympiada and on the etymology notes that the failure of the initial "o" and the conversion of Lympiada to Lymptziada under the ordinary course of lesions due to the influence of Latin language after the Roman conquest.
In the same paragraph the Leake notes that "in a location just below the Palace of Aga of the Castle, where some remains of columns are still visible, It is said that were the Mint of Alexander.
Both the Turks and Greeks, even the poorest villagers, It is impregnated with the history of Alexander, Although sometimes this story is eerily distorted, and not infrequently confused with Alexander Skanderbeg».
Spell the name of Alexander the great used to banish the demons of tornado is yet another example of the strength of tradition, and also highlights the amazing Halo which, during the centuries of ignorance, has gathered around the personality of the great King. In popular perception Alexander fills an aspect similar to that held by the Solomon on Arabian nights and other oriental compositions. Credited with a mysterious power over the spirits of evil, and his name is able to exorcise………………………
……..It need merely be pointed out that the narrative under the popular name “Hero of Alexander the great”, It's long been a favorite readings of the lower classes throughout the Greek world, and has helped more than anything else to keep the memory of the great conqueror(3) fresh and confused. Many such tabloids sold annually to the peasants of Macedonia by itinerant booksellers and by such a hero gained with the paltry amount of a piastroy, equal to 2,25 Sterling (2)….”
COMMENTS:
(1) At pages 263-64, Abbott (evoking the work of a. d. Gousiou "in country Pageon…», Leipzig 1894) notes that the ' Drakopetres ' (or "Stones of Alexander the great", in the Nigritini version) is "two lonely rocks on the plain of Serres, not far from the village of Lakkovikia ", (old Mesolakkia, about 7 km east of today's New Mesolakkias). From the description of the Gousiou (p. 27) It is concluded that the Drakopetres were somewhere close to today's New Mesolakkia.
(2) Abbott, as yposimeiwnei, named ' Hero …», refers to the version history of Alexander of Makedonos: Life, Wars and Death. ', Athens, (J). Nicolaides, 1898. Stresses also that the tale of Fylladas has the principle of the "Pseydokallistheni" who first appeared in Egypt in the 2nd century b.c.. and exposes an extensive summary of the text.
(3) The thrylloi for the Megalexandro continue and in younger years: They said earlier that, as zeygarizan fields in the Moyggila BARROW (between Xylotroy and Fytokioy), the plow skalwne in jars and in large stone slabs. And the popular imagination did its "diagnosis" or that old village (Xylotro) they were in Moyggila or that there is the tomb of Alexander the great!
And to …argument's sake: "Within the torrent of Terpni, among the passages in Xylotroy (sic) and Fytokioy …in the energitheisas there in summer 1950 skafikas under the … YSSYEM, ruins of aggeia Tina, of which simantikwteron was erythromorfos Bell crater by means of the 4th century b.c.. (Annals Of Archaeological, Anaskafai …in Macedonia and Thrace …1940-1950, C. I. Makaronas, SLE 648). Please note that the torrent of Terpni "glyfei" Moyggila BARROW located (for those who know the area) among the erstwhile "tsiaϊria" and "siafaria" of the Xylotroy and the Tsiarpis'no River (cheim. Terpni).
I.e., proving once again that the folk tradition has its roots, almost always, in some real fact.
Picture of beautiful erythromorfoy vase and topographic Moyggilas area where found, and as shown in above post, are listed below.
