Enchele

The Enchelei were an ancient people that lived around Lake Lychnidus and in the upper Drin valley, later expanding as far as Lake Shkodra and Buthoe on the Adriatic coast in modern-day Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia. They are one of the oldest known peoples of the central Balkan and also the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. In ancient sources they sometimes appear as an ethnic group distinct from the Illyrians, but they are mostly mentioned as one of the Illyrian tribes. They held a central position in the earlier phase of Illyrian history and established the first Illyrian Kingdom in the 8th–7th century BC. In ancient Greek literature they are linked with the end of the mythical narrative of Cadmus and Harmonia.

The name Sesarethii/Sesarethioi was used by Strabo as an alternative name for the Enchelei in the lakeland area of Lychnidus. Mentioned for the first time by Hecataeus of Miletus in the 6th century BC, the name Sesarethii/Sesarethioi is also considered a variant of Dassaretii/Dassaretioi, an Illyrian tribe that has been recorded since Roman times and that is attested in coinage and inscriptions found around lake Lychnidus.

The region inhabited by the Enchelei was known as Enchele. Their neighbors to the west were the Taulantii, to the north the Autariatae, to the north-east the Dardani, to the south-east the Paeones, and to the south the Dexaroi.

Name

Etymology

The name Enchelei is thought to have meant "eel people", as in Ancient Greek ἔγχελυς means "eel", like in modern Albanian ngjalë "eel", Illyrian *engella, possibly cognates to Latin: anguilla "eel" and Lithuanian: ungurỹs "eel". The connection with Albanian ngjalë makes it possible that the name Enchele was derived from the Illyrian term for eels, which may have been anciently related to Greek and simply adjusted to the Greek pronunciation. An Indo-European pre-form of the root still cannot be reconstructed. Robert S. P. Beekes considers it pre-Greek, which matches the timeframe of an early Illyrian origin of the ethnonym through the legendary story of Cadmus and the Enchelei.

Attestation and variants

The Enchelei are mentioned for the first time by Hecataeus of Miletus in the 6th century BC. Variants of the name are Enchelanes or Engelanes in Ionic Greek and Encheleis in the Beotian dialect of ancient Greek.

Enchelanes/Engelanes bear the suffix -anes typical in the western Greek dialects spoken by the Greek neighbors of the Enchelei. In Polybius the word is written with a voiceless aspirate kh, Enchelanes, while in Mnaseas it was replaced with a voiced ng, Engelanes, the latter being a typical feature of the Ancient Macedonian and northern Paleo-Balkan languages.

Other names

An alternative name for the Enchelei in the lakeland area of Ohrid is recorded by Strabo as Sesarethii. The name Sesarethioi is mentioned for the first time by Hecataeus of Miletus in the 6th century BC. Hecataeus reported that the tribe of Chelidonioi (Χελιδόνιοι) lived to the north of the Sesarethioi (Σεσαρήθιοι). Furthermore he reports that Sesarethos (Σεσάρηθος) was a Taulantian city, with Sesarethioi as its ethnicon. The name Sesarethii/Sesarethioi is also considered a variant of Dassaretii/Dassaretioi, an Illyrian tribe that has been recorded since Roman times and that is attested in coinage and inscriptions found around lake Ohrid. While describing Polybius provides information of greater credibility concerning Strabo’s evidence that the Enchelei/ Engelanes were also called Sessarethii (Strab.,7.7.8), i.e. Dassaretae – a generally accepted emendation of the apparently wrongly recorded name Sessarethae.

Mythological accounts

A legend widespread in antiquity reports that Cadmus – the Phoenician prince, brother of Europa, and founder of Thebes, and a Boeotian and Enchelean figure – with his wife Harmonia arrived among the Enchelei and helped them build many towns on the shores of Lake Ohrid and Lake Shkodra, among them Lychnidus (Ohrid) and Bouthoe (Budva). As the legend says it and reported by, at that time the Enchele were at war with neighboring Illyrian tribes and Cadmus, after orders from the Oracle of Delphi, became leader of the people and came to their aid. After the victory against the Illyrians, the Enchele chose Cadmus as their king.

Apollodorus wrote that the Encheleis/Engelanes would win a war against Illyrians only if led by Cadmus (Apoll., Bibl. 3.5.4), which actually happened according to Herodotus. After that, Cadmus ruled over the Illyrians, where his son Illyrius was born. According to Virgil, Harmonia gave birth to Illyrius near the Illyrian river (presumably Drin/Drilon). (Virgil, Aeneid, Scholia Vaticana I, 243).

In Euripides’ Bakchai, Bacchus pronounces Zeus’ prophetic words that Cadmus will ruin many cities and will loot the sanctuary of Phoebus (Eurip., Bakchai 1335-1340), leading a mixed barbarian army (this is obviously the Illyrian and Enchelean army mentioned by Herodotus), and that he (Cadmus) and Harmonia would anyway be saved by Ares transformed into dragon and taken to the land of the blessed---the Elysian Fields. In the account of Philo of Byblos (2nd century AD), the myth of the reptilian transformation of Cadmus and Harmonia is linked to the Illyrian tribes, as the location of Elysian Fields was considered by the Greeks to be somewhere on the Adriatic Sea coast. According to Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC), the graves of Cadmus and Harmonia were on the banks of the Illyrian river, and somewhere there were the Encheleis/Engelanes.

A mythological tradition reported by Appian (2nd century AD) tells that the Enchelei were among the South-Illyrian tribes that took their names from the first generation of the descendants of Illyrius, the eponymous ancestor of all the Illyrian peoples. According to Appian's account the progenitor to the Enchele was Encheleus, a son of Illyrius.

According to Polybius andcited by Stephanus of Byzantium, after the disappearance of Amphiaraus during the siege of Thebes, his charioteer Baton settled in Illyria, near the country of the Enchelei.

History

Illyrian tribes in the 7th–4th centuries BCE.

In southern Illyria organized states were formed earlier than in other areas of this region. The oldest known state in the region which can be discussed about from ancient sources is that of the Enchelei. The height of the Enchelean state was from the 8th–7th centuries BC, but the kingdom fell from dominant power around the 6th century BC. Some authors hypothesize that the seeming weakening of the Enchele kingdom resulted from their assimilation and inclusion into the newly established Illyrian realm of the Dassareti, however, per Polybius and Strabo’s accounts, the Enchele were also called Dassareti/Sessarethii.

As reported in a fragment of Hecataeus of Miletus (around 6th century BC), Enchelei neighbored the Dexaroi, a Chaonian tribe.

The Enchelei were often at war with the northern Greeks. From written sources from Greek writers such as Herodotus, the Enchelean army is recorded attacking the temple of Delphi.

Justin (2nd century AD) reports that at a time when the ruler of Macedonia was the infant Aeropus I (around 6th century BC), the Illyrians attacked successfully Macedonia until the infant ruler was brought to a battle by his Macedonian subjects, benefitting from his presence and avenging their initial defeat against the Illyrians. The name of the specific Illyrian tribe or group of tribes that attacked Macedonia is not reported in Justin's account, but it has been suggested that they would have been either the Enchelei, whose realm was centered at that time in the area of Lake Lychnidus, or the Taulantii, who were based farther west, in the coastal area within and around Epidamnos and Apollonia. The Illyrian raids against the Argeads who were based at Aegae indicate that Illyrian attacks also involved the Upper Macedonian regions of Lynkestis, Orestis and Eordaea, Elimea, and Tymphaea, as they were located between Illyrian territory and Argead lands.

In 217 BC, Enchelei/Engelanes are mentioned in Polybius’ account of the battle between Philip V and the Illyrian ruler Scerdilaidas in Dassaretia (Polyb.5.108) .

The Enchelean area of river Drilon and lake Shkodra in northern Albania saw in later times the emergence of the Labeates, an Illyrian tribe who retained their distinct identity until the early Roman period.

The Enchelei are mentioned for the last time in mid-1st c. AD by Pomponius Mela (Pomp. Mela, Chorographia 2.54–56) who distinguished them from the Illyrian tribes whom he names proprie Illyrios vocant.

Archeological Finds

An ancient necropolis dating from the Iron Age (circa 7th century BC to ) was discovered in Trebeništa near the northern shore of Lake Ohrid. It is believed that the necropolis was used from the end of 7th century to the 4th/3rd century BC by the people from the nearby Illyrian town Lychnidos of the Enchelei.

A large amounts of graves have been excavated. Among the notable findings are five golden masks, some iron earrings and plates, a bronze krater, several Illyrian type helmets, and a Corinthian helmet. The five golden funeral masks are reminiscent of the much older Mask of Agamemnon from the Mycenae culture.

While a number of artifacts excavated in the necropolis are said to be imported from ancient Greece, most are of a local origin with possible Greek or Thracian influences or a mixed Balkano-Aegean cultural expression. Archaeological material with gold-riches from the burials at Trebeništa, Aiani on the Haliacmon river valley, and Sindos on the Thermaic Gulf indicates substantial cultural continuity, trade and exchange throughout the wider Balkan region despite the fact that different tribes lived in it.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Enchelei are alternatively known as Encheleans, Enchelii/Encheleioi, Enchelanes/Engelanes, Encheleis (Ancient Greek: Ἐγχελεῖς), or Encheleae.
  2. ↑ Ancient Greek: Ἐγχέλη

References

  1. ↑ Apollodorus, Library, 3.5.4. "As the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians, the god declared by an oracle that they would get the better of the Illyrians if they had Cadmus and Harmonia as their leaders. They believed him, and made them their leaders against the Illyrians, and got the better of them. And Cadmus reigned over the Illyrians, and a son Illyrius was born to him."
  2. ↑ Strabo, Geography (ed. H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A.), book 7, chapter 7: "...had established their sway, and Enchelii, who are also called Sesarethii. Then come the Lyncestæ, the territory Deuriopus, Pelagonia-Tripolitis..."
  3. 1 2 Šašel Kos 1993, p. 119.
  4. ↑ Wilkes 1992, pp. 98–99.
  5. ↑ Hammond 1982, p. 265.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Dedvukaj 2023, p. 7.
  7. ↑ Dzino 2014, p. 53.
  8. ↑ Katičić 1977, p. 81: "Bald ist es, als verträten sie in ältester Zeit für die Griechen das illyrische Volkstum schlechthin, manchmal erscheinen sie als eigene Volksgruppe n eben den Illyriern, meistens aber werden sie als einer unter den illyrischen Stämmen erwähnt."
  9. 1 2 Katičić 1977, p. 5.
  10. ↑ Katičić 1977, p. 81: an sie knüpft sich der Mythos vom Ende des Kadmos und der Harmonia. Bald ist es, als verträten sie in ältester Zeit für die Griechen das illyrische Volkstum schlechthin,
  11. ↑ Šašel Kos 1993, p. 113.
  12. 1 2 Theodossiev 1998, p. 348. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFTheodossiev1998 (help)
  13. ↑ Robin Hard, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology, Routledge, 2004, p. 643 n. 53.
  14. ↑ Hammond 1982, p. 284.
  15. ↑ Wilkes 1992, pp. 93, 96, 98, 99.
  16. ↑ Castiglioni 2007, p. 15.
  17. ↑ Šašel Kos 1993, p. 118-119.
  18. ↑ Eichner 2004, p. 97.
  19. 1 2 3 Hammond 1972, p. 466–467.
  20. ↑ Wilkes 1992, p. 98: "This was the territory of the Enchelei, whose rulers claimed descent from the hero Cadmus".
  21. ↑ Winnifrith 2002, p. 46: "The Enchelidae, an Illyrian tribe, lived near Lake Ohrid, but a legend associated them and their founder, the Greek hero Cadmus"
  22. ↑ Castiglioni 2010, p. 41: Cette imagerie aurait eu pour fonction d’établir, en vertu des ressemblances avec l’icône – familière au public athénien – d’Athéna et d’Erichthonios, un parallélisme entre le cycle d’Erichthonios et la représentation de la fondation cadméenne de Thèbes, en se servant de la rhétorique de l’autochtonie. Ce serpent thébain inoffensif et placide aurait été assimilé par les Athéniens du Ve siècle au paisible gardien autochtone de l’acropole de Thèbes, le serpent d’Arès, dont le meurtre aurait permis au barbare Cadmos son installation sur le sol de Thèbes, usurpé et souillé par un crime.
  23. ↑ Wilkes 1992, p. 99.
  24. ↑ Cadmus: "After having many children, Cadmus and Harmonia left Thebes in order to defend the Encheleans, a people living in southern Illyria, which is the region north of Epirus, and there defeated the Illyrian intruders..."
  25. ↑ Šašel Kos 1993, p. 247-251.
  26. ↑ Katičić 1970, p. 385–392.
  27. ↑ Papazoglu 1978, p. 213: "The tribes which took their names from the first generation of Illyrius' descendants belong mostly to the group of the so-called South-Illyrian tribes: the Taulantii, the Parthini, the Enchelei, the Dassaretii".
  28. ↑ Šašel Kos 2004, p. 502.
  29. ↑ Mesihović & Šačić 2015, pp. 23–24.
  30. ↑ Wilkes 1992, p. 92.
  31. ↑ Grimal & Maxwell-Hyslop 1996, p. 230; Apollodorus & Hard 1999, p. 103 (Book III, 5.4).
  32. ↑ Cabanes 2008, pp. 157–158.
  33. 1 2 Stipčević 1989, p. 34.
  34. 1 2 Šašel Kos 2004, p. 500.
  35. ↑ Castiglioni 2010, pp. 93–95.
  36. ↑ Bogdani 2012, pp. 364–365.
  37. ↑ Angeli, Maria Gabriella Bertinelli; Donati, Angela (2006). Le vie della storia: migrazioni di popoli, viaggi di individui, circolazione di idee nel Mediterraneo antico : atti del II Incontro internazionale di storia antica (Genova 6-8 ottobre 2004) (in Italian). G. Bretschneider. p. 176. ISBN 978-88-7689-230-1. the Enchelei who had lived north of the Chaones and along Lake Lychnidus
  38. ↑ Šašel Kos 2004, p. 276.
  39. ↑ Šašel Kos 1993, p. 118.
  40. ↑ Greenwalt 2011, p. 281.
  41. ↑ Greenwalt 2011, pp. 281–282.
  42. ↑ Hammond 1972, p. 94.
  43. ↑ Katičić 1977, p. 54.
  44. ↑ Lewis, D. M.; Boardman, John (1994-01-01). The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521233484.
  45. 1 2 Theodossiev, Nikola (1998). "The dead with golden faces: Dasaretian, Pelagonian, Mygdonian and Boeotian funeral masks". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 17 (3). Blackwell Publishing: 345–367. doi:10.1111/1468-0092.00067.
  46. ↑ Michail Yu Treister as ed., Hammering Techniques in Greek and Roman Jewellery and Toreutics; Volume 8 of Colloquia Pontica Series; BRILL, 2001, ISBN 9004121501, p. 31.
  47. ↑ "Macedonian Golden Funeral Masks from the City of Angels & Light - Ohrid". Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  48. ↑ David, Wolfgang (January 2017). "Das goldene Antlitz des unbekannten Makedonen-königs". Wolfgang David (Ed.), das Goldene Antlitz des Unbekannten Makedonenkönigs. Makedonen und Kelten Am Ohrid-See – ein Zusammenprall der Kulturen? (Schriften des Kelten Römer Museums Manching 8) 60-63.
  49. ↑ Ilieva, Pavlina, and Petia Penkova. "Funeral golden mask and hand with a ring The necropolis of Trebeniste." ArcheoSciences. Revue d'archéométrie 33 (2009).
  50. ↑ Carol J. King, Ancient Macedonia; Routledge, 2017, ISBN 135171032X, p. 3.

Bibliography