2006 Skokljev
2006 Skokljev
PROGRAM PROPOSAL
Tourist and Mythological Guide through Serbia tracing
Adventures of Heracles
The aim of this proposal is to enrich the tourist offering of the Serbian Middle
Danube region.
Modern civilization is doped with stressing factors. Fortunately, tourism was
invented for recuperating the working ability of making and reinforcing the immune
system of the working individual. To get to know the other habitats and different
cultures besides one’s own is the main promoting idea for all projects in tourism,
including this one. In the text to follow we would like to pinpoint the reasons why
should the special attention be paid to this project proposal.
The Danube in Serbia, from the Timok river to the gorges of Bezdan is 587
km. Its potential for tourism has not yet been properly discovered. Surrounded by the
natural beauties of the Danube river valley many traces of former civilizations could
be found. These names and artifacts are coming from the dawn of civilization, even
before the pyramids were built.
The Danube flows through eight European countries. The Rhine-Main-
Danube channel is a 3500 km long communication connecting 13 states and 480
million people. During the last century, river boats were used to take visitors to the
Medieval fortress in Smederevo and further down to Golubac to the Tabula Traiana
carved into the bedrock to immortalize Emperor Traian’s conquest of Dacia
(Romania) and the building of the bridge over the Danube. The trip would always
finish as a lunch with fish soup and fish of all kind from the Danube. In the modern
times, hydro power plant Djerdap (Iron Gate) became a task for visitors. The Djerdap
hydro power plant is the biggest of its kind in Europe and an interesting sight-seeing
place for environmentalists, engineers and students.
In contemporary archeology it is assumed that the Balkan Peninsula is a
cultural cradle of the Old Europe. Millions of years ago, Balkan was a system of
islands and archipelagos in the Tetis ocean, found between Africa and the
continental Europe. With geological changes the newly formed Balkan land found
itself between the Mediterranean sea on the south and the Pannonian sea on the
North. The lands were the Balkan countries of today occupy, formed after the flowing
off of Pannonian waters through the Carpathian mountains into the Black Sea.
The retrieval of the last ice layer some 12000 years ago from the Middle
Danube area meant the favorable conditions for the survival of man. The first
fisherman societies and later on agricultural societies here developed the culture of
Lepenski Vir, one of the oldest cultural habitats in Europe.
This enterprise attempts in deciphering the onomastics, mythology and pre-
history of Balkans in a new key, by using the terms of the Jung’s complex
psychology, such as archetype and collective unconsciousness. The Middle Danube
onomastics comprise the hydronyns and the oronyms according to military plans of
the area.
Describing the names the Ancient Greek language was used. It is commonly
found in Greek and German research reports that the Ancient Greek comprises the
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
non-Helenic substratum allegedly cannoted with the native people of the region. The
research has revealed the following:
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
• On the hill slopes of Banat, Hercules met the nereides and made inquiries
about the golden apples of the Hesperides.
• Nearby the river Nera, Hercules visited the god Nereus on the same question
of apples.
• In the Tartes (The Iron Gate, or Djerdap), Hercules erected the two pillars
called “The pillars of Hercules”.
• At the island of Erytheia Hercules stole the cattle belonging to Gerion, the
three-bodied monster.
• Near Kolubara, the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus, sent the Colubar Maggot
to attack the herd.
• At the caves of Homolje, Hercules descended into Hades, and there he
caught the Cerberus monster of the Lower world.
• Near to the river Busur in the fields of Styx, Hercules fought with Busuris
(Osiris).
• In the plane called Požarevačko polje (Phiegreon Pedion) Hercules took part
in the gods fight with giants, the Gigantomachia.
• On the island Čakljan, Cacus stole some cattle, while Hercules was fast
asleep. Cacus was a huge giant who lived in the cave Bela Stena and
plundered around. Hercules killed Cacus.
• On the mouth of the rivers, the Tamiš (Θεμιζ) and the Danube, at the
Hesperides Gardens, Hercules found the golden apples.
• On the island known as Krčedinska ada (Καρκινοζ – cancer), Hercules
succeeded in murdering the famous Hydra, the cancerous creature with nine
heads.
• On Čerevička ada (Κηρεζ), Hercules encountered Stymphalis birds.
• Near the island named Nestinska ada in Danube, Hercules crossed the
Danube with his wife Deianira. This, final spot in the itinerary of Hercules
heroic deeds conclude the story.
Nestinska ada is close to the city Apatin (Απατα was one of Hesperides).
According to the well-known Greek myth, Hercules wanted to cross the river with his
wife, and asked Nessus the Centaur to carry the wife over for the fee, while he
himself forded the river. Nessus attempted to steal the wife, and Hercules shot him
with the arrow. Nessus tricked Deianira into offering Hercules a portion of his blood
for which the dying Centaur claimed to be a love potion. It proved to be a poison
killing Hercules. Hercules was the son of Zeus and a subject of a king Eurystheus of
Mycenae.
The twelve heroic deeds of Hercules are also known as “Labors of Hercules”.
For the first time and here (also in the book “Olympian Gods from Serbia”, by A. and
I. Škokljev, in Serbian, Nauka, Belgrade, 1998) these adventures are pinned to actual
places on Earth. The „translation“ of contemporary but ancient names of places and
rivers in Serbia from Ancient Greek assembles the story of Hercules as the jigsaw
puzzle and reveals the landmarks of the common European myth. This myth could
easily be composed as a tourist guide through this part of Serbia, an itinerary good
enough to inflame the imagination especially when combined with the natural
beauties of the landscape. As a summery, according to here proposed and
elaborated geographic onomastics, a “true story of Hercules” could enrich the tourist
offering of the wider Danube region in Serbia, and draw more tourists here to visit the
region.
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
Anex: ABSTRACT
Of the book “Gods of Olympos from Serbia
Antonije Škokljev and Ivan Škokljev»
ABSTRACT
Of the book
Gods of Olympos from Serbia
Antonije Škokljev and Ivan Škokljev
Introduction
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
Language and writing are the most significant tools of human mind retaining
the traces of history and historical changes, known as well as unknown. Glossary
(Webster Comprehensive Dictionary) is the science of language, the comparative
philology. Paleoglossology connotes old, ancient languages, leaving traces in the
names of places and things in contemporary use. This paper advocates one daring
hypothesis and to be brave to the end, names and field of research: paleoglossary of
the Balkans. The hypothesis is based on premises that one common language was
spoken in Neolithic Europe which lasted until the appearance of civilization in Europe
or, until the historical era. Our aim is to attempt to decipher some names
domesticated on the Balkan peninsula by using the language called the ancient
Greek, one of the dead languages, the milestones of civilization. It is interesting to
our findings that ancient Greek is present in modern Greek mainly by onomastics of
the Balkan geography. But the onomastics are common to many of the Balkan
states, to Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Romania Bulgaria,
Macedonia and Greece. This paper treats only the first two of the forementioned
countries. This fact pushes away all nationalisms as petty talk.
One of the major findings in genetics related to the origin of mankind (Cavalli -
Sforza, 1991) is that the distribution of genes correlates surprisingly well with that of
languages. Cavalli - Sforza notifies that “…we concluded that in certain cases, a
language or family of languages can serve to identify a genetic population. The
purpose of this investigation is ti allocate the language to the land without
confabulating about that what has happened to the people. They have hardly
vanished, the melting pot theory has probably more chances to succeed.
The common denominator of a nation in modern sense is the common
language. We do not have the nation here, but we do have the language. The
elements of the presumed common language made the substance of languages
derived, spoken by similar peoples or tribes mentioned in Herodotus, the Father of
history: those were Pelasgs, Boreans, Hyperboreans, Misans, Ionians, Briggs, and
many others inhabiting the Balkans.
The methodology used in this research is based on etymology of the ancient
Greek. Ancient Greek has little if any similarity to modern Greek language. Greek is
only the common name for these two languages. The question arises: could they be
the same people?
The methodology makes of the ancient Greek scientific etymology, i.e. the
scientific translation of phonetic and symasiologic development of words, or
onomastic approach (onomastics = the study of the origin and evolution of proper
names). The tools to ease the endeavor ere also the historical – parallel glossary and
parethymology, i.e. the folk etymology of ancient language, used by Greek linguists.
Here are some examples:
- Anthroponym: Athens (Aθηνα / aθena / Aθανα / aθana/) the name of the
goddess and town is made of A – without and θανατος / θanatos / - death, i.e. the
immortal one.
- Hydronym: sea (θαλασσα / θalasa /) is made of θα / θα /, θω / θo / - to run
and αλας / alas / - salty.
- Oronym: Olympus (Ολυμπος / olimpos/) is made of ολοι / olio / - everybody
and υμνος / imnos / - hymn and ποησω / poeso / - to make, ie. much sung about.
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
Recent discoveries in the middle Danube valleys and gorges (Lepenski Vir,
Starčevo, Vinča, Banjica) underwent the radioactive isotope C-14 treatment which
proved them to be the oldest cultures in Europe. These dwellings (cca. 8000 to 5500
BC) shone out the civilization to the whole of Balkans (Renfrew, 1978; Gimbutas,
1982; Srejović & Babović, 1983). The insight into the evidence of these discoveries
enables the overcoming of historical limitations and prejudices and cannote the
descent to the Jung’s cellar.
Myth as a Source
Myth, i.e. a tale, contains a story about the origin of the universe
(cosmogony), of the gods (theogony), of mankind and of all of the nature.
Hellenistic mythology as known to westerners (Graves) was a traditional
mythology common to all of the peoples inhabiting the Balkan peninsula. These
peoples were of indoeuropean origin.
Homer and Hesoid collected these myths in their works. The myths
registrated could well be named the models of archetypes, to associate them to the
model of Jung.
The origin of myths, and this is a daring hypothesis of the paper, could be
allocated to Djerdap region in Serbia. In the twilight of the Ice Age these lands were
the battlefield and cradles of Gigantomachias and Titanomachias.
Historical facts
The basis historical facts of peoples and their customes on the Balkans are
found with many authors from antiquity, from Pindar (522 – 446 BC), Herodotus (484
– 425 BC), Pausania ( 2. c. AC) until the most recent ones like Thompson (1954),
Vasić (1958), Budimir (1969), Papastavrou (1972) and others.
Onomastics
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
Onomastics of Serbia
Many words in Serbian which could not be derived from Slavic roots were
considered of Celtic origin (hydronym, oronyms, horonyms). However, these words
could be explained by POB method. Here are some examples.
Danube or Danoubius. Composite word made of Dios or Zeus (Διος / διος /
Ζευς / zeus) whose bucolic form is Dan or Zan (Δαν / δan /, Ζαν / zan), all from the
same root di, dios (διος) meaning “shining” or “heavenly shine”. Zeus is a son of
Crones and Rhea, the king of gods and peoples, and the origin of all natural events.
The genitive of Dan (Δαν) is Danou (Δανου) while “bius” came from “vios” (βιος)
human life. According to Herodotus, the upper part of the river called Danouvios
(Δανουβιος) and the lower part Istros. Istros is also composed from “istia” or “estia”,
(ιοτια, εοτια) meaning hearth, to welcome and nurture somebody. Word “reo, ri” (in
Latin, “rivus”) is river (ρεω, ροος, ρους) with the suffix –os. Danoubius is the river of
Zeus, the river of the creator.
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
Lešelnita (Ιηοις / iesis /, Ιαοις / iasis/ = to cure) is the river near the town
Orsova.
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
the water so cold, a donkey hoof was used as a dish, for no other could hold it. The
story was told by some Hagnotemis (Αγνος /agnos/ =honorable, Θεμις /θuemis/ =
from the valley of Tamiš, or Temiš, in Panonia). The donkey was a sacred animal of
Hyperboreans, from the middle Danube.
Vitovnica (βια /via/ = strength, force) is the first of right Mlava river tributaries.
Via (Βια) or Bia in Mythology is a personification of force. She is the daughter of Titan
Palantus and Oceanide Stiga. According to Hesoid, in Gigantomachia she was
fighting on the Zeus side and for that she is next to the chief of gods. She was
present when Prometheus was enchained.
Čokordin (κωκιω /kokio/ = cry, ορδινω /orδino/ = vertigo). In Mythology, Kokit
(Κωκιτος /kokitos/) is a river of cries in the underworld and a river branch of the Styx.
Both with the river Pirifleget (πυρ /pir/ = fire, φλεγω /flego/ = flame, burn, to blaze up)
she was stemming down to the underworld. In the Stig of today, in Serbia, there is
the city of Požarevac (požar = big flame).
Busur is the last of the larger Mlava tributary. Busirid or Βουσιρις was Egiptian
king, the son of Poseidon, known for his cruelty, and for his custom to sacrifice all
foreign visitors to Zeus. Busisris also means “The place of Osisris” in Egypt, where
Osisris was praised as a protector of dead. Euripidus wrote a satire about Busiris.
Pek is another Danube tributary collecting waters from northern Homolje river
basin. Homolje is very rich in ores of iron, copper, led, zinc, gold, silver, wolfram and
coal, as well as in hydropower. Etymology of Pek is πεκω /peko/ meaning to cut
fleece, or to pan golden fleece. Its tributaries are Komša (κομψος /kompsos/ =
beautiful) and Lipi (λυπη /lipi/ = grief, worry).
Timok is the last of the bigger middle Danube tributaries (τιμαω /timao/, τιμη
/time/ = to respect) and its main tributary is Svrljig (σφαρα /svara/ = to rustle, hum
and λιγα /liga/ = to echo, moan).
From the depression of Panonia (Παν /pan/ is the son of Zeus or Hermes, the
god of shepards, forests and hills, and ονια /onia/ = grief, sorrow) and after accepting
the tributaries, Danube pierces through the masses of Carpathian Mountains (καρ
/kar/ = stone mountain, παθος /paθos/ = evil) and flows through the gorges of
Djerdap (γερας /geras/ = gift, δαπεδον /δapedon/ = soil, earth). The obvious
translation is something like “The promised land”. The widest part of the gorge is on
the right hand side near the village of Boljetin (βολη /vole/ = throwing, βολος /volos/ =
to throw the fishnet) where Lepenski Vir was discovered. Lepenski Vir is of the most
important archeological findings of this century. The roots are λεπαιος /lepais/ =
rocky soil, λεπας /lepas/ = bare rock, λεπω /lepo/ = to peel. Under the name of
Lepen, there are two rivers in Serbia, one in Macedonia and Bosnia and one region
in Serbia and one in Bosnia.
Near the right curve of Danube there is a village Mosna (μοσσον/ moson/ =
wooden tower, wooden house). Mosni or Mosinike (οικος /oikos/ = the house) is the
name of people that probably came from this part of Djerdap, and inhabited lands on
the west of Trapesunt on the Black Sea. Six kilometers on the east lies Miroč, village
and mountain. Miroč is from the word μυρον /miron/ = scent, aroma, smell, balsam.
Near the northern curve of Danube near Djerdap is the city of Tekija (τεκ /tek/, τικω
/tiko/ = to bear, to hatch, to spawn roe, τεκνον /teknon/ = child). It is a well known fact
that during the springtime the white sturgeon fish comes here from the Black Sea to
spawn the roe. Nearby, on the other side of Danube, lies the Romanian city of
Orsova (ορσεω /orseo/ = to jump, to confuse). Karataš is further in the east (καρα
/kara/ = stone hill, θασσω /θaso/ = fast, sudden). Katarakte (κατα /kata/ = down and
αρασσω /araso/ = fall) or Danubian falls start here. Not far from there is canal Sipski
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
(σηπιον /sepion/ = European cuttlefish, but also the sea foam). The canal ends at
Kladovo (κλαδος /klaδos/ = the twig). We know that the followers of the Dionisian cult
wore wreaths or twigs and flowers, also the heralds and deserters from the enemy
side.
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Collection of Works presented at the XVII International Scientific Conference
″Danube – River of Cooperation″ 2006, ISBN: 978-86-7067-099-0
“archetype” could also be analyzed by POB method: αρχ, αρχω /arh, arho/ means to
be the first to start, or αρχη /arhe/ which means the beginning, i.e. αρχαιος /arhaios/,
from time immemorial, and the word τυπος /tipos/ which is the type, or impression,
which give αρχετυπος /archetipos/ meaning the first and very old original. Therefore,
the glossological originals are not found to be the mystical dreams and stairs to
prehistoric ages, but the living names suggesting the historical events and
pinpointing to the multilayerd history of the Balkans. POB method reaches for the rich
onomastisc found in toponyms, hydronyms, oronyms, horonyms and other names of
the middle Danube river basin and the other areas in Serbia and the Balkans. It
shows by examples that these names often connote the hierarchy of Olympus and
the ancient gods and their relations. The indices and the mysterious Greek
mythology originates from the Balkan middle Danube regions. Recent archeological
findings of the prehistoric village of Lepenski Vir in the Iron Gate supports the myth of
the promised land emerging after the Ice Age on the slopes of the Danube, as the
translated names of the places around are suggesting.
The aim of this paper was to attempt to decipher some names domesticated
on the Balkan peninsula by using the ancient Greek, not in use today. It is interesting
to our findings that the ancient Greek is present in the modern Greek mainly by
onomastics of the Balkan geography. But these onomastics are common to many
Balkan states, the fact that somehow ridicules all Balkan nationalisms and places the
ethno-histories and ethno-rights where they belong.
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