The
Macedonians (
Greek Μακεδόνες,
Makedónes) were an ancient Greek tribe which inhabited the alluvial plain around the rivers
Haliacmon and lower
Axius, north of
Mount Olympus in
Greece. Historians generally agree that the ancient Macedonians, whether they originally spoke a
Greek dialect or a distinct language, came to belong to the
Koine Greek-speaking population in the
Hellenistic period.
[1] Whether they were of ultimately
Greek origin themselves or were later
Hellenized is debated by some scholars; however, the
Macedonian royal family, known as the
Argead dynasty, claimed Greek descent from the
Ancient Greek city of
Argos in the
Peloponnese[2][3][4][5] (thus the name
Argead) and Macedonians competed in the
ancient Olympic Games, an athletic event in which only men of Greek origin were allowed to participate.
[6]In Greek mythology, Makednos was the mythical progenitor and eponymous ancestor of the Macedonians. According to Hesiod's Catalogue of Women, Makednos was the son of Zeus and Thyia, the daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and brother of Magnes.[7] On the other hand, Hellanicus of Lesbos' later genealogy lists Makednos as the son of Aeolus, the founder of the Aeolian tribe, and thus a grandson of Hellen, the mythological patriarch of the Hellenes.[8] Several ancient Greek writers have elaborated on the descent of the Macedonian tribe.
A passage in book five of Herodotus' Histories concerns the exclusion of Macedonians from panhellenic events such as the ancient Olympic Games,[20] where only Greeks were allowed to participate. In 504 or 500 BC, the Macedonian king Alexander I attempted to participate in the Olympic Games but was met with resistance by competitors, who regarded him as a non-Greek. According to Herodotus, Alexander argued that his family was of ultimately Greek Argive descent, and the Hellanodikai determined that it was so, allowing him to take part. Other kings of Macedonia such as Archelaus I and Philip II also took part in the Games.
The following is a list of recorded Macedonian victors at the Olympics[21]
