Macedonian names and makeDonski pseudo-linguistics: The case of the name Lyka.

Miltiades Elia Bolaris

Το παρόν άρθρο είχε πρωτοεμφανιστεί στο Αμέρικαν Κρόνικλ στις 15 Αυγούστο του 2009. This article first appeared in the "American Chronicle", on August 15, 2009.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/114302

"Lyka. This female Macedonian name, which exists in the present day language, is possibly derived from the noun "lika" (a face, pretty face). The name Lika is present in today's Macedonian onomasticon." Quote was taken from: "Similarities between ancient Macedonian and today's' Macedonian Culture (Linguistics and Onomastics)" by Aleksandar Donski, celebrity "historian" and propagandist from FYROM.

Lyka/Λύκα

Lykos/Λύκος in Greek means wolf. In Greek the substitution of the -os/ος ending of masculine names by the -e/-η and -a/-α endings signifies the female equivalent of the same noun or adjective. Therefore, to the uninitiated, Lyka obviously sounds like female wolf in Greek. Under certain conditions it could be, but properly it is not. The female wolf in standard modern Greek, is Lykaina (G.Babiniotis, Athens, 2002). Lyka/Λύκα is also understood, but it does not sound proper.

The modern Slavic name Lika/Лика, (wherever it is not a simple cut-off derivative of Angelika) can possibly be a survival of the ancient Greek name Λύκα/Lyka, since many Greek rural populations lived side by side with Slavic ones and some were probably assimilated into the Slavic populations of later times, post 7th century Ad. But since this name is found also in other Slavic languages, who never came into contact with the local Greek speaking populations of the Balkans, then this hypothesis is probably unsupported.

Personally, I would would tend to think that if, and that is a big if, the Slavic female name Lika/Лика is related to Greek, then it is most probably a modern loan name that could in fact be derived from the Greek Lykos/ Λύκος=wolf. In a dialectical format in some parts of modern Greece the she-wolf may indeed also be called Lyka/λύκα, though personally I cannot attest to it, nor deny its posibility. In ancient Greek the word to describe her was either Lyko/Λυκώ or Lykaina/Λύκαινα(Stamatakos, Athens, 1972). The commonly used word to describe the the she-wolf now, in Modern Greek, is also Lykaina/Λύκαινα, the "Wolfette" . For the record, Lykos/ Λύκος is derived from the common Indo-European word for the wolf *wlkwos, which is found in numerous other Indo-European languages, besides Greek: Latin "Lupus", Sanskrit "Vrka", Tocharian B "Walwa", Lithuanian "Vilkas", Albanian "Ujk", English and German "Wolf", Russian "Volk", etc. (Oxford Introduction to Indo-European, Oxford 2006).

Professor Donski may actually be correct in pointing out that the modern Slavomacedonian name Lika/Лика "is possibly derived from the noun "lika" (a face, pretty face)". Indeed, "face" in Russian is "Litso/лицо", and when speaking of a Saint's face the Russians use the word "лик святого" (lik svyatogo). In Serbian and Croatian it is "Lice/лице" and in Bulgarian it is "Litse/лице" or "Lik/лик" so it seems probable that Donski may actually be partially right on this one, on the derivation of the modern Slavonic name Lika.

Regardless and completely independent of where the modern Slavic female Lika/Лика is derived from, the ancient Macedonian name Λύκα/Lyka is unquestionably Greek. Unlike the modern version, though, it is for sure not derived from Λύκος/Lykos, the wolf. Linguistically the two words are totally unrelated.

We must go to the ancient sources and look at what the ancient epigraphy can reveal to us, in order to find out why.

The first inscription is from the Macedonian city of Amphipolis/Ἀμφίπολις, not far from the city of Serres:

Regions : Northern Greece (IG X) : Macedonia
SEG 35:712
Makedonia (Edonis) — Amphipolis — Portraita se Taphika Mnemeia (1983) 194,
127 — Grabdenkmäler mit Porträts (1998) 104,135

Ζώσιμος καὶ Χρη-
σίμα Λύκᾳ τῷ τέ-
κνῳ μνήμης
χάριν.

Zesimos and Chre-
sima to Lyka their
child in memory's
Grace.

A second inscription from Macedonia comes from Beroia:

Regions : Northern Greece (IG X) : Macedonia
EKM 1. Beroia 341
Makedonia (Bottiaia) — Beroia — 2nd/3rd c. AD

Ἡλιοφῶν Λύκαν τὴν γυ-
νε̑κα μνήμης χάριν κὲ Οὐα-
λέριν τὸν υἱὸν ἥρωα.

Heliophon to Lyka his
wife in memory's Grace and to Oua-
lerios his son the Hero.

A third inscription, this one from Thessalonike mentions yet another Lyka:

Regions : Northern Greece (IG X) : Macedonia
IG X,2 1 326
Makedonia (Mygdonia) — Thessalonike — 2nd c. AD

Σεραπιακὸς καὶ
Λύκα Λευκίππ[ῃ]
καὶ Ἀθηνοδώρῳ
τοῖς τέκνοις μνεί-
ας χάριν.

Serapiakos and
Lyka to Leukipe
and Athenodoros
their children, in me-
mory's Grace

Then, on an inscription, from the Paionian city of Stoboi, now in Central FYROM, the name appears in its masculine form, Lykas/Λύκας.

Regions : Northern Greece (IG X) : Macedonia
SEG 16:406
Makedonia (Paionia) — Stoboi — Sirkovo — Roman period — ZAnt 3 (1953) 237, 7

Κλυμένη Λύ-
κᾳ τῇ θυγατρὶ
καὶ Πουπλίῳ
τῷ ἀνδρὶ ἐποίει
μνήμης χάριν καὶ
ἑαυτῇ ζῶσα.

Klynene, daughter of Ly-
kas to her daughter
and to her husband
Pouplios she made
(and dedicated this monument)
in memory's grace and
to herself, while still alive.

Τhe Paeonians were an ancient ethnic group that lived in the Amphaxitis, in what is now Central Macedonia,Greece, in southern ex-Yugoslavia (what is now southern and central FYROM), and in SW Bulgaria. They were squeezed between the Macedonians and the Thracians. The Paionians are thought to have been a cousin nation to the Greeks, the closest ethnolinguistic relatives of the Greeks in the ancient Balkans. Precious few of their words are known to us. Only some toponyms, hydronyms, animal names ethnic and personal names have passed down to us. They never had their language written down and what has been written is all in proper Greek. Paionia became completely Hellenized after it became a client state of the Macedonians, retaining only nominal independence. It is generally accepted that they were also closely related to the Phrygians, who were originally neighbors of both the Paionians and the Northwestern Greeks, according to Herodotus and others, and the linguistic affinity of the Phrygian language to Greek has recently been well established (Claude Brixhe, Vladimir Orel, Panayiotou, Diakonov, etc) beyond doubt.Revealingly, most of the Paionian names were either unmistakably Greek (Agis/Άγης, a Royal name shared with several kings of Sparta, Ariston/Αρίστων, Audoleon/Αυδολέων, Leon/Λέων, etc) or Greek-related (almost completely Greek with only slight dialectical differences with classical Greek, like Patraos/Πατράος, Eupolemenos/Ευπολεμένος, etc). At any rate all of their names are easily decipherable using Greek. One of the Paionian names was that of a Paionian κing, named Lycceios/Λύκκειος (356BC - 340BC).
We see that there are plenty of inscriptions in Macedonia, which indicates that the name Lyka and apparently Lykas too were quite common in Macedonia, and apparently in Paionia too. In fact there was a city known from Hellenistic times called Lyka, on the island of St Achileios in the Prespa Lake, which has been recently identified by Roman and Hellenistic fragments under Byzantine archaeological strata, and of course the epigraphy found at the spot:

EAM 149
Macedonia : Lynkestis: Lyke (Agios Achilleios)

Λυ]καίων ἡ πολειτεία
Κ(όιντον) v Ἰούλιον Κρίσπον

The city of the Lykaioi
to Kointos Ioulios Krispos (a Latin name written in Greek)

SEG 47:910
Macedonia : Lynkestis: Lyke (Agios Achilleios)

θε]οῖς Σεβαστοῖς καὶ τῇ Λυκαίων
πό]λει Λ(εύκιος) Φλαούιος Φαβρικιανὸς

to the Respected Gods to the city of the
Lykaioi Leukios Flauios Fabrikianos

The St. Achileios island inscriptions, besides the identification of Lyka, the city of the Lykaoi, it also gives us a good hint of the language spoken in this macedonian city during the Roman times.

But was the name Lyka/Λύκα exclusive to Macedonia? Apparently not, as the epigraphic record will easily prove.

An Athenian man, sometime in the early 5th c BC inscribed his name in ancient graffiti form, for posterity:

SEG 40:47 Attica
Att. — Würzburg: Martin-v.-Wagner — c. 480-470 bc
graffito:}²

Λύκας.

Lykas

In the Attic town of Eleusis, in Athens we read:

Regions : Attica (IG I-III) : Eleusis
SEG 45:188
Att. — Eleusis — AD 47.1992[1997].B.42

Λύκα Θρέπτου ἐγ Μελιτέων

Lyka daughter of Threpsis from Meliteoi.

A woman's funerary dedication on her father's tomb, tells us that the name Lyka was also in use in the island of Crete.

Regions : Aegean Islands, incl. Crete (IG XI-[XIII]) : Crete
IC II v 43
Crete, W. — Axos — IIp.

Λύκα Μυ̣-
στίκωι
τῷ πατρὶ
μνήμης
χά̣[ριν].

Lyka to My-
stikos
her father
in memory's
grace.

The name Lyka appears twice on a long list of about 270 names from the Torre Nova area of Rome, the vast majority of which are Greek, with some Latin ones, which indicates that this was a Greek religious cult or mystic order, since such religious titles as ἱέρεια/Hiereia, μύσται/mystai, ἥρως/hero, δᾳδοῦχος/dadouchos, ἱεροφάντης/hierophantes, βουκόλοι ἱεροί boukoloi hieroi, πυρφόροι/pyrphoroi and of course a φαλλοφόρος/phalophoros are mentioned, all by name:

Regions : Sicily, Italy, and the West (IG XIV) : Italy, incl. Magna Graecia
IGUR I 160
Italia — Roma: Torre Nova, area of — ca. mid. 2nd c. AD — cf. IGUR IV, p. 148, 160

βάκχαι/bacchae
Τύχη/Tyche
Ἐρώτιον/Erotion
Σεουέρα/Seouera
Λύκα/Lyka
etc
and further down:
Στρατηγία/Strategia
Οὐαλερία Ἀριστεῖνα/Oualeria Aristeina
Μυγδονίς/Mygdonis
Νεμεσίλλα/Nemesilla
Φηλείκιτας/Phelikitas
Λύκα/Lyka
Σέμνη/Semne
etc

Finally, in the Greek city of Knidos, in Caria of Asia Minor, at the base of a statue we read:

Regions : Asia Minor : Caria
IK Knidos I 165
Karien — Knidos (Tekir) — 180-170 v.Chr. — AJA 77.1973.422 Anm.37

Κλέαρχον Ἀναξιδώρου
Τιμόξενος Ἀριστοκλεῦς
καὶ Λύκα Ἀναξιππίδα
τὸν αὐτᾶς πάππον

To Clearchos son of Anaxidoros
Timoxenos son of Aristocleus

and Lyka daughter of Anaxipidas
to her grandfather

The epigraphic record, therefore, amply proves, as we said earlier, that Lyka/Λύκα is not only a Macedonian, but a Panhellenic name; all the Greeks used it, in every part of the Greek speaking word.

Let us now go to two inscriptions from Central Greece, with the name Lyka/Λύκα. They are from the oracle of Delphi, where Apollo was worshiped. Both inscriptions very similar, I would say almost identical, which seems to indicate that they followed a ritual pattern for this type of sacred dedicatory texts, where only the names of the persons, the names of the months and the amounts of money involved in the sacred sale were changing. They are dedications to the Pythian Apollo of Delphi.

1 ἄρχοντος Δαμοσθένεος μηνὸς Δαιδαφορίου, ἐπὶ τοῖσδε
ἀπέδοτο Διόδωρος Μνασιθέου Δελφὸς τῶι Ἀπόλλωνι
τῶι Πυθίωι σῶμα γυναικεῖον ἇι ὄνομα Λύκα, τιμᾶς ἀργυ-
ρίου μνᾶν τεσσάρων ἡμιμναίου, καθὼς ἐπίστευσε
5 Λύκα τῶι θεῶι τὰν ὠνάν, ἐφ´ ὧιτε ἐλευθέρα εἶμεν

which translated into English will give us:

1 during the archonship of Damosthenes in the month of Daidaphorios right here
Diodoros son of Mnasitheos, a Delphian offered to Apollon
the Pythian a body of a woman whose name is Lyka worthy
four and a half silver mnas since she
5 Lyka has accepted the sale to the Gods

Regions: Central Greece (IG VII-IX) : Delphi
SGDI II 1963 SGDI II 1962 SGDI II 1964
Phokis — Delphi — 182 bc

Now the second Inscription:

ἄρχοντος Κράτωνος μηνὸς Θεοξενίου, ἐπὶ τοῖσ-
δε ἀπέδοτο Λύκα Δώρου τῶι Ἀπόλλωνι τῶι
Πυθίωι σῶμα γυναικεῖον ἇι ὄνομα Εὔπρα-
ξις. τιμᾶς ἀργυρίου μνᾶν τριῶν, καθὼς ἐπί-
(στευσε)..................................

and in approximate translation:

during the archonship of Kraton in the month of Theoxenios right
here Lyka daughter of Doros offered to Apollon
the Pythian a body of a woman whose name is
Eupraxis worthy three silver mnas since she be-
(lieved)..................................

Regions: Central Greece (IG VII-IX) : Delphi
SGDI II 1961
Phokis — Delphi — 183 bc

In both of these texts we notice the mention of two women named Lyka. They are obviously unrelated, which seems to indicate that this was probably a common name in the area of Delphi. In fact I found a total of seven inscriptions from Delphi (SGDI II 1741 Delphi, SGDI II 1833, Delphi, SGDI II 1876 Delphi, SGDI II 1961 Delphi, SGDI II 1963 Delphi, SGDI II 1975 Delphi, SGDI II 2243 Delphi) where the name Lyka is mentioned no less than 13 times.

The reason is simple: One of the names of the Pythian Apollon is Lycaios Apollon / Λυκαίος Ἀπόλλων or Lyceios Apollon /Λύκειος Ἀπόλλων. To know the meaning of this adjective we go to other words in the Greek language: Lykauges/Λυκαυγές (from Lyke/λύκη, meaning bright light+auge/αὐγή meaning dawn) is the light of the early dawn, when darkness breaks into day.

The same meaning is also found in the Greek word Lykophos/Λυκόφως (λύκη + φώς) for twilight. In ancient Greek we also encounter the word Lykabas/Λυκάβας (Λύκη+βαίνω) which means the going, the traveling, the departure of light, and it signified the time of day that still has light – before it gets dark, but also alternatively the solar year. Therefore, Lyke is a word that means light, and it is related to the word Lychnos which is the oil lamp the ancients used at night. Therefore Lycaios Apollon/Λυκαίος Ἀπόλλων means Apollo the illuminating one, which makes perfect sense considering that Apollon is a Solar God, a God of Light. Homer calls Apollon Lykegenes/Λυκηγενής=born of light, offspring of the light (and not wolf-born as popular etymology would assume, that would have been: Lykogenes/Λυκογενής).

In Arcadia in central Peloponnese we find the worship of Lycaios Zeus/Λυκαίος Ζεύς and indeed the toponym (one of many throughout Greece, from Macedonia to the Peloponnese) of Lycaeon/Lykaion/Λυκαίον Oros/Lycaeon mountain and on that mountain we also find the temple of Apollon at Bassae, in Phigaleia, a work of the celebrated architect Iktinos, one of the most magnificent temples in all of Greece. There is also a town called Lycaia, in Arcadia ("Λύκαια, πόλις Αρκαδίας"/Lycaia, a city of Arcadia - Stephanus Byzantius), adn yet another one, called Lycoa/Λυκόα ("Λυκόα, πόλις Αρκαδίας"/Lycοa, a city of Arcadia - Stephanus Byzantius, referencing Pausanias).

On top of the mountain Lycaeon/Lykaion the Arcadians celebrated the festival of Lycaea/Lykaia/Λυκαία in Honor of Lycaios Zeus/Λυκαίος Ζεύς.

An inscription from the town of Tegea, in Arcadia, enumerates the career victories of a Tegaean athlete, a native son, Damatrios/Δαμάτριος (Doric form of Demetrios), son of Aristippos/Ἀρίστιππος, and we read that among his numerous victories he had also won four times the Javelin throw prize in the Lykaian Games, the Lykaia/Λύκαια, held in his native Arcadia:

IG V,2 142 Arkadia (IG V,2) Arkadia — Tegea — late 3rd c. BC

Δαμάτριος Ἀριστίππου Damatrios son of Aristippos
Ὀλύμπια παῖδας στάδιον, Olympic Games children, Stadion run
Νέμεα παῖδας δόλιχον, Nemean Games children, Javelin
Ἀσκληπίεια παῖδας δόλιχον, Asclepieian Games, children, Javelin
Ἀλέαια παῖδας δόλιχον, Aleaian Gamnes, children, javelin
Λύκαια ἄνδρας δόλιχον τετράκις, Lykaian Games, men, Javelin, four times
Νέμεα ἄνδρας δόλιχον τρίς, Nemean Games, men, Javelin, thrice
Ἑκατόμβοια ἄνδρας δόλιχον ἵππιον δίς, Ecatomboia Games, men, Javelin, twice
Ἴσθμια ἄνδρας δόλιχον δίς, Isthmian Games, men, Javelin, twice
Ἀλέαια ἄνδρας δόλιχον τρίς, Aleaian Games, men, Javelin, thrice
Πύθια ἄνδρας δόλιχον δίς, Pythgian Games, in Delphi, men, Javelin, twice
Ὀλύμπια ἄνδρας δόλιχον ἅπαξ, Olympic Games, in Olympia, men, Javelin, once
Βασίλεια ἄνδρας δόλιχον δίς. Basileian Games, men, Javelin, twice

In the center of Athens, across the Acropolis, there is the white capped hill of Lycabetus/Λυκαβητός, a name it has had since prehistoric times. Then there is Lykeion/Λύκειον, the neighborhood by the temple of Lyceios Apollon, where Aristotle established his school of philosophy appropriately named the Lyceion/Λύκειον, in Latin transliterated as Lyceum. Τhe archaeological site has already been identified several years ago, in modern Athens. Now schools worldwide are called Lyceum/Lyceo/Lycee' due of Aristotle's random choice of that neighborhood as a good place to locate his school.

An inscription found in Athens actually mentions Lyceion/Λύκειον as an Athenian neighborhood landmark location:

IG II² 457 Attica

το τό τε στάδιον τὸ Παναθην]αϊκὸν καὶ τὸ γυμνάσιον τ-
ὸ κατὰ τὸ Λύκειον κατεσκεύ]ασεν καὶ ἄλλαις δὲ πολλαῖ-
ς κατασκευαῖς ἐκόσμησεν] ὅλην τὴν πόλιν·

and the stadion known as Panathenaikon and the gymnasion (a place for exercise),
the one next to Lykeion (Lyceion/Λύκειον) he built and other numerous
structures he decorated throughout the city.

Stephanos Byzantios mentions it too, in his "Ethnica": Λυκείον, τό γυμνάσιον. καί Λύκειος ό Απόλλων, λέγεται καί Λυκήιον / Lyceion, the gymnasium. and Lyceios Apollon, it is also called Lyceeion.

Finally in ancient Greece we encounter the names Lycaon/Λυκαων of Arcadia, Lykastes/ Λυκαστης of Crete, Lycarios/Λυκαριος the Spartan, Lycaonides/Λυκαονιδης the Arcadian, Lycanthos/Λυκανθος the Athenian, Lycainion/Λυκαινιον as a name for a woman from Athens Lycaros/Λυκάροs (IG X,2 2 327) in Macedonia : Derriopos: Styberra (Cepigovo), and Lycaretos/Λυκάρητος (Lebedos 6) from Ionia. We find Lyka/Λυκα a name very popular in Delphi and also Lyca/Λύκα (I.Apollonia 115) from Epeiros, and Lyca/Λύκα ( SEG 36:1156) from Bithynia, Lyca/Λύκα (IC I xviii 95) from Crete, Ctr.: Lyttos and Lyca/Λύκα (SEG 37:450) from Thessaly (IG IX,2): Magnesia: Demetrias. Lycaon/Λυκάων (IvO 91) from Elis in the Peloponnese, Lycaon/Λυκάων (MAMA 10 244) also from Phrygia, Lycaon/Λυκάων (FD III 1:478) from Delphi but also from (Spomenik 98 (1941-48) 48,101) Macedonian Paionia: Idomene? (Isar-Marvinci). Lykaios/Λυκαῖος (Epigr. tou Oropou 353) from Megaris in Boiotia (IG VII), Λυκάδας (Brunšmid, Inschriften 2-14) Epeiros, Illyria, and Dalmatia : Dalmatia, IG IV²,1 188, Λύκαιθος (IG IV²,1) from Epidauros in the Peloponnese, Lycades/Λυκάδης (ID 338) from the Cycladic island of Delos (IG XI and ID), Lycarion/Λυκαρίων (IGUR II 756) from Magna Graecia, in Southern Italy but also Lycarion/Λυκαρίων (SEG 40:1568) from Egypt. Lycandros/Λύκανδρος ( Graffites d'Abydos 91) from Egypt, Lycaris/Λυκάρις (IK Klaudiu polis 15) from Bithynia, Lycaithion/Λυκαίθιον (IK Knidos I 73) from Caria : Knidos. Lycaithos/Λύκαιθος Chios 152) from the island of Chios, and Lycaithos/Λύκαιθος (Iscr. di Cos ED 81) from Cos and Calymna : Kos.

Lyc/Luk-/Λυκ- derived Greek names, are all over the map of the ancient Hellenic world, they are obviously Pan-Hellenic and certainly not exclusive to the Macedonians.

Lyka-/Λυκα- is derived from Lyke/Λυκη meaning "bright light", which is also distantly related to Leukos/Λευκος which means "bright white, shiny, clear, bright" in Greek, and both are directly derived from the original Indo-European word *leukos which meant light, shiny, clear and bright, and related to the Indo-European noun *loukes for light. The Germanic-derived English word "light", the Old Irish "Loch" (glowing white), Hittite "Lukke", Sanskrit "Roki", Tocharian B "Lyuke", Lithuanian "Laukas" for blazing white, as well the Latin words "Lux" for light and "Luceo" for kindle, are all linguistically related to the Greek words "Leukos/Λευκός" the bright white, and Lyke/Λύκη" and of course to the ancient Macedonian, therefore Greek name "Lyka/Λύκα".

If we had the white she-wolf, shown in the photograph above, and had named her Lyka, she would have been Lyka/Λύκα, the lyceia/λυκεία-leuce/λευκή lykaina/λύκαινα:

In ancient Greek:

Λύκα ἠ λυκάλευκη λύκαινα - Lyka he lykaleyke Lykaina: Lyka the brightly white - shiny white she-wolf.

Come to think of it, it almost sounds like the title for a beautiful children's fable, like one of those professor Donski could be writing, once he stops wasting his great talent with words in fake nationalist fables for politically delusional adults of the type that belongs to the VMRO-DPMNE party; fables that try to promote an imaginary Ancient Macedonian Greek past for those with an uncertain and confused identity who happen to live in the lands of ancient Paionia and Dardania.


NOTES:

The photographs from Amphipolis, Lycabetos and Stoboi, as well as the Ancient Greek to English translations are by the author.

Greek Inscriptions
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/main

THE OXFORD INTRODUCTION to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World, Oxford Linguistics, J.P.Mallory & D.Q. Adams, Oxford University Press, 2006-2007

Εθνικά, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ΚΑΚΤΟΣ, Αθήνα, 2004

A LEXICON OF GREEK PERSONAL NAMES - VOLUME IV - MACEDONIA, THRACE, NORTHERN REGIONS OF THE BLACK SEA, The British Academy, Clarendon Press, The University of Oxford, Oxford, 2005

Villages Cities and-Ethne in Upper Macedonia, Rizakis-Touratsoglou, page 82
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20072904/Villages-Cities-and-Ethne-in-Upper-Macedonia

GREEK - ENGLISH LEXICON, Liddell & Scott, Oxford University Press, 1843-1951

Λεξικόν της Αρχαίας Ελληνικής Γλώσσης, Ιωάννου Σταματάκου, Αθήνα, 1972

Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσaς, G.Babiniotis, Athens, 2002

Macedonian names and makeDonski pseudo-linguistics: The case of the name Apelles

Article originally published on may 3, 2009, in the American Chronicle:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/101173

Balkan Illusion - phantasia archaica:
"...it is very interesting to note that many of the authentic ancient Macedonian words, according to their etymology and pronunciation, have a striking resemblance to the appropriate words used in the modern Macedonian language (and other so called "Slav" languages)."
"Apell(es). The root of this name contains the noun "apel" (a call) which we have in the present day Macedonian language"
From: "Similarities between ancient Macedonian and today's' Macedonian Culture (Linguistics and Onomastics)", by: Aleksandar Donski, celebrity folk "historian" from FYROM.

Appeles/Ἀπελλής

Ephoros, son of Demophilos, from Kyme/Εφορος Δημοφιλου Κυμαιος was born about 100 BC. He wrote a 30-book history of the world, from the descent of the Heraclidae (the Dorians) to the years just before the death of Phillip ΙΙ. No lesser a historian than Polybios himself considered Euphorus' monumental work to be the first attempt ever at a writing of a universal history.

Euphorus' work has regrettably disappeared, but in one of his surviving fragments it is that we hear of a beautiful story, a myth about the fabled parentage of the greatest poet of them all: Homer. According to Euphorοs, some distant time back, three brothers lived in Kyme/Κυμη, Apelles/Ἀπελλῆς, Maeon/Μαίων and Dion/Δίων. Before he died, Apelles entrusted his daughter Kritheis/Κριθηίς (written also as: Kretheis/Κρηθηίς) to his brother Maeon/Μαίων. Maeon violated his own niece Kretheis and then betrothed her to a man from Smyrna, called Phemios. One day that Kretheis had gone down to the river Meles/Μελης to do her laundry, as was the usual way to wash cloths in that age, she went into labor and there, by the river Meles she gave birth to a boy. She named him Melesigenes/Μελησιγενης (born of Meles).

Based on the meaning of the name, some say that Kretheis was actually violated by the river Meles himself (all rivers were Gods in those ancient times) and this is how the boy eventually got his name. This last story is what the people of Smyrna believed and accepted as being the true story. The baby boy Melesigenes grew up to become the celebrated poet, the blind man of epic poetry: Homer/Ομηρος himself. (Source: «Epitomo Lexico Ellenikes Mythologias-Επίτομο λεξικό Ελληνικής Μυθολογίας», εκδ. οίκος Χάρη Πάτση, Athens/Αθήνα 1969. Müller, original quote of Euphorus in: "Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum" (FHG), Bd. 1 & 3, Paris 1841-1849).
Apelles/Ἀπελλῆς, then, is what the myth passes down to us as being the name of Homer's grandfather.

Leaving the age of myth, we step into history, four centuries later and into the turbulent times of 4th century BC. Not far from Smyrna, in the Ionian city of Colophon, as most people agree, another man of the arts was born, destined to steal Homer's Poetic fame in a different discipline of the Arts: Painting. Of course, like with every famous man, more than one place, (in his case the island of Cos/Κως, in the Dodecanese/Δωδεκανησα islands) claims to have been his birthplace.

Apelles/Ἀπελλῆς (flourished 352-308 BC) studied under the celebrated painter and Art theorist Pamphilos of Sikyon/Παμφιλος ο Σικυωνειος. He is said to have combined his native Ionia's graceful lines with the Dorian school's simplicity. His fame quickly spread throughout the Greek world and he was soon invited by Phillip II to become the court painter of the Macedonian palace in Pella. Alexander retained Apelles as painter in his court and he refused to have his portrait done by any other painter. Some of his famous works include the portrait of Alexander the Great holding a thunderbolt, exhibited at the temple of Artemis in Ephesos, and Aphrodite Anadyomene, which was taken from the Asclepeion of Cos to Rome and Augustus dedicated it to the shrine of Caesar.

Venerem exeuntem e mari divus Augustus dicavit in delubro patris Caesaris, quae anadyomene vocatur "His [Apelles'] Aphrodite emerging from the Sea was dedicated by his late lamented Majesty Augustus in the Shrine of his father Caesar; it is known as the Anadyomene." Pliny, Natural History (XXXV.91)
The female model for Aphrodite Anadyomene, was a girl considered to have been the first mistress of Alexander the Great, the Larissian Kampaspe/Καμπάσπη, whom Alexander later gave as a gift to Apelles, recognizing that Appeles was more appreciative of her beauty than he himself was and had fallen in love with her.

Considering that none of his work survived the end of Antiquity, his fame as the greatest painter of the ancient world, made him the envy of Renascence painters to whom scant descriptions of his paintings exerted a disproportionately great influence.

There are of course numerous men of antiquity named Apelles, one being among the 70 (O' in Greek numerals) proto-martyrs of the early Orthodox Church:

Την κιθάραν του Πνεύματος την έξάχορδον, τήν μελωδήσασαν κόσμω τας υπέρ νουν δωρεάς, ως έκφάντορας Χριστού άνευφημήσωμεν, Στάχυν Άμπλίαν Άπελλήν συν Ναρκίσσω, Ούρβανόν, και Άριστόβουλον άμα' ως γαρ Απόστολοι θείοι, χάριν αίτούνται ταις ψυχαίς ημών.
Άπολυτίκιον. Ήχος πλ. α'
The six chord guitar of the Spirit, the one that melodiously played to the world in support of gifts to the mind as a revealer of Christ we worshipfully praise Stachys, Amplias, Apelles and Narcissos, Urbanus and Aristoboulos together since as holy Apostles, demand grace for our souls.
Apolytikion, Echos plagios α'

This early Christian Apelles is known to have followed Paul to Rome
"Άπελλήν τον δόκιμον εν Χριστώ" (Ρωμ. Στ' 10)
"Apelles the approved in Christ" Romans 16:10

Apelles the proto-martyr is known to have died a martyr's death in Smyrna (yet another Smyrna connection but now with a different Apelles).

Every city in Greece was considered to be a separate and independent state, with its own laws, traditions, army and foreign policy. The only exceptions were the city was considered as part of a whole state entity were the Greek kingdoms of Epeiros, Macedonia and on occasion Sicily and Thessaly, where there were kings (basileis/βασιλείς) or dictators (tyrannoi/τύραννοι) that could rule over an extended territory, in which territory the cities had far more limited autonomy.

Some Balkan historical revisionists habitually hide behind the fact that few written monuments exist (the famous Pella katadesmos and funerary inscriptions are the only ones to date) of the Macedonian dialect (the Macedonians spoke their colloquial Northwestern Greek dialect but wrote most everything official in Attic Greek, the "proper" Greek of their age) to put forward a claim that the Macedonians did not speak Greek. They are at a loss to explain the fact that the proper names of all the known Macedonians, the names of all the cities that they built, their military terminology and bureaucratic nomenclature is all Greek.
Finally, all of the names of the months of the ancient Macedonians were Greek, and, most importantly, their name combination unique to Macedonia. This means that the Macedonians did not simply copy the names of the Macedonian months wholesale from another city state (otherwise they would have copied intact a calendar of another state)! This is is proof that the Macedonian calendar was an old, traditional calendar, which while it shared most of the names of the months with other Greek state calendars, it was unique in its own combination of names of months to the Macedonians!
Why is the Macedonian an important calendar? Because it regulated not only the lives of the people in Macedonia, but after Alexander's trail blazing conquest of the East, it also regulated the lives of people throughout Hellenistic Asia and Egypt.

For many years after the collapse of Macedonian power in Persia and Media, of modern Iran, the Persians still used the Greek language as a contract language of choice and the Macedonian calendar, to contact their business. An inscription of around 88-87BC from Medea, in Northern Iran is mentioning the Macedonian month Apellaios:
Regions : Greater Syria and the East : Media
IK Estremo oriente 454 IK Estremo oriente 279 IK Estremo oriente 455
Media — Avroman — 88/7 bc — JHS 35.1915.22-65
βασιλεύοντος βασιλέων Ἀρσάκου Εὐεργέτου Δικαίου Ἐπιφα-
νοῦς καὶ Φιλέλληνος, καὶ βασιλισσῶν Σιάκης τε τῆς ὁμοπατρίας
αὐτοῦ ἀδελφῆς καὶ γυναικὸς καὶ Ἀρυαζάτης τῆς ἐπικαλουμένη[ς]
Αὐτομὰ τῆς ἐγ βασιλέως μεγάλου Τιγράνου καὶ γυναικὸς αὐτ[οῦ]
καὶ Ἀζάτης τῆς ὁμοπατρίας αὐτοῦ ἀδελφῆς καὶ γυναικός, ἔτους εκσʹ
μηνὸς Ἀπελλαίου, ἐν ὑπαρχείᾳ Βαισείροις πρὸς σταθμῷ Βαιθαβαρ-
τοις ἐν κώμῃ Κωπάνει,...
While king of kings being Arsaces the Euergetis (the Benefactor) and Dikaios (the Just) and Epiphanes (the Distinguished) and Philhellen (who loves Greeks) and his queens being Siake his compatriot sister and wife, and Aryazate the so called Automa, who is of the great king Tigranes and his wife, and Azate his compatriot sister and wife, in the year εκσʹ in the month of Apellaios, in the province Baiseirois, towards the station Baithabartois, in the township of Kopanei....

A similar in tone inscription comes from Hellenistic Egypt, from 238BC:
Regions : Egypt, Nubia and Cyrenaïca : Egypt and Nubia
Milne, Cairo Mus. 5,22187 Milne, Cairo Mus. 1,22186 Milne, Cairo Mus. 8,9299
Eg. — Tanis (San) — 238 bc — OGIS 1.56A; Prose 91
βασιλεύοντος Πτολεμαίου τοῦ Πτολεμαίου καὶ Ἀρσινόης, θεῶν Ἀδελφῶν ἔτους ἐνάτου, ἐφ´ ἱερέως {²⁷ἐπὶ ἱερέως B}²⁷ Ἀπολλωνίδου τοῦ
Μοσχίωνος Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ θεῶν Ἀδελφῶν καὶ θεῶν Εὐεργετῶν, κανηφόρου Ἀρσινόης Φιλαδέλφου Μενεκρατείας
τῆς Φιλάμμονος μηνὸς Ἀπελλαίου ἑβδόμηι, Αἰγυπτίων δὲ Τυβὶ ἑπτακαιδεκάτηι· ψήφισμα· οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς
καὶ προφῆται καὶ οἱ εἰς τὸ ἄδυτον εἰσπορεύομενοι πρὸς τὸν στολισμὸν τῶν θεῶν καὶ πτεροφόραι καὶ ἱερογραμματεῖς καὶ
While king being Ptolemaios son of Ptolemaios, and queen being Arsinoe, fraternal Gods, during their ninth royal year, and kanephoros (basket carrier in the festival) of Arsinoe Philadelphos being Menekrateia daughter of Philammon, in the month of Apellaios the seventh, and in the Aegyptian calendar Tybi the seventeenth, the decree is passed: The archpriests (chief priests)and prophets and the ones allowed to enter the adyton to decorate the the Gods and the wing carriers and the hierogrammateis (the holy scribes)...

More tellingly, a complete list of the months of the Macedonian calendar is seen written on an inscription from Gerasa, and the Arabian Decapolis, in Arabia, in 6AD:
Regions : Greater Syria and the East : Arabia
Gerasa 295 Gerasa 294 Gerasa 296
Syria, S./Arabia-Decapolis — Gerasa (Jerash) — 6th ac
{²Month names in separate panels:}²
1
[Αὐδνα]ῖ[ος].
[Περίτιος].
Δύσ̣[τρος].
[Ξαν]θικός.
5
Ἀρτε̣[μί]σιος.
Δαίσ[ιος].
[Πάνημος].
Λῷο|ς.
Γορπ[ι]α̣ῖος.
10
[Ὑπερ]β[ετε]τε̑ος.
Δῖ|ος.
[Ἀπελλαῖος].

1
Audnaios
Peritios
Dystros
Xanthikos
5
Artemisios
Daisios
Panemos
Loos
Gorpiaios
10
Hyperberetaios
Dios
Apellaios

It is documents like these that declare the Hellenism of the ancient Macedonians, at least as much as the Greek language that the Macedonians propagated to the far reaches of their empire. It is not enough for someone to simply take on the name of the Macedonians, as the psudo-makedonists have done, and automatically achieve a connection to the ancient Macedonians. A boy that dresses in girl's clothes and puts on a lipstick is still a boy. It takes more than that. Nations are not built on Nazi notions of Blut und Boden/Blood and Soil.
No blood and no soil united the people who came as immigrants to the United states, from diverse lands speaking diverse languages, yet a new nation was formed, the American nation. The Greeks who live in Macedonia today can still read the inscriptions from Iran or Egypt, as written above and they can translate and comprehend them without even as much as the use of an ancient Greek dictionary, while the Slavomacedonians are speechless in front of these inscriptions. For good reason: a Greek visiting Skopje or Belgrade, Kiev or Moscow cannot understand the Slavic inscriptions there either. But to their credit, Greeks never claimed to be Slavs either. It is the other way around with some of the Slavomacedonians, who claim to be [pseudo-]Macedonians, therefore Greeks. Then they reach levels of self ridicule trying to prove that the ancient Macedonians of the 4th century BC were essentially Slavic speaking and not Greek.
You can write the names of these months months in Cyrillic, but still, Иперверетајос, Диос, Aпeллеjос mean nothing to the average person in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: they are dead letters to anyone with no Greek language training or knowledge.

We know the names of most months for many Greek city states. November, for example in Athens was Maimakterion/Μαιμακτηρίων. The same month in Macedonia has a very different name: Apellaios/Απελλαίος. We need to remember here what Herodotus tells us about the Dorians...that they were initially part of the Macedonian tribes, before they split from them and descended to southern Greece:

2] ἱστορέων δὲ εὕρισκε Λακεδαιμονίους καὶ Ἀθηναίους προέχοντας τοὺς μὲν τοῦ Δωρικοῦ γένεος τοὺς δὲ τοῦ Ἰωνικοῦ. ταῦτα γὰρ ἦν τὰ προκεκριμένα, ἐόντα τὸ ἀρχαῖον τὸ μὲν Πελασγικὸν τὸ δὲ Ἑλληνικὸν ἔθνος. καὶ τὸ μὲν οὐδαμῇ κω ἐξεχώρησε, τὸ δὲ πολυπλάνητον κάρτα. [3 ἐπὶ μὲν γὰρ Δευκαλίωνος βασιλέος οἴκεε γῆν τὴν Φθιῶτιν, ἐπὶ δὲ Δώρου τοῦ Ἕλληνος τὴν ὑπὸ τὴν Ὄσσαν τε καὶ τὸν Ὄλυμπον χώρην, καλεομένην δὲ Ἱστιαιῶτιν: ἐκ δὲ τῆς Ἱστιαιώτιδος ὡς ἐξανέστη ὑπὸ Καδμείων, οἴκεε ἐν Πίνδῳ Μακεδνὸν καλεόμενον: ἐνθεῦτεν δὲ αὖτις ἐς τὴν Δρυοπίδα* μετέβη καὶ ἐκ τῆς Δρυοπίδος οὕτω ἐς Πελοπόννησον ἐλθὸν Δωρικὸν ἐκλήθη.
Ηροδοτου Ιστοριαι A' 56.2
[2] He found by inquiry that the chief peoples were the Lacedaemonians among those of Doric, and the Athenians among those of Ionic stock. These races, Ionian and Dorian, were the foremost in ancient time, the first a Pelasgian and the second a Hellenic people. The Pelasgian race has never yet left its home; the Hellenic has wandered often and far. [3] For in the days of king Deucalion it inhabited the land of Phthia, then the country called Histiaean, under Ossa and Olympus, in the time of Dorus son of Hellen; driven from this Histiaean country by the Cadmeans, it settled about Pindus in the territory called Macedonian; from there again it migrated to Dryopia, and at last came from Dryopia into the Peloponnese, where it took the name of Dorian.
Herodotus, Book I, 56.2) Translated in English by: A.D.Godley.

It is obvious that mythologically there is a strong thread connecting the Macedonians, the Epirotans and the Dorians of the Peloponnese far in the south. Let us remind ourselves that what we now call mythology of the Greeks was to them their religion. It was the sacred tales of their Theogony and Ethnogony, the holy books that described their primeval world and their ancestral descent. It was stories told and retold from generation to generation, tales poetically recited, epics of heroes and acts of the progenitors, that were later written down for posterity and for teaching the younger generations. Herodotus, whose stories -from details about Egyptian Mummification techniques to stories about the Thracians, Persians and Skythians- have been proven to be correct from the archaeological record and through linguistics and other fields time and again. Dismissing his stories as some kind of ancient paid propaganda (as some professors have claimed in recent years, judging possibly "εκ των ιδιων τα αλλοτρια"/"others by their own standards") should never be done without running the risk of being proven wrong, once again, and Herodotus (as always) right!

It was shown by Herodotus that the sacred mythology of the Greeks connects the Dorians of the Peloponnese and the Macedonians. Let us for a moment remember November's name in Attic Greek: Maimakterion/Μαιμακτηρίων. But the Macedonians who were using the dialect of the Athenians, Attic Greek, as language of written documentation in their state, had steadfastly held on to their religious and other traditions, the calender being a major part among them. The calendar is closely knit with the religious fabric of the city: all religious, civic and agricultural aspects of their society was regulated by their calendar. The calendar, therefore was not something they would readily exchange or alter. It was simply too complicated to do that. So we know that the calendar of a state was always conservative and old. In fact the Macedonian calendar not only survived in Macedonia but was in fact exported to all the places where Macedonians ruled in the Hellenistic age, from Egypt to India. In point of fact, it out survived the Macedonian dialect itself.

Let us see how November was called in Boeotia, where Thebes was the major city: Alalcomenios/Ἀλαλκομένιος. In Rhodes, it was called Sminthios/Σμίνθιος. Among the Cretans November was called Eiman/Ειμάν.

The Epeirotans/Ηπειρωται, on the other hand, who spoke the same Northwestern Greek dialect as the Macedonians, called November not surprisingly: Apellaios/Απελλαίος. We move to the sacred oracle of Delphi/Δελφοί, in Central Greece, in Phocis/Φωκίς, far removed from Macedonia but close to Thebes and Athens, yet by the Delphians November was called Apellaios too. In Doric Lacedaemon/Λακεδαίμων whose principal city was Sparta / Σπαρτα, in the south of the Peloponnese, the Dorian Spartans also called their November Apellaios.

If we take the boat from the southern tip of Peloponnese and sail towards Crete we will find first Kythera and then the smaller island of Antikythera. The Antikythera mechanism, is an ancient Greek computing device that was found by sponge divers in an ancient ship wreck by the Antikythera island, in 1901. It is a marvel of ancient Greek technology, created out of bronze between 150 and 100 BC. It is now exhibited at the National Archeological Museum of Athens.

A group of scientists has recently announced that this mechanism was not just another computer but specifically a computer of the night skies, a planetarium in a box, a mechanical calendar used to precisely calculate, among other things, the different Olympic and other athletic sacred games and holidays of the Greeks.
http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/system/files/Athens_2006_Conference_Booklet.pdf

The assumption was always that the mechanism was probably made in Rhodes, which was a center for this kind of mechanical devices in antiquity, but lately we hear of something else: that the Antikythera mechanism was most probably not made in Rhodes, as previously hypothesized, but in Taormina/Ταυρομενιον, a Greek colony of Syracuse/Συρακουσαι in Sicily. How can we know? Because they were able to read the inscriptions on the bronze rings, and the names of the months were corresponding to the last to the months used by Taormina and Syracuse of Sicily, both of which were Corinthian (therefore Dorian) colonies, and they all used the same calendar...just proving once again the conservative power of calendar based tradition!

We read the months, in the Corinthian alphabet as they are written on the Antikythera mechanism: ΦΟΙΝΙΚΑΙΟΣ, ΚΡΑΝΕΙΟΣ, ΛΑΝΟΤΡΟΠΙΟΣ, ΜΑΧΑΝΕΥΣ, ΔΩΔΕΚΑΤΕΥΣ, ΕΥΚΛΕΙΟΣ, ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣΙΟΣ, ΨΥΔΡΕΥΣ, ΓΑΜΕΙΔΙΟΣ, ΑΓΡΙΑΝΙΟΣ, ΠΑΝΑΜΟΣ, ΑΠΕΛΛΑΙΟΣ:


http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2008/12/olympiad_dial.jpg
(reconstructed)


http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/74EC8DA0-D062-CF7A-4CA2D42F5E5580E9_1.jpg (reconstructed)

It is very interesting to note the name of the last month of this calendar, November as it was called by the Dorian Corinthians of the Peloponnese and the Sicilian Greeks of Syracuse and Taorminia: ΑΠΕΛΛΑΙΟΣ/APELLAIOS! Anyone that can read capital Greek letters can clearly read it in the photograph of the reconstructed mechanism at the website shown above.

Is there a meaning to the name? All Greek names have a meaning. Nothing is arbitrary in the Greek language. It is very logical. Pelas/Πελας is the near one, the neighbor, the one close by. There is a related verb called Pelazo/Πελαζω and its shorter form Pelao/Πελαω which means to be close to others to associate with others. Homoios homoio aei pelazei/Ομοιος ομοιω αει πελαζει, the ancient Greek expression still used in Modern Greek reminds us: "Simillar people associate with their each other". Apellazo/Ἀπελλάζω in Laconic Dorian meant exactly what Ekklesiazo/εκκλησιάζω meant in Attic Athenian: to get together, the gathering of the people the ΛΑΟΣ/LAOS, in order to make a decision. In more Archaic times, in Homer or earlier, Laos/Leos meant specifically the armed men, the people under arms,
οίον δ' αστέρα ήκε Κρόνου πάϊς αγκυλομήτεω
ή ναύτησι τέρας ηέ στρατώ ευρέϊ λαών
λαμπρόν: τού δέ τε πολλοί από σπινθήρες ίενται:
she shot through the sky as some brilliant meteor which the son of scheming Saturn has sent as a sign to mariners or to some great army,
and a fiery train of light follows in its wake
Homer, Iliad, IV,75-77
Apellazein, therefore, originally meant the gathering of the army, and Apella/Απελλα in ancient Sparta retained this ancient Doric meaning and so was called the meeting of the soldier citizens of Lacedaemon. Apella is the Doric and Macedonian equivalent to the Attic and Ionian Ekklesia: the gathering of the people. (Liddel & Scott Greek English Lexicon).

But Apelles has also a very obvious second meaning: the one of God Apollo/Apóllōn /Ἀπόλλων who was also called Apellōn/Ἀπέλλων. (as above L&S)

Some offered an alternate etymology by hypothesizing that Apollo's name could be associated with the Greek verb apollymi/απόλλυμι="to destroy". None other than Plato believed that Apollo's name was derived from ἀπόλυσις= to redeem, ἀπόλουσις = "purification", or ἁπλοῦν "simple", (the Thessalian form of Apollo's name, was Aploun/Ἄπλουν), or possibly from Ἀει-βάλλων "ever-shooting".

The Byzantine lexicographer Hesychios/Ησυχειος comes closest to the truth by connecting Apollo's name with the Doric Αpella/Ἀπέλλα = the "assembly", so that Apollo becomes the God of political life, of the assembly of the army, of the tribe and later of the city. Apollo is also the God of flocks and protector of herdsmen. Apollon seems to have been a very old deity, common to both the Greeks and the Anatolians (the Hittites knew him as Aplu, and to the Trojans as Appaliunas or Apalunas, and Homer mentions Apollon as being the God-protector of Troy-the city of Illion).



Apollon is also known as Nomios/Νόμιος, from Nomos/Νόμος which means the land allocated to the nome/νομή / pastoral distribution of animals. He is also called Karneios/Καρνείος, from Karnos/Κάρνος, Epimelios/Επιμήλιος and Poimniow / Ποίμνιος all meaning the herder of animals. Apella/Ἀπέλλα as it becomes apparent, did not only mean a gathering of people, but it also indicated a gathering of animals. Apellon / Apollon, therefore, was originally the God protector of pastoral life and the shepherds. In Odyssey we see him as Helios the sun God, who kept a herd of sacred cattle.

Apollo's association with music and the "Music" arts of the Muses is very revealing: music, dance history and poetry readings, were essentially communal artistic expressions practiced at communal gatherings, the Apellai/Ἀπελλαι.

The Indo-European root word from which the Greek word apella/απέλλα is derived is: pe'lh1us (pelhh1- fill) which also creates: *pleh1dhwe'h1s that indicates: (the mass of) people. The Greek word Plethos / Πληθος (= the mass of people, the croud) and the Latin word Plebes / Plebeians being the "many", the "multitude", as contrasted to the "few" Patricians are both derived from it.

The following names are a few of the many Greek names that are derived from Apella/Apellon/Apollon:

Apellas/Ἀπελλᾶς, Apellikon/Ἀπελλικῶν, Apelliketis/Ἀπελλικετης, Apellaios/Ἀπελλαίος, Αpollodemos/Ἀπολλόδημος, Apollodotos/Ἀπολλόδοτος, Apollodora/Ἀπολλοδώρα, Apollodoros, Ἀπολλόδωρος, Apollocrates/Ἀπολλοκράτης, Apollophanes/Ἀπολλοφάνης, Apollonia/Ἀπολλωνία, Apollonides/Ἀπολλωνίδης, Apollonios/Ἀπολλώνιος, Apollonis/Ἀπολλωνίς, and of course the name of the famous Greek painter from Ionia, the official portrait painter of Alexander the Great: APELLES/ΑΠΕΛΛΗΣ.