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Final legal and factual results of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) are far away from the dreams and hopes of the Bulgarian people.
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Tearing of the Bulgarian national territory in 1878 was an event that predetermined Bulgarian society objectives and in particular the guidelines of active policy of the Bulgarian state in the coming decades.
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The celebration of the 90th anniversary of the magazine "Macedonian Review" provides a good opportunity for a new, modern look and evaluation of performed in the past and present scientific and public tasks, but also for designing its future.
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Съществуването на Ахеменидска сатрапия „Скудра” в Европейска Тракия дълго се е основавало на данни от антични епиграфски и литературни паметници. Същевременно много учени оспорват статуса на Скудра като сатрапия. Настоящата статия допринася към дискусията с анализ на данните от пет селища в Тракия свързвани с персите (Сестос, Дорискос, Ейон, Миркинос и Бориза), сравнени с находките от три града в Мала Азия които със сигурност били под управлението на Ахеменидите (Гордион, Сарди и Даскилеон). За разлика от последните, в тракийските селища не са открити цилиндрични печати, промени в култовете и погребалните обреди, епиграфски, нумизматични и ономастични данни, доказващи наличието на персийска администрация в Тракия. Откритите в региона множество предмети с източен характер (фиали, ритони, изображения на митични животни в торевтиката) е по-скоро резултат от културните връзки между Тракия и съседните й райони, засвидетелствани дълго преди появата на Ахеменидите. Анализът на археологическите, лингвистичните и историческите данни за разглежданите селища показва, че те са били бази на персийски гарнизони, използвани по време на военните кампании на Дарий и Ксеркс. Няма данни за съществуването на централизирана персийска власт в Европейска Тракия и скоро след провала на Ксеркс в конфликта с гръцките градове-държави, селищата, обитавани от персийски гарнизони преминали в ръцете на гърци или траки.
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In August 2010 Krastava Tumulus became subject of full archaeological research. A central grave, four ritual platforms and a fire were discovered therein. A person was probably cremated and buried in a one-step pit dug in the south-east part of the tumulus. The grave goods can be split in three groups. The first one covers the personal jewelry of the particular Thracian well-born man/ woman: a gold appliqué with no image, a gold lunula, a massive gold earring and a gold ring with carneol intaglio with the image of a bee. The second group comprises bronze and clay vessels of different sizes and shapes. All vessels refer to the libation and/or washing practices before, during and/or after the performed ritual. Among these vessels there are at least three clay pitchers and three bronze wash basins of different sizes. One of the basins is a tripod and might have been used either as a podanipter (vessel for washing the feet) or a cauldron. The vessel’s legs are shaped as winged sphinxes with four lion’s paws each, staying firmly on a pedestal formed as a large lion’s paw. The main sphinx elements are emphasized by means of silver coating on the bronze. The third group of grave goods consists of different beads, amulets, small-size cult objects, and a silver mirror. These are the so-called ‘Zagreus’ toys’. According to the myth the child Zagreus was playing with those toys, and when he looked into the mirror, he got torn in seven pieces by the Titans. These objects were presumably used in that person’s lifetime for ritual practices such as fortune-telling. Thus they suggest the priest function the deceased used to have in the Thracian society of the Roman Age. One of the beads is scarab-shaped and has a hole to be worn on a string; a scene is engraved on its flat side, representing a right-profiled man’s figure standing before a sacrificial altar and predicting the fortune by stargazing. The priest’s function is once more emphasized by such attributes as scepter and rhomb. The object might have been an amulet, worn either in a leather pouch or on a string. The iconography of the scene is of eastern origin and represents a pattern rooted back in the centuries and millennia like the seal of the Sumerian priest Hashhamer from the late 3rd millennium B.C. or the plate of King Meli-Shih from the Babylonian Kasyt Dynasty in 12th C BC. A two-wick clay lamp, fragments from the casing and decoration of a toilet-ware wooden box, as well as a silver coin of Emperor Trajan dated to 103 or 104 remain outside the above-mentioned three groups. The early 2nd c. is the final date of the burial in Krastava Tumulus. Immediately after the cremation in the center of a flat platform south of it must have taken place certain post-ritual practices as for ex. ritual banquets around a fire enclosed by slab-stones. As a whole, the grave in Krastava Tumulus is dated to the very early 2nd c. and comprises grave goods utilized over a long period of time and handed down from generation to generation. On one hand, the lack of weapons suggests that the buried person may have been a woman and this is supported by the small size of the gold finger ring. On the other hand, a man is depicted on one side of the scarab-shaped amulet. Hence the buried person, having the status of a priest, fortune-teller or magician, might have been of male or female sex. And since there is not enough bone material for anthropological research, it is impossible to specify the sex of the individual, who used to hold the secret knowledge of the ancient Thracians transmitted orally amongst the initiated.
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The submitted essay deals with the origin and development of the mythological figure of Polydorus (the translation of the name from Ancient Greek means as much as „many-gift[ed]”) and its eventual rooting in well-known ritual practices in Ancient Thrace. Although the name comes up already in Homer’s Iliad, in ancient-Greek literary tradition it is generally associated with Euripides’ tragedy Hecuba (dated to ca. 425 BC, mostly because of the occurrence in its text of allusions to the revival of the Delos Festivities in 426 BC). The whole conception of the tragedy Hecuba seems to be organized namely with a view to the localization of the tragic action in Thrace, in an explicit Thracian context; this fact has presumably led a number of researchers preoccupied with its study to the assumption that the mythological figures of Polydorus and of the Thracian king Polymestor are not to be regarded as a result just of Euripides’ purely poetical fantasy – they have rather been loaned from some local “gloomy” myth from the Thracian Chersonese. Does it seem possible to reconstruct an eventual cult situation pre-conditioned by the Thracian localization of the action of the tragedy feeding up the tragic characters in Euripides’ tragedy? The exposition is organized in 3 main groups of source problems: 1. In the first place is considered the mythic-literary complex related to the epiphany and prophecies of Polydorus in the context of Euripides’ tragedy Hecuba and its literary tradition. The appearance of the ghost of Polydorus deliberately removes the pathos of the tragedy from the figure of Achilles and his traditional ritual space in Troas (eventually near Sigeon, where the ancient authors localized Achilleion and the burial tumulus of the hero) in Thrace, and, respectively, on the Thracian Chersonese. Through the incorporation of the ritual space of the Thracian Chersonese into the range of events in his tragedy Euripides created a new model of the dramaturgic space, also adding a new functionality to it by means of the metaphoric image of Ancient Thrace as identification of the specific border area and borderline situation of the tragedy crisis. One may suppose however that the author suggested this particular approach in the literary interpretation of the mythological material not so much as a response to his dramaturgical prototypes – whoever they might be – as rather as following the logics of the Thracian localization of the events of the tragedy action. 2. All this also very clearly indicates the post-Euripidean tradition about Polydorus considered in the second place in the submitted essay. After the staging of Euripides’ tragedy Hecuba in the last quarter of the 5th century BC the mythological figure of Polydorus “was revived” only during the 2nd century BC through the imitations of Roman tragedians like Ennius (Hecuba), Pacuvius (Iliona), and Accius (Hecuba). The mythological narrative about Polydorus in Latin literature – especially the version of Pacuvius (Iliona) and the Chronical of the Trojan War, referred to Dictys of Crete and dated to AD 4th century – is an original evolvement-interpretation of the Euripidean tradition merging anonymous sources of mythology with Homeric elements. 3. The most significant tendency of development of the mythological narrative on Polydorus offers the tradition connecting Polydorus’ prophecies with the founding of the city of Aineia (Αἴνεια; Aene(i)a; alternatively – Aineiadai as designation of its inhabitants, as well as of the city of Aenus situated on the shore of the river Hebros), assigned to Aeneus. This tendency reveals an earlier circle of sources, alternative to the tradition of the foundation of Alba Longa, where Aeneus founds an eponymous city in Thrace and dies (or – his father Anchises) being buried there as a heros oikistes. An integral moment of a great part of the mythic-literary versions is the specific cult situation surrounding an underground mystery sanctuary (tumulus or cave) with a prophesying (anthropodaemonized) “Bacchus’ prophet” identified with the epic hero Polydorus. Certainly, the Roman authors oriented their efforts towards the developing of the conception on the foundation of Alba Longa by Aeneus, omitting the earlier mythographic details about the stay of the hero in Thrace. 4. Finally, last but not least, the literary material is analyzed in the Dionysian context of the tragedy conceptualization of Euripides’ Hecuba, where oracular dreams, prophecies and Bacchic associations frame up the mythic-dramaturgical events as a whole. The outlines of the Dionysian ritual space, in which the action of the tragedy Hecuba is embedded, appear dramaturgically sealed by some additional artistic strokes deliberately loading the women of Troy with Dionysian characteristics. The conclusion yields the hypothesis that we may possibly be facing a literary, respectively dramaturgic reinterpretation of a cult situation surrounding an underground mystery sanctuary (tumulus or cave) with an anthropodaemonized “Bacchus’ oracle” prophesying there, in this case identified with the (pseudo-) Homeric hero Polydorus. It seems very probable that Euripides merged the image of the epic hero Polydorus, generally associated with Dionysos, with the figure of the local Thracian anthropodaemonic prophet, towards which a sanctuary with an oracle site of Dionysian type leans, thus laying the beginnings of a new literary tradition. The pattern of the mythical creation might appear identical with that of the tragedy Rhesus ascribed to Euripides. Reconstructible seems also the steady mythological core and the ritual complex related to the founding of a new city, along with the required underground mystery sanctuary (tumulus or cave) with a prophesying (anthropodaemonized) oracle (“Bacchus’ prophet”) there, as an alternative to the Delphic oracle site.
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The present paper attempts at reconstructing the initial situation when the cult of Achilles was founded on the island of Leuka. To this effect the earliest written evidence related to it is being discussed: Aetiopis’ fragment by Arktinos from Miletos, Alkaios’ fragment, Pindar’s and Euripides’ verses. These are considered against the background of the archaeological evidence from the island gathered for a century and a half. Greek concept of the North and identification of the small piece of land with the White Island – The Island of the Blessed – Leuka provides a useful context for the discussion. Research results show that the earliest written evidence that locate geographically the cult in the Pontos Euxeinos and on this specific island date back to the 5th century BC: those are the texts by Pindar and Euripides. It is generally accepted that in the time when Aetiopis was created and even before that, e.g. in the 8th – early 7th century BC, the name White Island existed in Greek tradition and was associated with other mythological and literary notions as the Island of the Blessed and the White Rock, which had nothing to do with the Black Sea island and Achilles planted there in the beginning of the Greek colonization of the area. So far data confirms that the cult on the island of Leuka, the island opposite the Istros delta, was most probably constructed as worship of Achilles in the first half of the 6th century BC when apoikoi were settled along the northwestern Pontic coast. The name Leuka or White Rock certainly existed long before Greek colonists located, recognized and gave a name to the small piece of rocky land in the Black Sea. Greek interpretation of the Pontos Euxeinos as the abode of the dead, as the place of crossing over to the netherworld, an idea related to the Greek/Ionian concept of the North, significantly facilitated the process.The author is skeptical about Skythian contributions to the shaping of Achilles’ myth and cult as claimed by some scholars. However, it is demonstrated that Greek seafarers in the region found there rituality that they recognized as a mythological and literary topos known to them as the abode of the hero Beyond. This “meeting” is echoed in Alkaios’ metaphor calling the land beyond the Istros, Skythia.The offered conclusions have highly been stimulated by the research of the Greek colonization during the last few decades when scholars considered it as an unceasing process of interrelations, contacts and interactions.
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1. ИМПЕРИИТЕ. От средата на 5 в.пр.Хр. насетне, Одриското царство в югоизточна Европа, подобно на Лидия и Персия в Мала Азия, от етносна държава, в която царят властва само над собствения си етнос, се превръща в империя. От средата на 5 в.пр.Хр. Делоската симахия от съюз става Атинска архе-империя. Голяма част от полисите по крайбрежията на Одриската базилея-империя, от средата до края на 5 в.пр.Хр., се включват като данъкоплатци в Атинската архе. През първата половина на 4 в.пр.Хр. това продължава и при Втората Атинска империя. Развитието на икономиката на Одриското царство от втората половина на 5 и първата половина 4 в.пр.Хр., от етносна в имперска, налага на царете да облагат с данъци не само поданите етноси, но и елински полиси. 2. РЕЗИДЕНЦИИТЕ. Местоположението на 28 владетелски резиден- ции потвърждава, че държаните от одриските царе крайбрежия са: западната и средната част на Северното Мраморноморие – най-вече при и около Хиерон орос/Ганиада, източната половина на крайбрежието на Тракийско море и в югозападното Черноморие. Видно е, че по тези морски крайбрежия на Одриското царство има не само елински полиси, но и достатъчно крайбрежни владетелски резиденции, които се допълват и от други на континента. В тези управленски пунктове на Одриското царство се генерира владетелска мощ, от тях се налагат и се събират данъците, както от подвластните траки, така и от елинските градове. 3. ТЪРЖИЩАТА. Около 20 вътрешни и крайбрежни тракийски тържища със смесено население, но и същинските елински емпориони по морските крайбрежия, а доколкото е възможно и по-големите полиси, намиращи се по тях, се контролират от одриските владетелски резиденции заради техните пазарни функции, свързани с ускореното развитие на стоково-паричните отношения през тези векове. 4. ПОЛИСИТЕ. 16 полиса не плащат на Атинската архе минимум около 40-50 таланта, които най-вероятно отиват в хазната на Одриския двор. По-големите и силни полиси като Бизантион, Селимбрия и Перинт от Мраморно море; и Енос, Самотраки, Маронея и Абдера от Тракийско море, макар и членове на Архета, са относително свободни полиси, които, до голяма степен са сравнително независими спрямо политиката на властване над тях от Одриската базилея. Изключение в това отношение правят Селимбрия на Мраморно море и Енос на Тракийско. По-малките като Даунион тейхос, Дидюмон тейхос, Бизанте и Серейон тейхос от Северна Пропонтида и Дикая, Дрюс, Зоне, Сале и Дейре от Тракийско море, също имат относителна автономия, но като емпориони по същината си, по-реално са включвани в границите на Одриската империя. При това, те ще функционират, съобразно нейните и техните собствени интереси, а не толкова и само, съобразно интересите на Атинската архе.
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In connection with the key issue in Thracian phonetics of the graphic variants with alternation of voiceless and voiceless aspirated plosive consonant and variants with alternation of voiced and voiceless consonant different kind of Thracian names have been examined in the paper: hydronyms (Ἄèсõò/ Iatrus/ Ieterus, Ἀèэсáò/ Atyras, Иéáгüëá/ Tiagula, Pathissus/ Parthiscus/ Πáсôßσêον, ФÝáсοò/ ИÝáéсοò, Utus/ Uthis, Timachus/ Timacum, *Óáëäοâõσσοò/ *Óáëôοâõσσοò, Pingus/ Pincus etc.); personal names (like Áěáäοêοò/ Amadochus, Áõëοõêåνèοò/ Aulucentus, Dentis/ Дåνèéò, Danda/ Дáνôù, Еπôησõ÷οò/ Еπôησõêοò, Еπôáêåνèοò/ Eftecentus, Zimarcus/ Жéěáс÷οò, Жåéπáò/ Жåéâáò, Кåôсéποсéò/ Кåäсéποëéò, ÓéôЬëêηò/ Sithalcus, Óπáсôáêοò/ Sparticus/ Óπáсôõ÷οò); settlement names (Ἀсгßäáõá/ Arcidava, Дßåсνá/ Tierna, Кэшåëá/ Chympsala, Мηêэâåсνá/ Мηêэπåсνá, Sparton/ Sparthon, ФЬсáνôοò/ ДЬсáνäοò, Фüěοé/ Thomi); tribal names (Всэгåò/ Всэêåò, Дüëοгêοé/ Dolongi, Ксησôῶνåò/ Γсáσôῶνåò, Фсáõσοß/ Thrausi); god epitheta (Кåνäсåéσοò, Кåνäсåéσåéá/ Кåνôсåéσåéá) etc. The usual explanation of this phenomenon is that it was due to the shifting of consonants in the Thracian language. The following view is substantiated in the paper: The occurrence of names with the variants aspirated/non-aspirated consonants was territorially spread from Dacia, Moesia and Scythia Minor (Pathissus, Ἄèсõò, Thomi, Amadochus) to the Propontis, the Aegean Sea and the islands (Ἀèэсáò, ἈèсõÀëáôοò). Consequently, this variation is not due to the different presence of the Indo-European consonant in two different languages or dialects. A look at the variation of aspirated/non-aspirated consonant shows that some forms with aspirated consonants are earlier than those with non-aspirated ones, as in Ἄèсõò and Timachus, whereas in others they are later (Amadochus, Breierophara, Sithalcus, Óπáсôõ÷οò); in a third category it is not possible to determine a chronological difference (Еπôησõ÷οò, Жéěáс÷οò). Hence, the phenomenon was not a result of any internal linguistic evolution either. In the light of these facts a more appropriate explanation of the cited graphic variants can be the following: the voiceless plosive consonants in Thracian, due to their different pronunciation compared to the Greek sounds (probably more tense), were also rendered by means of Greek aspirated consonants, which was possible because such consonants were absent in Thracian. There is also the possibility of dual use of the Greek aspirated consonants: on the one hand, for voiceless plosives, and on the other – for spirants. The rendering of a dental spirant can possibly be assumed for some rare cases of è/ σ alternation as in Дåνèåëῆôáé/ Denseletae, Жâåëèοõсäοò/ Жâåëσοõсäοò and Óåэèáò with the form of the genitive variant Óηõσá. In variants of names rendered in some cases by means of a voiced and in other cases – by a voiceless consonant, the explanation should probably be sought again in the imprecise correspondence between the Thracian and Greek or Latin voiced consonants, that is why voiceless consonants were also used in some cases for the graphic rendering of the Thracian ones. The examples of double writing with voiced and voiceless consonant are much fewer than those of alternation of voiceless and voiceless aspirated ones, which might be assumed as an indirect confirmation of the idea of absence of aspirated voiceless consonants in Thracian. I believe that for this reason the Greek aspirated consonants may have also been used to render simple voiceless consonants, whereas the presence of voiceless consonants limited the double transcriptions of the voiced consonants, in spite of their different (softer) pronunciation compared to the respective Greek sounds.
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This publication considers materials with linguistic issues included in the book of the first anniversary of the magazine "Macedonian Review".
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First Bulgarian celebration of Slavic Apostles St. St. Cyril and Methodius in Rome was organized on 24 - 25 May 1924 at the initiative of prof. Lyubomir Miletic, the future president of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Macedonian Scientific Institute.
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The present article concerns the Catholic clergy’s attitude towards the communist system in the Opole Voivodeship. From the beginning of changes to the political system in 1944 members of the clergy were submitted to various forms of forcing them to be politically loyal and ready to cooperate with the authorities. The research undertaken leads to a conclusion that the opinion promoted by contemporary propaganda presenting attitudes among the clergy as mostly positive does not seem to be so certain. In the Opole Diocese passive and moderate feelings certainly dominated, as well as those awaiting. Disapproving or even hostile attitudes towards the new system, authorities, directives and decrees passed were not uncommon. Positive attitudes were rare. In 1956 the repressive policy of the authorities towards the clergy was only partly restricted.
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"Where the slopes of the mountains Belasitza and Ograzhden converge and form the Klyuchka ravine, on a hill on the right bank of the river Strumeshnitsa, the Gradishteto is located known amidst the locals as the "Samuil's Fortress".
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This article is devoted to an incompletely studied problem affecting the legal status of the citizenship / nationality of the Bulgarian refugee and migrant families arrived before and especially after September 9, 1944 from the newly annexed in 1941 lands.
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In the center of the spiritual renewal of the Renaissance epoch is the establishment of the Bulgarian language as one of the most important cultural processes, inherently. connected with the strengthening of Bulgarian national self-awareness and to the social and economic conditions the Bulgarian people are formed as a nation.
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