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Write us: with comments or observations, or to be put on our mailing list or to be taken off our mailing list, contact us at nikobakos@gmail.com.
Tags: Albania, Edward Lear, Epiros, Greece, Ioannina, Γιάννενα, Ιωάννινα, Jiannena, Ottoman Empire, Yanya
From Wedaneus @ArcGreek
Great Kings of Antiquity: Cyrus, Porus, Darius and Alexandros. Fresco in Saint Achilios church in Pentalofos*, Kozani, 1744. Source: http://ellinikihistoria.com
How weird. An eighteenth-century church fresco painter in far western Macedonia knew his Achaemenid history. But I guess between the classical historians (Plutarch, etc.) and dramatists (Aeschylus) things Iranian (well, Porus was king of what we call Punjab today…) were transmitted on a popular level too, mostly through the Alexander “saga”.
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* Pentalofos (above) is a pretty village that lies in the northernmost mountain pass between Epiros and Greek Macedonia, between the prefectures of Ioannina and Kozani. Given its location, it’s kind of surprising that it’s not a Vlach village, though it might have been in the past, given how many regions on the eastern side of the Pindos mountains were Vlach-speaking in the past but that that has been forgotten. I’m also pretty sure that, despite its sound, “Pentalofos” is actually its real name and is not a made-up replacement for a traditional Slavic one.
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Write us: with comments or observations, or to be put on our mailing list or to be taken off our mailing list, contact us at nikobakos@gmail.com.
Tags: Achaemenids, Aeschylus, Alexander the Great, Cyrus, Darius, Ioannina, Iran, Jiannena, Kozani, Macedonia, Pentalofos, Pindos, Plutarch, Porus, Punjab, Vlach, Vlachs
Me, I'm Nicholas Bakos, a.k.a. "NikoBako." I'm Greek (Roman really, but when I say that in English some five people in the world today understand what I'm talking about, so I use "Greek" for shorthand). I'm from New York. I live all over the place these days. The rest should become obvious from the blog.
See "JADDE: THE MISSION AND STARTING OFF, the blog's first entry below, and JADDE: THE NAME OF THIS BLOG for my general agenda:
Please contact me with comments, questions, complaints or -- please -- corrections at: nikobakos@gmail.com and on Twitter: @jaddeyekabir
Jadde: from Bosnia to Bengal