[tied] Re: alb. gji

From: Daniel J. Milton
Message: 19505
Date: 2003-03-02

I was careless when I wrote "I'm not aware of any foundations myths
that put either people [Thracians and Trojans] elsewhere than in their
historic homes". Zeus had a son Dardanos, who lived on Samothrace
(was the island regarded as an outlier of Thrace? and does the name
indicate that? I don't know) but later moved to the mainland of Asia
Minor, married the daughter of Teukros and named the land Dardania.
His son Ilos went to Phrygia, where the king gave him a spotted cow
and told him to build a city where she should lie down. He followed
the cow (out of Phrygia?) until it lay down on the hill of Ate, where
he built Ilion (=Troy). This is all from Keightley's "Classical
Mythology (1854); I omit the original citations.
Also, I should acknowledge "According to unvarying Greek tradition
the Phrygians were most closely akin to certain tribes of Macedonia
and Thrace (11th Enc. Brit.).", which fits well with the modern
hypothesis of a Thraco-Phrygian language group. Phrygia proper was
inland from the Troad, but the Trojans were indeed sometimes loosely
called Phryges ("because Troy belonged to Phrygia," Lewis & Short) by
Roman poets, including Vergil (but apparently not by prose writers -
was it just "elegant variation" or a fit to the meter?).
My point was to rebuke Alex for what seems to me reading more into
Vergil than he ever wrote. I think that still stands.
Dan