"The national poetry of the existing Slavonic nations, more nearly approaches that of the Homeric Greeks than does that of any other families of mankind. The Sanskrit metres are in the same category as the Slavonic." - Robert Gordon Latham, 'The Ethnology of Europe' (1852)

RT @YugoslavVisuals: Ilinden Memorial, also known as ‘Makedonium’, in Kruševo, Macedonia. Photo by Donald Niebyl.

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"The people known as Macedonians were the southernmost tribe of the Thracians. They promoted the adoption of Greek speech, dress and customs with the result that the Macedonians ended by becoming thoroughly Hellenized." - Ferdinand Schevill. History of the Balkan Peninsula, 1923.

Welsh historian, James Howell, wrote about the Slavonic language in 1630, saying that “besides Slavonia itself, which properly is Dalmatia and Liburnia, it is the common speech of the Macedonians, Epirotes, Bosnians, Serbians, Bulgarians, Moldavians, Rascians, and Podolians.”

The relics of Gorazd and Angelar rest near Berat in Albania, Naum at his monastery by Lake Ohrid, and Clement at the Panteleimon Monastery in Ohrid. Their mission shaped the religious and literary culture of Bulgaria, Macedonia and the wider Slavic world.

Clement continued his work into old age, translating key liturgical texts like parts of the Bright Triodion. He died in 916 at the Ohrid monastery he founded, buried in a coffin he made himself. His works are the earliest known original Slavonic compositions.

In 907, Moravia fell to the Magyars. Refugees followed the same routes once taken by the exiled disciples. Bulgaria again received Slavic clergy and promoted Slavonic liturgy as a unifying cultural force.

In 893, Clement became bishop of Dremvitsa/Velitsa, the first hierarch in the Bulgarian Empire to serve, preach and write entirely in Slavonic. He systematically trained local clergy, ordaining some 3,500 men. Naum succeeded him as head of the schools.

Clement was appointed to teach in Kutmichevitsa (a region in southwest Macedonia), a role for which he was already known in Moravia. He trained clergy, ran schools for both adults and children, and prepared liturgical texts in Slavonic.

From Constantinople, Naum and Angelar traveled to Bulgaria. Tsar Boris I welcomed the former Moravian exiles, eager to promote worship in Slavonic and strengthen literacy among his people. Angelar died soon after arrival.

Arrested, tortured, and imprisoned; the disciples were eventually sold into slavery in Venice. An envoy of Emperor Basil the Macedonian in Venice ransomed the Slavic disciples and brought them to Constantinople. Elderly supporters were exiled; Gorazd and Sava vanish from records.

Their mission faced fierce opposition from Latin-German clergy, backed by the Pope and Prince Svyatopolk of Moravia. Disputes centered on the right to use Slavonic in worship, the Filioque clause, and Saturday fasting. Pope Stephen VI banned Slavonic liturgy outright.

The “Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles” Clement of Ohrid, Naum, Sava, Gorazd and Angelar were Slavs and disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius. In Moravia, Gorazd succeeded Methodius as bishop, fluent in Slavonic, Greek and Latin; Clement, Naum, Angelar and Sava served as priests. 🧵

In Macedonian, "babe" is what you call your grandmother, and what your grandmother calls you.

Macedonian women, appareled in the beautiful dress of their district, suggest the barbaric splendor of Asia rather than the costume of the oldest state in Europe.

RT @shopkarishte: Месечината над Охрид. #moon #ohrid

He also suggests it may indicate the tomb’s young female occupant practiced a form of “sati” — ritual self‑sacrifice or strangulation on a spouse’s death — a custom Herodotus records among the Getae.

Richard A. Gabriel (2010) suggests that the presence of the gorytos indicates that Philip may have married a daughter of Ateas to legitimize control of Scythian/Getic lands after 339 BCE, consistent with his frequent use of marriage as a diplomatic tool.

Diodorus, Justin, and others recount Philip’s 339 BC victory over Ateas: the Scythian forces are defeated, and 20,000 women and children are taken captive and sold into slavery, along with large numbers of cattle and horses.

Historical records, like Herodotus, note Scythian mastery of mounted archery, suggesting the gorytos reflects Macedonian adoption of Scythian tactics, a shift supported by the weapon’s design optimized for horseback use, as analyzed in studies of ancient military technology.

The golden gorytos found in the Tomb of Philip II at Vergina. A combination bow case and quiver, it was common among Scythian archers but rarely found in Macedonian contexts, suggesting cultural contact — perhaps linked to Philip’s 339 BC campaign against the Scythian king Ateas.