Chaonia

Chaonia or Chaon (Greek Χαονία or Χάων) was the name of the northwestern part of Epirus, the homeland of the Epirote Greek tribe of the Chaonians.[1][2] Its main town was called Phoenice. In Virgil's Aeneid, Chaon was the eponymous ancestor of the Chaonians.[3]

For the community in the United States, see Chaonia, Missouri.
Chaonia (Χαονία)
Region of Ancient Greece
Theatre of Buthrotum
Theatre of Buthrotum
LocationNorthern/Northwestern Epirus
Tribal state (later subdivision of Epirus)8th–2nd centuries BC
LanguageNorthwestern Greek
CapitalPhoenice
Regions of Ancient Greece.

Name

According to mythology, the eponymous ancestor of the Chaonians was Chaon. Etymologically, both the region of Χαονία 'Chaonia', and the name of its inhabitants Χάονες 'Chaones, Chaonians', derive from Χάων 'Chaon', which in turn derives from the Greek *χαϝ-ών 'place with abysses'; cf. Χάον ὄρος 'Chaon mountain' in Argolis, χάος 'chaos, space, abyss', χάσκω 'to yawn', χάσμα 'chasm, gorge'.[4]

Geography

Strabo in his Geography,[5] places Chaonia between the Ceraunian mountains in the north and the River Thyamis in the south. The Roman historian, Appian, mentions Chaonia as the southern border in his description and geography of Illyria.[6]

Important cities in Chaonia included Cestrine (modern Filiates), Chimaera (modern Himarë), Buthrotum, Phoenice, Cassiope (Modern Kassiopi) Panormos, Ilium (modern Despotiko) Onchesmus (modern Sarandë) and Antigonia.

Mythology

In Vigil's Aeneid, Aeneas visits Chaonia and meets Andromache and Helenus. He is told he must continue on to Italy, and instructed to meet the Sibyl concerning a more specific prophecy as to Aeneas's destiny.[7]

See also

References
  1. Errington, Malcolm. A History of Macedonia. University of California Press, 1990.
  2. The Cambridge Ancient History: Vol. 6, the Fourth Century BC.
  3. Virgil. Aeneid, 3.
  4. Georgiev, Vladimir Ivanov (1981). Introduction to the History of the Indo-European Languages. Publishing House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. p. 156. ISBN 978-953-51-7261-1.
  5. Strabo. The Geography. Book VII, Chapter 7.5 (LacusCurtis).
  6. Appian. The Foreign Wars, III.1 (ed. Horace White).
  7. Virgil (1993). Aeneid. Translated by Fitzgerald, Robert. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-41335-9.

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