Bryges

Bryges or Briges (Greek: Βρύγοι or Βρίγες) is the historical name given to a Thracian people that dwelled in Ancient Macedonia north of Beroia in the neighborhood of Mount Bermius.^[1] Based on extremely limited archaeological evidence, some modern authors such as Eugene N. Borza argue that the Bryges were members of the Lusatian culture that migrated into the southern Balkans during the Late Bronze Age.^[2]

Herodotus states that according to the Macedonians, the Bryges changed their name to "Phruges/Phryges" (Phrygians) after crossing the Hellespont into Anatolia sometime between 1200 BC and 800 BC.^[3] This movement may have been caused by the collapse of the late Bronze Age, particularly the fall of the Hittite Empire and the power vacuum that was created. In the Balkans, the Bryges occupied central Albania and northern Epirus,^[4] as well as Macedonia, mainly west of the Axios river, but also Mygdonia, which was conquered by the kingdom of Macedon in the early 5th century BC;^[5] they seem to have lived peacefully next to the inhabitants of Macedonia,^[6] however, Eugammon in his Telegony, drawing upon earlier epic traditions, mentions that Odysseus commanded the Epirotian Thesprotians against the Bryges.^[4] Small groups of Bryges, after the migration to Anatolia and the expansion of the kingdom of Macedon, were still left in northern Pelagonia and around Epidamnus. Herodotus also mentions that in 492 BC, some Thracian Brygoi or Brygians (Βρύγοι Θρήικες) fell upon the Persian camp by night, wounding Mardonius himself, though he went on with the campaign until he subdued them.^[7] These Brygoi were later mentioned in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, in the Battle of Philippi, as camp servants of Brutus.^[8] However, modern scholars state that a historical link between them and the original Bryges cannot be established.^[9]

Etymology

The Bryges either owned their name as a prehistoric tribe located somewhere else, such as the plains of Asia, or they received it at their Mygdonian location or near it. There is no certain derivation for the name and tribal origin of the Bryges.

Bryg-onyms

Free men

The Lexicographer Hesychius (5th century AD) relates that in the Indo-European, Anatolian lanuage of Lydians, neighbours of Phrygians, Βρίγες, Briges signified free men.^[16] (Original Text: Ἰόβας δὲ ὑπὸ Λυδῶν <ἀπο>φαίνεται <βρίγα> λέγεσθαι τὸν ἐλεύθερον. "Juba (1st century BC) opines that (the) free (man) is called briga by Lydians".

Highlanders

The "highland view" is that Bryges belong to the "highlander" synonymy of the Macedonia region. Since 1844, Hermann Müller has related Bryges to German Berg (mountain) and Slavic Breg (hill, slope, mountain).^[17]

This view partially explains the similarity of the name to the names of distant tribes, such as the Celtic Brigantes, "highlanders" in that case, but a different highland and a different acquisition. The highland etymology of the Brig-/Breg- class of Celtic names is venerable and focuses on the hilly, or mountainous regions of the Grampian Mountains, the Alps and the Pyrenees. It was only a matter of time before a connection to the Bryges was made; for example, the Reverend Robert Owen postulating an ethnic substrate from Asia called the Kymry interprets Bryges as the same as Welsh brig-wyr, "hill-men."^[18]

On the other hand, if Brigantes were named after the goddess Brigantia, a form of the Celtic goddess, Brigid, other cultural factors may have been operant; after all, the Phrygians, an Anatolian offshoot of the Bryges, were noted for their worship of Cybele, perceived as a mountain goddess.

Neither the Kymry nor Brigit's status as a mountain goddess have stood the test of time. The linguist, Julius Pokorny, offered a derivation of many of the names from Indo-European *bhereĝh- "hoch, erhaben", English "high, elevated, noble, illustrious."^[19] The Brig-/Breg- forms must come from the zero-grade (drops the root -e-): *bhṛghu-, which is responsible for Armenian berj "altitude" and such names as Thracian Bergoulē, Berge and Illyrian Berginium. Pokorny mentions various others such as Gallic Brigantes, Germanic Burgundians, Pergamum, Perge and Bornholm but he happens to omit Bryges.

Historical sources say that the Bryges substituted Phryges for Bryges on migrating to Anatolia. If this statement implies a linguistic change, and Bryges is "highlanders", then Armenian berj should not have retained the b, but other factors may have been effective.

Keepers of the sacred flame

On the eastern side connections between various identities of the Rig Veda and western tribes have been proposed, one of which is the Bhrigus.^[20] They fought in the Battle of the Ten Kings and were the source of the Vedic fire-priests of the same name. Their most likely etymology is the Sanskrit root *bhrij-, "to burn, roast", having especially to do with lightening.^[21] According to Lanman,^[22] the etymology is the same as that of English flame, from Indo-European *bhel- "to shine, flash, burn."^[23] Noting that Greek phrugein, "to parch", comes from this root^[22] and that Brigid is a goddess of fire, one is tempted into a far-flung speculation of an Indo-European synonymy based on the worship of fire, which would include a large number of tribal names meaning "bright", such possibly as Hellenes. Apart from more limited connections the validating research remains to be performed.

Brigands

An alternative for Brigid is the goddess of war, Old Irish brīg and others from Celtic *brig-, from which English brigand, brigantine and brig.^[24] The root is the same as for the highland interpretation, but instead of the landforms being great the people are. "Warriors" would be one translation, as the people are great in war (which is consonant with the reputation of the Macedonians), but there is also a connotation of brigandage. The alternative etymology of the Dorians as the "people of the spear" (doru) would be relevant in this case.

Language

Notes

^ Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 1854 (Original from Harvard University), p. 452. "BRYGI (Βρύγοι), called BRIGES (Βρίγες) by the Macedonians, a Thracian people dwelling in Macedonia, north of Beroea in the neighborhood of Mt. Bermius."
^ Borza, Eugene N. In the Shadow of Olympus: the Emergence of Macedon. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990, ISBN 0691008809, p. 65. "What can be established, despite an extremely slight archaeological record (especially along the slopes of Mt. Vermion), is that two streams of Lausitz peoples moved south in the later Bronze Age, one to settle in Hellespontine Phrygia, the other to occupy parts of western and central Macedonia."
^ Herodotus. Histories, 7.73. "The Phrygian equipment was very similar to the Paphlagonian, with only a small difference. As the Macedonians say, these Phrygians were called Briges as long as they dwelt in Europe, where they were neighbors of the Macedonians; but when they changed their home to Asia, they changed their name also and were called Phrygians.1 The Armenians, who are settlers from Phrygia, were armed like the Phrygians. Both these together had as their commander Artochmes, who had married a daughter of Darius."
^ ^a ^b Edwards, Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen (1973). The Cambridge Ancient History, Part 2, The Middle East and the Aegean Region c.1380-1000 BC. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
^ Thucydides, 2.99.
^ Borza, Eugene N. In the Shadow of Olympus: the Emergence of Macedon. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990, ISBN 0691008809, p. 65. "There is no record of conflict between the Bryges and the local population; they are described as synoikoi ("fellow inhabitant" or neighbors) of the Macedonians."
^ Herodotus. Histories, 6.45
^ Plutarch. The Parallel Lives (Brutus).
^ Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians. Blackwell Publishing, 1992, ISBN 0631198075, p. 111. "The presence of Bryges at Epidamnus in the account of Appian seems to be confirmed by other sources, including the Coastal Voyage attributed to Scymnus of Chios and Stabo's Geography. No later record of their presence in the area survives nor can any link be established with the Bryges of Thrace..."
^ Apollonios Rhodios (translated by Peter Green). The Argonautika. University of California Press, 1997, ISBN 0520076877, p. 223. [Glossary] "Brygean Isles: A group of islands occupying the (supposed) Adriatic delta of the Istros R. (Danube) and sacred to Artemis."
^ Hazlitt, William. The Classical Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Ancient Geography, Sacred and Profane. Whittaker, 1851, p. 81. "Brygias (Brygium, Brucida), capital of the Brygi, Illyria, E. of Lychnitis palus on the Via Egnatia, bet. Lychnidus (13) and Scirtiana (4). Presba."
^ Epigraphical Database
^ Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 1854 (Original from Harvard University), p. 452. "Some of the Brygi were settled in Illyricum, where they dwelt apparently north of Epidamnos. Strabo assigns to them a town Cydriae."
^ Craik, Elizabeth M. The Dorian Aegean. Routledge, 1980, ISBN 0710003781, pp. 47-48. "The Greeks were aware that some such names had a foreign ring: it was said that the dried figs of the Brigindara region were 'barbarian' in name, though 'Attic' in the enjoyment they gave."
^ Torr, Cecil. Rhodes in Ancient Times. Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1417921889, p. 5. "The places whose ethnics were Amios, Amnistios, Astypalaeeus, Brycuntios, Brygindarios, Casareus, Diacrios, Dryites, Erinaeus, Istanios, Neopolites, Pontoreus, Rynchidas and Sybithios were probably not in the territory of Lindos; but there is nothing to shew the position of any of these, except that Rynchidas may be the ethnic of Roncyos."
^ Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, Phrygia.
^ Das nordische Griechenthum und die urgeschichtliche Bedeutung des Nordwestlichen Europas by Hermann Müller, p. 228.
^ Owen, Rev. Robert (1891). The Kymry: Their Origin, History and International Relations. Carmarthen: W. Spurrell and Son, p. 230.
^ Pokorny, Julius. "Indogermanisches Etymologisches Woerterbuch" pages 140-141. University of Leiden. Do a search on Page 140. The notes are German-language but with German dictionary the English-only speaker should be able to translate the brief entries.
^ Johnson, Linda (1999). The Living Goddess: Reclaiming the Tradition of the Mother of the Universe. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Yes International Publishers, p. 76. ISBN 0936663286.
^ Ragozin, Zenaide A. (2005). Vedic India as Embodied Principally in the Rig-Veda. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, p. 364. ISBN 1417944633.
^ ^a ^b Lanman, Charles (1955). A Sanskrit Reader: Text and Vocabulary and Notes. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, page 209 under *bhrāj-.
^ "Bartleby.com". The American Heritage Dictionary: Appendx I: Indo-European Roots.
^ Partridge, Eric (1983). Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English. New York: Greenwich House, Under Brigade. ISBN 0-517-414252.
^ The Phrygian Language An ancient language of Western Anatolia. 8th century BC to 2nd century AD. Old Phrygian from 8th - 3rd centuries BC, in distinct alphabet, related to Greek; later texts in Greek alphabet.

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