PREHISTORIC DACIA

PART 5 – Ch.XXXIII

The Pelasgians or proto – Latins (Arimii)

The Pelasgians from the northern parts of the Danube and the Black Sea

PART 5

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XXXIII. 1. The Titans (Titanes)

The most ancient, the most glorious among all the Pelasgian tribes were the Titans.

They were called by the ancient authors, genus antiquum Terrae and Terrae filii (Virgil, Aen. lib. VI. v. 580).

According to the Theogony of Hesiodus, the first children conceived by Terra, or Gaea, with Uranos, were the Titans, twelve in number, six men and six women; and their names were the following: Oceanos, Coeos, Crios, Hyperion, Iapetos, Cronos (Saturn), Rhea, Tethys, Themis, Thia, Mnemosyne and Phoebe (Theog. v. 133-136).

In fact, most of these names represent only simple personifications of geographical regions, rivers and mountains [1].

[1. Hyperion, a word whose meaning is “person from beyond”, represented the region from beyond the mountain, Transilvania of today, or the “country from beyond”, as the people from Romania calls it (Anonymus Belae reg. notarius, ch. 24 and 26: terra ultrasilvana and Ultra siluas). The Odyssey (VI. 4) mentions Hyperia, or the “Country from beyond”, situated close to the Cyclops, from where the Pheacii had emigrated.

Tethys corresponds to the forms Tetsys and Tezys, conform to its ancient pronunciation. In the old Greek language the letter th had a sibilant sound, an s was added to t, and sometimes th represented z, for example Zeus was in reality the same word as theos. According to the ancient legends, Tethys had been married with Oceanos potamos, or Istru, and in this way they gave birth to a large number of names of big and important rivers, along which were settled various Pelasgian populations (Hesiodus, Theog. v. 337). By its name as well as by the geography of the legends of theogony, Tethys (Tetsys or Tezys) is only a personification of the big river from the western parts of ancient Dacia, which flows into the Danube, called by Jornandes Tysia, by Ravennas Tisia, by Constantinus Prophyrogenetus Titsa (Adm. Imp. C. 40), and in the medieval documents and chronicles of Hungaria Titia, Tisza, Tiza, Tyscia, Thiscia. The epithets “cana, candida, fecunda, and magna” given to the goddess Tethys, are also characteristics of the same river.

Themis – the country of this goddess was in the northern parts of Illyria (Apollod. II. 5. 11. 4), near the sources of the river Oceanus (Pindar, ap. Clem. Str. VI. p. 731), or Istru. From a geographical point of view, Themis personified in antiquity the river today called Timis, Timesas by Const. Porfyrogenetus (Adm. Imp. 40), which springs from the south-western Carpathians of Transilvania, and flows into the Danube. One of the daughters of the goddess Themis was called Dice, the goddess of justice. She represented, by name and attributions, the region called Dacia (Dicia by Ulpian). The Getae, or Dacians (Dacii), were according to Herodotus (V. 93) the most just of all Thracians; and according to Homer (Iliad, III. 3), the inhabitants from the north of Thrace were the most just of all peoples.

Thia (Theia, pronounced Tsia, Zia) appears in the ancient theogonies as the wife of Hyperion (Hesiodus, Theog. 374), or of the “Country from beyond”. In fact Thia is only a personification of the river today called Jiu, which flows from the south-western parts of Transilvania, crosses the Carpathians along the Vulcan pass, traverses Oltenia, and flows into the Danube.

Phoebe has at Hesiodus (Fragm 177) the epithet mamma (grandmother). From the form of the name and the interpretation given it by Hesiodus, Phoebe seems to have been only the personification of a mountain, which in ancient Pelasgian language had the name “Baba” or “Babe” (TN – Old woman, or women)].

The ancient family of the Titans was therefore composed of 12 tribes. The country of the Titans was, according to all the historical traditions, in the northern parts of Thrace, near the river Oceanos potamos. The first Titan in fact had the name Oceanos, meaning Istru.

The Hyperboreans, who dwelt as we know north of the Lower Danube (Frag. Hist. graec. II. 387. 3; Diod. III. 56,) were considered descendants of the Titans. Atlas, the most powerful king of the Hyperboreans, who later was transformed into a huge mountain, was also a Titan; or in other words, the Titans were the dominant tribe of his kingdom. Latona, the Hyperborean virgin, who, being chased by Juno, wandered through the world, and gives birth to Apollo and Diana in the island of Delos, was also the daughter of a Titan.

The Titans played a very important role in the history of the first Pelasgian empire. They formed the most ancient, most noble and most energetic class in the social hierarchy during the times of Uranos and Saturn. The first kings of the Pelasgian state were from the family of the Titans. The Titans administered all the public functions. They were at the same time the religious chiefs of the Pelasgian state, for which they were also called Titan gods (Homer, Hymn. in Apoll. v. 335; Hesiodus, Theog. v. 630, 668). The Titans dethroned Uranos and gave the empire to Saturn, after which they sustained together a ten year difficult war against Jove. But Saturn was defeated and Jove occupied the throne of Uranos.

Unhappy with this change, the Titans rose again under the leadership of Atlas, wanting to oust Jove and reinstate Saturn. But their fate was unfavorable, they were defeated the second time (Hyginus, Fab. 150) and their entire class was exterminated. Some were shut into a deep and vast cave called Tartaros (Hesiodus, Theog. v. 717), while others left the region from near the Istru, emigrated and scattered through various Pelasgian lands.

The battle of the Titans with Jove took place in the woodlands of Tartesius, near Cerna, on the territory of ancient Dacia, in the same region which figures under the name sidereiai pylai at Homer (Iliad, VIII. 15; Hesiodus, Theog. v. 814), or the mountains near the cataracts of the Danube.

We also find the following tradition with Dio Cassius (Histoire rom., Ed. Didot, lib. LI. 26):

“In the battle with the Getae (29-28bc), the Roman general Crassus caught the brother of king Dapyx (Dabigia), and afterwards he went to the vast and strong cave where a great number of the inhabitants of that land had taken refuge with their most precious objects and their flocks; in this cave, the legends tell us, had taken refuge the Titans, when defeated by the gods”.

The etymology and form of the name Titan is not Greek. Regarding the ancient meaning of this word, Homer tells us that the Titans were the ”proto- parents of the gods and of the illustrious men” (Hymn. In Apoll. v. 335-337; Iliad, XIV.v. 201). And in the 37^th Orphic hymn, the Titans are called the proto-parents of our parents (Pauly, Real-Encycl. See Titanes, p. 2003).

We have therefore the explanation of the word Titanes with the meaning of patres and progenitores.

The etymology of this name is reduced then, by its form and meaning, to the radical tata or tetta, tata or parinte (TN- father or parent). It results therefore that the term Titanes is identical by its origin and meaning with the Romanian form tatani (forefathers).

With the ousting of Saturn from the empire, the political role of the so-called Titani ceases. Their numerous class, rich, powerful, and superb, is completely extinguished. Some are destroyed in the great civil war, which ends with the catastrophe at Tartesius, others are shut in dark caves (Tartaros), and those who could escape the fury of the victors are forced to find another country. Some take refuge in Italy, others scatter through Hellada, Asia Minor, Hispania and the northern parts of Europe (Germany).

Among the most ancient tribes of Rome, the historical traditions mention the so-called Tatienses (Taties, Titienses and Tities).

These Tatieni formed, together with two other tribes, called Ramnes and Luceres, the wealthiest, most noble and high social class of ancient Rome (Varro, L. L. lib. V. 55). They are called patres, later patricii, and are considered as antiquissimi cives (Cicero, pro Caecina, c. 35). All the public affairs of the Roman state were in the hand of these patres. They alone administered, during a number of centuries, all the priestly, civil and military functions. In the beginning they considered themselves as the only intermediaries between the gods and state; they were a kind of Titenes theoi. They formed in the Roman state a permanent council of governance. They had the right to designate the king’s successor. With them rested the decision of war and peace. Sure of their ancient glory, they considered themselves as a class of a different nationality and a different blood than the other poor, uncultured citizens, of obscure origins, whom they called plebs (Livy, lib. IV. 4; VI. 42; IX. 26; X. 15). Their traditional and privileged name of patres is also mentioned in the XII Tabule: Ne patribus cum plebe connubium sit (Tab. XI. Frag. 1).

The origin of this patriarchal institution, of this senate, composed of representatives of certain ancient families, was without doubt predating the epoch of Romulus. It belonged to the original organization of the Pelasgian society. Or, in other words, the fundamental organization of Rome was that which the Pelasgians had had in the times of the Titans.

The poet Persius calls the patricians ingentes Titos (Sat. I. 20), an evident allusion to the ancient Tatienses, Taties or Tities and to their originating from the powerful and illustrious nation of the Titans. The Roman people, Suetonius tells us (Oct. Aug. c. 35), also called these patres Orcini, meaning those who had once been shut in Orcus or Tartaros; and Plutarch writes that they also received the satirical epithet of Charonitae (Oeuvres, Paris 1784, T. VII. c. 15, p. 131), meaning those who had once gone into Tartaros or hell with Charon’s boat. Finally, the poet Juvenal makes an ironic allusion (Sat. lib. VIII. v. 131-133) to those Romans, certainly patricians, who reduced their origin to the ancient Titans. We also note here that Pisa, one of the most ancient Etruscan cities, had been founded by a colony of emigrants from the eastern parts of Europe, called Teutani (Pliny, lib. III. 8. 2).

We are therefore faced with a positive historical fact. The ancient Roman tribe known under the name of Tatienses (Taties, Tities and Titienses) constituted only a small group of the powerful and glorious nation of the Pelasgian times, called Titanes or Titenes, a community of families who, escaping from the terrible war from the Carpathians, had passed into the Italic peninsula and had settled there near another fragment of Ramni or Arimi, who had also emigrated there from the Lower Danube.

We find other remains of the noble and famous tribe of the Titans, scattered around the Aegean (Mediterranean) Sea. As Philochorus tells us, one of the ancient Titans had settled in Attica (fragm. 157 in Fragm. Hist. gr. I. p. 410). A powerful titan with the name of Tityus, son of Gaea, was mentioned as king of Eubea (Apollodorus, Bibl. lib. I. 4. 1. 3; Homer, Odyssey, VII. v. 324). A brother of king Priam of Troy is called Tithonus (Homer, Iliad, XX. v. 237). We find in Gallia a barbarian prince Tatinos (Mionnet, Description des medailles antiques, Suppl. Tome I. 161). Finally, a tribe with the name Titti (Dittani) appears on the territory of Hispania even at the time when this peninsula was not conquered by the Romans. They had a particular sympathy for the Roman people, and similarly the parents of Rome towards them (Polybius, lib. XXXV. 2). Their legates were admitted in the senate, and although they were barbarians, they were permitted to speak in their national language.

Traces of the name of the ancient Titans from the Lower Danube have been also preserved in the medieval documents of Hungary: a village with the name Tathen, today Teteny, is mentioned at 1205 close to Buda. Another village Tathun was around 1279 in the county Simigiu (Jerney, Thesauri l. hung. I. p. 137, 140). A wealthy and powerful family of nobles, whose possessions were between the rivers Drava and Sava, is mentioned in the documents of Hungary with the name genus Thethen (Wenczel, Cod. Dipl. Arp. Cont., 1228, vol. VI. 457); and one of the members of this family is called Deschen (Decian?).

Finally, a Tetenius (Lucius, Inscriptiones Dalmaticae, Venetiis, 1673, p. 25) appears on a Roman inscription from Dalmatia.

We arrive now at the legendary country of the Titans, the territory of Dacia.

In Romanian folk traditions, the ancient Titans figure under the name Tatari.

It is said about these Tatars that they had once been a powerful people. They had dwelt on the territory of the Romanian Country after the Giants (TN – uriasi) and before the Romanians; and the Dacians, who lived on the mountains, were only a sort of Tatari (answers to our historical Questionnaire).

To these ancient Tatari are attributed the various remains of primitive pottery (Neolithic) which are found on the territory of the country; the graves with large, undressed stones; the little cells dug in live rock; the ancient citadels of earth and stone; the fountains and water pipes discovered in the ruins of these fortifications; the thick bricks unearthed by peasants with their ploughs; the paved roads or areas; the large mounds which stretch in long lines towards the Danube and the lower parts of Moldova; finally, a significant number of deserted villages where remains of antique constructions are found, and which are called selisci tataresci.

It is evident that these Tatari, to whom Romanian traditions attribute the remains of the original civilization of these countries, have nothing to do either with the nomad hordes of the Cumans from the north of the Black Sea (12-13^th centuries), or with the Mongols of Gingis Khan (1241-43).

The term Tatari in Romanian historical traditions is only a simple dialectal form of the word tatani. At the Carpathians and the Lower Danube had existed from the most remote times, a particular Pelasgian idiom, characterized by the changing of n in r between two vowels (see Ch. XXVI. 6). This phonetic particularity has been preserved on the territory of ancient Dacia until late, in the Middle Ages.

We shall cite a few examples. In the Voronet Codex, written around the beginning of the 16^th century (Sbiera, Ed. Acad. Rom. 1885), we find the following forms of the word tatan:

Pag. 18: Dumereca 7 a santtilor tatari, the 7^th Sunday of the holy parents.

Pag. 38: Legea tataresca – the Law of the parents

Pag. 102: obicniteloru tataresci – the customs of the parents (obiceiurilor parintesci)

Finally, we note here that in an old Romanian folk ballad, the parents, or the senators of the city Brasov in Transilvania, are called “Tartorii tergului” and this name is attributed to them in a traditionally good meaning, in no way ironic (Tocilescu, Materialuri folk. I. p. 1238).

At north of the Lower Danube the term Tatar comes from a very remote age.

The Greek historian Herodorus tells us that Hercules had learnt the art of bow and arrow from a Scythian called Teutaros (Fragm Hist. graec. Vol. II. 29, fr. 5). This shepherd from the north of the Lower Danube was therefore from the nation of the ancient Titans.

In Greek theogonies, Saturn has also the epithet Tartaros (see Ch. XII. 3), meaning the father (tata or tatan). In Egypt though, Saturn was called more correctly, Tatunen (Pierret, Le Pantheon egyptien, p. 6. 55), and was invoked in the following terms: “Parent of the parents, great from the first time, etc”.

Finally, Apollo, the god of the sun, who also had the epithet Titan, was venerated in some parts of Rome under the name Tortor, as Suetonius tells us (Oct. Aug. c. 70).

From an ethnic point of view, the Titans belonged to the Pelasgian nation.

In the genealogy of prehistoric peoples, Titan, the proto-parent of the Titans, figures as a grandson of the king Pelasg (Apollodorus, Bibl. lib. III. 8. 1).

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