Pseudanor

Pseudanor (Greek: [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%23115444 Ψευδάνωρ] + false man) was a Macedonian epithet,apellation to Dionysus.Other Macedonian appellations to the God were Ἄγριος [Agrionia also, Boeotian festival to Dionysus] " [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%23893 Agrios] " wild , Κρυπτός " [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2360245 Kryptos] " hidden and Ἐρίκρυπτος "Erikryptos" totally hidden.All the above names of Dionysus are attested in four inscriptions from Beroea 248-264 AD [Epigraphical Database [http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/oi?ikey=149528&bookid=27&region=4&subregion=11] [http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/oi?ikey=149529&bookid=27&region=4&subregion=11] [http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/oi?ikey=149530&bookid=27&region=4&subregion=11] [http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/oi?ikey=149531&bookid=27&region=4&subregion=11] ] .

However the history of "Pseudanor" goes back to 7th century BC.The Macedonian historian Polyaenus(2th c.AD) relates the below Macedonian :

"In the reign of Argaeus, the Illyrian Taulantii under Galaurus invaded Macedonia.Argaeus, whose force was very small, directed the Macedonian virgins (parthenoi), as the enemy advanced, to show themselves from mount Ereboea ( Ἐρέβοια ). They accordingly did so; and in a numerous body they poured down , covered by wreaths, and brandishing their thyrsi instead of spears. Galaurus, intimidated by the numbers of those, whom instead of women he supposed to be men, sounded a retreat; whereupon the Taulantii, throwing away their weapons, and whatever else might retard their escape, abandoned themselves to a precipitate flight. Argaeus, having thus obtained a victory without the hazard of a battle, erected a temple to Dionysus Pseudanor; and ordered the priestesses of the god, who were before called Klοdones Κλώδωνες [ [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2358065 Klothes] , κλώθω klotho to spin (spinners)?] by the Macedonians, to ever afterwards be distinguished by the title of Mimallones [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2367845 Μιμαλλόνες] (imitators of men) [Etym. Mag. (587.53)] ."

Klodones and Mimallones are also mentioned by Plutarch in his Parallel Lives on Alexander the Great [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=Lnur0BjQO2oC&pg=PA253&dq=Plutarch+Klodones&sig=k8pVTPovubrkfo5A9ykUuF9az1Y The Age of Alexander] : Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch] .The above myth may have originated or been adapted in "Aitia" Causes of Callimachus, but points both to Dionysos' ambivalent sexuality and to the manlike qualities of the Maenads, who in Euripides's Bacchae (tragedy written in Macedon) easily defeat the armed men sent against them.

References

*Polyaenus Stratagems [http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus4B.html Book 4.1] [http://www.ipet.gr/veroia//show_rec.php?id=va2k00036 Greek Text]
*JSTOR: Klodones, Mimallones and Dionysus Pseudanor [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-840X(191309)1%3A27%3A6%3C191%3AKMADP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N] by Grace Harriet Macurdy
*JSTOR: Macedonian Cults [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-840X(1996)2%3A46%3A2%3C279%3AMC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U] by M. B. Hatzopoulos
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=-0JVScga2oYC&pg=PA197&dq=Pseudanor+Polyaenus+Macedonian+Macedonians+Greece&sig=G5vcCSS_NGFitwGf9KUuoCtucWQ Rites of Passage in Ancient Greece: Literature, Religion, Society] by Mark William Padilla
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=A4YyVL0sygAC&pg=PA147&dq=Pseudaner&sig=hHxX8Rl1CrLse9kS8Ynb1ytR5uc Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion] by Matthew Dillon