Happy New Year

"Vergina Sun" or the "Rays of the Sun God" ?

As I explain  in Vergina Sun.....a Pan-Hellenic Symbol the e "Macedonian Star" or "Sun of Vergina" is the continuation of the oldest ancient Greek symbol of the Sun. Helios, the sun god of the ancient Greeks, was usually represented riding a chariot which was drawn by four, often winged, horses . His chariot rose daily into the heavens from the east and after blazing across the sky plunged into the western sea, thus bringing on the night. The sun's brilliant light emanated from the fiery crown that adorned Helios's head.

Helios is the Greek sun god and the sun itself. He is equated with the Roman Sol. Helios drives a chariot led by 4 fire-breathing horses across the sky each day. At night he is carried back to his starting place in a great cup.  The best known story involving Helios is that of his son Phaëton, who attempted to drive his father's chariot but lost control and set the earth on fire.

Helios was sometimes referred to with the epithet Helios Panoptes ("the all-seeing"). In the story told in the hall of Alcinous in the Odyssey (viii.300ff), Aphrodite, the consort of Hephaestus, secretly beds Ares, but all-seeing Helios spies on them and tells Hephaestus, who ensnares the two lovers in nets invisibly fine, to punish them. Helios is sometimes identified with Apollo; "Different names may refer to the same being," Walter Burkert observes, "or else they may be consciously equated, as in the case of Apollo and Helios."

In Homer, Apollo is clearly identified as a different god, a plague-dealer with a silver (not golden) bow and no solar features. At the picture in the first of the top and is  from an ancient Greek vase you can see  the god Helios/Sun riding his solar chariot which is drawn by four winged horses.

In the below picture  you can see a Corner block of a frieze of metopes and triglyphs depicting Helios from the Temple of Athena at Troy( 300 BCE)  that located on  Pergamum Museum.

This relief metope depicting Helios is the best preserved of all the metopes from the Temple of Athena at Troy. The sun God's team of four horses is shown tempestuously charging out from the sea. A diadem-like rayed halo surrounds the God's head. The sweeping surge of the team is emphasized by the deep, fluttering folds of Helios' garments and the diagonal, echeloned arrangement of the horses. 

The dimensions of this marble are

h. 85.8cm, 

w. 2.012m 

w. of metope 86.3cm

The sun god made the frits of the earth ripen - fertility being a common and obvious symbol logical association of the sun. When swearing an oath Greeks would often call upon Helios as a witness, as they believed he "saw and heard everything".

Although originally distinct deities, Helios was confused, as early as the fifth century BC, with Apollo (originally the god of music, the arts, archery, healing and prophecy - and later of light), so that Apollo frequently took on the function of the sun god himself. The epithets Phoebus 'the brilliant", Xanthos "the fair" and Chrysokomes "of the golden locks" used to describe Apollo, point to this solar connection.

The liveliest cult of Helios in the ancient Greek world existed on the island of Rhodes. Each year during the Halieia festival which was celebrated with much splendor and with athletic contests, the Rhodians threw a team of four horses into the sea as a sacrifice to him. In honor of what was effectively their national deity and to commemorate their heroic defense against Demetrius Poliorcetes's array, the people of Rhodes commissioned the celebrated sculptor Chares of Lindos to create a huge statue of Helios.

This statue, which is known to us as the 'Colossus of Rhodes", was one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was completed in 292 BC, twelve years after work began on it. It stood at the entrance of Rhodes's harbor and was over 35 meters tall. Helios was represented with a crown of sun-rays, a spear in his left hand and a flaming torch held aloft in his right, as depicted in the below illustration . 

Descriptions of this ancient statue inspired the design of France's gift to the people of the USA in 1884 - the Statue of Liberty as the inscription at the base of this New York landmark acknowledges.

Less than a century after its completion (in 224 BC), an earthquake destroyed the statue and it was never again erected. The metal was finally sold for scrap in 653 AD.

The rays emanating from the sun god's head, as they must have appeared on the Rhodian statue's crown, and as we know them to actually be depicted on surviving works of art, reinforce the conviction that the inspiration for the Sunburst derives from the traditional representation of the Greek sun god Helios. It is not difficult to see that stylized rays emanating from a fiery core is in fact a shorthand reference to this solar deity rather than to a star.

In Late Antiquity a cult of Helios Megistos ("Great Helios") drew to the image of Helios a number of syncretic elements, which have been analysed in detail by Wilhelm Fauth by means of a series of late Greek texts, namely:  an Orphic Hymn to Helios; the so-called Mithras Liturgy, where Helios rules the elements; spells and incantations invoking Helios among the Greek Magical Papyri; a Hymn to Helios by Proclus; Julian's Oration to Helios, the last stand of official paganism; and an episode in Nonnus' Dionysiaca.

sources

• The Rays of the Sun God by macedoniansincanada.com
  
• http://www.goddess-athena.org
  
• Walter Burkett, Greek Religion
  
• Karl Kerenyi,  The Gods of the Greeks - "The Sun, the Moon and their Family"
  
• Wilhelm Fauth, Helios Megistos: zur synkretistischen Theologie der Spätantike (Leiden:Brill) 1995
  

Archeologists uncover 4,000-year-old (Slav) Macedonian writing

I think most of you, are familiar with the new Slavmacedonian discovery and their claim that they found "an artifact, in which the name of the Goddess Vesta is written on it".
Also in the same announcement, the Slav Macedonians explain that the written name is "Bsefa which later became Vesta" and the script is the "old Macedonian language".

Let's examine one by one steps what is false. Actually ALL are false.

LIE 1_ Bsefa or Vesta
The ancient Goddess Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman mythology. In Greek mythology the similar Goodness was Estia.
Professor Aleksovski doesn't explain how an unknown name (Bsefa) is connected with the Roman Goddess(Vesta) and of course their Slavic heritage with the Macedonian one.


LIE 2_ Old Macedonian Language
According to the linguists, there is not any "Old Macedonian Language" only the Ancient Macedonian and the Slavic language spoken by the Slavs in FYROM. The first one is probably Greek and the second one is South Slavic and similar to the Bulgarian.
So I assume that Professor Aleksovski as a South Slavic speaker implies instead the "Old Church Slavonic" or "Church Slavonic", a literary language which developed from a Slavonic dialect of the Thessalonika area at 9th cent A.D. Founders of this language were the Greek monks St Cyril and St Methodius and theirs students. The Greek monks invented the Granolithic alphabet and their students, the Cyrillic alphabet which was used to write the Old Church Slavonic language.

LIE 3_No record of the script.
The Slav Macedonian professor in his announcing doesn’t mention what kind of script is on it. This remark born some questions such as :
The script has ideographic and/or early mnemonic symbols ?
Do we have any other similar and codified Slavic text ?


CONCLUSION
FYROM scientists and followers of the Slavmacedonism or Pseudomacedonism arbitrary rename this language as "Old Macedonian Language" in order to change the Macedonian history and put the notion of unbroken racial continuity between the modern ethnic Slavic Macedonians and the ancient autochthonous peoples of the region, in particular the ancient Macedonians.
Slavmacedonists writers have suggested many ways to revise the teaching of European history and science. Of course such idiotic pseudo-scientific reports are not worth answering from the real scientists, but outside from theirs world the people is misguided in false and dangerous paths.

Makedonika I: The Ancient Macedonian Testimonies (Archaeological Sources)

source : history-of-macedonia.com

In this article, we intend to examine the ancient evidence on the way the Ancient Macedonians were defining themselves in reference to their own identity. Concerning their own beliefs about themselves we shall review the available evidence coming from the ancient sources, both Literary and Archaeological.

B. The Archaeological Evidence.

[1] Pella Katadesmos

The Pella curse tablet is a curse or magic spell (Greek: κατάδεσμος, katadesmos) inscribed on a lead scroll, dating to the 4th or 3rd century BC. It was found in Pella (at the time capital of Macedon) in 1986 and published in the Hellenic Dialectology Journal in 1993. It is possibly the only attested text in the ancient Macedonian language (O. Masson).

It is a magic spell or love charm written by a woman, possibly named Dagina, whose lover Dionysophōn (i.e. “Voice of Dionysus“) is apparently about to marry Thetima (i.e. “she who honors the gods”; the standard Attic form would be Theotimē). She invokes “Makron and the demons” (parkattithemai makrōni kai [tois] daimosi, Attic would be para-kata-tithemai) to cause Dionysophon to marry her rather than Thetima, and never to marry another woman unless she herself recovers and unrolls the scroll.

Katadesmoi or defixiones were spells written on non-perishable material, such as lead, stone or baked clay, and were secretly buried to ensure their physical integrity, which would then guarantee the permanence of their intended effects.

The language is a harsh but distinctly recognizable form of North-West or Doric Greek, and the low social status of its writer, as evidenced by her vocabulary, strongly hint that a unique form of Doric Greek was spoken by lay people in Pella at the time the tab was written (see below, Dating and Significance). Brixhe and Panayotou (1994:209) think a Macedonian origin of the text probable, but they suggest that the population of Pella was not homogeneously autochthonic, and they prefer to wait for a second find before making a definitive statement.

Before the publication of the Pella katadesmos’ findings in 1993, it was proposed that Doric Greek may have been spoken in pre-Hellenistic Macedon as a second dialect in addition to a Macedonian dialect (Rhomiopoulou, 1980).

The Greek version:
1. [Θετί]μας και Διονυσοφώντος το τέλος και τον γάμον καταγράφω και ταν αλλάν πασάν γυ-
2. [ναικ]ών και χηράν και παρθένων, μάλιστα δε Θετίμας, και παρκαττίθεμαι Μάκρωνι και
3. [τοις]δαίμοσι, και οπόκα εγώ ταύτα διελ<ί>ξαιμι και αναγνοίην πάλιν ανορ<ύ>ξασα
4. [τόκα]γάμαι Διονυσοφώντα, πρότερον δε μη μη γαρ λάβοι άλλαν γυναίκα αλλ’ εμέ,
5. [εμέ δ]έ συνκαταγηράσαι Διονυσοφώντι και μηδεμίαν άλλαν, ικέτις υμώ<ν> γίνο-
6. [μαι, Φίλ]αν οικτίρετε δαίμονες φίλ[ο]ι, ΔΑΓΙΝΑΓΑΡΙΜΕ φίλων πάντων και έρημα, αλλά
7. [....]α φυλάσσετε εμίν ό[π]ως μη γίνεται τα[ύ]τα και κακά κακώς Θετίμα απόληται.
8. [....]ΑΛ[-].ΥΝΜ .. ΕΣΠΛΗΝ εμός, εμέ δε [ε]υ[δ]αίμονα και μακαρίαν γενέσται.
9. [-]ΤΟ[.].[-].[..]..Ε.Ε.Ω[?]Α.[.]Ε..ΜΕΓΕ [-]

The English Translation:

1. On the formal wedding of [Theti]ma and Dionysophon I write a curse, and of all other

2. wo[men], widows and virgins, but of Thetima in particular, and I entrust upon Makron and

3. [the] demons that only whenever I dig out and unroll and re-read this,

4. [then] may they wed Dionysophon, but not before; and may he never wed any woman but me;

5. and may [I] grow old with Dionysophon, and no one else. I [am] your supplicant:

6. Have mercy on [your dear one], dear demons, Dagina(?), for I am abandoned of all my dear ones.

7. But please keep this for my sake so that these events do not happen and wretched Thetima perishes miserably

8. and to me grant [ha]ppiness and bliss.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pella_katadesmos

[2] Decree from Boule and Demos of Ephesos making month of Artemision holy; AD 162/164

Transl of the underlined text:  “Macedonians and the REST of Greek ethnes (”Makedosin kai tis loipois ethnesin tois Ellinikois“)

[3] Damon’s Decree

Around 143/142 BC, Damon the Macedonian, son of Nicanor, from the city of Thessalonica, paid with his own money and erected a statue of copper in Olympia, honouring Q.Caecilius Metellus. In the statue’s inscription it is written as motives of this honouring the virtue of the honoured and the sympathetic actions of Quintus Metellus to “Macedonians and the rest of Greeks“. What is more interesting is that the statue was erected from Damon the Macedonian in Olympia, the most important Hellenic centre of that era and it reveals Macedonians saw themselves as Greeks. 

 

[Resolved by the boule and demos....Theos Soter [founded] a Greek city in [the Thebaid]…making its name Ptolemais [fron himself, and becoming its patron] To it the king sent [...settlers from...]and from Argos [and from..and from Lacedaimo]n and from Thes[saly?] and from..the [council and people] decreed [to...]

Decree about the founding of Ptolemais from Ptolemy I. The inscription itself is a Hadrianic copy of an early Ptolemaic decree.

[5] Dedication by Alexander the Great to Athena Polias

 

The original language of the inscription is:

“διατελεί εις τε αυτόν και την πατρίδα και τους λοιπούς μακεδόνας και τους άλλους Έλληνας“

 

[4]Decree about the founding of Ptolemais from Ptolemy I.

Greek, around 330 BC
From Priene, Asia Minor

In 336 BC Alexander the Great embarked on a programme of territorial expansion, which would eventually extend the boundaries of the Greek world to Egypt in the south and to India in the East. In 334 BC Alexander crossed the Hellespont, the narrow strait separating Europe and Asia, and went first to Troy. There he dedicated his armour to Athena and laid a wreath at the tomb of Achilles, the legendary hero and champion of the Greeks in the Trojan War. This act prefigured Alexander’s role as a new Achilles liberating the Greek cities of Asia Minor from Asiatic rule.

That same summer of 334 BC, a successful engagement with the Persian army at the river Granicus, east of Troy, opened the gates of Asia Minor, and Alexander proceeded to tour the Greek cities of the west coast, expelling their Persian garrisons.

On reaching Priene, he made a further dedication to Athena. There the townspeople were laying out their new city and building a temple to its patron goddess. Alexander offered funds to complete the temple, and the inscription on this wall block, cut into a block of marble, records his gift. The inscription was found in the nineteenth century by the architect-archaeologist Richard Pullan leading an expedition on behalf of the Society of Dilettanti. It reads: ‘King Alexander dedicated the Temple to Athena Polias’.

B.F. Cook, Greek inscriptions (London, The British Museum Press, 1987)

Gift of the Society of Dilettanti
GR 1870.3-20.88 (Inscription 399 and 400)
Room 78, Classical inscriptions, north wall

B.F. Cook, Greek inscriptions (London, The British Museum Press, 1987), pp. 21-22, fig. 12

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/gr/d/dedication_by_alexander.aspx

[6] Ptolemaios, son of Glaukias testimony 

In 163 BC the Macedonian Ptolemaios, son of Glaukias living in Memphis of Ptolemaic Egypt, sends a letter to the ruler of his place because he is getting harrased from the Egyptians of one temple despite the fact that he is…GREEK.

 

eisebiazonto boulomenoi exspasai me kai agagisai, kathaper kai en tois proteron xronois epexeirisan ousis apostaseos, para to Ellina me einai

[7] Alexander’s letter to Chians

In 334 BCE, Alexander invaded Asia as leader (hegemon) of the Corinthian league, the alliance of Greek cities and the Macedonian king that was to fight against the Achaemenid Empire.

One of the articles of the Corinthian treaty stated that the Greek towns were to remain autonomous, and that their constitutions were to remain unchanged.

However, the Greek cities in Asia Minor were no members, and Alexander did interfere with their internal affairs, as is shown in the following letter to the people of the island of Chios.

The inscription was translated by J.C. Yardley.

From king Alexander to the people of Chios,
written in the prytany of Deisitheos:[1]

All those exiled from Chios are to return [2], and the constitution on Chios is to be democratic. Drafters of legislation are to be selected to write and emend the laws so as to ensure that there be no impediment to a democratic constitution and the return of the exiles. Anything already emended or drafted is to be referred to Alexander.

The people of Chios are to supply twenty triremes, with crews, at their own expense, and these are to sail for as long as the rest of the Greek naval force accompanies us at sea.

With respect to those men who betrayed the city to the barbarians, all those who escaped are to be exiled from all the cities that share the peace [of Corinth], and to be liable to seizure under the decree of the Greeks. Those who have been caught are to be brought back and tried in the Council of the Greeks. In the event of disagreement between those who have returned and those in the city, in that matter they are to be judged by us.

Until a reconciliation is reached among the people of Chios, they are to have in their midst a garrison of appropriate strength installed by king Alexander. The people of Chios are to maintain the garrison.

Remark 1:
The prytany of Deisitheos was probably in 334, but the formula “from king Alexander” is not common before the battle of Issus in 333.

Remark 2:
One of the returned exiles was the historian Theopompus.

[8] The Trial of Agonippos

One, not so wide known inscription, stating the same, is the inscription of Mytilene in 332 BC. Its about the imminent conviction of Agonipos, tyrant of Eressos. He was put in that seat from Memnon and afterwards Agonippos fought in the side of Persians. In the following inscription it says clearly Agonnipos went on war against “Alexander and the Greeks”. Of course Macedonians are included as Greeks.

B. Fragment 2 (front face). The trial of Agonippos

[those] who had been besieged [on the] acropolis he [--] and from the ci|tizens he exacted twenty thousand slaters, [and] | he repeatedly plun dered the Greeks with his raids, and the altars he razed || to the ground, (the altars) of Zeus [Ph|ilippi[os]; and after a war had been instituted by him against Alexander and the Greeks, | he stripped the citizens of their weapons, excluded (them) from the city en masse, and, after their wiv|es and their daughters had been seized by him and imprisoned || on the acropolis, three thousand and two hundred | slaters he exacted (from them); the city and the temples | he pillaged with his pirates and burned down, and | (he) burned along with them the bodies [of the] citizens; and finally he went to Alexander and gave || a false account and slandered the citizens. They shall try | him under oath by secret vote regarding | (whether to put him to) death. And if the death penalty is voted, after a counter-proposal (for punishment) has been put forward by Agonippos, the second vote | shall be made, (to indicate) in what way he ought to di||e. If, after Agonippos has been convicted by the court, [ anyone tries to restore any of the family of Agonippos or makes a motion or proposal I about (their) return or about the restoration of their property, ac|cursed shall be that man both himself and his family, and in all other respects let him be liable to the law [that] (is aimed at anyone) by whom the stele || is destroyed, (the stele) that concerns the tyrants and their descend|ants- And a solemn vow shall be made in the assembly imm\ediatelyy that the man who in making his judgement also brings assistance to (he city | and to justice shall prosper but that to those who contrary to justjice cast their vote the opposite of this (shall happen). [| A decision was reached, (There were) eight
hundred and eighty-three (voters). Out of | these, seven acquitted, the rest condem|ned.

[9] The Stele of Xanthos

“The early cemetery of the marketplace of Pella gave us the most important findings. From the end of 5th c. BC. originates the tomb stele of Xanthos, a relatively poor child. In order to construct the small stele, a piece of marble was re-used. The inscription of the stele writes:

ΞΑΝΘΟΣ/
ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟ/
Υ ΚΑΙ ΑΜΑ/
ΔΙΚΑΣ ΥΙΟΣ

“Special interest displays the mitronymic Amadika. The name appears to originate from the root am- where it derives also the homeric verb ‘amao’ αμά-ω (mow) and the macedonian ending -dika. Remember the name Eurydika. Observe the normal formation of the Macedonian ending in -a instead of -i.
So while the examples before a few years were few, today almost daily they are increasing with the discoveries of archaeology”

Translating from John Akamatis.

Ç ãëþóóá ôùÃ* áñ÷áßùÃ* ÌáêåäüÃ*ùÃ* - ÍÝá óôïé÷åßá áðü ôçÃ* ÐÝëëá

Conclusion:

These are only a few of the numerous inscriptions which Archaeologists brought to light in Macedonia and elsewhere. More than 5,000 inscriptions written in Greek is the best evidence of the Greek ethnicity of ancient Macedonians. Once again the conslusion is inescapable: Archaeological Evidence in conjunction with
linguistic analysis of inscriptions and names proves the diachronic cultural identification of the Macedonians with the rest of the Greeks.

Makedonika I: The Ancient Macedonian Testimonies (Literary Sources)

source : history-of-macedonia.com

In this article, we intend to examine the ancient evidence on the way the Ancient Macedonians were defining themselves in reference to their own identity. Concerning their own beliefs about themselves we shall review the available evidence coming from the ancient sources, both Literary and Archaeological.

A. The Literary Evidence

The first available evidence comes from the Macedonian king Alexander I during his speech to Atheneans. Essentially we have a clear confession that Alexander considers himself a Greek.

Herodotus 9.45:  Had I not greatly at heart the Common welfare of Greece I should not have come to tell you; but I am myself Greek by descent, (”te gar Hellên genos eimi tôrchaion“) and I would not willingly see Greece exchange freedom for slavery. …If you prosper in this war, forget not to do something for my freedom; consider the risk I have run, out of zeal for the Greek Cause,….I am Alexander of Macedon‘

Another cited excerpt makes it even more clear that Alexander I was proud of his Hellenic identity. While speaking to Persians:

Herodotus 5.20.4: Tell your king who sent you how an Greek man, viceroy of the Macedonians (”anêr Hellên - Makedonôn hyparchos”)has received you hospitably… “

Furthermore Herodotus provides us with a clear-cut testimony about their Hellenic identity from the members of the Macedonian royal house themselves.

 

Herodotus 5.22.1: “Now that these descendants of Perdiccas are Hellenes ( “Hellênas de einai“), as they themselves say(”kata per autoi legousi“), I myself chance to know”

 

 The letter of Alexander the Great to Darius is a mere proof of the Hellenic Identity of Macedonians.

Arrian Anab. 2.14.4: Your ancestors invaded Macedonia and the rest of Greece (“Makedonian kai eis tên allên Hellada”) and did US great harm though WE had done them no prior injury [...] I have been appointed hegemon of the Greeks [...]

Followed by an apparent demonstration of their Hellenic identity and Cause during Alexander’s speech to his army. Simultaneously we have a clear distinction between Greeks and the Foreign elements of Alexander’s army.

Arrian 2.7: There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service — but how different is their cause from ours ! They will be fighting for pay— and not much of it at that; WE on the contrary shall fight for Greece (“tous de xyn sfisin yper tis Ellados ekontas amynomenous”) , and our hearts will be in it. As for our Foreign (“barbarwn te”) troops —Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians,Agrianes — they are the best and stoutest soldiers of Europe.

[Translation by Aubrey De Seliucourt]

We find Alexander saying in:

Arrian Anab. 3. 18. 11-12: But Alexander replied that he intended to punish the persians for their invasion of Greece, the destruction of Athens, the burning of the temples, and all manner of terrible things done to the Greeks: because of these things, he was exacting revenge.

On another occasion while he was speaking to Thessalians and other Greeks:

Plutarch. Alex (ed. B. Perrin) XXXIII: On this occasion, he [Alexander] made a very long speech to the Thessalians and the other Greeks, and when he saw that they encouraged him with shouts to lead them against the Barbarians, he shifted his lance into his left hand, and with his right appealed to the gods, as Callisthenes tells us, praying them, if he was really sprung from Zeus, to defend and strengthen the Greeks

While Speaking to his own Macedonian Commanders:

Curtius Rufus 5.6.1: Alexander called a meeting of his generals the next day. He told them that no city was more hateful to the Greeks than Persepolis, the capital of the old kings of Persia, the city from which troops without number had poured forth, from which first Darius and then Xerxes had waged an unholy war on Europe. To appease the spirits of their forefathers they should wipe it out, he said.

One more testimony from Alexander himself comes in:

Curtius Rufus 5.8: As for Alexander, it is generally agreed that, when sleep had brought him back to his senses after his drunken bout, he regretted his actions and said that the Persians would have suffered a more grievous punishment at the hands of the Greeks had they been forced to see HIM on Xerxes’ throne and in his palace.

In Plutarch we find:

Plutarch’s Moralia, On the Fortune of Alexander, 332A: But he said, ‘If I were not Alexandros, I should be Diogenes’; that is to say: `If it were not my purpose to combine barbarian things with things Hellenic, to traverse and civilize every continent, to search out the uttermost parts of land and sea, to push the bounds of Macedonia to the farthest ocean and to disseminate and shower the blessings of the Hellenic Justice and peace over every nation, I should not be content to sit quietly in the luxury of idle power, but I should emulate the frugality of Diogenes. But as things are, forgive me Diogenes, that I imitate Herakles, and emulate Perseus, and follow in the footsteps of Dionysos, the divine author and progenitor of my family, and Desire that Victorious Hellenes should dance again in India [...]“

In the Dedication of Alexander to Athena Polias:

Arrian, I, 16, 10: Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians, from the barbarian inhabitans in Asia.

Another clear sign of his Hellenic self-identification is shown explicitely in the event with Daniel’s Prophesy:

Josephus 11.8.5: And when the book of Daniel was showed to him (Alexander) wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he [Alexander] supposed that himself was the person intended.

During the Event with Spitamenes’ wife:

Curtius Rufus 8.15: The savagery of the deed carried more weight with him than gratitude for the favour, however, and he had her ordered from the camp. He did not want her tainting the character and civilized temperament of the Greeks with this example of Barbarian lawlessness.

The Macedonian Philip V verifies his Greek identity:

Polyvius, 18.4.8: For on many occasions when I and the other Greeks sent embassies to you begging you to remove from your statutes the law empowering you to get booty from booty, you replied that you would rather remove Aetolia from Aetolia than that law

 In the Treaty between Hannibal of Carthage and Philip V of Macedon we find a clear-cut reference to “Macedonia and the rest of Greece”:

Polybius, 7, 9, 4: In the presence of Zeus, Hera, and Apollo: in the presence of the Genius of Carthage, of Heracles, and Iolaus: in the presence of Ares, Triton, and Poseidon: in the presence of the gods who battle for us and the Sun, Moon, and Earth; in the presence of Rivers, Lakes, and Waters: 3 in the presence of all the gods who possess Macedonia and the Rest of Greece: in the presence of all the gods of the army who preside over this oath. 4 Thus saith Hannibal the general, and all the Carthaginian senators with him, and all Carthaginians serving with him, that as seemeth good to you and to us, so should we bind ourselves by oath to be even as friends, kinsmen, and brothers, on these conditions. 5 (1) That King Philip and the Macedonians and the Rest of the Greeks who are their allies shall protect the Carthaginians, the supreme lords, and Hannibal their general, and those with him, and all under the dominion of Carthage who live under the same laws; likewise the people of Utica and all cities and peoples that are subject to Carthage, and our soldiers and allies 6 and cities and peoples in Italy, Gaul, and Liguria, with whom we are in alliance or with whomsoever in this country we may hereafter enter into alliance.

In the speech of the ambassador of Macedonia to the Aitolians:

Livius, From the Foundation of the City 31: The Aitolians, the Akarnanians, the Macedonians, men of the SAME speech, are united or disunited by trivial causes that arise from time to time; with aliens, with barbarians, all Greeks wage and will wage eternal war; for they are enemies by the will of nature, which is eternal, and not from reasons that change from day to day.

While the Macedonian troops found a Greek man and burst into tears when they heard Greek spoken:

Arrian, “The Indica” XXXIII: There a man appeared to them, wearing a Greek cloak, and dressed otherwise in the Greek fashion, and speaking Greek also

. Those [Macedonians] who first sighted him said that they burst into tears, so strange did it seem after all these miseries to see a Greek, and to hear Greek spoken. They asked whence he came, who he was; and he said that he had become separated from Alexander’s camp, and that the camp, and Alexander himself, were not very far distant. Shouting aloud and clapping their hands they brought this man to Nearchus

Conclusion:

The evidence cited previously from various ancient literary sources help us to comprehend how the ancient Macedonians identified themselves. The conclusion is inescapable: Even if the amount of ancient Macedonian testimonies is limited, the available evidence points out explicitely that Ancient Macedonians identified themselves more or less as Greek. Macedonians are the same people who had Greek names, spoke Greek, renamed or build Greek cities, having of course Greek names, worshiped the Greek Pantheon, participated in Pan-Hellenic games and waged a Pan-Hellenic war against Persia while they spread everywhere they passed the Greek language and Greek Culture. The message they left is quite clear. They identified themselves as Greeks.