Epirotans were Greeks or Illyrians ?

Ancient writers make a very clear segeration between Illyrians and Epirotans.I begin with Strabo

The remainder of Europe consists of the country which is between the Ister and the encircling sea, beginning at the recess of the Adriatic and extending as far as the Sacred Mouth of the Ister. In this country are Greece and the tribes of the Macedonians and of the Epeirotes, and all those tribes above them whose countries reach to the Ister and to the seas on either side, both the Adriatic and the Pontic � to the Adriatic, the Illyrian tribes, and to the other sea as far as the Propontis and the Hellespont, the Thracian tribes and whatever Scythian or Celtic tribes are intermingled with them.
Strabo,Geography, 7,V

and

And even to the present day the Thracians, Illyrians, and Epeirotes live on the flanks of the Greeks (though this was still more the case formerly than now); indeed most of the country that at the present time is indisputably Greece is held by the barbarians � Macedonia and certain parts of Thessaly by the Thracians, and the parts above Acarnania and Aetolia by the Thesproti, the Cassopaei, the Amphilochi, the Molossi, and the Athamanes � Epeirotic tribes.

Strabo, Geography,7,VII

Strabo segerated the Illyrian tribes from the Epirotans Tribes.

Except Strabo that make a clearly segeration between Epirotans and Illyrians there some others proofs that show these axiomatic truths are truths recognized by the simplest order of reasoning


Pyrrhos of Epiros from an inscription of a dedication to the temple of Minerva Itonis:

"Pyrrhus, descendant of Molossian kings,
These shields to thee, Itonian goddess, brings,
Won from the valiant Gaul when in the fight
Antigonus and all his host took flight'
'Tis not to-day or yesterday alone
That for brave deeds the Aeacidae are known."

It is well known fact that the Molossians and Aecidae were descendants of Neoptolemus, Achilles son, and by relation the first and original 'Hellenes' of Homer.


As shown in the beggining of the thread except Strabo we have more literal evidence from the ancient writers:

"XI. War was at the same time proclaimed against the Tarentines (who are still a people at the extremity of Italy), because they had offered violence to some Roman ambassadors. These people asked aid against the Romans of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who derived his origin from the family of Achilles."

Eutropius

Or again:

"Arha Ellas apo Oricias kai arhegonos Ellas Epiros"

"Greece starts at Oricus and the most ancient part of Greece is Epirus."

Claudius Ptolemy


Truth be told, the Epirotes then, as today, wanted nothing to do with the Illyrians:

"When Harrybas, king of the Molossians, was attacked in war by Bardylis, the Illyrian, who commanded a considerably larger army, he dispatched the non-combatant portion of his subjects to the neighbouring district of Aetolia, and spread the report that he was yielding up his towns and possessions to the Aetolians. He himself, with those who could bear arms, placed ambuscades here and there on the mountains and in other inaccessible places. The Illyrians, fearful lest the possessions of the Molossians should be seized by the Aetolians, began to race along in disorder, in their eagerness for plunder. As soon as they became scattered, Harrybas, emerging from his concealment and taking them unawares, routed them and put them to flight."
Dionysius of Halicarnnasus

So in my opinion Epirotans tribes were Greeks .

At Dodona was a prehistoric oracle  devoted to the Greek God Zeus and the Mother Goddess  identified at other sites with Rea or Gaia but  called Dione The shrine of Dodona was the oldest Hellenic oracle, according to the fifth-century historian Herodotus and in fact dates to proto-Hellenic times, perhaps as early as the second millennium BCE. Priests and priestesses in the sacred grove interpreted the rustling of the oak (or beech) leaves to determine the correct actions to be taken. Greek oracles are often misconstrued as having predicted the future.

At Dodona, Zeus joined a pre-Greek name to his own and was worshipped there as "Zeus Molossos" or as "Zeus Naios." Originally an oracle of the Mother Goddess, the oracle was shared by Zeus and Dione (whose name, like "Zeus," simply means "deity"). Many dedicatory inscriptions recovered from the site mention both "Zeus Naios" and "Dione." Elsewhere in Classical Greece,Dione was relegated by Classical times to a minor role, an aspect of Zeus's more usual consort, Hera.

When Homer wrote the Iliad (circa 750 BCE), no buildings were present, and the Priests slept on the ground with ritually unwashed feet. Not until the 4th B.C., was a small stone temple to Zeus added to the site. By the timE Euripidesmentioned Dodona (fragmentary play Melanippe), and Herodotus wrote about the oracle, priestesses had been restored. Though it never eclipsed the Oracle of Apollo atDelphi, Dodona gained a reputation far beyond Greece. In Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica, a retelling of an older story of Jason and the Argonauts, Jasons ship, the "Argo", had the gift of prophecy, because it contained an oak timber spirited from Dodona.

Archaeological excavations over more than a century have recovered artifacts, Many now at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, and some in the archaeological Museum at nearby Ioannina.

As you see Maju there are a lot of archaelogical and litteral evidence that proof the Greek infuence before the 4th cent.Epirotans as like and Macedonians had a lot of diffrents with the rest Greeks such as governor rule and education. This is the reason that called them as barbarians, reasons that  I have already explain manytimes in this forum.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3At ext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D126

From Italy came Smindyrides of Sybaris, son of Hippocrates, the most luxurious liver of his day (and Sybaris was then at the height of its prosperity), and Damasus of Siris, son of that Amyris who was called the Wise. [2] These came from Italy; from the Ionian Gulf, Amphimnestus son of Epistrophus, an Epidamnian; he was from the Ionian Gulf. From Aetolia came Males, the brother of that Titormus who surpassed all the Greeks in strength, and fled from the sight of men to the farthest parts of the Aetolian land. [3] From the Peloponnese came Leocedes, son of Phidon the tyrant of Argos, that Phidon who made weights and measures for the Peloponnesians¹ and acted more arrogantly than any other Greek; he drove out the Elean contest-directors and held the contests at Olympia himself. This man's son now came, and Amiantus, an Arcadian from Trapezus, son of Lycurgus; and an Azenian from the town of Paeus, Laphanes, son of that Euphorion who, as the Arcadian tale relates, gave lodging to the Dioscuri, and ever since kept open house for all men; and Onomastus from Elis, son of Agaeus. [4] These came from the Peloponnese itself; from Athens Megacles, son of that Alcmeon who visited Croesus, and also Hippocleides son of Tisandrus, who surpassed the Athenians in wealth and looks. From Eretria, which at that time was prosperous, came Lysanias; he was the only man from Euboea. From Thessaly came a Scopad, Diactorides of Crannon; and from the Molossians, Alcon.

From the book of "Royal genealogies" around the world, written in 19th C.

Conclusion is that as early as 580 B.C, it is obvious the Molossian king was considered Greek and his country a part of Hellas, as he was invited and participated as suitor, in a limited "only-for-Greeks" assembly.

All this sounds tooooooooo greek to me...

For greeks everything else is greek. Why are greeks so fixed with "making" everything greek???????

Perhaps if some of the ancient writers wrote about AMerica than greeks would say that Greeks were there too and that Indian tribes are greek too!!

Perhaps if asked an Epirotans I wonder what his/her answer would be.

All the best