Prepared by Elis Buba
Summary
Elis Buba argues that nationalist propaganda often distorts Balkan history by conflating mythology, language, culture, and political influence with ethnic identity in order to portray Illyrians as Greeks and disconnect Albanians from Illyrian heritage. Buba criticizes claims based on Greek mythology, names, coins, Olympic participation, and the outdated “Caucasus theory,” arguing these misuse ancient sources and ignore modern archaeology, linguistics, and genetics. Buba also emphasizes that cultural Hellenization did not equal ethnic Greek identity and defends the Illyrian–Albanian continuity thesis as the strongest scholarly hypothesis. It contrasts evidence-based historiography with emotionally driven nationalist narratives and historical revisionism.
The big difference between serious historiography and nationalist propaganda
Throughout our many years of research, we often encounter pseudo-scholars who dare to build false narratives on what they claim to be “historical truth”. Emotionally charged with chauvinism and xenophobia, these authors or history enthusiasts try to artificially Greekize any evidence of Illyrian antiquity, ignoring the history documented with scientific rigor by non-politicized Western authors. Such neurasthenic voices are increasingly being encountered in recent years, where DNA studies are proving indisputably that Albanians are the masters of the Balkans.
Seven major errors are clearly discernible in the rhetoric of this propaganda that fundamentally destroy their analysis:
Mythology and Onomastics: It is claimed that the Illyrians have Greek origins based on the myth of Apollodorus (Illyrian as the son of Cadmus). Likewise, the names of the Illyrian tribes and kings ( Bardhyli, Teuta, Kliti, Pyrrho ) are considered without any basis as “pure Greek”.
Misinterpretation of cultural evidence: Propaganda texts promote the idea that Illyrians participated in the Olympic Games (where only Hellenes were allowed) and that all Illyrian coins found have Greek inscriptions, equating the written commercial language with ethnicity.
Distortion of Herodotus’ genealogy: It is falsely claimed that, according to Herodotus, the Illyrians are simply a late “branch” of the Greek race. In parallel, it is claimed that the name “Greek” was banned in Byzantium only because it was considered pagan.
The Resurgence of the Caucasus Theory: The old and completely discredited thesis that today’s Albanians came from the Caucasus as slaves brought by the Romans, deliberately misinterpreting Ptolemy’s maps and the writings of Anna Comnenus, is often brought back to the scene.
Language and seafaring: It is falsely claimed that Albanian has no indigenous terms for the sea — which they say “proves” that Albanians are not descendants of the seafaring Illyrians — and that the language is simply an amalgam of Slavic, Bulgarian, Thracian (Romanian), and Greek influences.
Denial of national consciousness: Albanians are portrayed as a people without a written history (citing the 1819 dictionary as a late document), without ancient writers, and who have changed religion and identity according to opportunism and interest with each invader (Romans, Ottomans, Italians).
The absurd Gheg–Tosk division: Propaganda texts make an artificial and malicious division, calling the Ghegs of the north “gangs coming from the Caucasus,” while describing the Tosks of the south as assimilated Greeks.
More specifically: How the propaganda construct is dismantled
In the Balkan debate on the origin of peoples, one rarely encounters such a typical example of romantic nationalism and historical manipulation as the modern fabrications of texts that try to “prove” at all costs that the Illyrians were Greeks and that the Albanians have no connection with them. At first glance, their argumentation claims to be compelling: it lists ancient names, quotes Herodotus, Apollodorus and Ptolemy, and mentions coins or the Olympic Games. But, as soon as this ideological edifice is put in front of serious historical methodology, it falls apart with surprising speed.
In fact, we are dealing with texts that constantly confuse mythology with history, culture with ethnicity, administrative language with biological origin, and civilizing influence with ethnic identity. This is exactly where a historian like Johann Georg von Hahn, or later eminent Albanologists and linguists like Norbert Jokl, Eqrem Çabej, Eric Hamp, and Shaban Demiraj would stop: not at the emotional slogan, but at the critical analysis of the sources.
Fundamental Misconception: Mythology is not history
The core of the entire chauvinistic narrative begins with the mythological figures of Cadmus, Harmonia, and Illyrian. According to propagandist authors, the fact that Apollodorus associates the Illyrians with these characters “proves” that they were Greek.
This is an elementary misunderstanding of how ancient thought worked. The Hellenic world was constantly constructing genealogical myths for neighboring peoples, trying to organize the world according to its cosmology and incorporating other populations into the Greek mythical tree. This procedure had no modern ethnographic value. Otherwise, according to the same absurd logic:
The Trojans should have been Greeks;
The Romans would be considered literal Trojans because of Aeneas;
Helen would be accepted as a real historical figure, not a mythological one.
Serious historians never use mythology as biological or ethnic evidence. Herodotus himself often intertwined oral tradition, myth, and real events, so not every one of his stories can be taken as a genuine ethnological document. One of the fundamental problems of the Greek romantic nationalism of the 19th–20th centuries was precisely the attempt to turn the mythological universe into a real ethnic map of the Balkans — a methodologically unacceptable approach.
The infantile argument of “Greek names”
The claim that the names of Illyrian rulers are “Greek” falls apart immediately once the historical context of the Eastern Mediterranean is analyzed. Ancient Greek served as the lingua franca of cultural, commercial, and administrative elites in much of the Balkans. Local elites often adopted prestige names without changing either their ethnicity or their origin.
If we were to accept this shallow logic:
The Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt would prove that the Egyptians were Greek;
The early Romanian aristocracy would turn out to be Greek;
Albanian princes of the Middle Ages would appear Slavic because of names like Vladimir or Ballsha;
The Ottoman sultans would be considered Persian or Arab.
In the ancient world, political and cultural identities were constantly intertwined. An elite could be superficially Hellenized or Romanized without ever losing its ethnic substance.
Bardhyli, Teuta and the manipulation of Illyrian figures
Propaganda authors try to appropriate names like Bardhyli, Agroni, Teuta or Pirroja, but here their argument becomes extremely fragile.
Bardhyli: The name Bardhylis cannot be explained through Greek. On the contrary, Albanologists and Indo-Europeanists have proven its pure affinity with the roots of the Albanian language: bardhë and yll. Although ancient onomastics requires caution, this evidence shows that the Illyrian one cannot be mechanically reduced to Greek.
Teuta: This name is directly related to the Indo-European root teutā (meaning “people” or “tribe”). The same root is found among the Celts, the Germanics, and other Paleo-Balkan formations, such as the Illyrians. So, it is not an exclusively Greek name, but a broader Indo-European heritage.
Pyrrhus and the Epirote Question: The most overt manipulation is done with the figure of Pyrrhus of Epirus. In the Greek nationalist narrative, he is automatically presented as a “pure Greek,” but ancient sources offer a much more complex picture. Authors such as Strabo and Thucydides clearly distinguished the Epirotes from the classical Hellenes, calling them “barbarians” — not in the modern pejorative sense, but as a non-Greek-speaking population. The Molossians, Chaons, and Thesprotians are considered by proper scholarship to be Paleo-Balkan populations who underwent a gradual process of cultural Hellenization, rather than ethnic Greeks.
Coins with Greek inscriptions do not prove ethnicity
The claim that Illyrian coins with Greek inscriptions prove the “Greekness” of the Illyrians completely ignores the rules of Mediterranean trade. Greek was the language of the economy, so it was used in coins, contracts and diplomacy. Even today, many countries use English on their coins or products without having any ethnic connection to Britain or the USA.
If linguistic inscription dictated ethnicity, then Thracians, Anatolian populations, Hellenistic Jews, and Ptolemaic Egyptians would have to be classified as “ethnic Greeks” — a true historiographical absurdity.
The Olympic Games and the anachronistic concept of “race”
The participation of peripheral elites in the Olympic Games does not prove any ethnic homogeneity. The ancient Macedonians themselves were the subject of fierce debate in antiquity whether or not they should be considered Greek. In practice, the organizers integrated politically Hellenized elites, which did not mean that the ordinary population of those regions was ethnically Greek. It is a gross error to project modern concepts of nation and race onto antiquity.
Herodotus nowhere says that “the Illyrians were Greeks”
The distortion of Herodotus is one of the most flagrant manipulations of this propaganda. He does not write such a thesis anywhere. Modern historians share the same opinion: the Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians, Phrygians and Greeks were different and separate Indo-European branches in the Balkans and Anatolia. This is fully supported by archaeology, onomastics, toponymy, linguistic analysis and Roman sources.
Old propaganda: “Albania has no nautical words”
This thesis, left over from the 19th century, has been definitively refuted by comparative linguistics. Albanian preserves an extremely important and autochthonous layer of maritime and coastal terminology, such as: sea, shore, ship, sail, harbor, wave, oar, strait, paths, cliff, Ionian/Adriatic sea . Likewise, early Latin borrowings in this field indicate an uninterrupted coastal contact and refute the myth of absolute mountainous isolation.
The “Caucasus” Theory: A Dead Pseudoscience
The claim that Albanians came from the Caucasus is a tale that has been discredited for more than a century. The similarity between Caucasian Albania and Balkan Albania is simply an onomastic coincidence (from the Indo-European root alb — hill, mountain).
There is no linguistic, archaeological, anthropological or genetic evidence to support this fabrication. On the contrary, modern DNA studies (population genetics) prove an unwavering Paleo-Balkan continuity of Albanians in their historical lands. This theory today survives only in internet propaganda forums and in no academic publishing house.
“Lack of alphabet” — an argument without scientific value
The naive idea that the absence of a single standard alphabet in antiquity “proves” the absence of identity would force science to deny the existence of many great peoples: the Germans before Latin standardization, the Slavs before Cyril and Methodius, or entire Celtic populations. Languages exist and are transmitted even without a literary standard. Moreover, the Meshari of 1555 and other earlier Arbër documents testify to a consolidated and early tradition of written Albanian.
Religious identities do not erase ethnic continuity
The thesis that Albanians “changed identity” whenever they changed religion is simply an emotional speculation. In the turbulent history of the Balkans, the Greeks were Romanized and Byzantinized, the Slavs suffered strong cultural influences, the Romanians were Latinized, and the Albanians, from the heads of the Eastern Empire, were partially Islamized. However, changing the belief system does not eliminate the ethnic and linguistic structure of a people.
Assimilation of Arvanites in Greece
Through the same xenophobic mindset, now politicized, the assimilation of the Arbëror also took place. The assimilation of the Arvanites in Greece is a long historical process, influenced by the construction of the modern Greek state after 1830 and the efforts to create a homogeneous national identity on the basis of Orthodox Hellenism. The Arvanites, although Albanian-speaking and playing an important role in the Revolution of 1821, were gradually integrated into the structures of the Greek state and increasingly identified with the new political identity.
This process was accelerated by educational and institutional policies that favored Greek and marginalized the use of “Arvanite” Albanian, as well as by the social stigma against it as a non-prestigious language. The lack of an Albanian state until 1912 and the social benefits that integration into the Greek state brought contributed to the weakening of the Arvanite linguistic identity.
In the 20th century, urbanization, intermarriage, and state nationalism further accelerated the process of assimilation. However, traces of the Arvanite language and identity still remain in some areas of Greece, supported by scholars and figures who have sought to preserve this cultural heritage.
Changing names among immigrants (1990s and onwards)
With the massive influx of Albanian immigrants to Greece in the early 1990s, many of them were forced to change their names to the Greek version or take on pseudonyms.
This action was mainly forced to integrate more easily, to obtain a residence permit, to avoid prejudice from the administration and the police, and to find work. This practice is seen as a collective trauma due to the loss of identity, which forced thousands of Albanians to use two identities (one in front of the authorities and another within the family).
History is not written with identity hysteria.
If Johann Georg von Hahn were to judge this matter, he would classify it without hesitation as a propaganda blunder rather than a historical stance. Hahn did not build the Illyrian-Albanian theory on myths or emotional slogans, but on comparative linguistics, toponymy, ethnography, and demographic continuity.
This is the big difference between serious historiography and nationalist propaganda:
The first requires evidence, contextualization, and rigorous criticism of sources; the second is satisfied with digital cries of the type “All pure Greek names!” .
The texts circulating on social media today are an outdated amalgam of 19th-century romanticism and deliberate misuse of ancient authors. Modern science does not operate on the unscientific principle “the name sounds Greek, therefore the people were Greek” .
Today, the vast majority of international scholars and academic institutions treat the Illyrian-Albanian continuity as the most stable and historically based hypothesis. It is not seen as a political slogan, but as the result of a thorough, multidisciplinary analysis, verified over more than a century of scientific research.
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