Palemonids
{{Short description|Legendary Lithuanian dynasty}}
{{Redirect-distinguish2|Palemon|the genus of shrimps, Palaemon (crustacean)}}
File:Lithuanian statute in Latin, epitome by Augustinus Rotundus, 1576.jpg of the Second Statute of Lithuania in Latin (1576), claiming that the Lithuanians are of Italian origin]]
The Palemonids ({{langx|lt|Palemono dinastija}}) were a legendary dynasty of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The legend was born in the 15th or 16th century as proof that Lithuanians and the Grand Duchy were of Roman origins.
History
Jan Długosz (1415–1480) wrote that the Lithuanians were of Roman origin, but did not provide any proof. The legend is first recorded in the second edition of the Lithuanian Chronicles produced in the 1530s.{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=Lietuvių enciklopedija | title=Palemonas |first=Zenonas |last=Ivinskis |authorlink=Zenonas Ivinskis| location=Boston, Massachusetts | publisher=Lietuvių enciklopedijos leidykla |year=1953–1966 |volume=21 |pages=400–401 | lccn=55020366 |language=lt}} At the time the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was quarrelling with the Kingdom of Poland, rejecting the claims that Poland had civilized the pagan and barbaric Lithuania. The Lithuanian nobility felt a need for the ruling dynasty to show upstanding origins, as the only available chronicles at the time were written by the Teutonic Knights, a long-standing enemy, and depicted Gediminas, ancestor of the Gediminids dynasty, as a hostler of Vytenis.{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=Lietuvių enciklopedija | title=Metraščiai |first=Zenonas |last=Ivinskis |authorlink=Zenonas Ivinskis | location=Boston, Massachusetts | publisher=Lietuvių enciklopedijos leidykla |year=1953–1966 |volume=18 |pages=307–310 | lccn=55020366 |language=lt}}
In this new Lithuanian chronicle, Palemon (sometimes identified as Polemon II of Pontus), a relative of Roman emperor Nero, escaped Rome together with 500 noble families. The company traveled north, through the Baltic Sea, and reached the Nemunas Delta. After that they decided to sail upstream until they reached the mouth of Dubysa. There, the Palemonids settled on a large hill (now known as the {{interlanguage link|Palemon Hill|lt|Palemono kalnas}}) and ruled the country for generations until the Gediminids emerged. The chronicle skipped Mindaugas and Traidenis, attested Grand Dukes of Lithuania, entirely. It incorporated the account of the Gediminid line from the first edition. To make the story more believable, the chronicler presented a very detailed account of the journey. Because there were not enough generations to cover the gap between the 1st century when Palemon arrived and the 14th century when Gediminas died, the third edition of the chronicle, also known as the Bychowiec Chronicle, placed Palemon in the 5th century instead of the 1st, when Rome was devastated by Attila the Hun, and included Mindaugas and other attested dukes. But it was not enough and historians like Maciej Stryjkowski and {{ill|Kazimierz Kojałowicz-Wijuk|lt|Kazimieras Kojelavičius-Vijūkas}} moved the account further, into the 10th century.{{cite encyclopedia | last=Jonynas | first=Ignas |authorlink=Ignas Jonynas | editor=Vaclovas Biržiška | editor-link=Vaclovas Biržiška | encyclopedia=Lietuviškoji enciklopedija | title=Borkus | year=1936 | publisher=Spaudos Fondas | volume=4 | location=Kaunas | pages=251–255|language=lt}} Multiple contradictory versions of the legend survive to this day as historians tried to patch up some obvious mistakes and make it more historically sound.
The first to critically evaluate and reject the legend was historian Joachim Lelewel in 1839.{{cite book |first=Mečislovas |last=Jučas | title=Lietuvos ir Lenkijos unija | publisher=Aidai |year=2000 |language=lt |isbn=9986-590-95-7 |page=240 }} At the end of the 19th century there were some attempts, for example in a history written by Maironis, to tie the legend with the expansion of the Vikings. While many historians up until the dawn of the 20th century believed the legend to be true, it is now largely discarded as a fictional story that only serves to illustrate political ideology in the 16th-century Lithuania.{{cite book | title=Lithuania Ascending: A Pagan Empire Within East-Central Europe, 1295-1345 | first=S. C. | last=Rowell | year=1994 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | series=Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series| isbn=978-0-521-45011-9 | page=41 }}
A neighborhood in Kaunas is named after Palemonids – {{interlanguage link|Palemonas (Kaunas)|lt=Palemonas|lt|Palemonas}}.
Genealogical tree according to the second edition of the ''Lithuanian Chronicles''
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| 1 width=7.5% |
| 2 width=7.5% | | 3 width=1% | | 4 width=1% | | 5 width=7.5% | | 6 width=7.5% | | 7 width=2% | | 8 width=7.5% | | 9 width=7.5% | | 10 width=1% | | 11 width=1% | | 12 width=7.5% | | 13 width=7.5% | | 14 width=2% | | 15 width=7.5% | | 16 width=7.5% | | 17 width=2% | | 18 width=7.5% | | 19 width=7.5% | | |||
| colspan=8 |
| colspan=4 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Palemon | |||
| colspan=5 |
| colspan=5 style="border-width: 0px 1px 1px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=5 style="border-width: 0px 0px 1px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=5 |
| colspan=5 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=5 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=4 |
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Borkus | colspan=2 | | colspan=4 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Kunos | colspan=2 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Spera | |||
| colspan=5 |
| colspan=5 style="border-width: 0px 1px 1px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=5 style="border-width: 0px 0px 1px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=5 |
| colspan=5 style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=5 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f0f0f0" | Daumantas Duke of Deltuva From Centaurus family | colspan=2 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Kernius | colspan=8 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Gimbutas | |||
| style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"|
| colspan=4 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=10 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"|
| colspan=4 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=9 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Montvilas | |||
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| colspan=4 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 | | colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 1px 1px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 style="border-width: 0px 0px 1px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"|
| colspan=4 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 | | colspan=4 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Kiras Duke of Deltuva | colspan=2 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Pajauta ♀ | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Nemunas Name: Nemunas | colspan=2 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f0f0f0" | Erdvilas | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Skirmantas | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f0f0f0" | Vykintas Duke of Samogitia |
| style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"|
| colspan=4 style="border-width: 0px 1px 1px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=6 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=3 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"|
| colspan=8 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Mingaila | colspan=4 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f0f0f0" | Živinbudas | |||
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| colspan=2 style="border-width: 1px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=9 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=6 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
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| colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=7 style="border-width: 1px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Kukovaitis Duke of Lithuania | colspan=5 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Skirmantas | colspan=5 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Ginvilas | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Kukovaitis Duke of Samogitia | ||
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| colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
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| colspan=4 style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 style="border-width: 1px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=4 style="border-width: 1px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
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| colspan=3 style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f0f0f0" | Traidenis | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Liubartas Grand Duke of Karachev | colspan=2 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Pisimantas | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Rogvolodas Duke of Polockas | |
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| colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
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| colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 style="border-width: 1px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
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| colspan=6 style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Algimantas | colspan=5 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Gleb | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Paraskeva ♀ | ||
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| colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Utenis Duke of Lithuania and Samogitia Founder of Utena | colspan=5 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Ryngold | |||
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| colspan=7 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
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| colspan=6 style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f0f0f0" | Vaišvilkas | |||
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| style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Šventaragis Grand Duke of Lithuania Name: valley in Vilnius | |||
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| style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Skirmantas Grand Duke of Lithuania | |||
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| style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
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| colspan=11 style="border-width: 1px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Trabus Duke of Samogitia | colspan=9| | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Koliginas | |||
| colspan=12 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=11 |
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Romanas | |||
| colspan=12 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=5 |
| colspan=3 style="border-width: 1px 1px 0px 1px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=4 style="border-width: 1px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 style="border-width: 1px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | colspan=3 style="border-width: 1px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=4 |
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Narimantas | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f0f0f0" | Daumantas
| colspan=2 | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Olshan | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Giedrius Ancestor of Giedraitis family | | colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f0f0f0" | Traidenis Grand Duke of Lithuania |
| colspan=18 style="border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color:black;"| | |||
| colspan=17 |
| colspan=2 style="border:1px solid #aaa;" bgcolor="f9f9f9" | Rimantas | |||
| colspan=19 align=left | Source: {{cite book | first=Mečislovas |last=Jučas | title=Lietuvos metraščiai ir kronikos | publisher=Aidai | location=Vilnius | year=2003 | isbn=9955-445-40-8 | page=53|language=lt}} The table was prepared according to the second edition of the Lithuanian Chronicles, the so-called transcription of the Archaeological Society. Other editions, transcriptions, chronicles, and later historians presented significantly different genealogical trees.
Note: Darker shaded cells represent dukes who share their names with real historical figures. Dukes with the title Grand Duke of Lithuania ruled the unified country: i.e. they ruled Lithuania, Samogitia, and Rus'. |
See also
- Family of Gediminas
- Gediminids
- {{portal-inline|Lithuania}}