includes the sacred envoys (members of the ruling family of each tribe or subtribe) of the Molossians, Kassopeans, Chaonians and Thesprotians. The weight of this evidence is decisive because only Greeks (Hellenes) were permitted to participate in the Panhellenic games and festivals. Mythological origins The Epirotic tribes sought their progenitor in the Homeric epics, similar to other tribes in Greece. The Chaonians chose the Trojan prince Helenus. Though this mythical tradition is commonly considered to have been created during the time of Alcetas, or even Pyrrhus (along with later additions that date to the Roman times), it seems that the core of the mythological genealogy of the Chaonians was already established by the 6th century BC, and its roots can be traced at the end of the 8th century BC, through the lost epic poem of Nostoi. In Virgil's Aeneid, the eponymous ancestor of the Chaonians was the Trojan hero Chaon. According to Malkin, their founding myth may have arisen as a response to the self-definitions of the Molossians and Thesprotians. According to Hernandez, among the Epirote tribes, the Molossians viewed their descent as a mixture of Greek and Trojan, from Neoptolemus and Helenus respectively, whereas the Chaonians viewed their descent as strictly Trojan, from Helenus and Andromache; perhaps in opposition to the Greek ethnicity of the colonizers and/or the mixed origins of the southern Epirote tribes. According to Hadeli, Helenus had a rather inconspicuous role compared to other heroes in the Homeric epics, but he did possess all the qualities which could serve the aspirations of the Chaonians. Namely, he was the son of a king and a brave warrior, but above all, he was the best seer of the Trojans; a quality that pertains directly to Dodona, and can thus explain their choice, which covered ideological control over the oracle. Hadeli adds, that the presence of Trojans in Epirus, may not have been an ex nihilo invention of the Chaonians, but might stem from the now lost epics of Nostoi and the Little Iliad; an approach which refutes the argument that the Homeric myths were subsequently adopted by the locals, in order to be integrated and legitimized in the Greek world, since these traditions are attested from the Archaic period and it is highly probable that they initially pertained to the aspirations of the three main Epirotic tribes regarding the ideological establishment over their lands, natural resources, and