In Greek mythology, Makedon, also Macedon () or Makednos (), was the eponymous ancestor of the ancient Macedonians according to various ancient Greek fragmentary narratives. In most versions, he appears as a native or immigrant leader from Epirus, who gave his name to Macedonia, previously called Emathia according to Strabo, which according to Marsyas of Pella was until then a part of Thrace. Etymology Μακεδών (Makedón) is related to the Greek μᾰκεδνός (makednós, “tall, slim”). Both adjectives traditionally derive from the Indo-European root *mak- or *meh2k-, meaning "long, slender", cognate with poetic Greek makednós or mēkedanós "long, tall", Doric mãkos and Attic mẽkos "length", Makistos, the mythological eponym of a town in Elis and an epithet of Heracles, Avestan masah "length", Hittite mak-l-ant "thin", Latin macer "meagre" and Proto-Germanic *magraz "lean, meager". The same root and meaning has been duly assigned to the tribal name of the Macedonians, which is commonly explained as having originally meant "the tall ones" or "highlanders" in Greek. Genealogy Son of Zeus The seventh fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, quoted by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, states: "Macedonia the country was named after Makedon, the son of Zeus and Thyia, daughter of Deucalion, as the poet Hesiod relates; and she became pregnant and bore to thunder-loving Zeus, two sons, Magnes and Macedon, the horse lover, those who dwelt in mansions around Pieria and Olympus". The poetic epithet "hippiocharmes" can alternatively be translated as "fighting on horseback" or "chariot-fighter" and has also been attributed to Aeolus son of Hellen, Troilus and Amythaon. A fragment of the Macedonian historian Marsyas of Pella (4th century BC), through a scholiast of Iliad xiv 226 confirms the genealogy as found in the Catalogue of Women: "Makedon son of Zeus and Thyia, conquered the land then belonging to Thrace and he called it Macedonia after his name. He married a local woman and got two sons, Pierus and Amathus; two cities, Pieria and Amathia in Macedonia were founded or named after them". The rare name of his mother Thyia, has been corrupted in transmission to Aithria or Aithyia through the phrase "kai Thyias, and Thyia". Thyia in the Delphic tradition was an eponym naiad of the Thyiades, alternative name of the Maenads in the cult of Dionysus, certainly practiced also in Macedonia. The mythological chronologization of the Hesiodean passage indicates a time before the Trojan War and Iliad, since then the Magnetes