En raison du fait que les toponymes grecs qui préservent les caractéristiques archaïques sont très densément trouvés dans une zone plus large, il semble que les locuteurs de la langue proto-grecque habitaient une région qui comprenait la Tymphée avant les migrations de la fin de l'âge du bronze (fin du IIIème - début de IIème millénaire av. J.-C.) pendant plusieurs siècles, voire des millénaires auparavant[4]. Tymphaea et ses habitants grecs, les Tymphéens, ont été nommés d'après le mont Tymphe[5]. Vers 350 av. J.-C, la Tymphée fut conquise par Philippe II (359-336 av. J.-C.) et incorporée au royaume de Macédoine dans le cadre de la Haute Macédoine[6],[7]. Le natif le plus célèbre de Tymphée était Polyperchon, un général d'Alexandre le Grand. Il était le fils de Simmias qui était le souverain de Tymphée vers 370 av. J.-C.[8]
Les Tymphéens appartenaient à la large tribu des Molosses[1]. Ils étaient l'une des tribus Epirote du groupe grec du nord-ouest[9]. Ils adoraient Deipaturos, une divinité du ciel, semblable à Zeus Pater, comme le dieu de leur montagne, Tymphé[10].
(en) Cet article est partiellement ou en totalité issu de l’article de Wikipédia en anglais intitulé «Tymphaea» (voir la liste des auteurs).
Hammond 1982, p.276: "As we leave the coastal area, we may turn first to the middle and upper Haliacmon valley, where Elimeotis, Tymphaea and Orestis were inhabited by Epirotic tribes, or more correctly 'Molossian' tribes if the account in Strabo was derived from Hecataeus."
Hammond 1993, p.132–133: "Further, the tribes which Strabo termed "Epirotic" — Orestai, Tymphaioi, Elimiotai, Lynkestai and Pelagones — are likely to have spoken the same dialect as the Molossians, to whom they were in some sense related."
Hammond 1994, p.206: "When Philip annexed Elimea, Orestis, and Lyncus and territory up to Lake Lychnitis, reorganized the administration, and planted towns such as Heraclea Lyncestis, he was in a position to recruit and train infantry from these areas, ready for service perhaps by 352 B.C.; and similarly from Tymphaea, annexed probably in 350 B.C., infantry ready for service by 345 B.C.".
(en) R. A. Crossland et Ann Birchall, Bronze Age Migrations in the Aegean: Archaeological and Linguistic Problems in Greek Prehistory, Noyes Press, (ISBN978-0-8155-5022-8, lire en ligne), p.247:
«The region north of this line, which comprises Epirus as far as Aulon, in the north (including Paravaia, Tymphaea, Athamania, Dolopia, Amphilochia and Acarnania), western and northern Thessaly (Hestiaeotis, Perrhaebia, Tripolis) and Pieria, i.e. approximately the whole of northern and north-western Greece, is characterized by the following features. 1. Absence of pre-Hellenic place-names. ... All the principal names north of the line are of archaic Greek origin...Thus in the region defined just above, roughly northern and northwestern Greece... Since Greek place- names are very dense in that region and they have a very archaic appearance, one may suppose that the proto-Greeks were settled in it during many centuries and even millennia.»
Hammond 1993, [p. 141] "We see here the origins of the Tymphaioi (named after Mt. Tymphe) Orestai, Lynkestai and Pelagones, who practiced this way of life and were each a cluster of tribes."; [p. 143] "...the "Tymphaioi" were so named from the mountain Tymphe."
Hammond 1994, p.206: "When Philip annexed Elimea, Orestis, and Lyncus and territory up to Lake Lychnitis, reorganized the administration, and planted towns such as Heraclea Lyncestis, he was in a position to recruit and train infantry from these areas, ready for service perhaps by 352 B.C.; and similarly from Tymphaea, annexed probably in 350 B.C., infantry ready for service by 345 B.C."
Hatzopoulos 1996, p.249: "Finally, the fourth meris gathered the Upper Macedonian ethne (Lynkestai, Tymphaioi, Atintanes), to which Pelagonia (presumably with Derriopos), in other words the western part of the former strategia of Paionia, was added".
Pleket, Stroud et Strubbe 1994, p. 124: "Polyperchon, one of Alexander's generals and later regent (319 B.C.), son of Simmias who ruled the Tymphaioi ca. 370 B.C."
(en) Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, Epirus: the geography, the ancient remains, the history and topography of Epirus and adjacent areas, Clarendon P., (lire en ligne), p.538