Name Tsintzina

Whence the Name “Tsintzina”

©: S.N.A., 2001

Early inquiries on the name “Tsintzina”, are attributed to Phaedon Koukoules. During his term as Head-Teacher of the Vamvakou Elliniko Scholeio at around 1906-1910, Koukoules (who later became Professor of Byzantine Studies at Athens University), researched several toponyms of Lakonia, among them Goritsa and Tsintzina. Extracts of his short thesis on Tsintzina were reproduced in the Jamestown Lefkoma over several years.

However, the methodology that Koukoules’ employed in examining most of the local village names is rather precarious. Disregarding to a large extend locational elements (such as dialect, habits and trades), he searched for most of his answers in perceived history and mostly, in ethnology. Sufficiently precise historical details about ethnic developments in our area do not however exist. Nor do we know with reasonable certainty when and how Tsintzina was established. Given so, to go one step further and correlate –as Koukoules did- the rather weak historical arguments with incompletely understood local elements, would almost certainly produce doubtful, if not outright erroneous results. Predictably perhaps, his explanation of the name of Goritsa, has been completely discredited.[1] As for his assertions about the naming of Tsintzina, they seem equally doubtful in substance.

The core of Koukoules’ remarks about the name of Tsintzina is that:

· Tsintzina constitutes definitely a foreign word, possibly Slavic, more likely Albanian.[2]

· The name is the inheritance of Albanian settlers in the vicinity (in itself a controversial remark beyond reasonable proof)

Irrespective of substance, one has to admit that Koukoules’ thesis exerted considerable influence. Perhaps a direct result of his strongly assertive remarks, was that soon afterwards Tsintzina was forcibly renamed “Polidrosson” in one of a series of Governmental Decrees replacing over time all local names presumed as non-Greek.[3]. An astonishing paradox of Koukoules’ thesis however, is that he failed to recognize in the name “Goritsa” a much more clear foreign element than in either “Tsintzina” or the other nearby villages that were renamed.[4] As a result of this inexplicable oversight, the village of Goritsa was spared this fortune, though since, the notion of Tsintzina being a “foreign” name has anchored firmly even among Tsintzinians themselves.

In 1963, Thanos Vagenas -an Arcadian intellectual married to a Tsintzinian- produced a series of short essays on the name “Tsintzina”. In an apparent divergence with Koukoules, Vagenas shifts the focus on linguistic factors. He does not dispute the foreign origin of the word in itself. Unlike Koukoules who examined the word “tsintzina” only in the context of the village name, Vagenas successfully offered examples where “tsintzina” and its derivatives constitute common words in the Greek. As a result, Vagenas concludes that “tsintzina” is a word that entered the Greek language so long ago, that it is a de facto mistake to consider it foreign. Therefore, he asserts, purging the old village name “Tsintzina” in favor of Polidrosson, looks almost ridiculous in that context.

Vagenas’ discussion is quite enlightening, while his examples of “tsintzina” and its derivatives elsewhere in the Greek language, remain fascinating. Taking his arguments from the beginning, in his first article about historical aspects of Tsintzina, Vagenas wrote:

“I [seem to] conclude that the origin of the word [Tsintzina] is not known with certainty, however it is considered certainly foreign. This theory… seems to validate the decision… of the Ministry of the Interior… [on] the change of [the village] name. How un-worthwhile however this renaming is, will transpire with the few I will be writing henceforth”[5]

The word “tsintzina”, Vagenas proceeds to assert, appears in other parts of Greece with varying meanings. In neighboring Arcadia, in the district of Megalopoli, “tsintzina” means “the heights”. Vagenas illustrates this with: “sta tzintzina tou dendrou” (ie at the highest branches of the tree). A second instance of the word “tsintzina” in connection with “heights”, comes in an old children’s rime of Mt. Parnon: “Anevika sta tsintzira, sta mintzira… etc”.

Moreover, he continues, it is reasonably possible that in several other parts of Greece, the word “tsintzina”

“[does] exist and it means the same things… and then… this word will have naturalized in the Greek language, akin to several other words that do not originate directly from the ancient Greek language. We cannot say therefore that this is a foreign word, since we make use of it in our everyday conversation”[6]

However, in a hasty retreat, Vagenas returns to the ethnological explanations of Koukoules by noting a curious connection: Not only the village of Tsintzina but several others in of Mt. Parnon seem to have common names with villages in a particular cluster of Epirus: Some examples: Doliana, Meligou, Stolos, Sitena and Tsintzina correlate evidently with the Epirus villages of Doliana, Meligou, Stolovon, Satena and Zizina.[7] One would expect here Vagenas to call in the historians. By contrast, Vagenas calls for the expert verdict of a linguist to explain this connection.

The Epirous connection highlighted by Vagenas, would adroitly strengthen the original Koukoules verdict, ie that Tsintzina is an Albanian word. Actually, Professor Koukoules advocated that Tsintzina is a derivative of the Albanian “tzitze”, a word denoting “akanthodes friganon” or “thorny shrub”. Later, some Tsintzinians informally speculated that the shrub in question is the “gaidouragatha”, in abundance in the banks of the several streams and fords in and around Tsintzina village. Yet however, in the ninety years since Professor Koukoules first suggested this theory, there has been no serious effort of cross-referencing the existence of such a linguistic root (never mind derivatives) in the Albanian language.

The common point of Vagenas and Koukoules therefore, is that “tsintzina” is a foreign, probably Albanian word. Their contrast, mainly that Vagenas dilutes (without denying) the “foreignness” of the word itself. Differences in the methodology of their inquiries, as well as perceptional focus (ethnology vs. linguistics) seem to account for their divergence at parts.

In his second article, Vagenas turns more explicit in his indirect support for Koukoules, by eliminating likely alternatives:

“For the village Zizina of Epirus, in the Epirus Chronicle (Vol. 7, p. 121 & Vol. 8, p. 195), likely origins of the name have been recorded, which we believe are beyond [likely] reality. The name “zizina” is [ostensibly] derived from the Romanian “sisinei” which translates as [the flower] poppy… or from the Slavic “zizula”, which is the fruit of the tree of tzitzifia.

In our opinion however, both these explanations are precarious, given that we have the crystal-clear -naturalized in Greek- word “tsintzina”, denoting “at the heights, at the peaks”.[8]

Having aligned indirectly with Koukoules’ notion that tsintzina is beyond reasonable doubt of Albanian extraction, Vagenas returns fully to the methodology of Koukoules, by asserting that perhaps the word “tsintzina” came to our corner in the “historically confirmed”[9] raids of Albanians, circa 1200-1300 AD. Incidentally –and given chance- Vagenas reproduces the controversial view that Tsintzina was at some point probably an ethnically mixed village. Here however, his wording is curiously ambiguous:

“It may not be ruled out that [the Albanian raids in the region] happened even in years earlier [than 1200-1300]. Even if [ the raids] are of those years, they help us in our view that in the village, once Albanians and Greeks coexisted at around that time, given that Tsintzina are first mentioned in the Chrissovoulon of 1292”.[10]

For the sake of clarity, it must be stated that obviously “raids” are something different than “settlements”. Most importantly, any significant Albanian (or Slavic) link to Tsintzina itself, still remains to be documented. Notable Slavic or Albanian links in other -mostly older- neighboring villages have been documented a good deal better.

Understandably, it was not long before Vagenas’s (and effectively, Koukoules’s) assertions were challenged, this time by another learned Tsintzinophile. It was Demetri Kallianis who interjected with this poignant remark:

“Sometimes a tiddle drops from our hands -such as a needle, lets say- and we start searching [for it] in impossible corners, when the needle is actually stuck on ourselves, on the clothes we are wearing”![11]

Probably, Kallianis continues, the same has happened with the word “tsintzina”:

“when we were kids and struggling to secure some cheese that we did not have in abundance, we were pleading to our mothers by saying: give me mum, chop me such a “tsintzano”, such a little bit”[12]

“Few”, “meager”, “frugal” or even, “stingy” could be likewise explanations in “real” Greek of the prefix “tsintz-” and therefore, the word “tsintzina” itself. Likewise, Kallianis continues, the word “ts(z)igounis” which in his village dialect is “tsintzilonomos”, indicates a person not noted for “abundance”.

The above lead Kallianis to conclude that perhaps we should seek the origin of the name “Tsintzina” in that it probably means “small village”. Ie, just a few shepherd’s huts, built in a high place,[13] while the answer may not be in the hordes that raided or settled in the region from time to time in the medieval period.

Kallianis seems to be closer in the truth than the other two. Undoubtedly, he is almost certainly correct in his remark about seeking a needle in impossible places, when it is actually stuck right on your clothes.

Tsintzina are barely a few miles off the distinct Tsakonia enclave. Many of its families are allegedly of Tsakonian origin. Until the 20^th century, the village maintained close ties (and a good deal of trade) with several of the Tsakonia villages and until 1850 it belonged to the Diocese of Reondos, whose territory was almost equal to the Tsakonia enclave. It is only an accident that in the administrative division of Greece to Nomoi, the line was drawn just off Tsintzina, ceding it to Lakonia. No one –including Professor Koukoules- took the trouble to seek likely roots of the word “tsintzina” in the Tsakoniki dialect, when this should be the obvious starting point. Instead, Koukoules seems to have fallen foul with the obsession of an ethno-centric explanation, perhaps originating in the byzantine focus, which dominates the contemporary perception of medieval Greek history.

Shuffling through the exceptional, six-volume compilation of Stachi Editions, containing almost all known travellers’ accounts to Greece since the classical times, there is quite a bit of material concerning our neigboring region of Tsakonia. There, in a footnote about some words of the well-acknowledged Tsakonia dialect, the meticulous reader will discern amid the small print the word “tsintzina”. How is it translated to common Greek? Plainly, velanidia, a shrub in abundance in Tsintzina and very useful in the processing of skins and leather, perhaps the commonest trade in Tsintzina at least in the years to M.F. Leake’s visit.