Byzas
Byzas , also Byzantas ( ancient Greek Βύζας, Βύζαντας ), was a legendary Doric military leader from Megara (hence also Byzas of Megara or Byzas the Megarer , ancient Greek Βύζας ὁ Μεγαραῖος or Βύζας ὁ Μεγ is considered the founder of the city by the name of the Byzantion) (ancient Greek Βυζάντιον "from Byz [ant] as coming"), which was later called Byzantium (74–197, 217–326), Augusta Antonina (197–217), from 326 onwards Constantinople and since 1930 Istanbul .
Byzas derived according to tradition from the Doric Megara ( Μέγαρα ) and was one of the sons of the legendary King Nisos ( Νίσος ). Before a planned exploration and colonization trip, the king asked the Oracle of Delphi about the best location for a new colony . The Pythia of the Oracle of Apollon answered in an initially incomprehensible way that Byzas should found a settlement "opposite the land of the blind" (ancient Greek ἀντὶ [τοῦ τόπου] τῶν τυφλῶν) , a land unknown to him. He set out with a group of colonists from his hometown Megara and found in the north of the Marmara Sea opposite the city of Chalkedon ( Χαλκηδών , on the Asian side of the Bosphorus ) a uniquely favorable place for a town in the form of a horn-like headland with a natural harbor behind it, which no one had previously recognized as such, not even the founders and residents of the Chalcedon opposite. This caused Byzas to recognize the area around the neighboring Chalcedonians as the “land of the blind” of the oracle. So he chose the headland south of the Golden Horn , which serves as a natural harbor and which offers significantly more military and economic advantages than the Asian side, as the foundation for the city of Byzantion named after him.
Byzas is also known as the legendary Thracian king and son of Poseidon and the nymph Keroessa in Greek mythology . The father of the gods Zeus fell in love with the daughter of Inachos , river god and king of Argos , named Io . To protect himself from Hera's anger, Zeus turned young Io into a heifer . Hera noticed the deception and had her pursued after they escaped from the custody of Argos . Io fled through the country, crossed the Ionian Sea named after her and swam from Europe through the strait , which since then has been named after her Bosporus ( " ford of cattle", from ancient Greek βοῦς , "ox", and πόρος , " ford ", " strait " ) called. After she had later regained her human form, she gave birth to her daughter Keroessa, a nymph who, as the lover of Poseidon, her uncle, gave birth to her son Byzas. He founded the city of Byzantion named after him on the tip of the headland south of the Chrysokeras arm of the sea, named after his mother Keroessa ( Χρυσὸν Κέρας , contracted Χρυσοκέρας "Golden Horn").
A series of publications by the Istanbul Department of the German Archaeological Institute is named after Byzas .
literature
- Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Byzas 1) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 841 ( digitized version ).