Gelonos

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Gelonos ( ancient Greek Γελωνός Gelōnós ) is called by Herodotus a city in the land of the Budinoi beyond the Tanais , i.e. beyond the land of the Scythians . The land of the Budinoi is completely overgrown with trees.

Lore

According to Stephanos of Byzantium , the city was founded by the eponymous hero Gelonos , who after Herodotus was a son of Heracles and the Scythian Echidna . Gelonos had to leave the country with his brother Agathyrsos because he was unable to draw the bow of Heracles. However, this was achieved Skythes , the youngest of the three brothers, who then became king.

Herodotus describes Gelonos as tall and built entirely of wood. The walls were also made of wood. The inhabitants are predominantly Hellenes expelled from the south , who brought their way of life with them, worshiped Greek gods and spoke a mixture of Greek and Scythian. In contrast to the Budinoi, they practiced agriculture and had gardens. The temples in which Greek gods were worshiped are also made of wood. Herodotus mentions a festival of Dionysus that took place every two years. Gelonus is said to have been during the Scythian campaign of the Persian king Dareios I in the 6th century BC. Has been destroyed.

Interpretation and location

August Meitzen considered the city to be a foundation of Milesian Greeks, in the Greek style, albeit entirely of wood.

The Kharkov archaeologist Boris Schramko suspects that the fortifications found near Bilsk ( Poltava Oblast ) are Gelonos. He justifies this with the Greek ceramics found there and the wooden architecture. He assumes that the Budini lived in the eastern fortress and the Geloni in the western fortress, and justifies this with differences in material culture.

Most researchers would like to settle Gelonos further north or northeast, as Herodotus expressly speaks of "beyond the Don". Volgograd , Saratov and Kazan were proposed. Edward D. Phillips points to similarities between the Anan'ino culture at the Kama and Herodotus' description of the Budins and therefore wants to locate Gelonos in the area of ​​the Anan'ino culture, but not as far away as the eponymous site itself.

literature

  • Boris A. Schramko: Bel'skoe gorodisce skifskoj epochi (gorod Gelon). Naukova Dumka, Kiev 1987.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herodotus, Historien 4,108-109.
  2. ↑ Herodotus, Histories 4:21.
  3. ↑ Herodotus, Historien 4,8-10; Stephanos of Byzantium sv Γελωνοί ; see Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll: Gelonos . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,2, Leipzig 1890, Sp. 1610 ( digitized ) .; Karl Tümpel : Gelonos. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 1, Stuttgart 1910, Sp. 1018 ( online ) ..
  4. ↑ Herodotus, Histories 4,123.
  5. ↑ August Meitzen: Settlement and agriculture of the West German and East German, the Celts, Romans, Finns and Slavs. Volume 1. Wilhelm Hetz, Berlin 1895, p. 692 ( digitized version ).
  6. ↑ Boris A. Schramko: Bel'skoe gorodisce skifskoj epochi (gorod Gelon). Naukova Dumka, Kiev 1987.
  7. ↑ Arcadia Xenia Kocyhala: Greek Colonization on the North Shore of The Black Sea in the Archaic Period. Dissertation Classical Archeology, University of Pennsylvania, 1978, p. 117.
  8. ^ Edward D. Phillips: The Legend of Aristeas: Fact and Fancy in Early Greek Notions of East Russia, Siberia and Inner Asia. In: Artibus Asiae. Volume 18, Issue 2, 1955, pp. 161-177, here: p. 167 ( JSTOR 3248792167 ).
  9. ^ Edward D. Phillips: The Legend of Aristeas: Fact and Fancy in Early Greek Notions of East Russia, Siberia and Inner Asia. In: Artibus Asiae. Volume 18, Issue 2, 1955, pp. 161-177, here: p. 166 f.
  10. ^ Edward D. Phillips: The Legend of Aristeas: Fact and Fancy in Early Greek Notions of East Russia, Siberia and Inner Asia. In: Artibus Asiae. Volume 18, Issue 2, 1955, pp. 161–177, here: p. 167.