When the Russians move west from Mariupol, as they almost certainly will, they will have to cross the Southern Bug river, the second longest river in Ukraine. It’s 500 miles long and drains almost 25,000 square miles of good agricultural land.
Take a much-needed time-out from watching Putin’s “special military operation” to pay your respects to “Prosperity,” a.k.a. Olbia Pontica, not far from today’s village of Parutino. The site is one of the outermost Greek settlements in the Archaic period. and a terrific location for trade . That’s what made it prosper. It was also an intersection point with the Scythians.
Near here, not far from the race course of Achilles the Scythian Anacharsis is said to have been murdered on his return from Greece:
4” So when he came to Scythia, he hid himself in the country called Woodland (which is beside the Race of Achilles, and is all overgrown with every kind of timber); hidden there, Anacharsis celebrated the goddess' ritual with exctness, carrying a small drum and hanging images about himself.f
Then some Scythian saw him doing this and told the king, Saulius; who, coming to the place himself and seeing Anacharsis performing these rites, shot an arrow at him and killed him.”
Herodotus 4.76, tr. Godley
His crime? Conversion to the cult of the ecstatic mountain goddess, Cybele? That was part of it, but Herodotus was convinced it was something more fundamental, a crime many of us share, Hellenophilia.
When the artillery roars and the tanks roll by, bow your head in respect to the village of Parutino what was once Prosperity.
Take a much-needed time-out from watching Putin’s “special military operation” to pay your respects to “Prosperity,” a.k.a. Olbia Pontica, not far from today’s village of Parutino. The site is one of the outermost Greek settlements in the Archaic period. and a terrific location for trade . That’s what made it prosper. It was also an intersection point with the Scythians.
Near here, not far from the race course of Achilles the Scythian Anacharsis is said to have been murdered on his return from Greece:
4” So when he came to Scythia, he hid himself in the country called Woodland (which is beside the Race of Achilles, and is all overgrown with every kind of timber); hidden there, Anacharsis celebrated the goddess' ritual with exctness, carrying a small drum and hanging images about himself.f
Then some Scythian saw him doing this and told the king, Saulius; who, coming to the place himself and seeing Anacharsis performing these rites, shot an arrow at him and killed him.”
Herodotus 4.76, tr. Godley
His crime? Conversion to the cult of the ecstatic mountain goddess, Cybele? That was part of it, but Herodotus was convinced it was something more fundamental, a crime many of us share, Hellenophilia.
When the artillery roars and the tanks roll by, bow your head in respect to the village of Parutino what was once Prosperity.