All Topics  
Gelonus

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Gelonus
 
 
  Topics Gelonus Topic Home

Gelonus, (also transliterated Helonus), , Helon, , was the capital of Scythia
Scythia

The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
 (now in Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
) and the biggest gord
Gord (Slavic settlement)

Grad or gorod or gord is a Slavic word for town or city. The ancient Slavs were known for building wooden fortified settlements. The reconstructed...
 in Europe. It has been identified with the archeological site Bilske Horodyshche (???????? ????????) near the village of Bilsk in Poltava Region.

In his account of Scythia
Scythia

The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
 (Inquiries book 4), Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
 writes that the Gelonii
Gelonians

The Gelonians - also known as Helonians are mentioned as a nation in northwestern Scythia by Herodotus . Herodotus says that they were originally Greeks who settled among the Budinoi, and that they are bilingual in Greek and the Scythian language....
 were formerly Greeks, having settled away from the coastal emporia
Emporia

Emporia can be several things:Places in the United States* Emporia, Indiana* Emporia, Kansas* Emporia, VirginiaOther uses* Emporia , an ancient term for Phoenician city-states in north Africa...
 among the Budini
Budini

The Budini were an ancient people who lived in Scythia, in what is today Ukraine.Herodotus wrote in his Histories :Later located eastward probably on the middle course of the Volga about Samara, Russia, the Budini are described as fair-eyed and red-haired, and lived by hunting in the dense forests....
, where they "use a tongue partly Scythian and partly Greek":

The fortified settlement of Gelonus was reached by the Persian army of Darius in his assault on Scythia during the 5th century BC, already burned to the ground, the Budini having abandoned it before the Persian advance.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Gelonus'
Start a new discussion about 'Gelonus'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Gelonus, (also transliterated Helonus), , Helon, , was the capital of Scythia
Scythia

The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
 (now in Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
) and the biggest gord
Gord (Slavic settlement)

Grad or gorod or gord is a Slavic word for town or city. The ancient Slavs were known for building wooden fortified settlements. The reconstructed...
 in Europe. It has been identified with the archeological site Bilske Horodyshche (???????? ????????) near the village of Bilsk in Poltava Region.

In his account of Scythia
Scythia

The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
 (Inquiries book 4), Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
 writes that the Gelonii
Gelonians

The Gelonians - also known as Helonians are mentioned as a nation in northwestern Scythia by Herodotus . Herodotus says that they were originally Greeks who settled among the Budinoi, and that they are bilingual in Greek and the Scythian language....
 were formerly Greeks, having settled away from the coastal emporia
Emporia

Emporia can be several things:Places in the United States* Emporia, Indiana* Emporia, Kansas* Emporia, VirginiaOther uses* Emporia , an ancient term for Phoenician city-states in north Africa...
 among the Budini
Budini

The Budini were an ancient people who lived in Scythia, in what is today Ukraine.Herodotus wrote in his Histories :Later located eastward probably on the middle course of the Volga about Samara, Russia, the Budini are described as fair-eyed and red-haired, and lived by hunting in the dense forests....
, where they "use a tongue partly Scythian and partly Greek":

The fortified settlement of Gelonus was reached by the Persian army of Darius in his assault on Scythia during the 5th century BC, already burned to the ground, the Budini having abandoned it before the Persian advance. The Scythians sent a message to Darius: "We are free as wind and what you can catch in our land is only the wind". By employing a scorched earth
Scorched earth

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area....
 strategy, they avoided battles, leaving "earth without grass" by burning the steppe
Steppe

In physical geography, a steppe , pronounced , is a grassland plain without trees . The prairie can be considered a steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with Poaceae or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude....
 in front of the advancing Persians (Herodotus). The Persian army returned without a single battle or any significant success.

Recent digs in Bilsk, Ukraine, have uncovered a vast city identified by the Kharkov archaeologist Boris Shramko
Boris Shramko

Boris Shramko Born 1921, Ukrainian historian . He found Gelonus....
 as the Scythian capital Gelonus
Gelonus

Gelonus, , , Helon, , was the capital of Scythia and the biggest Gord in Europe. It has been identified with the archeological site Bilske Horodyshche near the village of Bilsk in Poltava Region....
 . It is strategically situated on the exact boundary between the steppe
Steppe

In physical geography, a steppe , pronounced , is a grassland plain without trees . The prairie can be considered a steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with Poaceae or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude....
 and forest-steppe.

According to Herodotus each side of Gelonus is thirty stades long, the area in today's units would be about 30 square kilometres. The archeological site around Belsk, including necropolis, comprises about 80 km², and the fortifications enclose some 40 km². The north-south axis, along the river Worksla is 17 km long. The remains of walls up to 12 metres are visible today and stretch over the horizon. The total length of the ramparts is 33 km. Inside the fortification, lay three "keeps", 150,000 m², 650,000 m², and 720,000 m² in area, surrounded by eroded earth walls still up to 16 metres high. Several kurgans reminded the inhabitants of the ancient Scythian burial tradition.

Troy
Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
, another lost and found city, was 1000 times smaller by area.

Mythology

In Greek mythology
Mythology

The word mythology refers to a body of folklore/myths/legends that a particular culture believes to be true and that often use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity....
, Gelonus was the son of Echidna
Echidna (mythology)

In the most ancient layers of Greek mythology, Echidna was called the "Mother of All Monsters". Echidna was described by Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave, who mothered with her mate Typhon every major horrible monster in the Greek myths,...
 from Hylea and Heracles
Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
, he had an older brother Agathyrus and a younger Scythes
Scythes

Scythes was tyrant or ruler of Zancle in Sicily, appointed to that post about 494 BC by Hippocrates of Gela.The Zanclaeans had sent to Ionia to invite colony to join them in founding a new city on the Kale Acte , or north shore of Sicily, and the offer had been ac?cepted by a large body of Samos, together with some fugitives from Milet...
. Hylea is pointed to be where was the Echidna's cave between people Arimi or Harimi, the Greeks on the Euxine believed that this was somewhere in Scythia.

Bibliography

  • ?????? ?., ????? ?., ?????????? ?. ???????? ????????. – ????-???????-???????, 1999. – 104 ?.
  • ?????? ?.?.??. ???? ???????. – ?., 1990. – 254 ?.
  • ??????
    Boris Shramko

    Boris Shramko Born 1921, Ukrainian historian . He found Gelonus....
     ?.?. ???????? ????????? ??????? ? ?.?????? – ????? ????? // ???????? ???. – ?., 1975.
  • ?????? ?.?. ???????? ???????? ???????? ????? (????? ?????). – ?., 1987. – 182 ?.
  • ???????? ???????? ? ????????? ???????? ???’???? ???????? ????????? ???? ??????. – ???????, 1996. – 408 ?.


External links