Olbia (original) (raw)

City on the estuary of the HYPANIS (Southern Bug) on the northern coast of the EUXINE (Black) Sea, near modern Parutino. In Herodotus’ account, Olbia serves as a focal point for both his geographical description of the northern Euxine coast (4.17) and his juxtaposition of cultural differences between Greeks and SCYTHIANS, exemplified by the stories of ANACHARSIS (4.76–77) and SCYLES (4.78–80). Herodotus consistently calls Olbia the city or trading‐post of the Borysthenites and only mentions the term Olbiopolitai (“citizens of Olbia”) as a name which nearby “Scythian farmers” use to refer to themselves, in contrast to the city‐dwellers’ term for them, Borysthenitai (4.18.1). The Greek word olbios meant “prosperous, happy."