Mossynoeci ( ka, მოსინიკები, , , modern Greek ', "dwellers in wooden towers") is a name that the Greeks of the Euxine Sea (Black Sea) applied to the peoples of

Pontus Pontus or Pontos may refer to: * Short Latin name for the Pontus Euxinus, the Greek name for the Black Sea (aka the Euxine sea) * Pontus (mythology), a sea god in Greek mythology * Pontus (region), on the southern coast of the Black Sea, in modern ...

, the northern

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

n coast west of

Trebizond Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid Em ...

. The Mossynoeci were believed to be of proto-Georgian origin.

Herodotus

Writing soon after 430 BCE,

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

in Book 3 cites the Mossynoeci, along with the Moschoi,

Tibareni The Tibareni (Greek: Τιβαρηνοί, Τιβαρανοί) were a people residing on the coast of ancient Pontus referred to in Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo and other classical authors. The Tibareni were believed to be of Scythian origin,Schol. a ...

, the

Macrones The Macrones ( ka, მაკრონები, ; , ''Makrōnes'') were an ancient Colchian tribe in the east of Pontus, about the Moschici Mountains (modern Yalnizçam Dağlari, Turkey). The name is allegedly derived from the name of Kromni ...

and

Marres The Mares ( ka, მარები ) were an ancient Colchian tribe. They entered ancient history with the writings of Hecataeus of Miletus. He gives a brief description of the tribe and mentions that they lived between closely akin Colchian triba ...

as comprising the

19th 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics Nineteen is the eighth prime number. Number theory 19 forms a twin prime with 17, a cousin prime with 23, and a sexy prime with 13. ...

satrapy A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. A satrapy is the territory governed by a satrap. ...

established by

Darius Darius may refer to: Persian royalty ;Kings of the Achaemenid Empire * Darius I (the Great, 550 to 487 BC) * Darius II (423 to 404 BC) * Darius III (Codomannus, 380 to 330 BC) ;Crown princes * Darius (son of Xerxes I), crown prince of Persia, ma ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. The satrapy as a whole was to yield three hundred talents. The Mossynoeci are also mentioned in Book 7 of the Histories.

Xenophon

In his ''

Anabasis Anabasis (from Greek ''ana'' = "upward", ''bainein'' = "to step or march") is an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country. Anabase and Anabasis may also refer to: History * '' Anabasis Alexandri'' (''Anabasis of Alexander''), ...

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

describes the Mossynoeci at some length (5.4). According to his account, the Greeks spent eight days (5.5.1) in their territory, probably in the summer of 400, on their way west along the Black Sea coast from Trapezus. The author reports that those who returned home used to say the Mossynoeci 'were the most barbarous people they passed through and the furthest removed from Greek customs' (5.4.27). The Mossynoeci seemed to favour outdoor sex (5.4.34) and may have practised '

whistled speech Whistled speech is a form of speech surrogacy in which whistling is used to mimic speech. Speakers of more than 80 languages have been found to practice various degrees of whistled speech, most of them in rugged topography or dense forests, wher ...

' (5.4.31), a form of communication still found in the region today together with just a handful of other places in the world.

Jason and the Argonauts

The Mossynoeci are mentioned in

Apollonius of Rhodes Apollonius of Rhodes ( ''Apollṓnios Rhódios''; ; fl. first half of 3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek author, best known for the ''Argonautica'', an epic poem about Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Go ...

's (third century BCE in Alexandria) epic poem

The Voyage of Argo The ''Argonautica'' () is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only entirely surviving Hellenistic epic (though Callimachus' ''Aetia'' is substantially extant through fragments), the ''Argonautica'' tells ...

. In Book 2: Onward to

Colchis In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the ...

, he writes, "These people have their own ideas of what is right and proper. What we do as a rule openly in town or market-place they do at home; and what we do in the privacy of our houses they do out of doors in the open street, and nobody thinks the worst of them. Even the sexual act puts no one to blush in this community. On the contrary, like swine in the fields, they lie down on the ground in promiscuous intercourse and are not at all disconcerted by the presence of others. Then again, their king sits in loftiest hut of all to dispense justice to his numerous subjects. But if the poor man happens to make a mistake in his findings, they lock him up and give him nothing to eat for the rest of the day." Book: Rhodes, Apollonius of. The Voyage of Argo. Translated by E. V. Rieu. Penguin Classics: London, 1959. Lines 1007-1024.

Other

It is possible that the town

Mossyna Mossyna () or Mosyna (Μοσύνα) was a city of the middle Maeander valley in the late Roman province Phrygia Pacatiana II. It is mentioned as a bishopric by Hierocles and other ecclesiastical writers. It may have been named for the classical ...

was named for them.

References

{{Ancient Georgians Anabasis (Xenophon) Tribes in classical historiography Ancient peoples of Anatolia History of Pontus

Herodotus

Xenophon

Jason and the Argonauts

Other

See also

References