A Olbia and Borysthenes in Old Polish Literature
A Olbia and Borysthenes in Old Polish Literature

Preliminary Report

Author(s): Alfred Twardecki
Subject(s): Archaeology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Olbia Pontica; Black Sea; antiquity; Jagiellonian; Old Polish literature; Sigismund II Augustus; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; Ochakiv; Berezan; Borysthenes; Hypanis; Dnipro; Southern Buh; Ukraine
Summary/Abstract: The author presents in the paper the result of his research on the presence of the memory of Olbia as an ancient Greek colony in the literature and history of the Jagiellonian state of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The paper is a preliminary report rather, because the results of the literature search, which was originally intended to illustrate the state of knowledge about the history of research on today’s archaeological site, exceeded all the expectations of the author. The role of Olbia, also allegorical or purely rhetorical, both in the culture and politics of the Polish-Lithuanian state in the 15th–17th centuries turned out to be much greater than one could have expected. This is due to the broader manner of that epoch (Renaissance and Baroque), the use of ancient scenography and ancient references when describing contemporary events. For this reason, the article only signals this issue by illustrating it with selected examples. The presentation of all the sources identified by the author will require a more extensive publication. The most important types of references to ancient Olbia/Borysthenes indicated in the article are the use of ancient names – city, river, inhabitants – when describing the struggle with the Turks, Tatars, and Muscovites. Also, the geographical orientation on the northsouth axis according to the ancient image of these territories and not their actual location relative to the centre of the state. A very important discovery is the oldest, according to the author’s knowledge, description of the territories around Olbia found in the diplomatic document of the chancellery of King Sigismund II Augustus (1542). We will find there unique and extremely important information about the existence of a crossing near ancient Olbia.

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