Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/places-in-greek-mythology

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Racecourse of Achilles

The Racecourse of Achilles () is a narrow strip of land north-west of Crimea and south of the mouth of the Dnieper in Ukraine, running nearly due west and cast. It is now divided into two parts called Tendra Spit and Dzharylhach.

According to ancient legends Achilles pursued Iphigenia to this peninsula and there practised for his races. The land was called Racecourse of Achilles because the hero celebrated his victory there with competitive games and also there he and his men routinely exercised when there was a respite from the fighting. Pomponius Mela, Chorographia, §2.5

Herodotus briefly mentions a "racetrack of Achilles" in the fourth book of the Histories while he describes the history and geography of the Black Sea region controlled by the Scythians. He describes it as laying nearby the River Hypacyris, known today as the Southern Bug River.

The Leuke island in the Black Sea, modern Snake island, was also called racecourse of Achilles.

References

References

  1. [https://topostext.org/work/241#A152.9 Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §A152.9]
  2. [[Natural History (Pliny). Plin. Nat.]] 4,26
  3. [[Geographica. Strab. Geogr.]] 7,3.19
  4. [https://topostext.org/work/148#4.26.1 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, §4.26.1]
  5. Herodotus, the Histories. Edited by Paul Cartledge. Translated by Tom Holland, Penguin Books, 2015. Page 283
  6. [https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/Περίπλους_Ευξείνου_Πόντου#32 Arrian, Periplus of the Euxine Sea, §32]
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

places-in-greek-mythology greek-mythology ancient-crimea achilles
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Racecourse of Achilles — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report