Scythian Odyssey

The hero of Lina Kostenko’s ballad poem “The Scythian Odyssey” — a young Greek from Olbia-Mykolaiv — two and a half millennia ago set sail on the Dnieper, and then on the Borysthenes — in the direction of the future Kyiv, getting to know the Greek and Scythian worlds of the Prypontis. It was also the time of the birth of Europe within the walls of Athens. The poem, written in a sparkling and ironic manner, presents the centuries-old — real and mythical — element of the creation of Ukraine at the intersection of Western and Eastern civilizations, and Ukraine itself is seen as an integral part of the culture of the European Mediterranean. The poem acquires particular relevance today: the annexation of Crimea, and now Russia’s war against Ukraine have become an attack on Ukraine’s ancient past. The attempt to turn our Hellenistic South into a zone of violence, death, and destruction receives a sharp and witty life-affirming response in this poem.