Между Вифинией и Борисфеном: от ристалища Ахилла на Кальпе к прибытию Афродиты в Гилею

Dionysios of Olbia is known only from a few words quoted in connection with the river Kalpe on the north coast of ancient Bithynia. The author is usually believed to be one of a very few from the northern Black Sea, but that is unlikely. The Greeks usually called the Pontic city of Olbia by the name Borysthenes. In addition, this author clearly wrote about a detail of the mythical topography of the river Kalpe, where Achilles was said to race (as at Tendra and on Leuke): the topic and use of the name Olbia suggests that we should probably locate Dionysios among the many Bithynian writers on such matters, since an Olbia was part of the Bithynian royal capital, Nicomedia. The obscure Demosthenes of Bithynia is discussed as an example of this kind of work, as also Pseudo-Scymnus. Shared mythical links between Bithynia, neighbouring regions. and the north-western Black Sea may suggest that Aphrodite Ourania (who had not come from Miletos) was believed to have come to Olbia by way of the Sea of Marmara, as Greek sailors did.