Scythian Odyssey

Lina Kostenko's ballad-poem transports the reader two and a half millennia back in time, to the era of Europe's formation. The protagonist, a young Greek from Olbia-Mykolaiv, sets sail up the Dnieper (then Borysthenes) toward the future Kyiv. This journey becomes his discovery of the Greek and Scythian worlds of the Pontic region, revealing the multifaceted nature of the civilizations of that time. Written with humor and irony, the poem portrays the centuries-old, real, and mythical element of Ukraine's creation at the intersection of Western and Eastern civilizations. It presents Ukraine as an inalienable part of European Mediterranean culture.
The work gains particular relevance today, when the annexation of Crimea and Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine have become a direct assault on our country's ancient past. The attempt to turn the Ukrainian Hellenistic South into a zone of violence, death, and destruction receives a sharp, witty, and life-affirming response in this poem, confirming Ukraine's unbreakable connection to its European heritage.