Alexander Beskov. Sochi


According to the Greek myths, Prometheus gave people everything - life, soul, trades, fire. It was because of the theft of fire from Olympus and, what is more important, because of giving it to people that he suffered. Zeus ordered to chain Prometheus to Caucasus, a desert cliff at the back of beyond, in Scythia. It is very likely that this "first Golgotha" is Mountain Fisht near Sochi.

"There is Caucasus Mountain bordering on the Phasis once called Boreas's Couch (Boreas is the Greek god of he north wind)... After the fight of the Titans Cronus who was trying to escape Zeus's threats hid himself on the top of Boreas's Couch having turned himself into a crocodile... When Zeus came there he tied his father down with a woolen threat and precipitated him into Tartarus, and then he... renamed the mountain to Caucasus, chained Prometheus to the rock and made him suffer from the eagle that was tearing his liver to pieces." (Plutarch, the end of 1st century AD). Further he explains: "The Phasis is a river in Scythia... It was called the Arctur formerly because of the cold area that surrounds it". Scientists believe that "at the time when the Ionic myth about Argonauts was being composed the River Phasis was considered in the North and was identified with the Don earlier than with the Rion."

Take a map. The nearest to the Phasis-Don dominating peak of the Greater Caucasian Range in the North-West is Fisht. Ancient Greeks thought it to be situated in Scythia. A trade road was going past it. Have a look at the photo - from Sochi the mountain looks like a crocodile and the most important thing is that there is a huge red blot which appeared on its southern slope after an ancient collapse (the myth says that the blood soaked into the rocks). Severe snow storms occur here at the height of summer.
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