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Fun trivia - ancient Greeks called the Caspian Sea the "Wolf Ocean"

not "wolf" in greek, but they used an old persian ...
transparent sweet tailpipe
  01/09/19
Did the Greeks ever see the Caspian Sea for themselves befor...
Azure abode alpha
  01/09/19
some of the greeks who got captured by the persians or greek...
transparent sweet tailpipe
  01/09/19
...
thriller heaven wrinkle
  09/09/26
θάλασσα means sea not ...
razzle native
  09/09/26


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Date: January 9th, 2019 7:53 PM
Author: transparent sweet tailpipe

not "wolf" in greek, but they used an old persian loan-word for wolf. they called it Ὑρκανία θάλαττα, or Hyrcania thalatta, which means Hyrcanian ocean. Hyrcania is the Grecoized version of the old persian "verkana," or "of the wolves"/of the verka. so it literally meant Ocean of Wolves or Wolf-Ocean. it was because greeks only knew it from the southern coast and the dense forests in that region.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4174166&forum_id=2#37562200)



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Date: January 9th, 2019 8:48 PM
Author: Azure abode alpha

Did the Greeks ever see the Caspian Sea for themselves before Alexander the Great?

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4174166&forum_id=2#37562596)



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Date: January 9th, 2019 9:18 PM
Author: transparent sweet tailpipe

some of the greeks who got captured by the persians or greek traders in persia almost certainly did.

what's interesting is how unexplored the whole region was until relatively recently. the russians didn't start pushing south from astrakhan until the late-1600's, and the whole place was considered a wild land full of raiders and warring tribes. the persians nominally controlled a lot of stuff along the coast that they didn't really in practice.

there's a famous cossack rebel named stepan "stenka" razin who rebelled against russia and became a caspian raider, and they didn't catch him for years until 1671.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4174166&forum_id=2#37562826)



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Date: September 9th, 2026 11:06 AM
Author: thriller heaven wrinkle



(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4174166&forum_id=2#50124397)



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Date: September 9th, 2026 11:21 AM
Author: razzle native

θάλασσα means sea not ocean. Ocean is okeanos.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4174166&forum_id=2#50124416)