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Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Pontus

ancient district of Anatolia, from Greek pontos "sea" (see pons).

Wikipedia
Pontus (region)

Pontus (; , "sea") is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region and its mountainous hinterland (rising to the Pontic Alps in the east) in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος Εὔξεινος Pontos Euxeinos ("Hospitable Sea"), or simply Pontos. Having originally no specific name, the region east of the river Halys was spoken of as the country Ἐν Πόντῳ En Pontōi, "on the [Euxeinos] Pontos", and hence it acquired the name of Pontus, which is first found in Xenophon's Anabasis. The extent of the region varied through the ages but generally extended from the borders of Colchis (modern Georgia) until well into Paphlagonia in the west, with varying amounts of hinterland. Several states and provinces bearing the name of Pontus or variants thereof were established in the region in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, culminating in the late Byzantine Empire of Trebizond. Pontus is sometimes considered as the home of the Amazons, with the name Amazon used not only for a city ( Amasya) but for all of Pontus in Greek mythology.

Pontus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Pontus (; Pontos, "Sea") was an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the Greek primordial deities. Pontus was Gaia's son and has no father, but according to the Greek poet Hesiod, he was born without coupling, though according to Hyginus, Pontus is son of Aether and Gaia. For Hesiod, Pontus seems little more than a personification of the sea, ho pontos, "the Road", by which Hellenes signified the Mediterranean Sea. With Gaia, he fathered Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea), Thaumas (the awe-striking "wonder" of the Sea, embodiment of the sea's dangerous aspects), Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto, and the "Strong Goddess" Eurybia. With the sea goddess Thalassa (whose own name simply means "sea" but is derived from a Pre-Greek root), he fathered the Telchines and all sea life.

In a Roman sculpture of the 2nd century AD, Pontus, rising from seaweed, grasps a rudder with his right hand and leans on the prow of a ship. He wears a mural crown, and accompanies Fortuna, whose draperies appear at the left, as twin patron deities of the Black Sea port of Tomis in Moesia.

Pontus (disambiguation)

Pontos (; , "[[Euxine Sea|[Euxine] Sea]]"; Latinized: Pontus) may refer to:

  • Pontus (mythology), a pre-Titanic and pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the Greek primordial deities in Greek mythology;
  • Pontus (region), a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Anatolia, Turkey;
    • Kingdom of Pontus or Pontic Empire, the state of Greek and Persian origin founded by Mithridates I in 281 BC;
    • Bithynia et Pontus (Bithynia and Pontus), a Roman province consisting the annexed parts of the kingdom of Pontus and the kingdom of Bithynia;
      • Three districts of the Roman province Bithynia et Pontus were named: Pontus Galaticus in the west, Pontus Polemoniacus in the centre and Pontus Cappadocicus in the east.
    • Diocese of Pontus, a diocese of the later Roman Empire, incorporating the provinces (formerly districts of Bithynia et Pontus): Pontus Galaticus (or Diospontus, later renamed Helenopontus), Pontus Polemoniacus, Pontus Cappadocicus.
  • Republic of Pontus, a proposed Pontic Greek state on the region of Pontus at 1919;
  • Pontic Greeks, Pontian Greeks or Pontians, an ethnically Greek group who traditionally lived in the region of Pontus.

Usage examples of "pontus".

The daughters of Macedonian aristocrats, they had been given to Cleopatra when all three were small children, to be the royal companions of the second daughter of King Ptolemy Auletes and Queen Cleopatra Tryphaena, a daughter of King Mithridates of Pontus by his queen.

Down the eastern seaboard of the Euxine marched and sailed Neoptolemus and Archelaus, and one by one the little kingdoms of the Caucasus yielded to Pontus, including gold-rich Colchis and the lands between the Phasis and Pontic Rhizus.

Within a month he presented himself at the court of his uncle Mithridates in Amaseia, and within a month more his uncle Mithridates had installed him alone on his throne in Mazaca, for the army of Pontus was permanently in a state of readiness, that of Cappadocia not.

King of Pontus reached the Halys, crossed it, and put his fifty thousand men into camp alongside the fifty thousand who already occupied Mazaca, he was met by Gordius, big with the most extraordinary news.

Probably nothing, beyond the normal squabbling between Nicomedes of Bithynia and Mithridates of Pontus.

We all know that Bithynia and Pontus are traditional enemies, and we all know that both King Nicomedes and King Mithridates would love to expand, at least within Anatolia.

King Attalus III of Pergamum, sold more than half the territory of Phrygia to the father of the present King Mithridates of Pontus for a sum of gold he had popped into his own purse.

Had Ariarathes already concluded a bargain with the Romans to have Mithridates Eupator off his throne, turn Pontus into a satrapy of Cappadocia?

Pontus would retain the title Friend and Ally of the Roman People, earned by the fourth King Mithridates when he assisted the second Attalus of Pergamum in his war against King Prusias of Bithynia.

It incorporated the ancient regions of Bithynia, Mysia, Asia Province, Phrygia, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, Pontus, Cappadocia, and Armenia Parva.

The whole of Anatolia north of Lycia, Pamphylia and Cilicia now belonged to Pontus, and the rest would be his very soon.

Sea he had searcht and Land From EDEN over PONTUS, and the Poole MAEOTIS, up beyond the River OB.

History gives us distinct notions of the synods, held towards the end of the second century, at Ephesus at Jerusalem, at Pontus, and at Rome, to put an end to the disputes which had arisen between the Latin and Asiatic churches about the celebration of Easter.

So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent What choice to chuse for delicacie best, What order, so contriv'd as not to mix Tastes, not well joynd, inelegant, but bring Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change, Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk Whatever Earth all-bearing Mother yeilds In INDIA East or West, or middle shoare In PONTUS or the PUNIC Coast, or where ALCINOUS reign'd, fruit of all kindes, in coate, Rough, or smooth rin'd, or bearded husk, or shell She gathers, Tribute large, and on the board Heaps with unsparing hand.

And forthwith sent old wise knights unto these countries following: first to Ambage and Arrage, to Alexandria, to India, to Armenia, whereas the river of Euphrates runneth into Asia, to Africa, and Europe the Large, to Ertayne and Elamye, to Araby, Egypt, and to Damascus, to Damietta and Cayer, to Cappadocia, to Tarsus, Turkey, Pontus and Pamphylia, to Syria and Galatia.