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"Astronaut photograph of the Syr Darya River floodplain The Syr Darya (, ), historically known as the Jaxartes (), is a river in Central Asia. The name, a borrowing from the Persian language, literally means Syr Sea or Syr River, and sometimes it is referred to in this way. It originates in the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan and flows for west and north- west through Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to the northern remnants of the Aral Sea. It is the northern and eastern of the two main rivers in the endorrheic basin of the Aral Sea, the other being the Amu Darya (Jayhun). In the Soviet era, extensive irrigation projects were constructed around both rivers, diverting their water into farmland and causing, during the post- Soviet era, the virtual disappearance of the Aral Sea, once the world's fourth-largest lake. The point at which the river flows from Tajikistan into Uzbekistan is, at above sea level, the lowest elevation in Tajikistan. History Syr Darya River at Khujand When the Macedonian army of Alexander the Great reached the Jaxartes in 329 BCE, after travelling through Bactria and Sogdia without encountering any opposition, they met with the first instances of native resistance to their presence. Alexander was wounded in the fighting that ensued and the native tribes took to massacring the Macedonian garrisons stationed in their towns. As the revolt against Alexander intensified it spread through Sogdia, plunging it into two years of warfare, the intensity of which surpassed any other conflict of the Anabasis Alexandri. On the shores of the Syr Darya Alexander placed a garrison in the City of Cyrus (Cyropolis in Greek), which he then renamed after himself Alexandria Eschate—"the farthest Alexandria"—in 329 BCE. For most of its history since at least the Muslim conquest of Central Asia in the 7th to 8th centuries CE, the name of this city (in present-day Tajikistan) has been Khujand. In the mid-19th century, during the Russian conquest of Turkestan, the Russian Empire introduced steam navigation to the Syr Darya, with an important river port at Kazalinsk (Kazaly) from 1847 to 1882, when service ceased. During the Soviet era, a resource-sharing system was instituted in which Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan shared water originating from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in summer. In return, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan received Kazakh, Turkmen, and Uzbek coal, gas, and electricity in winter. After the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union this system disintegrated and the Central Asian nations have failed to reinstate it. Inadequate infrastructure, poor water-management, and outdated irrigation methods all exacerbate the issue. International Crisis Group. "Water Pressures in Central Asia", CrisisGroup.org. 11 September 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014. Geography The river rises in two headstreams in the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan—the Naryn River and the Kara Darya which come together in the Uzbek part of the Fergana Valley—and flows for some west and north-west through Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to the remains of the Aral Sea. The Syr Darya drains an area of over , but no more than actually contribute significant flow to the river: indeed, two of the largest rivers in its basin, the Talas and the Chu, dry up before reaching it. Its annual flow is a very modest per year—half that of its sister river, the Amu Darya. Along its course, the Syr Darya irrigates the most productive cotton-growing region in the whole of Central Asia, together with the towns of Kokand, Khujand, Kyzylorda and Turkestan. Various local governments throughout history have built and maintained an extensive system of canals. These canals are of central importance in this arid region. Many fell into disuse in the 17th and early 18th century, but the Khanate of Kokand rebuilt many in the 19th century, primarily along the Upper and Middle Syr Darya. Name The second part of the name (darya, دریا) means "river" or "sea" in Persian. The current name dates only from the 18th century. The earliest recorded name was Jaxartes or Iaxartes () in Ancient Greek, consist of two morpheme Iaxa and artes, found in several sources, including those relating to Alexander the Great. The Greek name hearkens back to the Old Persian name Yakhsha Arta ("True Pearl"), perhaps a reference to the color of its glacially-fed water."Sïr Daryā." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2014. More evidence for the Persian etymology comes from the river's Turkic name up to the time of the Arab conquest, the Yinçü, or "Pearl river", from Middle Chinese 眞珠 *ʈˠiɪn-t͡ɕɨo.В. В. Бартольд. К истории орошения Туркестана. (On the history of Irrigation in Turkestan) in Работы по исторической географии (Works on Historical Geography). Moscow: Vostochnaia Literatura, 2002. Pages 210-231 Tang Chinese also recorded this name as Yaosha River 藥殺水 (MC: *jɨɐk-ʃˠɛt) and later Ye River 葉河 (MC: *jiɛp). Following the Muslim conquest, the river appears in the sources uniformly as the Seyhun (سيحون), one of the four rivers flowing from the Paradise (Jannah in Arabic).The introductory chapters of Yāqūt's Muʿjam al-buldān, by Yāqūt ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥamawī, Page 30 The current local name of the river, Syr (Sïr), does not appear before the 16th century. In the 17th century, Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur Khan, historian and ruler of Khiva, called the Aral Sea the "Sea of Sïr," or Sïr Tengizi. Ecological damage Massive expansion of irrigation canals in Middle and Lower Syr Darya during the Soviet period to water cotton and rice fields caused ecological damage to the area. The amount of water taken from the river was such that in some periods of the year, no water at all reached the Aral Sea. The Amu Darya in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan faced a similar situation. The uranium concentration of the stream water is increased in Tajikistan with values of 43 μg/l and 12 μg/l; the WHO guideline value for drinking water of 30 μg/l is partly exceeded. The main input of uranium occurs upstream in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. P. Zoriy, M. Schläger, K. Murtazaev, J. Pillath, M. Zoriy, B. Heuel-Fabianek (2017): Monitoring of uranium concentrations in water samples collected near potentially hazardous objects in North-West Tajikistan.. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 181, pp. 109-117. See also *Extreme points of Tajikistan *History of the central steppe *Great Fergana Canal Notes References External links * Britannica.com * Livius.org: Jaxartes * BBC News: Syn Darya in pictures Category:Rivers of Tajikistan Category:Rivers of Uzbekistan Category:Rivers of Kazakhstan Category:Sites along the Silk Road Category:International rivers of Asia Category:Ramsar sites in Kazakhstan "
"An Argonaut is a hero in Greek mythology. Argonaut or Argonauts may also refer to: Transportation * Argonaut, a 1961 yacht build by Trojan Yachts * Argonaut (submarine), a class of submarines built by engineer Simon Lake * , several submarines of the United States Navy * , several ships of the Royal Navy * , a cargo ship * Argonaut (train), a train operated between Los Angeles and New Orleans * Argonaut (aircraft), a variant of the Canadair North Star airliner * Argonaut (automobile), an American automobile manufactured from 1959 to 1963 Companies * Argonaut Games, a British video game company * Argonaut Mine, a defunct gold mine in Jackson, California * Argonaut Resources, Australian mining company drilling for minerals at Lake Torrens, South Australia Publications * The Argonaut, a former literary journal based in San Francisco *The Argonaut, the student newspaper of the University of Idaho *The Argonaut, a community newspaper in Los Angeles published by Southland Publishing *The Argonauts, a 2015 book by Maggie Nelson Sports * Argonauts F.C., an amateur football club based in London * Argonaut Rowing Club, a rowing club in Toronto, Ontario * Toronto Argonauts, a team in the Canadian Football League * Antwerp Argonauts, an amateur American football team based in Antwerp, Belgium Other uses * Argonaut (animal), pelagic octopuses of the genus Argonauta * Argonaut Conference, the code name for the Yalta Conference, a 1945 wartime meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin * Argonaut, a person who took part in the California Gold Rush * Argonaut, a member of the Argonauts Club, an Australian children's radio program * Argonauts of Saint Nicholas, a military order in Naples * Argonaut class reactor, a type of small nuclear research reactor * Argonaut Island, real name Ulleungdo, a South Korean island * VFA-147, a United States Navy squadron * Argonaut Building, an office building in Detroit, Michigan * "Argonaut", code name assigned to Ron "Captain Clarinet" Peterson in the comic book series PS238 * Argonaut, a fictional spaceship in the anime series Heroic Age See also Argonaute, a family of proteins * French ship Argonaute, several French Navy ships *Argonotes, the unofficial band of the Toronto Argonauts *Dragonaut: The Resonance, an anime series *Uronautes, a dubious genus of extinct plesiosaur "
"Jason returns with the Golden Fleece, shown on an Apulian red-figure calyx krater, c. 340–330 BC In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece (, Chrysómallo déras) is the fleece of the golden-woolled, winged ram, Chrysomallos, which was held in Colchis. The fleece is a symbol of authority and kingship. It figures in the tale of the hero Jason and his crew of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece by order of King Pelias, in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly. Through the help of Medea, they acquire the Golden Fleece. The story is of great antiquity and was current in the time of Homer (eighth century BC). It survives in various forms, among which the details vary. Nowadays, The heraldic variations of Golden Fleece is featured frequently in Republic of Georgia, especially for Coats of Arms and Flags associated with Western Georgian (Historical Colchis) municipalities and cities, including the Coats of Arms of City of Kutaisi, ancient capital city of Colchis. Plot Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in ThessalyStrabo, ix.5.8. but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia (a region of southeastern Greece), took the goddess Nephele as his first wife. They had two children, the boy Phrixus (whose name means "curly," as in the texture of the ram's fleece) and the girl Helle. Later Athamas became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus. When Nephele left in anger, drought came upon the land. Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths; in some versions, she persuaded Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus was the only way to end the drought. Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold. The ram had been sired by Poseidon in his primitive ram-form upon Theophane, a nymph and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun-god. According to Hyginus,Hyginus, Fabulae, 163 Poseidon carried Theophane to an island where he made her into a ewe, so that he could have his way with her among the flocks. There Theophane's other suitors could not distinguish the ram-god and his consort.Karl Kerenyi The Gods of the Greeks, (1951) 1980:182f Nepheles' children escaped on the yellow ram over the sea, but Helle fell off and drowned in the strait now named after her, the Hellespont. The ram spoke to Phrixus, encouraging him, and took the boy safely to Colchis (modern-day Georgia), on the easternmost shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea. There Phrixus sacrificed the winged ram to Poseidon, essentially returning him to the god. The ram became the constellation Aries. Phrixus settled in the house of Aeetes, son of Helios the sun god. He hung the Golden Fleece preserved from the sacrifice of the ram on an oak in a grove sacred to Ares, the god of war and one of the Twelve Olympians. The golden fleece was defended by bulls with hoofs of brass and breath of fire. It was also guarded by a never sleeping dragon with teeth which could become soldiers when planted in the ground. The dragon was at the foot of the tree on which the fleece was placed. In some versions of the story, Jason attempts to put the guard serpent to sleep. The snake is coiled around a column at the base of which is a ram and on top of which is a bird. Evolution of plot Pindar employed the quest for the Golden Fleece in his Fourth Pythian Ode (written in 462 BC), though the fleece is not in the foreground. When Aeetes challenges Jason to yoke the fire-breathing bulls, the fleece is the prize: "Let the King do this, the captain of the ship! Let him do this, I say, and have for his own the immortal coverlet, the fleece, glowing with matted skeins of gold".Translation in . In later versions of the story, the ram is said to have been the offspring of the sea god Poseidon and Themisto (less often, Nephele or Theophane). The classic telling is the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, composed in the mid-third century BC Alexandria, recasting early sources that have not survived. Another, much less-known Argonautica, using the same body of myth, was composed in Latin by Valerius Flaccus during the time of Vespasian. Where the written sources fail, through accidents of history, sometimes the continuity of a mythic tradition can be found among the vase- painters. The story of the Golden Fleece appeared to have little resonance for Athenians of the Classic age, for only two representations of it on Attic- painted wares of the fifth century have been identified: a krater at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a kylix in the Vatican collections. In the kylix painted by Douris, ca 480-470, Jason is being disgorged from the mouth of the dragon, a detail that does not fit easily into the literary sources; behind the dragon, the fleece hangs from an apple tree. Jason's helper in the Athenian vase-paintings is not Medea— who had a history in Athens as the opponent of Theseus— but Athena. Interpretations The very early origin of the myth in preliterate times means that during the more than a millennium when it was to some degree part of the fabric of culture, its perceived significance likely passed through numerous developments. Several euhemeristic attempts to interpret the Golden Fleece "realistically" as reflecting some physical cultural object or alleged historical practice have been made. For example, in the 20th century, some scholars suggested that the story of the Golden Fleece signified the bringing of sheep husbandry to Greece from the east; in other readings, scholars theorized it referred to golden grain, or to the sun. A sluice box used in placer mining. A more widespread interpretation relates the myth of the fleece to a method of washing gold from streams, which was well attested (but only from c. 5th century BC) in the region of Georgia to the east of the Black Sea. Sheep fleeces, sometimes stretched over a wooden frame, would be submerged in the stream, and gold flecks borne down from upstream placer deposits would collect in them. The fleeces would be hung in trees to dry before the gold was shaken or combed out. Alternatively, the fleeces would be used on washing tables in alluvial mining of gold or on washing tables at deep gold mines. Judging by the very early gold objects from a range of cultures, washing for gold is a very old human activity. Strabo describes the way in which gold could be washed: > "It is said that in their country gold is carried down by the mountain > torrents, and that the barbarians obtain it by means of perforated troughs > and fleecy skins, and that this is the origin of the myth of the golden > fleece—unless they call them Iberians, by the same name as the western > Iberians, from the gold mines in both countries." Another interpretation is based on the references in some versions to purple or purple-dyed cloth. The purple dye extracted from the purple dye murex snail and related species was highly prized in ancient times. Clothing made of cloth dyed with Tyrian purple was a mark of great wealth and high station (hence the phrase "royal purple"). The association of gold with purple is natural and occurs frequently in literature. =Main theories= The Douris cup, depicting Jason being regurgitated by the dragon protecting the fleece The following are the chief among the various interpretations of the fleece, with notes on sources and major critical discussions: # It represents royal power.Marcus Porcius Cato and Marcus Terentius Varro, Roman Farm Management, The Treatises of Cato and Varro, in English, with Notes of Modern Instances Newman, John Kevin (2001) "The Golden Fleece. Imperial Dream" (Theodore Papanghelis and Antonios Rengakos (eds.). A Companion to Apollonius Rhodius. Leiden: Brill (Mnemosyne Supplement 217), 309-40) # It represents the flayed skin of Krios ('Ram'), companion of Phrixus.Diodorus Siculus 4. 47; cf. scholia on Apollonius Rhodius 2. 1144; 4. 119, citing Dionysus' Argonautica # It represents a book on alchemy.Palaephatus (fourth century BC) 'On the Incredible' (Festa, N. (ed.) (1902) Mythographi Graeca III, 2, Lipsiae, p. 89John of Antioch fr.15.3 FHG (5.548) # It represents a technique of writing in gold on parchment.Haraxes of Pergamum (c. first to sixth century) (Jacoby, F. (1923) Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker I (Berlin), IIA, 490, fr. 37) # It represents a form of placer mining practiced in Georgia, for example.Strabo (first century BC) Geography I, 2, 39 (Jones, H.L. (ed.) (1969) The Geography of Strabo (in eight volumes) London Shuker, Karl P. N. (1997), From Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings, LlewellynRenault, Mary (2004), The Bull from the Sea, Arrow (Rand)refuted in and # It represents the forgiveness of the Gods.Müller, Karl Otfried (1844), Orchomenos und die Minyer, Breslaurefuted in # It represents a rain cloud.Forchhammer, P. W. (1857) Hellenica Berlin p. 205 ff, 330 ffrefuted in # It represents a land of golden grain.Faust, Adolf (1898), Einige deutsche und griechische Sagen im Lichte ihrer ursprünglichen Bedeutung. Mulhausen # It represents the spring- hero.Schroder, R. (1899), Argonautensage und Verwandtes, Poznań # It represents the sea reflecting the sun.Vurthiem, V (1902), "De Argonautarum Vellere aureo", Mnemosyne, New Series, XXX, pp. 54–67; XXXI, p. 116Wilhelm Mannhardt, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, VII, p. 241 ff, 281 ff # It represents the gilded prow of Phrixus' ship. # It represents a breed of sheep in ancient Georgia. # It represents the riches imported from the East. # It represents the wealth or technology of Colchis.Akaki Urushadze (1984), The Country of the Enchantress Medea, Tbilisi # It was a covering for a cult image of Zeus in the form of a ram.Robert Graves (1944/1945), The Golden Fleece/Hercules, My Shipmate, New York: Grosset & Dunlap # It represents a fabric woven from sea silk.Verrill, A. Hyatt (1950), Shell Collector's Handbook, New York: Putnam, p. 77Abbott, R. Tucker (1972), Kingdom of the Seashell, New York: Crown Publishers, p. 184; refuted in and # It is about a voyage from Greece, through the Mediterranean, across the Atlantic to the Americas.Bailey, James R. (1973), The God Kings and the Titans; The New World Ascendancy in Ancient Times, St. Martin's Press # It represents trading fleece dyed murex-purple for Georgian gold.Silver, Morris (1992), Taking Ancient Mythology Economically, Leiden: Brill See also * List of mythological objects * Absyrtus * Gold mining * Order of the Golden Fleece * The Sea of Monsters Notes References =Bibliography= * External links The Project Gutenberg text of The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles Category:Mythological objects Category:Thessalian mythology Category:Colchis in mythology Category:Argonautica Category:Mythological caprids "