''Thálatta! Thálatta!'' ( el, — "The Sea! The Sea!") was the shouting of joy when the roaming

Ten Thousand Greeks The Ten Thousand ( grc, οἱ Μύριοι, ''oi Myrioi'') were a force of mercenary units, mainly Greeks, employed by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Their march to the Bat ...

saw Euxeinos Pontos (the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

) from Mount Theches (Θήχης) in Trebizond, after participating in

Cyrus the Younger Cyrus the Younger ( peo, 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 ''Kūruš''; grc-gre, Κῦρος ; died 401 BC) was an Achaemenid prince and general. He ruled as satrap of Lydia and Ionia from 408 to 401 BC. Son of Darius II and Parysatis, he died in 401 ...

's failed march against the Persian Empire in the year 401 BC. The mountain was only a five-day march away from the friendly coastal city Trapezus. The story is told by

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies of ...

in his '' Anabasis''.

Linguistics

''Thálatta'' (θάλαττα, pronounced ) is the

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a ''loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...

form of the word. In Ionic, Doric, Koine,

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

, and

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

it is ''thálassa'' (θάλασσα).

Legacy

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lie ...

uses the cry in his cycle of poems '' Die Nordsee'' published in '' Buch der Lieder'' in

1827 Events January–March * January 5 – The first regatta in Australia is held, taking place on Tasmania (called at the time '' Van Diemen's Land''), on the River Derwent at Hobart. * January 15 – Furman University, founded in 1826 ...

. The cry is mentioned by the narrator of Frederick Amadeus Malleson's translation of

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraord ...

's '' Journey to the Center of the Earth'', when the titular expedition discovers an underground ocean. It is absent from the original French work. The phrase appears in Book 1 of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

's 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' when Buck Mulligan, looking out over Dublin Bay, says to Stephen Dedalus, "God! ... Isn't the sea what Algy calls it: a great sweet mother? The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea. '' Epi oinopa ponton''. Ah, Dedalus, the Greeks! I must teach you. You must read them in the original. ''Thalatta! Thalatta!'' She is our great sweet mother. Come and look." In Book 18, Molly Bloom echoes the phrase in the closing moments of her monologue: "and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire." In book III.3 of '' Finnegans Wake'' this is echoed as "kolossa kolossa!" combining the original chant with Greek kolossal, colossal.

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. He ...

wrote a novel called '' The Sea, The Sea'', which won the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

in 1978.

Anabasis

Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel that inspired Walter Hill's 1979 film of the same name, '' The Warriors'', was based on ''Anabasis'', and the movie references this quotation near the end, as the titular gang stands on a

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to th ...

beach and their leader ( Michael Beck) comments, "When we see the ocean, we figure we're home." The shout briefly appears in Lionel Dunsterville's memoir '' The Adventures of Dunsterforce'' (1920), when, after passing Rasht, Dunsterville's small force reaches the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad s ...

References

{{reflist Anabasis (Xenophon) Greek words and phrases

Linguistics

Legacy

Anabasis

See also

References