Petropoulos Elias K.

Professor Ilias K. Petropoulos pursued his studies (1989–1999) with a scholarship at Lomonosov Moscow State University (Faculty of History), where he obtained a B.A. in History and Archaeology, an M.A., and a Ph.D. in Ancient History. His doctoral dissertation, entitled “Ancient Greek Colonization in the Northern Black Sea during the 7th – early 6th century BC”, was supervised by V. I. Kuzistchin, A. A. Maslennikov, and Yu. G. Vinogradov. An expanded and revised version was published in Oxford in 2005 (Hellenic Colonization in Euxeinos Pontos: Penetration, Early Establishment and the Problem of the ’emporion’ Revisited, BAR International Series 1934).

He has authored numerous scholarly articles in both Greek and foreign languages and has co-edited four international volumes on ancient Greek colonies in the Black Sea (Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea, 2 vols., Thessaloniki 2003; 2 vols., Oxford 2007), together with D. V. Grammenos, as well as a volume dedicated to ancient cult monuments in the region (Ancient Sacral Monuments in the Black Sea, Thessaloniki 2010), co-edited with Alexander A. Maslennikov.

His monograph Homer and the East at the Crossroads of the Aegean: History, Archaeology, Mythology was published in 2018 by Kleidarithmos Publishers. His most recent monograph, The Great Journey of Myths between the Ancient Greek World and the Near East, was released by the same press in 2021.

He has also translated from Russian into Greek four scholarly books of historical and archaeological significance.

Research interests: Ancient History and Archaeology of the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean; Hittite, Luwian, Hurrian, Urartian, and Phrygian languages and scripts (cuneiform and Luwian hieroglyphic); Hittite history and mythology.