- Mosinoeci (lower centre) in a map of the voyage of the Argonauts by Abraham Ortelius, 1624
Mossynoeci — a powerful tribal union located in the forested mountainous region on the southeastern coast of the Pontus Euxinus (modern Black Sea). Their western neighbors were the Tibareni and the Chalybes. Xenophon places them west of Cerasus, which was located in the land of the Colchians. To the west of the Mossynoeci lived the Chalybes. The Greek mercenaries traveled through the land of the Mossynoeci in 8 days (25 km per day, i.e., about 200 km of the Black Sea coast west of Cerasus). As transport, the Mossynoeci used small dugout boats, holding no more than 3 people. The warriors of the Mossynoeci wore tunics resembling canvas sacks, Paphlagonian leather helmets, spears, shields, and iron axes. He also writes that they were well-coordinated, had white skin, colorful backs, and variegated tattoos on their chests.
Herodotus reports that the armament of the Mossynoeci was the same as that of the Moschi. In addition to bread and wine, the Mossynoeci consumed salted dolphin meat and boiled chestnuts. According to Herodotus, the Mossynoeci (together with the Moschi, Tibareni, Macrones, and Mari) belonged to the 19th satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire and paid 300 talents of tribute to the Persian king. According to Herodotus, during the second Persian invasion of Greece (480-479 BC), the Macrones and Mossynoeci were commanded by the Persian general Artayctes, son of Cherasmis.
The Mossynoeci are also mentioned by Apollonius of Rhodes in the Argonautica as people of too free morals, always doing everything their own way, including engaging in public sex. And when their king makes a mistake, they supposedly lock him up and give him no food until the end of the day.
There is an assumption that the Phrygian city of Mossyna was named after the Mossynoeci.
VARIANT NAMES: Latin. Massennae, Masseni, Massyni, Mosyni, Mosynoeci, Mormosneci, Mosenses, Mosocheni, Mossynoeci, Mossynoeti, Mossinii, Mossynnoti, Mossyni, Mossioni, Oxosinnoti, Greek. Μοσσυνες, Μοσσυνοι, Μασσηνοι, Μαστινοι, Μοσύνοικοι, Μοσυνοικοι, Μοσυνοι, Μοσσυνοικικοι, Russian. Mormosnechi, Mosineki, Mosiny, Mosokheny, Mossineki, Mossinekiki, Mossinety, Mossinii, Mossinoty, Mossiny, Mossiony, Mosinniki, Georgian. მოსინიკები, English. "dwellers in wooden towers".
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015