Why is the Black Sea so called?
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea ) Modern names of the Sea are equivalents of the English name, “Black Sea”, including Greek Mavre Thalassa (Μαύρη Θάλασ σα), Bulgarian Cherno more (Черно море), Georgian Shavi zghva, Laz Ucha Zuğa, or simply Zuğa ‘Sea’, Romanian Marea Neagră, Russian Chyornoye more (Чёрное море), Turkish Karadeniz, Ukrainian Chorne more (Чорне море), Ubykh /ʃʷaʤa/. This name cannot be traced to an earlier date than the thirteenth century, but there are indications that it may be considerably older. Strabo’s Geography reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called “the Sea” (ho pontos). For the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the ‘Hospitable sea’, Euxeinos Pontos (Εὔξει νος Πόντος ). This is a euphemism replacing an earlier ‘Inhospitable Sea’, Pontos Axeinos, first attested in Pindar (early fifth century BCE,~475 BC). Strabo thinks that
