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}}The Struma or Strymónas (Bulgarian: Струма {{IPA-bg|ˈstrumɐ|}}; {{IPA-el|striˈmonas|}};) is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. Its ancient name was Strymṓn (Greek: Στρυμών {{IPA|[stryˈmɔːn]}}). Its drainage area is {{convert|17330|km2|abbr=on}}, of which {{convert|8670|km2|abbr=on}} in Bulgaria, {{convert|6295|km2|abbr=on}} in Greece and the remaining {{convert|2365|km2|abbr=on}} in North MacedoniaWEB,www.ypeka.gr/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=T4DDG1hqQMY%3D&tabid=252&language=el-GR, Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment,www.ypeka.gr/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=T4DDG1hqQMY%3D&tabid=252&language=el-GR," title="web.archive.org/web/20200215192049www.ypeka.gr/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=T4DDG1hqQMY%3D&tabid=252&language=el-GR,">web.archive.org/web/20200215192049www.ypeka.gr/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=T4DDG1hqQMY%3D&tabid=252&language=el-GR, 15 February 2020, el, Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, 86, and Serbia.BOOK,unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/water/publications/pub76.htm, Our Waters: Joining Hands Across Borders: First Assessment of Transboundary Rivers, Lakes and Groundwaters, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2007, Drainage basin of the Mediterranean Sea, 171, The share of Serbia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the total [Struma] basin area is very small., It takes its source from the Vitosha Mountain in Bulgaria, runs first westward, then southward, forming a number of gorges, enters Greece near the village of Promachonas in eastern Macedonia. In Greece it is the main waterway feeding and exiting from Lake Kerkini, a significant centre for migratory wildfowl. Also in Greece, the river entirely flows in the Serres regional unit into the Strymonian Gulf in Aegean Sea, near Amphipolis. The river’s length is {{convert|415|km|abbr=off}} (of which {{convert|290|km}} in Bulgaria, making it the country’s fifth-longest and one of the longest rivers that run solely in the interior of the Balkans. Parts of the river valley belong to a Bulgarian coal-producing area, more significant in the past than nowadays; the southern part of the Bulgarian section is an important wine region. The Greek portion is a valley which is dominant in agriculture, being Greece’s fourth-biggest valley. The tributaries include the Konska River, the Dragovishtitsa, the Rilska River, the Blagoevgradska Bistritsa, the Sandanska Bistritsa, the Strumitsa, the Pirinska Bistritsa and the Angitis.

Etymology

The river’s name comes from Thracian , derived from Proto-Indo-European * ‘stream’,Radislav Katičic’, Ancient Languages of the Balkans, Part One. Mouton, Paris 1976, p. 144. akin to English stream, Old Irish ‘river’, Polish ‘stream’, Lithuanian straumuo ‘fast stream’, Bulgarian ({{Transl|bg|struia}}) ‘water flow’, Greek {{Script|Greek|ῥεῦμα}} ({{Transl|grc|rheÅ©ma}}) ‘stream’, Albanian ‘water flow’, ‘rain’.The name Strymón was a hydronym in ancient Greek mythology, referring to a mythical Thracian king that was drowned in the river.Pierre Grimal, Classical mythology. Wiley-Blackwell, 1990. {{ISBN|978-0-631-20102-1}}. Strymón was also used as a personal name in various regions of Ancient Greece during the 3rd century BC.Antoninus Liberalis, Celoria Francis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis. A translation with commentary. Routledge, 1992. {{ISBN|978-0-415-06896-3}}.In Macedonian it is called Струма {{IPA-bg|ˈstrumɐ|}}; while in {{IPA|[kaɾaˈsu]}}, ‘black water’).

History

(File:Strymon river near the coast.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|View near the Greek coast)File:Persian fort at Eion seen from Amphipolis.jpg|thumb|upright=1|The ancient Persian fort at Eion (left) and the mouth of the Strymon River (right), seen from Ennea Hodoi (AmphipolisAmphipolisIn 437 BC, the ancient Greek city of Amphipolis was founded near the river’s entrance to the Aegean, at the site previously known as (’Nine roads’). When Xerxes I of Persia crossed the river during his invasion in 480 BC he buried alive nine young boys and nine maidens as a sacrifice to the river god.Herodotus 7,114 weblink. The history may be Greek slander, though, as human sacrifice is not known as an Iranian cultic practice. The forces of Alexander I of Macedon defeated the remnants of Xerxes’ army near Ennea Hodoi in 479 BC. In 424 BC the Spartan general Brasidas after crossing the entire Greek peninsula sieged and conquered Amphipolis. According to the ancient sources, the river was navigable from its mouth up to the ancient (and today dried) Cercinitis lake, which also favored the navigation; and thus was formed in antiquity an important waterway that served the communication between the coasts of Strymonian Gulf and the Thracian hinterland and almost to the city of Serres.Dimitrios C. Samsaris, Historical Geography of Eastern Macedonia during the Antiquity (= Makedonikí bibliothíki, 49). Society of Macedonian Studies, Thessaloniki 1976, p. 16 ff. {{ISBN|960-7265-16-5}} (in Greek; online text {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424003106www.ems.gr/analytikos-katalogos-ekdoseon/makedoniki-vivliothiki/049-samsaris.html |date=2017-04-24 }}).Dimitrios C. Samsaris, A History of Serres (in the Ancient and Roman Times). Thessaloniki 1999, pp. 55–60 (in Greek; website of the municipality of Serres {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180624010448www.serres.gr/index.php/istoria/istoria-serron-samsaris |date=2018-06-24 }}). The decisive Battle of Kleidion was fought close the river in 1014 between the Bulgarians under Emperor Samuel and the Byzantines under Emperor Basil II and determined the fall of the First Bulgarian Empire four years later. In 1913, the Greek Army was nearly surrounded in the Kresna Gorge of the Struma by the Bulgarian Army during the Second Balkan War, and the Greeks were forced to ask for armistice. The river valley was part of the Macedonian front in World War I. The ship {{MV|Struma||2}}, which took Jewish refugees out of Romania in World War II and was torpedoed and sunk in the Black Sea, causing nearly 800 deaths, was named after the river.

Gallery

File:StrumaatKresnaGorge.jpg|Struma at Kresna GorgeImage:Struma Winter.jpg|Struma near the city of Blagoevgrad in winterFile:Εκβολές Στρυμόνα.jpg|Strymon estuaryFile:Loewe von Amphipolis (2018).jpg|Lion of Amphipolis; Via Egnatia, west side of StrymonasFile:Greek Army Strymon WWI.jpg|Greek soldiers at Strymon during WWIStruma river mouth.jpg|Struma river mouthStrymonriver.jpg|Struma river from the bridge next to the Lion of Amphipolis facing the beach of Ofryni Beach (Tuzla)

Honour

• Struma Glacier on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Struma River.

Notes

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External links

• Livius.org: Strymon {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014155445www.livius.org/so-st/strymon/strymon.html |date=2012-10-14 }}

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