Byzas

Byzas (Greek: Βύζας) is the legendary founder of Byzantium, the city that would become Constantinople and, later, Istanbul. In Greek tradition, Byzas was a leader of Megarian colonists who established a settlement on the Bosporus at the narrow strait linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, opposite Chalcedon, to control the valuable maritime route and trade onward into the interior.

According to ancient sources, Byzas consulted the Oracle of Delphi about where to found a new city and selected the site on the European shore of the Bosporus. The founding of Byzantium is thus presented as a deliberate act tied to divine guidance, and Byzas is commonly treated as the eponymous founder of the city.

The city of Byzantium grew as a major commercial hub due to its strategic position controlling access between the Aegean and Black Seas. It persisted as a Greek urban center through various periods and became the capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire after Emperor Constantine the Great refounded it as Constantinople in 330 CE. Following the Ottoman conquest in 1453, the city gradually took on the Turkish name Istanbul.

As a legendary figure, Byzas’s historicity is not firmly established and the stories about him blend myth and tradition. The name Byzantium itself is closely associated with his legend, and the figure remains a symbol of the city’s ancient origin in classical and later historiography.