Geloni
Γελωνοί
Eth. Geloni (Γελωνοί, Hdt. 4.108; Plin. Nat. 4.12; Amm. Marc. 31.2.14), a people associated with the Budini [BUDINI] by Herodotus (l.c.).
Schafarik (Slav. Alt. vol. i. p. 186) remarks that, beyond the mention in Herodotus, nothing is known about the Geloni. The later writers appear to have misunderstood his statement while repeating it. It is possible that the name Geloni might be formed out of that of Hellenes among the Slaves and Fins. Such Μιξέλληνες were common enough in the towns upon the Euxine. Schafarik, who believes the Budini to belong to the Slavic family, asserts that the wooden town GELONUS, described as being in the middle of the Budini, is an exact representation of the primitive Slavic towns down even to the twelfth century. (Comp. Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol. iii. p. 327.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.