Snake Island, also known as Serpent Island, White Island, Island of Achilles or Zmiinyi Island (; ), is a Ukrainian island located in the Black Sea, near the Danube Delta, with an important role in delimiting Ukrainian territorial waters.

The island has been known since classical antiquity, and during that era hosted a Greek temple to Achilles. Today, it is administered as part of Izmail Raion of Ukraine's Odesa Oblast.

The island was reported to have under 30 people in 2012. Ukraine had founded a village, Bile, in February 2007 to consolidate the status of the island as an inhabited place. This happened during a border dispute between Romania and Ukraine from 2004 to 2009, during which Romania contested the technical definition of the island and its maritime borders. The territorial limits of the continental shelf around Snake Island were delineated by the International Court of Justice in 2009, providing Romania with almost 80% of the disputed maritime territory.

In the Russian invasion of Ukraine, two Russian navy warships attacked and captured Snake Island. It was subsequently bombarded heavily by Ukraine and recaptured within a few months, following a Russian withdrawal.

Geography

Snake Island is located 35 km from the coast, east of the mouth of the Danube River. The island is irregularly shaped, with an area of and a maximum diameter of about 700m. The gently sloping terrain reaches its highest point above sea level.

The bedrock of the island consists of Silurian and Devonian sedimentary rocks, primarily metamorphosed, highly cemented quartzite conglomerate-breccias, with subordinate conglomerate, sandstone and clay, which form cliffs surrounding the island up to 25 metres high. The structural geology of the island is defined by a wavy monocline oriented to the northeast, with a small anticline in the eastern part of the island. The island is crisscrossed by faults with both N-S and NE-SW orientations.

The nearest coastal location to the island is Kubanskyi Island on the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta, located away between the Bystroe Canal and Skhidnyi Channel. The closest Romanian coastal city, Sulina, is away. The closest Ukrainian city is Vylkove, away, though the port of Ust-Dunaisk is closer at .

At the end of 2011, 58 fish species (12 of which are included in the Red Data Book of Ukraine)Snigirov S, Goncharov O, Sylantyev S. The fish community in Zmiinyi Island waters: structure and determinants. Marine Biodiversity 2012. and six crab species were recorded in the coastal waters of Zmiinyi Island. A presidential decree of 9 December 1998, Number 1341/98, declared the island and coastal waters as a state-protected area. The total protected area covers .

The island was one of the last hauling-out sites in the basin for critically endangered Mediterranean monk seals until the 1950s.Sergei R. Grinevetsky, Igor S. Zonn, Sergei S. Zhiltsov, Aleksey N. Kosarev, Andrey G. Kostianoy, 2014, The Black Sea Encyclopedia

Population and infrastructure

About 100 inhabitants live on the island's only settlement, Bile, mostly frontier guard servicemen with their families and technical personnel. In 2003, an initiative of the Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University established the Ostriv Zmiinyi marine research station every year, at which scientists and students from the university conduct research on local fauna, flora, geology, meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and hydrobiology.

In accordance with a 1997 Treaty between Romania and Ukraine, the Ukrainian authorities withdrew an army radio division, demolished a military radar, and transferred all other infrastructure to civilians. Eventually, the Romania-Ukraine international relationships soured (see "Maritime delimitation" section) when Romania tried to assert that the island is no more than a rock in the sea. In February 2007, the Verkhovna Rada approved establishing a rural settlement as part of Vylkove city which is located some distance away at the mouth of the Danube.

In addition to a helicopter platform, in 2002 a pier was built for ships with up to 8 meter draught, and construction of a harbour is underway. The island is supplied with navigation equipment, including a 150-year-old lighthouse. Electric power is provided by a dual solar/diesel power station. The island also has civil infrastructure such as the marine research station, a post office, a bank (branch of the Ukrainian bank "Aval"), the first-aid station, a satellite television provider, a phone network, a cell phone tower, and an Internet link. Most of building structures are located either in the middle of the island by a lighthouse or the northeastern peninsula of the island by its pier.

The island lacks a fresh water source. Its border guard contingent is regularly resupplied by air. Since 2009 the development of the island was suspended due to financing which caused a great degree of concern of local authorities asking for more funding from the state.

Lighthouse

The Snake Island Lighthouse was built in the autumn of 1842Vitrenko's Odesa website by the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Empire. The lighthouse is an octagonal-shaped building, 12 meters tall, located near the highest elevated area of the island, 40 meters above the sea level. The lighthouse built on site of the previously destroyed temple of Achilles is adjacent to a housing building. The remnants of the Greek temple were found in 1823.

As lighthouse technology progressed, in 1860 new lighthouse lamps were bought from England, and one of them was installed in the Lighthouse in 1862. In the early 1890s a new kerosene lamp was installed, with lamp rotating equipment and flat lenses. It improved the lighthouse visibility to . The lighthouse was either destroyed or damaged in the First World War (it is not clear which). It was subsequently rebuilt (see #World War I below).

The lighthouse was heavily damaged during World War II by Soviet aviation and German retreating forces. It was restored at the end of 1944 by the Odesa military radio detachment. In 1949 it was further reconstructed and equipped by the Black Sea Fleet. The lighthouse was further upgraded in 1975 and 1984. In 1988 a new radio beacon "KPM-300" was installed with radio signal range of .

In August 2004, the lighthouse was equipped with a radio beacon "Yantar-2M-200", which provides differential correction signal for global navigation satellite systems GPS and GLONASS.

The lighthouse is listed as UKR 050 by ARLHS, EU-182 by IOTA, and BS-07 by UIA.

History and mythology

Ancient history and myths The island was named (, 'White Island') by the Greeks, and was similarly known by Romans as , probably because of its white marble formations. According to Dionysius Periegetes, it was called Leuke because the serpents there were white.Dionysius of Alexandria, Guide to the Inhabited World, §540 According to John Tzetzes, the island was named "White" either because it appears white from sea foam or because it is home to many white birds.Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem, 186Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem, 188 Joannes Zonaras writes that it was called white because of the white birds.Johannis Zonarae, Lexicon, p.1296 According to Arrian, it was called Leuke due to its color.Arrian, Periplus of the Euxine Sea, §32 He and Stephanus of Byzantium mentioned that the island was also referred to as the Island of Achilles ( and Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §A152.9) and the Racecourse of Achilles ( and ), though this is now identified with the Tendra Spit. Pliny wrote that it was also known as Macaron (Μακάρων, 'Island of the Blessed'). John Tzetzes writes that the island was also known as Spilos (Σπῖλος). In a Nemean Ode, Pindar refers to it as "the shining island of Achilles" (φαεννὰν Ἀχιλεὺς νᾶσον).Pindar, Nemean Odes, 4.25

The island was sacred to the hero Achilles and had a temple of him with a statue inside.Pausanias, Description of Greece, § 3.19.11 Solinus wrote that on the island stood a sacred shrine into which no bird would enter; if by chance one did fly in, it would quickly hasten away.Solinus, Polyhistor, §19.1 According to Arrian, in the temple there were many offerings to Achilles and Patroclus. Furthermore, people came to the island and sacrificed or set animals free in honour of Achilles.Arrian, Periplus of the Euxine Sea, §33 He also added that people said that Achilles and Patroclus appeared in front of them as hallucinations or in their dreams while they were approaching the coast of the island or sailing a short distance from it.Arrian, Periplus of the Euxine Sea, §34 Pliny the Elder wrote that the tomb of the hero was on the island.Pliny the Elder, Natural History, §4.26.1 According to the legend, on the island no bird flew higher than the temple of Achilles.

The uninhabited isle ("of Achilles") was the major sanctuary of the hero, where "seabirds dipped their wings in water to sweep the temples clean", according to Constantine D. Kyriazis. Several temples of Thracian Apollo can be found here, and there are submerged ruins.

According to Greek myths the island was created by Poseidon for Achilles to inhabit, but also for sailors to have an island to anchor at the Euxine Sea,Philostratus, Heroica, §746 but the sailors should never sleep on the island.Philostratus, Heroica, §747 According to a surviving epitome of the lost Trojan War epic of Arctinus of Miletus, the remains of Achilles and Patroclus were brought to this island by Thetis, to be put in a sanctuary, furnishing the , or founding myth of the Hellenic cult of Achilles centred here. According to another myth Thetis gave the island to Achilles and let him live there. The oracle of Delphi sent Leonymus (other writers called him AutoleonConon, Narrations (Photius), 18) to the Island, telling him that there Ajax the Great would appear to him and cure his wound.Pausanias, Description of Greece, §3.19.12 Leonymus said that on the island he saw Achilles, Ajax the Great, Ajax the Lesser, Patroclus, Antilochus and Helen of Troy. In addition, Helen told him to go to Stesichorus at Himera and tell him that the loss of his sight was caused by her wrath.Pausanias, Description of Greece, §3.19.13 Pomponius Mela wrote that Achilles was buried there and the island had the eponym of Achillea.Pomponius Mela, Chorographia, §2.98 Apollodorus writes that the Greeks buried Achilles together with Patroclus on the island, mingling their bones.Apollodorus, Library, e.5.5

In Andromache, a work of Euripides, Thetis mention the island and said that Achilles was "dwelling on his island home".Euripides, Andromache, 1231

Antoninus Liberalis writes that Artemis transported Iphigenia to the island, where she joined Achilles. There, the goddess transformed her into an ageless, immortal being, gave her the name Orsilochia, and Iphigenia became Achilles companion.Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 27 By contrast, John Tzetzes mentions another myth, in which Achilles fell in love with Iphigenia and searched for her, when he failed to find her, he settled on the island.Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem, 182-200

Ruins believed to be of a square temple dedicated to Achilles, 30 meters to a side, were discovered by the Russian naval Captain N. D. Kritzkii in 1823, but the subsequent construction of a lighthouse on the site obliterated all trace of it.Anna S. Rusyaeva, "The temple of Achilles on the island of Leuke in the Black Sea". Ovid, who was banished to Tomis, mentions the island, so do Ptolemy and Strabo.Geography, book II.5.22 The island is described in Pliny the Elder's Natural History, IV.27.1. It is also described in Arrian's Letter to Emperor Hadrian, a historical document movingly drawn upon by Marguerite Yourcenar in her Memoirs of Hadrian.