How do you pronounce Byzantion?

If you are German, the way it is spelt.

Hear it here

I’m American, and we usually anglicize similar words in a way that would render it ” Bye-Zahn-Shun” or “Bye-Zahn-Tee-On”

Anybody know a close approximation to the Greek?

If you’re Dutch… almost the the way the Germans pronounce it:

Bee-zan-tee-on.

Βυζάντιον; we can only guess how the Greeks pronounced it.

Bye zan tee on. is close.

Sorry, I thought you meant the English pronunciation. Edited response:

In Ancient Greek, ”Βυζάντιον”, would’ve been pronounced something like this in IPA:

by’zantion

Approximate sounds:

y = German ”ü”
a = “o” in “on” (not exactly; it’s really like the “a” in any Spanish or Italian word).
i = “ee” in “tree”
o = “o” in “phone”

So, you could think of it like bü-ZAHN-tee-own