Yes, we are Scythians! Yes, we are Asians! With slanted and greedy eyes.(Alexander Blok).
In ancient times, approximately from the beginning of the 8th century BC. That is, in the vast territories of Eurasia from the northern Black Sea region and right up to Altai there lived a freedom-loving and warlike tribe, or rather tribes that went down in history under the common name of Scythians. Who were the ancient Scythians, what is their history, religion, culture, read on about all this.
Where did the Scythians live?
Where did the ancient Scythians live? In fact, the answer to this question is not as clear and simple as the answer to who these Scythians are. The fact is that different historians included a variety of tribes and peoples among the Scythians, including our ancestors the ancient Slavs. And in some medieval manuscripts even Kievan Rus is called Scythia. But, in the end, historians came to a consensus that Scythians should still be called one specific people, who lived, however, on a very wide territory, from the Don to the Danube, the northern Black Sea region in the south of our country Ukraine and right up to Altai.
Other tribes related to the Scythians, for example, Sauromatians, Saks, Meotians, should be called the peoples of the Scythian world, since they have many common features in their way of life and culture, tribal way of life, rituals and worldview.
Map of archaeological finds of Scythian burial mounds. As we see, despite the wide territories where this ancient people lived, most of the Scythians lived in the Northern Black Sea region and there is reason to believe that this was where the center of their civilization was.
Origin of the Scythians
In fact, the origin of the Scythians is mysterious, the fact is that the Scythians themselves did not have a written language, and information about them from other peoples is very contradictory. The main source of historical information about them is the works of the historian Herodotus. According to one of the legends, which is mentioned by the “father of history,” the Scythian nomads came from Asia to the territory of the northern Black Sea region, expelling the local Cimmerian tribes living there. But the same Herodotus, in his other work “History,” mentions another legend of the Scythians, according to which they always lived in the Black Sea region.
But legends are legends, and what does Her Majesty archeology say about the origin of the Scythians? Archaeological excavations also, unfortunately, do not provide an exact answer to the question and the origin of the Scythians. Thus, most Scythians led a nomadic lifestyle and could move long distances in a relatively short period of time. And it is also very difficult to identify their ancestors among many tribes with a similar culture.
Still, a number of scientists believe that the Scythians came to Europe from Asia as an already formed people. Proponents of another theory argue that the Scythians, on the contrary, from ancient times lived in the steppes of the Black Sea region, and acquired some of their Asian features during their campaigns beyond the Caucasus Range, in Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, which took place in the 7th century BC. e. Unfortunately, we don’t know how it really happened.
History of the Scythians
The heyday of Scythian civilization occurred in the 7th century; it was at this time that the Scythians dominated not only the steppes of the Black Sea region, but also all of Asia Minor, where they created the Scythian state of Ishkuza, although by the beginning of the 6th century they were forced out of Asia Minor. At the same time, traces of the Scythians were found in the Caucasus.
In 512 BC. that is, all the Scythian tribes rallied to repel the conquest undertaken by King Darius I. The attempt to conquer the lands of the Scythians failed, the Persians were defeated. The unsuccessful campaign of Darius against the Scythians is described in detail by the same Herodotus; the Scythians used very original tactics against the conquerors - instead of giving the Persians a general battle, they lured them deep into their territory, avoiding a general battle in every possible way and constantly exhausting the Persian troops. In the end, it was no longer difficult for them to defeat the weakened Persians.
After some time, the Scythians themselves attacked neighboring Thrace (the territory of modern Bulgaria) and successfully conquered these lands. Then there was a war with the Macedonian king Philip, who inflicted a crushing defeat on the Scythians, again throwing them back into the steppes of the Black Sea region.
Around the III-II century BC. e. Scythian civilization begins to decline. The territory where the Scythians lived also shrank significantly. In the end, the Scythians themselves were conquered and destroyed by their distant relatives - the nomadic tribes of the Sarmatians. The remnants of the Scythian kingdom continued to exist in the Crimea for some time, but from there they were soon forced out by the Gothic tribes.
Scythian culture
The entire culture of the Scythians, their life, their way of life is literally imbued with military affairs; obviously, there was no other way to survive in the harsh conditions in which they lived. Not only all men, but also most women were warriors in Scythian society. It is with the stern Scythian warriors that ancient legends about the tribe of Amazons, brave female warriors, are associated. At the head of the Scythian society were the so-called military nobility - the royal Scythians, who in turn were led by the Scythian king. However, the power of the Scythian king was not absolute; he was rather the first among equals, rather than a ruler with unlimited power. The functions of the king included command of the army, he was also the supreme judge, resolved disputes between his subjects and performed religious rituals. But the most important matters were discussed at democratic public assemblies, known as the “Council of the Scythians.” Sometimes the Scythian council even decided the fate of their kings.
An objectionable king could also easily be overthrown and killed, as, for example, happened with the Scythian king Anarcharsis, who, after marrying a Greek woman, became addicted to Greek culture and the Greek way of life, which the rest of the Scythians perceived as the king’s betrayal of Scythian customs and the punishment for this was death king
Speaking of the Greeks, the Scythians conducted intensive trade with them for centuries, especially with the Greek colony cities in the Black Sea region: Olbia, Chersonesos. The Scythians were frequent guests there, and, of course, some of the cultural influences of the Greeks did affect the Scythians; Greek ceramics, Greek coins, Greek women's jewelry, even various works of art by Greek masters were often found in their burials. Some particularly enlightened Scythians, like the already mentioned Scythian king Anarcharsis, were imbued with the ideas of Greek philosophers and tried to bring the light of knowledge of Antiquity to their fellow tribesmen, but alas, the sad fate of Anarcharsis says that this was not always successful.
Scythian customs
In the works of Herodotus one can find many references to the harsh Scythian customs, like the Scythians themselves. So, when killing the first enemy, the Scythian was supposed to drink his blood. The Scythians, like the American Indians, also had a bad habit of taking scalps from defeated enemies, from which they then sewed cloaks for themselves. To receive his share of the spoils, a Scythian had to present the severed head of an enemy, and bowls were made from the heads of especially fierce enemies. Also, every year the Scythian nobility organized feasts, in which only a Scythian who had killed an enemy could participate.
Fortune telling was popular in Scythian society; special soothsayers used bundles of twigs or linden sponges to tell fortunes. The Scythians consolidated friendly ties with a special ritual - the blood of both friends was poured into a cup of wine, then after the vows were pronounced, this wine with blood was drunk by both friends.
The most interesting works of art discovered by archaeologists in Scythian mounds are objects decorated in animal style. These include quivers of arrows, sword hilts, women’s necklaces, mirror handles, buckles, bracelets, hryvnias, etc.
In addition to images of animal figures, there are often scenes of various animals fighting. These images were made using forging, chasing, casting, embossing and carving, most often from gold, silver, bronze or iron.
All these objects of art were indeed created by Scythian craftsmen; a sign of their belonging to the Scythians is a special way of depicting animals, the so-called Scythian animal style. Animals are always depicted in motion and from the side, but at the same time have their heads turned towards the viewer. For the Scythians themselves, they served as the personification of animal totemic ancestors, various spirits and played the role of magical amulets. It is also believed that various animals depicted on the hilt of a sword or a quiver of arrows were intended to symbolize the strength, dexterity and courage of the Scythian warrior.
Scythian warfare
All Scythian warriors were excellent horsemen and often used cavalry in battle. They were also the first to successfully use strategic retreat in the war against the Persians, significantly exhausting the Persian troops. Subsequently, the military art of the Scythians became significantly outdated, and they began to suffer military defeats, either from the united Macedonian phalanx or mounted Parthian archers.
Scythian religion
The religious life of the Scythians was dominated by the cult of fire and the Sun. An important ritual was the veneration of the royal hearth. Religious rites were performed by kings, and the Scythian king was also at the same time the religious head of the community. But besides him, various magicians and soothsayers also played a major role, whose main task was to search for the enemy of the king and to prevent the magical machinations of enemies. The illness of both the king and any other Scythian was explained precisely by the magical machinations of some enemy, and the task of the soothsayers was to find these enemies and eliminate their machinations in the form of illness. (This is a kind of ancient Scythian medicine)
The Scythians did not build temples, but they had special sacred places where they performed their religious rites of worship of the Sun and fire. In exceptional cases, the Scythians even resorted to human sacrifices.
Scythians, video
And in conclusion, we suggest watching an interesting documentary about the Scythians.
The Scythians lived in the 1st millennium BC. in the steppes north of the Black Sea. They were a people who spoke an Indo-Iranian language, like the ancient inhabitants of the Dnieper region, in which the Eastern Slavs arose. Probably, some of the Scythians eventually converted to Slavs.
The mythology of the Scythians has not reached us completely. Only a few myths and legends are known, told by Herodotus and some other ancient authors. Some legends and the meaning of names can be established with the help of comparative historical linguistics.
Scythian goddesses and gods
The Scythians worshiped seven gods, like many other Iranian peoples. Tabiti was revered as their supreme goddess. Besides him, the pantheon included Papay, Api, Oytosir (Goytosir), Argimaspa, and 2 more deities whose names have not been preserved. Tabiti was the goddess of fire and hearth. She was called the "queen of the Scythians."
The Scythian king Herodotus mentioned that the most developed Scythian tribe - the "royal Scythians" - worshiped Poseidon, or Tagimasad, as they called him.
Herodotus retold the Scythian myth according to which Zeus married the daughter of the Dnieper River. From this marriage the first person was born - Targitai. He had three sons - Lipoksai, Arpoksai and Kolaksai, who gave rise to three branches of the Scythian people.
Under the sons of Targitai, a golden plow with a yoke, an ax and a bowl fell from the sky, which only Kolaksai managed to take. He became the ruler of ancient Scythia.
Scythian legend
Scythian mythology: archer Herodotus told another legend about the Scythians. In ancient times, the Scythians went to fight in Media, and they were not home for many years (information about the Scythians’ campaigns in Asia is confirmed by historians). But when they returned home, they found a whole army in front of them that did not want to let them in. It turned out that during their absence, their wives married their former slaves and rebuilt their lives.
The children from these marriages decided to prevent the return of their former owners. They dug a wide ditch, armed themselves and entered into battle with the Scythians.
The battle continued for many days, which did not bring an advantage to either side. Finally, one of the Scythians said that it was absurd to continue this battle with slaves - after all, the Scythians were dying, and their property (slaves) was decreasing. “As long as we go into battle with weapons, they consider themselves equal to us, but as soon as we take whips in our hands, they will immediately remember their slave origins.”
Scythian item made of gold The next day, the Scythians went into battle, armed only with whips. As soon as their opponents heard the sound of the blows of the whips, they immediately remembered their origin, panicked and fled. This is how the Scythians managed to regain their country and their homes.
Scythian heritage
Scythian animal style: golden deer The Scythians left behind a rich cultural heritage. Gold items with images of people and animals are often found in burial mounds. The style of these finds is unique - it is called “animal style”. The images usually contain everyday and mythological motifs.
edited news Core - 2-04-2011, 01:02
The myths and legends of the peoples of Kuban have reached us only in the retelling of ancient authors. They are complemented by images on gold and silver vessels, weapons, jewelry and household items found during excavations of rich burials.
The most valuable source of information about the origin, history and customs of the Scythians and their neighbors is rightfully considered the work of Herodotus “History”.
He traveled a lot in the countries of the East, visited Babylon and Sicily, the banks of the Nile and the islands of the Aegean Sea. He also visited Scythia. Everything seen and heard formed a bright, motley picture of the life and morals of the Scythians, social structure, military affairs, beliefs and rituals.
The way of life, customs, legends and myths described by Herodotus provide a lot of information about the peoples of the Kuban region, who were close to the Scythians in language and occupation.
Legends about the origin of the Scythians
One of them, according to Herodotus, was told to him by the Black Sea Scythians themselves.
“The Scythians say that their people are younger than all others and originated as follows: in their land, which was a deserted desert, the first man, named Targitai, was born.
He had three sons: Lipoksai, Arpoksai and the younger Kolaksai. With them, three golden objects fell from the sky onto the Scythian land: a plow, an ax and a bowl. The eldest of the brothers, the first to see these objects, came closer, wanting to take them, but as he approached, the gold ignited. Then the second one came up, but the same thing happened with the gold.
Thus, the gold, igniting, did not allow them to approach it, but with the approach of the third brother, the youngest, the burning stopped, and he took the gold.
The older brothers, realizing the significance of this miracle, handed over the entire kingdom to the younger ones.” According to the Scythians, they descended from the sons of Targitai, who was considered the son of Zeus.
Herodotus attributes the second legend about the origin of the Scythians to the Greek colonists. According to this legend, the first people in the Scythian land were Agafyrs, Gelon and Scythian, born from the Greek hero Hercules and the local half-maiden-half-snake. Leaving her, Hercules said: “When you see your sons matured, it is best to do this: see which one of them will draw this bow like this and gird himself, in my opinion, with this belt, and give him this land to live in, and which one will not be able to To fulfill my task, we left the country. By doing this, you yourself will be satisfied and this will fulfill my desire.”
Having drawn the bows and shown the method of girding, Hercules left the bow and the belt with a golden cup at the end of the buckle and left. Two of the sons were unable to fulfill their father’s orders and were expelled from the country by their mother. And the youngest, Skif, having completed the task, remained. “From this son of Hercules,” writes Herodotus, “the Scythian kings originated, and from the cup of Hercules is the custom that still exists among the Scythians of wearing cups on their belts. This is what the Greeks living near Pontus say.”
There are other legends about the origin of the Scythians. All legends substantiate the divine origin of power.
Greek and Scythian myths, retold by different people, coincide in some ways, but also differ in the description of events and heroes.
Which Scythians did Alexander Blok write about?
Civilizations of the Ancient World
Around 750 BC, arose on the Black Sea coast the first colonies of the Ionian metropolitan cities. Very soon Pont Aksinskiy (“inhospitable”) changed his epithet to Euxinskiy – “hospitable.”
Chalice from Gaiman's grave - one from Scythian burial mounds in Zaporozhye
The literary consequence of the Greek colonization of the Black Sea was the appearance of the first historical and ethnographic description of the northern part of the ecumene, which belonged to Herodotus. For more than ten years he was possessed by “wanderlust.” During this time, he traveled to almost all the countries of Western Asia and visited the Northern Black Sea region.
Herodotus observed and studied the customs and morals of foreign peoples without a shadow of arrogance, with the inexhaustible interest of a true researcher, “so that past events do not fall into oblivion over time and the great and amazing deeds of both Hellenes and barbarians do not remain in obscurity,” - for that Plutarch ranked him among the “filovars” - lovers of foreign things, despised by educated people of that time.
Unfortunately, the original Slavic lands remained completely unknown to the “father of history.” The regions beyond the Danube, he writes, “are apparently uninhabited and limitless.” He knows only one people living north of the Danube, namely the Siginnov - a nomadic Iranian-speaking tribe. During the time of Herodotus, the Siginns occupied territory along almost the entire steppe left bank of the Danube; in the west, their lands extended to the possessions of the Adriatic Veneti. From this we can conclude that in the 5th century BC. e. areas of Slavic settlement were still to the north of the almost continuous mountain chain - Ore Mountains, Sudeten Mountains, Tatras, Beskids and Carpathians - stretching across Central and Eastern Europe from west to east. Herodotus managed to collect much more information about Scythia and the Scythians.
The Scythians, who supplanted in the 8th century BC. e. from the Northern Black Sea region, the semi-legendary Cimmerians, aroused keen interest among the Greeks because of their proximity to the Greek colonies in the Crimea, which supplied Athens and other Hellenic city-states with grain. Aristotle he even reproached the Athenians for spending whole days in the square, listening to magical tales and stories of people returning from Borysthenes (Dnieper). The Scythians were known as a barbarically brave and cruel people: they skinned their dead enemies and drank wine from their skulls. They fought both on foot and on horseback. Scythian archers were especially famous, whose arrows were coated with poison. In depicting the way of life of the Scythians, ancient writers rarely managed to avoid tendentiousness: some painted them as cannibals who devoured their own children, while others, on the contrary, extolled the purity and unspoiled Scythian morals and reproached their compatriots for corrupting these innocent children of nature by introducing them to to the achievements of Hellenic civilization.
In addition to personal preferences, which forced Greek writers to highlight certain features of Scythian morals, a truthful portrayal of the Scythians was hampered by one purely objective difficulty. The fact is that the Greeks constantly confused the Scythians, who belonged to Iranian-speaking peoples, with other peoples of the Northern Black Sea region. Thus, Hippocrates, in his treatise “On the Air, Waters and Terrains,” under the name of the Scythians, described obvious Mongoloids: “The Scythians resemble only themselves: their skin color is yellow; the body is plump and fleshy, they are beardless, which makes their men like women.”
Alexander Blok, in accordance with the “Mongolian” theory of the origin of the Scythians, popular in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, endowed them with “slanting eyes” in his famous poem, which in reality they never had.
Herodotus himself found it difficult to say anything definite about the prevailing population in “Scythia”. “The number of Scythians,” he writes, “I could not find out with accuracy, but I heard two different opinions: according to one, there are a lot of them, according to the other, the Scythians themselves are few, and besides them they live ( in Scythia - S.Ts.) and other peoples." Therefore, Herodotus calls Scythians either all the inhabitants of the Black Sea steppes, or only one people who dominates all others. When describing the way of life of the Scythians, the historian also contradicts himself. His characterization of the Scythians as a poor nomadic people, having neither cities nor fortifications, but living in carts and eating livestock products - meat, mare's milk and cottage cheese, is immediately destroyed by the story of Scythian plowmen selling bread.
This contradiction stemmed from the fact that ancient writers had a poor understanding of the political and social structure of the steppe people. The Scythian state, which was a confederation of Scythian clans proper, was structured on the model of all other nomadic empires, when one relatively small horde dominated in numerical terms over the alien nomadic hordes and the settled population.
According to Herodotus, the main Scythian horde were the “royal Scythians” - their self-name was “Skoloty”, whom the historian calls the most valiant and most numerous. They considered all other Scythians to be slaves under their control. The Scythian kings dressed with truly barbaric pomp. On the clothes of one such ruler from the so-called Kul-Ob grave near Kerch, 266 gold plaques with a total weight of up to one and a half kilograms were sewn. The Skolos roamed in Northern Tavria. To the east, next to them, lived another horde, called Scythian nomads by Herodotus. Both of these hordes constituted the actual Scythian population of the Northern Black Sea region.
Academician B.A. Rybakov in his writings persistently identified the Scythians-Skolots with the Proto-Slavs. He used the word as his main argument chipped in meaning illegitimate son, referring to one story from ancient Russian epics, which tells about the birth of Ilya Muromets’s son from a heroic woman from the steppe glade. This boy, named Sokolnik (or Podsokolnik), was teased by his peers as “knocked down.” The offenders were inhabitants of the steppe, therefore, Rybakov concluded, “chipped off” in their mouths is the oldest name for the Slavs, i.e. Herodotus' Scythians It is surprising that a respected scientist, carried away by his bold hypothesis, did not bother to look at least in Dahl’s dictionary, where the word chipped in its mentioned meaning referred to verbs to knock together, to knock together. Thus, “knocked down son”, “knocked down”, “knocked down” means the same thing as the later expression “b... son”, i.e. a “seven-year-old” child, conceived by a wandering mother from an unknown father (by analogy with a “knitted dress” - clothing sewn from several scraps of fabric). Scythians-chipped in fact turn out to have absolutely nothing to do with it.
Scythia did not extend very far to the north (the Dnieper rapids were not known to Herodotus), covering a rather narrow steppe strip of the Northern Black Sea region at that time. But like any other steppe inhabitants, the Scythians often went on military raids against their close and distant neighbors. Judging by archaeological finds, they reached the Oder and Elbe basins in the west, destroying Slavic settlements along the way. Territory Lusatian culture was subjected to their invasions from the end of the 6th century BC. Archaeologists have discovered characteristic Scythian arrowheads stuck in the outer ramparts of Lusatian fortifications. Some of the settlements dating back to this time contain traces of fires or destruction, such as the settlement of Vitsin in the Zelenogur region of the Czech Republic, where, among other things, the skeletons of women and children who died during one of the Scythian raids were found. At the same time, the unique and elegant “animal style” of Scythian art found many admirers among Slavic men and women. Numerous Scythian decorations at the sites of Lusatian settlements indicate constant trade relations between the Slavs and the Scythian world of the Northern Black Sea region.
Trade was most likely carried out through intermediaries, since between the Slavs and Scythians wedged the tribes of the Alizons and “Scythian farmers” known to Herodotus, who lived somewhere along the Bug. Probably these were some Iranian-speaking peoples subjugated by the Scythians. Further to the north extended the lands of the Neuroi, behind which, according to Herodotus, “there is already a deserted desert.” The historian complains that it is impossible to get there because of snowstorms and blizzards: “The ground and air there are full of feathers, and this is what interferes with vision.” Herodotus talks about the Neuroi themselves from hearsay and very sparingly - that their customs are “Scythian”, and they themselves are sorcerers: “each Neuroi turns into a wolf for a few days every year, and then again takes on a human form.” However, Herodotus adds that he does not believe this, and, of course, he is right. Probably, in this case, information reached him in a highly distorted form about some kind of magical rite or, perhaps, the custom of the Neuros during the annual religious holiday of dressing in wolf skins.
Suggestions have been made about the Slavic affiliation of the Neuros, since legends about werewolf-wolves were later extremely widespread in Ukraine. However, this is unlikely. In ancient poetry there is a short line with an expressive description of the neuro: “the neuro-adversary, who dressed the horse in armor.” We agree that a neuroses sitting on an armored horse bears little resemblance to the ancient Slav as ancient sources and archeology portray him as. But it is known that the Celts were skilled metallurgists and blacksmiths; the cult of the horse was extremely popular among them. Therefore, it is more natural to assume the Celtic affiliation of the Herodotus Neuroi, linking their name with the name of the Celtic tribe of Nervii (Nervii).
This is Scythia and the surrounding lands according to Herodotus. In the classical era of Greece, when the ancient literary tradition took shape and took shape, the Scythians were the most powerful and, most importantly, the most famous people of barbarian Europe to the Greeks. Therefore, subsequently the name of Scythia and Scythians was used by ancient and medieval writers as a traditional name for the Northern Black Sea region and the inhabitants of the south of our country, and sometimes for all of Russia and Russians. Nestor already wrote about this: the Uluchi and Tivertsy “travelled along the Dniester, along the Bug and along the Dnieper to the very sea; these are their cities to this day; Previously, this land was called by the Greeks Velikaya Skuf.” In the 10th century, Leo the Deacon, in his description of the war of Prince Svyatoslav with the Bulgarians and the Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes, called the Rus by their own name - 24 times, but Scythians - 63 times, Tauro-Scythians - 21 and Tauri - 9 times, without mentioning the name of the Slavs at all. *
Herodotus reports three legends about the origin of the Scythians:
5. According to the stories of the Scythians, their people are the youngest. And it happened this way. The first inhabitant of this then uninhabited country was a man named Targitai. The parents of this Targitai, as the Scythians say, were Zeus and the daughter of the river Borysthenes, the goddess Api. Targitai was of this kind, and he had three sons: Lipoksai, Arpoksai and the youngest - Kolaksai. During their reign, golden objects fell from the sky onto the Scythian land: a plow, a yoke, an ax and a bowl.
6. The elder brother was the first to see these things. As soon as he approached to pick them up, the gold began to glow. Then he retreated, and the second brother approached, and again the gold was engulfed in flames. So the heat of the flaming gold drove away both brothers, but when the third, younger brother approached, the flame went out, and he took the gold to his house. Therefore, the older brothers agreed to give the kingdom to the younger. So, from Lipoxais, as they say, came the Scythian tribe called the Avchatians, from the middle brother - the tribe of the Katiars and Traspians, and from the youngest of the brothers - the king - the tribe of the Paralats. All the tribes together are called skolots, that is, royal ones. The Hellenes call them Scythians.
7. This is how the Scythians tell about the origin of their people. They think, however, that from the time of the first king Targitai to the invasion of their land by Darius, just 1000 years passed. The Scythian kings carefully guarded the mentioned sacred gold objects and revered them with reverence, making rich sacrifices every year. If at a festival someone falls asleep in the open air with this sacred gold, then, according to the Scythians, he will not live even a year. Therefore, the Scythians give him as much land as he can travel on horseback in a day. Since they had a lot of land, Kolaksais divided it, according to the stories of the Scythians, into three kingdoms between his three sons. He made the largest kingdom where gold was stored (not mined). In the region lying even further north of the land of the Scythians, as they say, nothing can be seen and it is impossible to penetrate there because of flying feathers. And indeed, the ground and air there are full of feathers, and this is what interferes with vision.
8. This is how the Scythians themselves talk about themselves and their neighboring northern countries. The Hellenes who live on Pontus convey it differently. Hercules, driving the bulls of Geryon (usually cows), arrived in this then uninhabited country (now it is occupied by the Scythians). Geryon lived far from Pontus, on an island in the Ocean near Gadir behind the Pillars of Hercules (the Greeks call this island Erythia). The ocean, according to the Hellenes, flows, starting from sunrise, around the entire earth, but they cannot prove this. It was from there that Hercules arrived in what is now called the country of the Scythians. There he was caught by bad weather and cold. Wrapping himself in a pig's skin, he fell asleep, and at that time his draft horses (he let them graze) miraculously disappeared.
9. Having awakened, Hercules went throughout the country in search of horses and finally arrived in a land called Hylea. There, in a cave, he found a certain creature of a mixed nature - half-maiden, half-snake (the Goddess with snakes, the ancestor of the Scythians, is known from a number of ancient images). The upper part of her body from the buttocks was female, and the lower part was snakelike. Seeing her, Hercules asked in surprise if she had seen his lost horses somewhere. In response, the snake woman said that she had the horses, but she would not give them up until Hercules entered into a love affair with her. Then Hercules, for the sake of such a reward, united with this woman. However, she hesitated to give up the horses, wanting to keep Hercules with her as long as possible, and he would gladly leave with the horses. Finally, the woman gave up the horses with the words: “I kept these horses that came to me for you; You have now paid a ransom for them. After all, I have three sons from you. Tell me, what should I do with them when they grow up? Should I leave them here (after all, I alone own this country) or send them to you?” That's what she asked. Hercules answered this: “When you see that your sons have matured, then it is best for you to do this: see which of them can pull my bow like this and gird himself with this belt, as I show you, let him live here. Anyone who does not follow my instructions will be sent to a foreign land. If you do this, then you yourself will be satisfied and fulfill my desire.”
10. With these words, Hercules pulled one of his bows (until then, Hercules carried two bows). Then, having shown how to gird himself, he handed over the bow and belt (a golden cup hung at the end of the belt clasp) and left. When the children grew up, the mother gave them names. She named one Agathirs, the other Gelon, and the younger Scythian. Then, remembering Hercules' advice, she did as Hercules ordered. Two sons - Agathirs and Gelon could not cope with the task, and their mother expelled them from the country. The youngest, Skif, managed to complete the task and remained in the country. From this Scythian, the son of Hercules, all the Scythian kings descended. And in memory of that golden cup, to this day the Scythians wear cups on their belts (this is what the mother did for the benefit of Scythians).
11. There is also a third legend (I myself trust it most). It goes like this. The nomadic tribes of the Scythians lived in Asia. When the Massagetae ousted them from there by military force, the Scythians crossed the Araks and arrived in the Cimmerian land (the country now inhabited by the Scythians is said to have belonged to the Cimmerians since ancient times). As the Scythians approached, the Cimmerians began to hold advice on what to do in the face of a large enemy army. And so at the council, opinions were divided. Although both sides stubbornly stood their ground, the kings’ proposal won. The people were in favor of retreat, considering it unnecessary to fight so many enemies. The kings, on the contrary, considered it necessary to stubbornly defend their native land from invaders. So, the people did not heed the advice of the kings, and the kings did not want to submit to the people. The people decided to leave their homeland and give their land to the invaders without a fight; The kings, on the contrary, preferred to die in their native land rather than flee with their people. After all, the kings understood what great happiness they had experienced in their native land and what troubles awaited the exiles deprived of their homeland. Having made this decision, the Cimmerians divided into two equal parts and began to fight among themselves. The Cimmerian people buried all those who fell in the fratricidal war near the Tiras River (the grave of the kings can still be seen there to this day). After this, the Cimmerians left their land, and the Scythians who arrived took possession of the deserted country.
12. And now in the Scythian land there are Cimmerian fortifications and Cimmerian crossings; There is also a region called Cimmeria and the so-called Cimmerian Bosporus. Fleeing from the Scythians to Asia, the Cimmerians occupied the peninsula where the Hellenic city of Sinope is now. It is also known that the Scythians, in pursuit of the Cimmerians, lost their way and invaded the Median land. After all, the Cimmerians constantly moved along the coast of Pontus, while the Scythians, during the pursuit, stayed to the left of the Caucasus until they invaded the land of the Medes. So, they turned inland. This last legend is conveyed equally by both Hellenes and barbarians.
Herodotus. Story. IV.5 - 12
Tribes of Scythia
The main area of settlement of the Scythians is the steppes between the lower reaches of the Danube and Don, including the steppe Crimea and areas adjacent to the Northern Black Sea Coast. The northern border is unclear. The Scythians were divided into several large tribes. According to Herodotus, the dominant ones were royal Scythians- the easternmost of the Scythian tribes, bordering the Don with the Sauromatians, also occupied the steppe Crimea. To the west they lived Scythian nomads, and even further west, on the left bank of the Dnieper - Scythian farmers. On the right bank of the Dnieper, in the basin of the Southern Bug, near the city of Olvia, they lived callipids, or Helleno-Scythians, north of them - alazons, and even further north - Scythian plowmen.
Ancient sources mention a number of other tribes that lived in Scythia or adjacent territories, both related to the Scythians and foreign: Boruski, Agathirs, Gelons, Neuroi (Nervii), Arimaspi, Fissagetae, Iirki, Budins, Melanchlens, Avhatians (Lipoxai), Katiars (arpoxai), traspia (arpoxai), paralates (koloksai, scolota), issedons, taurians, argippea, androphages
Story
Emergence
Scythian culture is actively studied by supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis. Archaeologists date the formation of the relatively generally recognized Scythian culture to the 7th century BC. e. . There are two main approaches to interpreting its occurrence:
§ according to one, based on the so-called “Third Legend” of Herodotus, the Scythians came from the east;
§ another approach, which can also be based on legends recorded by Herodotus, assumes that the Scythians by that time lived in the Northern Black Sea region for at least several centuries, having separated from the successors of the Timber-frame culture.
Heyday
The beginning of the relatively generally accepted history of the Scythians and Scythia is the 8th century BC. e., the return of the main forces of the Scythians to the Northern Black Sea region, where the Cimmerians had ruled for centuries before. The Cimmerians were forced out of the Northern Black Sea region by the Scythians by the 7th century BC. e. and the Scythian campaigns in Asia Minor. In the 70s of the 7th century BC. e. The Scythians invaded Media, Syria, the Kingdom of Israel and, according to Herodotus, “dominated” in Western Asia, where they created the Scythian Kingdom - Ishkuza, but by the beginning of the 6th century BC. e.were forced out of there. Traces of the presence of the Scythians are also noted in the North Caucasus.
Close relations with the slave-owning cities of the Northern Black Sea region, the intensive trade of the Scythians in cattle, grain, furs and slaves strengthened the process of class formation in Scythian society. It is known that the Scythians had a tribal union, which gradually acquired the features of a unique state of the early slaveholding type, headed by a king. The power of the king was hereditary and deified. It was limited to the union council and the people's assembly. There was a separation of the military aristocracy, warriors and priestly stratum. The political unity of the Scythians was facilitated by their war with the Persian king Darius I in 512 BC. e. - the Scythians were led by three kings: Idanfirs, Skopas and Taxakis. At the turn of the V-IV centuries BC. e. The Scythians became more active on the southwestern borders of Scythia. Expansion into Thrace intensified under King Ataeus, who probably united Scythia under his leadership. This caused a war with the Macedonian king Philip II. However, Justin does not report that Philip crossed the Danube during the campaign against Ataeus, but says that Philip sent ambassadors ahead to inform Ataeus that he was heading to the mouth of the Istra (modern Danube) to erect a statue of Hercules. Based on this, the question of what territories Atey owned remains debatable.
In 339 BC e. King Atheus died in the war with the Macedonian king Philip II. In 331 BC e. Zopyrion, the governor of Alexander the Great in Thrace, invaded the western possessions of the Scythians, besieged Olbia, but the Scythians destroyed his army:
Zopyrion, left by Alexander the Great as governor of Pontus, believing that he would be considered lazy if he did not carry out any undertaking, gathered 30 thousand troops and went to war against the Scythians, but was destroyed with the entire army...
An archaeological study of the Kamensky settlement (with an area of about 1200 hectares) showed that during the heyday of the Scythian kingdom it was the administrative, trade and economic center of the steppe Scythians. Sharp changes in the social structure of the Scythians by the 4th century. BC e. reflected in the appearance in the Dnieper region of grandiose burial mounds of the Scythian aristocracy, the so-called. “royal mounds”, reaching a height of more than 20 m. The kings and their warriors were buried in them in deep and complex funeral structures. The burials of the aristocracy were accompanied by the burial of slain wives or concubines, servants (slaves) and horses.
Warriors were buried with weapons: short akinaki swords with gold sheath linings, a mass of arrows with bronze tips, quivers or goritas lined with gold plates, spears and darts with iron tips. Rich graves often contained copper, gold and silver dishes, Greek painted ceramics and amphorae with wine, and a variety of jewelry, often fine jewelry work by Scythian and Greek craftsmen. During the burial of ordinary Scythian community members, basically the same ritual was performed, but the grave goods were poorer.