cheenc03a.pdf

SCYTHIANS
SCYTHIANS
Trhiri ('lcrin, Verta), peddelr of !he fire; Pap~ul (pruhably
Papal or Rrhnl Zeus) the heaven-farher;
12. Religion. Apl (*),the ?Ah: ~ i (Apallo, ; par.
slhly derciipfive name of Alifhra). the sun:
Aidmpur (Aphrodire Urania), Venui; Thamisadar (Poseidon),
the sea; Herakler rnd Ares.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Scythians had no imager, or altars, or temples.
Their chief sacrifices were horses, which they offered in
a pecr~linr maniler : but prisoners in warx,ere also at times
offered. Only the god of war had a few great shrines.
There is evidence of ancestral euits. Divination by
rods or linden bark was practised, and the soothrayerr
formed distinct classes. A comparison with Persian
divinities and religious customs shows a remarkable
similarity. Whilst .?heptad of divinities occurs ('A@-
6ap8o), there is no trace of Ahura Mazda. Whether
any of the E. Scythians accepted theMazdayarnian faith,
is not known.
The earlier Greek writers rpealt in terms of high
lS,Character praise of the character of the
and civilisation, Fythians, giving instance5 of their
justice, sincerity, love of truth, and
sharp intelligence.
It ir however, that there dercriptions have to rome
extent ken coloured by agriori rearoning u to the virtues of r
nomadic life, such u may still fmnd in modein works. On
the other halid the leu Ratterrng tone of later authors wu,
no doubt due3inno.ma1l measure to rhcir sonfurion of thc
scrthian: with their ruder Sliuonic, Finno.Ugric, and Turkish
nelghhours. In Roman rimes. the conflicts with thcsamatians
nnfurnlly added bitternerr to the reference to Scythiaos.
The Scythians probably porrersed, in addition to the
eeneral chaacterirticr of all Iraniau rrooles. some
qualities pecnliar to that nomadic life so iar& a part of
them continued to lead. The r6le which the APnza
laved in Aria, at a time when the Arrvrian emoire had
"
settled life, sagacity as well as energy, diplomacy not
is raid to be an all; of the ~innseans, and'klng
Barfafua (Protothyas) is referred to as seeking an
alliance and the hand of Erarhaddon's daughter. That
the alliance war concluded is highly probuble, since in
625 Madyar, Protothyas' son, came to the aid of
Arryriv by defeating Cyaxares, who was besieging
Nineveh, and by checking the advancer of Psammetichus
in Syria: In connderadon of these services,
it ir natural that the suzerainty of Assyria over urartu
acknowledged by Sardurir 111. should Dass to Scythia,
and that s;ch states as Cappdocia. omm ma gene, and
hlelilene rhould become tributary. What the relation
of Cilicia to the new power was, it would be interesting
to know ; but it cannot yet be discerned. The Median
border states Atiopatene, Matiene, and others are
likely to have been subdued. From 625 to 597
Scythian rule in Asia Minor continued. Then the
pos.er was broken by Cyaxares. In 591 Scythian
refugees from the Median court fled to Lydia for protection
; but Scythianr continlied to Live under Median
and Persian domination in Asia Minor. There was u
Sacastene in Cappadocia as well as in Armenia
Darius claims to have conquered the 'Saka beyond
the Sea.' By there he means the Scythians N. of the
la, Euxine. He probably also refers to
in Enssin.
them as the mba frpakhudn, since
the pictorial repisentationr from the
Klmmerian Borporusshow that there wore the Phrygian
cap. It is to Darius' campzign into Russia in grz that
we owe the elaborate account of the Scythians by Herodotur.
That Dariur marched ar far as to the Volga
be doubted, and some other voints in the narrative
Sindh.
Concerning the period in which the Scy1hians still
had for their neighhours in the Airyanem Vaejo
(Vendidad, I) the other brancher of the
Iranian family, before thse }.ad pasred
into Sogdiana. Margiana, Bactria, Hyr-
",:,":
cania. Herat, and Kabul, we possess no
direct information. The presence of Iranian names in
the Amaina Tablets and early Assyrian and Egyptian
inscriptions indicated by Ball (PSBA, 1882, pp, 4248),
Ilezold-Budge (Tell el Amamo T~bfcLr. 1892. p. nv).
Rort (.IIVAG. 1897). and especially Hornrnel (Site..
drr. Bohm. Go. d. Wirr. 1898). seems to show that
i\natolia, Mesopotamia. Syria, and Elam had already
the defence Drriu; w& fruaked in his obiect. His father
The Milesian colonists were, of course, tributary to
the Scythian suzerain ; but the relations seem to have
been cordial.
Only when a king like Skylu forgot his native traditions to
thecrtrnt of takin part in the Dhnysiacorgier in Olbia the
scyrhianl pmealing. ~riend~y relarionr
vn8ledbctweenAria-pither andTe- ofrhrnce, in the beginning
of the fifth ccntu it is doubtful whether Spnacun (438-+32),
the founder ofthxorparanizu kingdom, w a a Grsck or of mxed
rere. There are some indications that the king whore skeleton
wu found in a tomb st Kertrch(Pzuticspaum),had Scythian
blood in hisveins The Sparrasidanrere not a Ser~0"sme"~"e to
Scythian power in the founh cenmry. Da?gerthre~tened fir?
from Macedonla, whor amhitiam ruler Phlhp muadd Scyrhca
and killed in hrllle king Ateas in 39, and ruhrequently from
the sarm.t:mr who crorred the Aon and mndc themaire%
during the third century the most impormt poplc in thc