herodotus

oundary between the Royal Scythians and the Sauromatai. Into thisTanaïs falls another river, whose name is Hyrgis.58. So many are the rivers of note with which the Scythians areprovided: and for cattle the grass which comes up in the land ofScythia is the most productive of bile of any grass which we know; andthat this is so you may judge when you open the bodies of the cattle.59. Thus abundant supply have they of that which is most important;and as for the rest their customs are as follows. The gods whom theypropitiate by worship are these only:--Hestia most of all, then Zeusand the Earth, supposing that Earth is the wife of Zeus, and afterthese Apollo, and Aphrodite Urania, and Heracles, and Ares. Of theseall the Scythians have the worship established, and the so-calledRoyal Scythians sacrifice also to Poseidon. Now Hestia is called inScythian Tabiti, and Zeus, being most rightly named in my opinion, iscalled Papaios, and Earth Api,[57] and Apollo Oitosyros,[58] andAphrodite Urania is called Argimpasa,[59] and PoseidonThagimasidas.[60] It is not their custom however to make images,altars or temples to any except Ares, but to him it is their custom tomake them.60. They have all the same manner of sacrifice established for alltheir religious rites equally, and it is thus performed:--the victimstands with its fore-feet tied, and the sacrificing priest standsbehind the victim, and by pulling the end of the cord he throws thebeast down; and as the victim falls, he calls upon the god to whom heis sacrificing, and then at once throws a noose round its neck, andputting a small stick into it he turns it round and so strangles theanimal, without either lighting a fire or making any first offeringfrom the victim or pouring any libation over it: and when he hasstrangled it and flayed off the skin, he proceeds to boil it. 61. Nowas the land of Scythia is exceedingly ill wooded, this contrivance hasbeen invented for the boiling of the flesh:--having flayed thevictims, they strip the flesh off the bones and then put it intocaldrons, if they happen to have any, of native make, which very muchresemble Lesbian mixing-bowls except that they are much larger,--intothese they put the flesh and boil it by lighting under it the bones ofthe victim: if however thy have not at hand the caldron, they put allthe flesh into the stomachs of the victims and adding water they lightthe bones under them; and these blaze up beautifully, and thestomachs easily hold the flesh when it has been stripped off thebones: thus an ox is made to boil itself, and the other kinds ofvictims each boil themselves also. Then when the flesh is boiled, thesacrificer takes a first offering of the flesh and of the vital organsand casts it in front of him. And they sacrifice various kinds of