D. Raevsky, Doctor of Historical Sciences.
Scythian warriors. This detail of the image on the bowl from the Gaimanov Mogila mound clearly demonstrates the Caucasian type of the Scythians. IV century BC X.
Fragment of the golden sheath of the ceremonial sword. In their decoration, a strong influence of Assyrian-Urartian art is noticeable - the result of the campaigns of the Scythians in Asia Minor. Barrow Cast (Melgunovsky). End of the 7th century BC X.
Bone cheekpiece, decorated in "animal style". Middle Dnieper. VI century BC X.
Bronze pommel. Ulsky Kurgan (Kuban region). VI century BC X.
Bronze horse forehead. Prikuban. V century BC X.
Silver vessel with a hunting scene. Kurgan Kul-Oba. IV century BC X.
Bronze censer. Kurgan Chertomlyk. IV century BC X.
Such cauldrons are an integral part of the life of nomads. Lower Dnieper region. V-IV centuries B.C.
"Panther". Bronze plaque from the Arzhan burial mound (Tuva). Presumably the 7th century BC The finds, which brought the excavation of the Arzhan mound, allowed some scientists to place the birthplace of the art of the "animal style" in Central Asia.
Horse breeding is the basis of the economy of the nomadic Scythians. Scythian with a horse. Detail of the decor of a silver amphora from the Chertomlyk mound. IV century BC X.
Among the many peoples who once inhabited the territory of present-day Russia, and then disappeared from the historical arena, the Scythians who lived in the 1st millennium BC. in the steppes of the Black Sea, Azov and Ciscaucasia, stand somewhat apart and attract, perhaps, the greatest attention. This is determined by long-established ideas about a special historical connection between Scythia and Russia.
Inherited from distant historical eras, this romantic version has long lived in our literary tradition. "My Distant Ancestors!" - Valery Bryusov addressed the Scythians in his poems. And almost everyone knows the lines of Alexander Blok:
Yes, we are the Scythians! Yes, Asians are us
With slanting and greedy eyes!
The idea of the "slanting eyes" of the Scythian is a frank anachronism in the lips of the poet. Back in the first third of the 19th century, when reliable images of the Scythians were first found in the ancient burials of the Black Sea region, science received indisputable evidence that this people belonged to the Caucasians. One of the very first and most interesting finds is the famous electric vessel (made of a natural alloy of gold and silver). It was discovered in 1830 during the accidental excavations of the Scythian mound Kul-oba in the vicinity of modern Kerch (now it is kept in the Special Storeroom of the State Hermitage). The faces of the seven characters depicted on this vessel are executed with the utmost care by an unnamed Hellenic master. One has only to look at them to discover the complete inconsistency of the idea of the Scythian as the owner of "slanting eyes".
What was the reason for this very perception of the Scythian in the poet's mind? Apparently, a stable image of the Black Sea steppe - this kind of corridor along which waves of Asian conquerors rolled over Europe one after another. Many of them really belonged to the Mongoloid race. And although the history of these tribes dates back to a much later time than the Scythian era, this forced, nevertheless, to perceive the Scythians as one of these waves. Moreover, this idea was "worked" not only by the analogy with the Middle Ages, but also by quite numerous direct evidence of the ancient authors about the origin of the Scythians.
The Scythians appeared on the historical scene in the 7th century BC. It was then that the ancient world, to which we owe most of the information about this people, came into real contact with the Scythians. Moreover, this contact took place almost simultaneously on two different "historical roads". It was in that century that Greek colonists, in search of land suitable for settlement in the most diverse regions of Southern Europe and Western Asia, began to develop the northern and northeastern coast of the Pontus Euxine - Black Sea. Here they settled in the immediate vicinity of the Scythians. The memory of this colonization is preserved by the ruins of the ancient Greek cities of the Black Sea region - Olbia (near modern Ochakov), Tyra (in the lower reaches of the Dniester), Panticapaeum (on the site of modern Kerch) and others. During the excavations of these cities, various traces of contacts of their population with the Scythians are found. But, on the other hand, at the same time, the Scythians, making warlike raids on the countries of the Middle East, reached Asia Minor and found themselves in the field of view of the inhabitants of the Hellenic cities of its western coast - Ionia. The first information about the Scythians, recorded in Greek literature, belongs to this time.
As the Hellenes settled in the Northern Black Sea region, ancient Greece became acquainted with other Eastern European peoples and their eastern neighbors. But the Scythians remained in the representation of the ancient world as a kind of symbol of the northern part of the inhabited land. Some ancient authors - for example, the historian of the 4th century BC. Ephorus, describing this land, represented it as a kind of quadrangle, each side of which is associated with one of the most famous peoples: the northern regions, according to the picture he painted, are inhabited by Scythians, while the southern, western and eastern regions are, respectively, Ethiopians, Celts and Indians ... For this reason, the name of the Scythians in the ancient world acquired a generalizing meaning and was often applied to the most diverse peoples of Northern and Northeastern Eurasia. Greek and Roman authors sometimes referred to as Scythia all the space lying between the area inhabited by real, historical Scythians in the Black Sea region and the country of mythical Hyperboreans, supposedly inhabiting the coast of the North Ocean.
In ancient geography, there was an idea of European (Black Sea-Azov) Scythia and Asian Scythia, stretching from the Hyrcanian (Caspian) Sea to the borders of Seriki (China). Thus, those who in our day speak of the special Eurasian character of the Russian state, operate, in essence, with the same geographical categories that for the ancient world stood behind the name "Scythia".
Scientists of medieval Europe, largely relying on the traditions of antiquity and using its terms, continued to call the lands lying north of the Black Sea Scythia, although the real Scythians had already left the historical scene by this time. Naturally, the most notable state formation of this territory - Ancient Russia was often called by this name. And the ancient Russian scribes themselves sometimes found themselves under the influence of such an identification. Here's an example. The early Christian tradition, according to which one of Jesus' disciples - the Apostle Andrew the First-Called - preached "among the Scythians", that is, on the shores of the Black Sea, in Russian chronicles turned into a story about how Andrew, with his sermon, visited the vicinity of present-day Kiev and even reached Novgorod, in other words - to the main centers of Ancient Russia.
When Russia began to form its own school of Russian history, it was at first under the strong influence of the same ancient tradition. For example, M.V. Lomonosov, referring to the search for "the ancient founders of the present Russian people", believed that among them "the Scythians were not the least part." With the development of historical science, refinements were made to this concept. Especially important here was the discovery of linguists who were able to analyze the meager remnants of the Scythian language that have survived to this day in the transmission of the same ancient authors and in ancient Greek and Latin inscriptions. Mostly these are personal names and place names. It turned out that the language of the Scythians belonged to the peoples of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Europeans, who in ancient times settled over much more extensive territories than now. Consequently, there is no direct ethnogenetic connection between the Scythians and the East Slavic population of Ancient Rus (and its direct descendants - Russians and Ukrainians), which, however, in no way denies the right of these peoples to count the Scythians among their cultural predecessors.
The most detailed and valuable information about the Scythians - their history, life, traditions - was preserved for us by the Greek historian of the 5th century BC. Herodotus. He reports that the nomadic tribes of the Scythians once lived in Asia, but then, pressed by the people of the Massagetae, crossed the Araks River and invaded the regions of the Northern Black Sea coast, previously inhabited by the Cimmerians. When the Scythians approached, Herodotus says, the Cimmerians left their country (here the historian gives some colorful details of this event, apparently dating back to the oral epic legends of the inhabitants of the Black Sea region) and fled through the Caucasus Mountains to Western Asia. Pursuing them, the Scythians found themselves on the territory of the states of the Middle East, which for many years instilled fear with their raids and the collection of tribute. But then, after several military and other setbacks, they returned to the Black Sea steppes. Here their state stretched from the lower reaches of the Istra (modern Danube) to the Sea of Azov (in ancient times it was called Meotida) and Tanais (Don).
No less interesting is the story of the Hellenic historian Diodorus of Siculus. He lived in the 1st century BC, but in his writings he made extensive use of the sources of earlier authors. Diodorus also claims that the Scythians once lived near the Araks River. They were then a weak and small people, despised for their dishonor. But then they gained strength and conquered lands up to the Caucasus Mountains and the Tanais River. Later, the Scythians, according to Diodorus, extended their dominion to the regions west of Tanais up to Thrace (northeast of the Balkan Peninsula), then invaded Western Asia, even reaching the banks of the Nile. Remote fragmentary information, echoing the story, we find in other ancient authors.
These facts, taken together, at first glance paint a fairly coherent, logical and complete picture. However, a careful analysis of the historian reveals many white spots, and even outright discrepancies in it.
One of the most unclear remains the question of where exactly one should look for that ancestral home of the Scythians, from where they once began their advance to the Black Sea steppes, to the land of the Cimmerians. The words that she "was in Asia" are too general, especially when you consider that for the ancient Greeks Asia began immediately after the Don. The remark of Herodotus and Diodorus that the area of the original habitation of the Scythians was near the Araks River does not help much either. It is not clear which river is meant. It is quite obvious that we are not talking about the Transcaucasian river that bears this name today - after all, all ancient authors are unanimous that the Scythians penetrated south of the Caucasus only at the next stage of their migration, pursuing the Cimmerians. Modern researchers do not have a consensus about what kind of river is hidden by Greek authors under the name of Arake. Some believe that this is the Amu Darya, others identify with the Syr Darya, and finally, others call the Volga. Each of the points of view is based on its own arguments, but none of them can be considered fully proven so far.
The story of Herodotus about the beginning of Scythian history raises other questions as well. For example, if you believe that before the Scythian invasion, the Cimmerians inhabited the lands that later began to be called the Black Sea Scythia, then it is not clear how the Cimmerians, fleeing from the Scythians moving from the east, could cross the Caucasian ridge. Indeed, in this case, it turns out that the Cimmerians were essentially running towards their pursuers.
The more such ambiguities were found in the stories of ancient authors about the origin of the Scythians, the more obvious it became that these testimonies require serious verification. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that most of these stories were born much later than the events about which they tell. The same Herodotus attributes the arrival of the Scythians to the Black Sea region and their subsequent invasion of Asia Minor to the times when King Kiaksar ruled in Media, one of the ancient Eastern states that suffered from the Scythian raids. Consequently, we can talk about the last decades of the 7th and the very beginning of the 6th century BC. The events of interest to us are no less than a century and a half away from Herodotus's own zeal, and even almost six hundred years from Diodorus.
In other words, all the listed authors drew the information they reported about the events of interest to us from some earlier sources, possibly oral legends. This explains the urgent need to verify the measure of reliability of ancient information about the early history of the Scythians.
What are the ways to carry out such a check?
Very valuable information was found by modern science in the ancient Eastern cuneiform texts, primarily Assyrian. They mention many times military units consisting of representatives of the Gimirri and Ishkuz peoples, in which the already familiar Cimmerians and Scythians are easily guessed. These reports not only confirmed the authenticity of the stories of ancient authors about the invasions of these peoples into Western Asia, but made it possible to somewhat clarify the dating of these events. So, the earliest mention of the Cimmerians in Assyrian texts refers not to the second half of the 7th century BC, but to 714, and the Scythians - to the 670s BC. Apparently, the ancient authors somewhat "compressed" the events of interest to us in time, drawing numerous campaigns, which took almost a century and a half, as a one-time invasion.
Unfortunately, very few cuneiform texts have survived that contain information about the Scythians. It is impossible to reconstruct the real history of the stay of the Scythians in Asia Minor from these random passages. There are no reports of where they came from either. New materials are needed. They can be expected mainly from archeology, the role of which in illuminating the issues of interest to us can hardly be overestimated. However, unfortunately, archeology is not omnipotent here either.
The Scythians, as you know, were mainly a nomadic people with almost no permanent settlements, especially cities. Therefore, most of the finds of Scythian antiquities were made during excavation of burials. To this day, in the steppes of the Black Sea and Ciscaucasia, mounds rise - artificial hills poured over the graves in ancient times. The first excavations of Scythian burial mounds date back to the second half of the 18th century. So, in 1763, in the vicinity of the city of Elisavetgrad, a mound was excavated, which went down in history as Litogo. It is also called Melgunovsky - after General A.P. Melgunov, the initiator of these excavations.
Already the first excavations brought a fairly diverse set of ancient objects, including precious ones, by which it was possible to determine that the burial belonged to the leader or military leader of the Scythian era. For researchers, it is especially interesting that among the finds from the Melgunovsky burial mound there are things made in the ancient Eastern style. Thus, from its very first steps, Scythian archeology provided researchers with confirmation of the reports of ancient authors about the Scythian campaigns in Asia Minor. Subsequently, the number of such confirmations increased significantly.
During the 19th - early 20th centuries, a number of so-called royal burial mounds were excavated - the burials of representatives of the Scythian nobility. Finds from them are the pride of Russian and Ukrainian museums. Already in our centuries, numerous burial grounds of ordinary Scythians began to be systematically excavated, and now it can be argued that the culture of the Scythians of the Black Sea region is known to us in sufficient detail (however, the absolute majority of the investigated burials date back to the time of the greatest prosperity of the Scythian kingdom - to the 4th century BC) ... Based on the finds from these burials, archaeologists were able to isolate the monuments of earlier periods - the 7th-5th centuries.
What was the material culture of the Black Sea Scythians? The so-called Scythian triad is especially famous: weapons, attributes of horse dress and a peculiar art, called the Scythian "animal style" - a bright set of very specific items.
According to Herodotus' definition, “every Scythian is an equestrian shooter,” and archaeological finds confirm this. Remnants of a bow and bronze arrowheads (two-bladed in early graves, three-bladed or triangular at a later time) are found in almost every burial. Akinak, a short sword with a handle of a special shape, was also a characteristic weapon of the Scythian. Scythian warriors also knew long swords, of which, perhaps, the most famous were found in the already mentioned Melgunovsky burial mound and in one of the mounds of the Kelermes burial ground in the Kuban region. Both of these swords are decorated in the ancient Eastern, Assyrian-Urartian style and date back to the time of the invasion of the Scythians into Western Asia, where local craftsmen made these swords, probably by a special order for the Scythian leaders. Scythian warriors used both iron spears and battle axes - a weapon that appears even in Scythian mythology as a symbol of the military class.
Another element of the Scythian triad is horse equipment. During the Scythian era, they changed significantly. The most important details of the Scythian horse bridle are the bits and cheekpieces (special rods located on the sides of the horse's mouth and used to connect the bits with headband belts and with reins). At first, the horse gear of the Scythians was bronze (cheekpieces, however, were also made of bone), later an iron bridle came to replace it. The shape of the horse harness is a fairly clear chronological indicator that makes it possible to more or less accurately date each Scythian burial containing these objects.
But, perhaps, the most striking element of the Scythian triad - and indeed of the entire culture of the Scythians as a whole - is the so-called art of the animal style. The Scythians did not know monumental art, with the exception of stone statues, which they installed at the top of the mound. We can judge the skill of Scythian artists only by works of small forms, by what in our time is called decorative and applied art. For reasons that are not yet completely clear to researchers, there are almost no images of humans in the Scythian decorative art, but mainly images of animals. At the same time, both the set of embodied characters, and their poses and methods of pictorial interpretation were strictly canonical, hence the term - "animal style".
This is indeed a very specific artistic manner. Her favorite motives are deer (to a lesser extent - other ungulates), predators (mainly from the cat breed) and a bird of prey. They were used to decorate weapons, horse equipment, ritual items, and clothing details. The material for the works of the "animal style" was gold, bronze, and bone.
What else is characteristic of Scythian material culture? Large bronze cauldrons are an attribute of nomadic life and the so-called pommels crowning ritual pillars used in various rituals. The tops were made of bronze or iron, decorated with sculptural images in the "animal style".
As historians accumulated more and more material about the Scythian culture, there was a growing desire to solve the riddle left to us by the ancient authors: to determine where the ancestral home of the Scythians was and to clarify the time of their movement to Eastern Europe. It would seem that it is not so difficult to answer these questions. Archaeological research, in fact, showed that objects similar to the Scythians were at that time in a wide range throughout the Eurasian steppe belt - both in the western (European) and in the eastern (Asian) parts of it. Such cultural uniformity, traced over a vast territory, even gave rise to a special term - "Scythian-Siberian cultural and historical unity." Under these conditions, archaeologists saw their task in comparing the dates of the monuments of this circle, to reveal where exactly such a culture appeared first of all, and thus to localize the ancestral home of the Scythians. And since the evidence of ancient authors speaks of the arrival of this people from Asia, it seemed obvious that the earliest traces of this culture should be sought somewhere in the east of the Eurasian steppes.
At different times, various places of the studied space claimed the role of the ancestral home of the Scythians. In the 1960s, remarkable finds in the Tagisken and Uygarak burial mounds in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya gave rise to a hypothesis about the formation of the Scythian culture in these western regions of Central Asia. By the mid-1970s, after sensational finds in the royal burial mound of Arzhan (the territory of modern Tuva), Central Asia attracted the attention of archaeologists. There was even a whole archaeological school, whose representatives believe that it was in the depths of Central Asia that that Scythian culture arose, which then spread throughout the Eurasian steppes and was already brought in ready-made form to the Black Sea region and the Ciscaucasia.
Unfortunately, both the first and the second, and many other hypotheses raise serious objections. Most importantly, the Scythian-Siberian cultural and historical unity upon closer examination is by no means as homogeneous as it might seem at first glance. The tribes that inhabited the vast territory of the Eurasian steppes are undoubtedly distinguished by a certain cultural uniformity. But careful analysis reveals significant differences between them. The same "Scythian triad", characteristic of all, in different territories has its own, purely distinctive features. In essence, we have the right to speak not about a single “Scythian culture” throughout this vast space, but about several independent cultures that entered into interaction, influenced each other, but at the same time retained their originality.
Especially indicative in this respect is the "animal style" of the Scythian era. Like other elements of the triad, it became widespread in various cultures of that era. But in no region of Eurasia we will not find monuments that could be considered a kind of art, familiar to us from finds from the Black Sea Scythia. The same applies to the finds from the Arzhan burial mound, even if they actually precede the Black Sea ones in time.
Recently, another hypothesis has appeared about the emergence of the Scythian culture, based precisely on the criticism of the previous ones. Its supporters believe that this culture was not formed somewhere in the east of Eurasia, from where it was brought to Europe in finished form, but took shape in the south of Eastern Europe during the era of the Scythian-Cimmerian invasions of Southwest Asia. Moreover, under the strong influence of ancient Eastern cultures, which the Scythians came into contact with at that time. This is how, in particular, that version of the animal style that belongs to the Scythians of the Ciscaucasia and the Black Sea region arose. Other elements characteristic of the Scythian culture developed at this time on a local East European basis. The zone of formation of this early Scythian culture was mainly the steppes of the Ciscaucasia, from where the Scythians invaded the countries of the Middle East.
Around the same time, other cultures of Scythian-Siberian unity also took shape. The similarity between all these cultures can be explained not so much by the presence of some common center as by the closest contacts between the inhabitants of different regions of the Eurasian steppe. In the conditions of a nomadic life, such contacts led to a very rapid spread of various cultural phenomena throughout the steppe belt.
As for the ancient legends about the arrival of the Scythians from Asia, then, obviously, this resettlement took place, but it took place when the established Scythian culture simply did not exist. It is very difficult to trace this resettlement by archaeological methods. After all, this was the movement of tribes within the zone of distribution of fairly homogeneous cultures at the turn of the Bronze and Iron Ages. At that time, such movements between the Don and Volga rivers were quite frequent. The memory of one of them, apparently, was preserved by the Scythian tradition, which was later perceived and recorded by ancient historians.
This is the picture today. Maybe tomorrow we will be able to read new pages of such a distant in time, but so attractive for us national history.
Scythians are the common name for northern nomadic peoples (of Iranian (presumably) origin) in Europe and Asia, in ancient times (VIII century BC - IV century AD) Scythians also conventionally called their related semi-nomadic tribes, which occupied the steppe areas of Eurasia up to Transbaikalia and Northern China.
A lot of interesting information is reported by Herodotus about the Scythians, who constituted the bulk of the then population of the Northern Black Sea region. According to Herodotus' data, which are confirmed by archaeological excavations, the Scythians inhabited the southern part of the Black Sea region - from the mouth of the Danube, the Lower Bug and the Dnieper to the Sea of Azov and the Don.
Origin
The origin of the Scythians is one of the most difficult and controversial issues in historical ethnography. Some historians believe that the Scythians were an ethnically integral people and at the same time attribute them to either the Aryans or the Mongols (Ural-Altaians), other scientists, relying on Herodotus' instructions on the cultural difference between the Western and Eastern Scythians (farmers and nomads), consider that the name “Scythians” encompassed ethnically heterogeneous tribes, and refer the sedentary Scythians to the Iranians or Slavs, and the nomadic ones to the Mongols or Ural-Altaians, or they prefer not to speak about them definitely.
Most of the available data, speaks in favor of their belonging to one of the branches of the Indo-European tribe, most likely to the Iranian, especially since the scientists who recognized the Iranianism of the Sarmatians, the words of Herodotus about the kinship of the Sarmatians with the Scythians make it possible to extend the conclusions obtained by science for the Sarmatians to the Scythians.
Warfare
The Scythian army consisted of free people who received only food and uniforms, but could take part in the division of the spoils if they showed the head of the enemy they had killed. The warriors wore Greek-style bronze helmets and chain mail. The main weapons are a short sword - akinak, a double-bent bow, a quadrangular shield and spears. Each Scythian owned at least one horse, the aristocrats had huge herds of horses.
The warriors not only cut off the heads of the defeated enemies, but also made cups from their skulls. Decorating these creepy trophies with gold and proudly displaying them to their guests. As a rule, the Scythians fought on horses, although over time, as the settled way of life, the Scythian infantry appeared. Herodotus described in detail the military customs of the Scythians, but perhaps to some extent exaggerated their belligerence.
Flourishing
IV century - the Scythian king Atey, who lived for 90 years, was able to unite all the Scythian tribes from the Don to the Danube. Scythia at this time reached its highest prosperity: Atey was equal in strength to Philip II of Macedon, minted its own coins and expanded its possessions. These tribes had a special relationship with gold. The cult of this metal even served as the basis for the legend that the Scythians were able to tame the griffins guarding gold.
The growing power of the Scythians forced the Macedonians to undertake several large-scale invasions: Philip II was able to kill Atey in an epic battle, and his son, after 8 years, went to war against the Scythians. But Alexander could not defeat Scythia, and was forced to retreat, leaving the Scythians unconquered.
Language
The Scythians had no written language. The only source of information about their language is the works of ancient authors and inscriptions from the ancient era. Some Scythian words were written down by Herodotus, for example, “pata” meant “to kill”, “oyor” meant “man”, “arima” meant “one”. Taking excerpts of these words as a basis, philologists attributed the Scythian language to the languages of the Iranian family of the Indo-European language group. The Scythians themselves called themselves scuds, which, most likely, could mean "archers". The names of the Scythian tribes, the names of deities, personal names, and toponymic names have also come down to our times in Greek and Latin transcriptions.
What the Scythians looked like
What the Scythians looked like and what they wore is known mainly from their images on gold and silver vessels of Greek work, discovered during archaeological excavations in such world-famous burial mounds as Kul-Oba, Solokha and others. In their works, Greek artists portrayed the Scythians in a peaceful and military life with amazing realism.
They wore long hair, mustaches, and beards. They dressed in linen or leather clothes: long harem pants and a caftan with a belt. Leather boots, intercepted by ankle straps, served as footwear. The Scythians wore pointed felt hats on their heads.
There are images of the Scythians on other objects found in Kul-Ob. For example, two Scythians are depicted on a gold plaque drinking from a rhyton. This is a rite of twinning, known to us from the testimony of the authors of antiquity.
Religion of the Scythians
A characteristic feature of the religion of these tribes is the absence of anthropomorphic images of gods, as well as a special caste of priests and temples. The personification of the god of war, more revered among the Scythians, was an iron sword stuck into the ground, in front of which sacrifices were made. The nature of the funeral rituals may indicate that the Scythians believed in an afterlife.
The attempts of Herodotus, listing the Scythian deities by name, to translate them into the language of the Greek pantheon were unsuccessful. Their religion was so peculiar that it could not find direct parallels in the religious ideas of the Greeks.
1) Fiala (Mid IV century BC); 2) Golden Scythian pectoral; 3) Gold earrings with a scaphoid pendant. Gold, enamel; 4) A spherical cup, golden (IV century BC)
Scythian gold
Initially, gold jewelry was made only for the noble Scythians, but over time, even ordinary people could afford to buy jewelry, although the amount of gold in them was less. Scythians made cheaper items made of bronze. Part of the heritage is called Scythian-Greek art, and part is attributed exclusively to the products of the Scythians.
The appearance of the first gold jewelry dates back to the end of the Bronze Age, when people already knew how to process gold, giving it shape and appearance. If we talk about the most ancient gold jewelry of the Scythians, then its approximate age is 20,000 years. Most of the items were found in burial mounds. The first jewelry was found during the reign.
They used gold because they considered it a divine, magical substance. They were attracted by the brilliant appearance, and they considered the decoration as a talisman even during the battle. The thickness of the jewelry is a few millimeters, but they often looked rude, because the Scythians wanted to fit as much gold as possible into the product. There were massive breast ornaments in the form of plaques; they often depicted the heads of animals, while in volume, and not in a plane.
The most common were images of a deer or a goat - animals that the tribes saw. However, at times there are fictional creatures, the meaning of which is difficult to guess.
1) Bracelet with sphinx protomes (Kurgan Kul-Oba, IV century BC); 2) The ceremony of "drinking the oath" (fraternization); 3) A golden crest with a picture of a battle scene; 4) A plaque in the form of a figurine of a lying deer
Tribes of the Scythians. Lifestyle
Although the material culture of the Scythians, which spread throughout this vast territory, had its own characteristics in different regions, on the whole it had features of a typological community. This commonality is reflected in the types of Scythian ceramics, weapons, horse sets, and in the nature of burial rites.
According to the way of economic life, the Scythians were subdivided into sedentary agricultural and nomadic pastoral tribes. Listing the agricultural tribes known to him, Herodotus first of all named the Callipids and Alazones - the closest neighbors of Olvii, founded by immigrants from Miletus on the banks of the Bugo-Dnieper estuary. In this city, Herodotus mainly conducted his observations.
Herodotus called the Callipids in another way - Hellenic-Scythians, to such an extent they assimilated with the Greek colonists. The Callipids and Alazons in the list of Herodotus are followed by the Scythian farmers who lived along the course of the Dnieper at a distance of 11 days of sailing from its mouth. Scythia in the time of Herodotus was not ethnically united. It included tribes not related to the Scythians, for example, agricultural and cattle breeding, who lived in the forest-steppe.
Economic life
The economic life of most of the Scythian tribes reached a relatively high level. According to Herodotus, the Alazones sowed and ate, in addition to bread, onions, garlic, lentils and millet, and the Scythian farmers sowed bread not only for their own needs, but also sold it through the mediation of Greek merchants.
Scythian farmers plowed the land, as a rule, with the help of a plow drawn by oxen. The harvest was taken with iron sickles. The grain was crushed in grain graters. The inhabitants of the settlements were engaged in breeding cattle and small ruminants, horses and poultry.
Scythian nomads and the so-called royal Scythians, who, according to Herodotus, were the most powerful and warlike of all the Scythians, inhabited the steppe space east of the Dnieper and up to the Sea of Azov, including the steppe Crimea. These tribes were engaged in cattle breeding and arranged their dwellings in carts.
Among the Scythian nomads, animal husbandry rose to a relatively high level of development. In the 5th – 4th centuries they owned huge herds and herds of cattle, but they were unevenly distributed among their fellow tribesmen.
Trade
Trade was developed in the territory of Scythia. There were water and land trade routes along the European and Siberian rivers, the Black, Caspian and North Seas. In addition to war chariots and wheeled carts, the Scythians were engaged in the construction of river and sea flax-winged ships at the shipyards of the Volga, Ob, Yenisei, at the mouth of the Pechora. took from those places masters to create a fleet, which was intended for the conquest of Japan. Sometimes the Scythians were building underground passages. They laid them under large rivers using mining technology.
A lively trade route from India, Persia, China ran through the lands of the Scythians. Goods were delivered to the northern regions and Europe along the Volga, Ob, Yenisei, North Seas, Dnieper. In those days, there were cities on the banks with noisy bazaars and temples.
Decline. The disappearance of the Scythians
During the II century, the Sarmatians and other nomadic tribes gradually ousted the Scythians from their land, behind them were only the steppe Crimea and the basin of the lower Dnieper and Bug, as a result, Great Scythia became Small. After which the Crimea became the center of the Scythian state, well-fortified fortifications appeared in it - the fortresses of Naples, Palakiy and the Hub, in which the Scythians took refuge, waging wars with Chersonesos and the Sarmatians. At the end of the II century, Chersonesos received a powerful ally - the Pontic king Mithridates V, who attacked the Scythians. After many battles, the Scythian state was weakened and drained of blood.
In the 1st and 2nd centuries. AD Scythian society was already difficult to call nomadic: they were farmers, rather strongly Hellenized and ethnically mixed. The Sarmatian nomads did not cease to press the Scythians, and in the III century the invasion of the Crimea by the Alans began. They devastated the last stronghold of the Scythians - Scythian Naples, located on the outskirts of modern Simferopol, but could not stay for a long time on the conquered lands. Soon, the invasion of these lands began by the Goths, who declared war on the Alans, the Scythians, and the Roman Empire itself.
A blow to Scythia was the invasion of the Goths around 245 AD. NS. All Scythian fortresses were destroyed, and the remnants of the Scythians fled to the south-west of the Crimean peninsula, hiding in remote mountainous areas.
Despite the seemingly obvious complete defeat, Scythia did not continue to exist for a long time. The fortresses that remained in the southwest became a refuge for the fleeing Scythians; several more settlements were founded at the mouth of the Dnieper and on the Southern Bug. But they too soon fell under the onslaught of the Goths.
The Scythian war, which after the events described was waged by the Romans with the Goths, began to be called so because the word "Scythians" began to be used to designate the Goths who defeated the real Scythians. Most likely, there was some truth in this false name, since thousands of the defeated Scythians joined the army of the Goths, dissolving in the mass of other peoples who fought with Rome. So, Scythia became the first state that collapsed as a result of the Great Migration of Nations.
The Goths finished the business, the Huns, who in 375 attacked the Black Sea region and destroyed the last Scythians who lived in the mountains of the Crimea and in the valley of the Bug. Of course, many Scythians again joined the Huns, but there could be no question of any independent identity.
Attempts by the Persians and Greeks to subdue the Scythians each time failed. When in 331 BC. NS. one of the governors of Alexander the great Zopirion with 30 thousand soldiers undertook a campaign in Scythia, he was destroyed along with all his army. And yet the IV century - the century of the heyday of Scythia - became the prelude to the decline of Scythian power. But the sunset period lasted for 500 years.
From the east, the Sarmatians were advancing on the Scythians, little by little they began to move to the right bank of the Don. And in the II century BC, the Sarmatians launched a decisive offensive. The territory, subject to the Scythians, was significantly reduced and was cut in two. The capital of the Scythian kingdom was moved to the Crimea, to the place of present-day Simferopol. The Greeks called it Naples - "New City". The life of the Scythian nobility by this time had undergone a strong Hellenization, the Scythians had by that time lost their former passionarity, the elite was mired in luxury and debauchery, the commoners hated the elite.
The Scythians more and more mixed with the peoples around them, the culture of the Scythians gradually lost its peculiar features. In the 3rd century AD, life in Scythian Naples ceased, and the Scythians disappeared from the arena of history, where for almost a millennium they were one of the main characters.
Egyptian monuments have brought to us the appearance of the "peoples of the sea" - the Cimmerin warriors who fought against the pharaoh Ramses. They are depicted "with shaved beards and heads, with long mustaches sticking out apart and a forelock, which our Zaporozhians wore in the 16th-17th centuries; severe facial features, with a straight forehead, a long straight nose ... On their heads are high conical lamb hats; on torsos of shirts with a border along the hem and something like chain mail or leather jackets. On the legs are pants and large boots with tops up to knees and narrow socks ... Boots are real, modern, which are still worn by simple Cossacks. On the hands are mittens ... Weapons: short spear, bow and ax ".
It should also be noted that the Egyptian sources called the "peoples of the sea" giths (geths), and this name from ancient times was one of the most widespread in the Scythian environment; Thus, in the time of Herodotus, "Getae" lived on the Danube, "Fissa Getae" on the Volga and "Mass Getae" in Central Asia ... Judging by the images, these ancient Scythian Getae were remarkably similar to medieval Cossacks. Is that why the Cossack leaders bore the title "hetman"?
The Russian Nikanor Chronicle reports about the wars of the Scythians in Egypt; it mentions the campaigns against Egypt by the ancestors of the Russians, the brothers "Scythian and Zardan". "Zardana" from this message can be compared with the name of one of the "Sea Peoples" who attacked Egypt, namely the "Shardans"; these "shardans" some time after the campaign against Egypt invaded about. Sardinia and gave it their name - Chardania, which later transformed into Sardinia. The mention of "Scythian and Zardan" makes it possible to attribute the message of the Nikanor Chronicle not to the Scythian campaigns of the 6th-7th centuries BC. but to the invasion of the "peoples of the sea", known from Egyptian sources, around 1200 BC. This is one of the earliest events in Russian history, preserved in national historiography, an event that can be reliably dated.
Striving for justice is one of the most important human aspirations. In any social organization of any complexity, the need for a moral assessment of interactions with other people has always been extremely great. Justice is the most important incentive for people to act, to assess what is happening, the most important element of perception of themselves and the world.
The chapters written below do not pretend to be any complete description of the history of the concepts of justice. But in them we tried to focus on the basic principles from which people at different times proceeded, evaluating the world and themselves. And also on those paradoxes that they faced, realizing these or those principles of justice.
Greeks discover justice
The idea of justice appears in Greece. Which is understandable. As soon as people unite in communities (policies) and begin to interact with each other not only at the level of tribal relations or at the level of direct rule-subordination, there is a need for a moral assessment of such interaction.
Before that, the whole logic of justice fit into a simple scheme: justice is following a given order of things. The Greeks, however, also largely adopted this logic - the teachings of the sages-founders of the Greek city-states somehow boiled down to an understandable thesis: "Only what is in our laws and customs is just." But with the development of cities, this logic has become noticeably more complicated and expanded.
So, what is true is that which does not harm others and is done for the good. Well, since the natural order of things is an objective good, then following it is the basis for any criteria for assessing fairness.
The same Aristotle wrote very convincingly about the justice of slavery. Barbarians are naturally destined for physical labor and submission, and therefore it is very even true that the Greeks - by nature destined for mental and spiritual labor - make them slaves. Because it is good for barbarians to be slaves, even if they themselves do not understand this due to their unreasonableness. This same logic allowed Aristotle to talk about just war. The war waged by the Greeks against the barbarians for the sake of replenishing the army of slaves is just, since it restores the natural state of affairs and serves the good of all. Slaves receive masters and the opportunity to realize their destiny, and the Greeks - slaves.
Plato, proceeding from the same logic of justice, proposed to carefully monitor how children play and, by the type of play, define them in social groups for the rest of their lives. Those who play war are guards, they need to be taught the craft of war. Those who rule are philosophical rulers, they must be taught Platonic philosophy. And you don't need to teach everyone else - they will work.
Naturally, the Greeks shared the good for the individual and the common good. The second is certainly more important and significant. Therefore, for the common good there has always been primacy in the assessment of justice. If something infringes on other individuals, but presupposes the common good, this is certainly true. However, for the Greeks there was no particular contradiction here. They called the general good the good for the polis, and the cities in Greece were small, and not at the level of abstraction, but at a very specific level, it was assumed that the one whose good was infringed, for the good of everyone, would return him as a member of the community, with a profit. This logic, of course, led to the fact that justice for their own (residents of your polis) was very different from justice for strangers.
Socrates who confused everything
So, the Greeks figured out what good is. We figured out what the natural order of things is. We figured out what justice is.
But there was one Greek who liked to ask questions. Good-natured, consistent and logical. You already understood that we are talking about Socrates.
In Xenophon's "Memories of Socrates" there is an amazing chapter "A Conversation with Euthydemus about the Need to Learn." questions that Socrates asked the young politician Euthydemus about justice and welfare.
Read this brilliant dialogue from Xenophon himself or, perhaps, even better, as presented by Mikhail Leonovich Gasparov. However, you can also right here.
"Tell me: is it fair to lie, cheat, steal, grab people and sell them into slavery?" - "Of course, it's unfair!" - "Well, if the commander, repelling the attack of the enemies, captures the prisoners and sells them into slavery, will that also be unfair?" - "No, perhaps that is fair." - "And if he loots and ravages their land?" - "Also true." - "And if he will deceive them with military tricks?" - “That’s also true. Yes, perhaps I told you inaccurately: lies, deception, and theft are fair to enemies, but unfair to friends. "
"Perfectly! Now I, too, seem to begin to understand. But tell me this, Euthydem: if a commander sees that his soldiers are depressed, and lies to them that allies are approaching them, and this will cheer them up, will such a lie be unfair? " - "No, perhaps that is fair." - "And if a son needs medicine, but he does not want to take it, and the father tricks it into food, and the son recovers, would such a deception be unfair?" - "No, also fair." - "And if someone, seeing a friend in despair and fearing that he would commit suicide, steal or take away his sword and dagger, what can I say about such theft?" “And that's true. Yes, Socrates, it turns out that I again told you inaccurately; it was necessary to say: lies, and deceit, and theft - this is fair in relation to enemies, but in relation to friends it is fair when it is done for their good, and unjust when it is done for their evil. "
“Very good, Euthydem; now I see that before I can discern justice, I need to learn to discern good and evil. But you know that, of course? " - “I think I know, Socrates; although for some reason I'm not so sure of that anymore. " - "So what is it?" “Well, for example, health is good, and illness is evil; food or drink that leads to health is good, and those that lead to illness are evil. " - “Very well, I understood about food and drink; but then, perhaps, it is more correct to say about health in the same way: when it leads to good, then it is good, and when to evil, then it is evil? " - "What are you, Socrates, but when can health be to evil?" “But, for example, an unholy war began and, of course, ended in defeat; the healthy ones went to war and died, but the sick stayed at home and survived; what was health here - good or bad? "
“Yes, I see, Socrates, that my example is unfortunate. But, perhaps, we can say that the mind is a blessing! " - “But is it always? Here the Persian king often demands clever and skillful artisans from Greek cities to his court, keeps them with him and does not let them home; is their mind good for them? " - "Then - beauty, strength, wealth, glory!" “But beautiful slaves are more often attacked by slave traders, because beautiful slaves are more valuable; the strong often take on a task that exceeds their strength and get into trouble; the rich pamper themselves, become victims of intrigue and perish; glory always arouses envy, and from this, too, there is a lot of evil. "
"Well, if so," said Euthydemus sadly, "I don't even know what to pray to the gods about." - "Do not worry! It just means that you still don't know what you want to talk to people about. But do you know the people yourself? " "I think I know, Socrates." - "Who is the people made of?" - "From the poor and the rich." - "And who do you call rich and poor?" - "The poor are those who do not have enough to live, and the rich are those who have everything in abundance and in excess of it." - "Doesn't it happen that a poor man knows how to get along just fine with his small means, while any wealth is not enough for a rich man?" - “Indeed, it happens! There are even tyrants who do not have enough of their entire treasury and need illegal extortions. " - “So what? Should we not classify these tyrants as the poor, and the economic poor as the rich? " - “No, it’s better not, Socrates; I see that here I, it turns out, do not know anything. "
“Don't despair! You will think about the people, but of course you have thought about yourself and your future fellow speakers, and more than once. So tell me this: there are such bad orators who deceive the people to their detriment. Some do it unintentionally, and some even intentionally. Which ones are better and which ones are worse? " “I think, Socrates, that intentional deceivers are much worse and more unfair than unintentional ones.” - "Tell me: if one person reads and writes with errors on purpose, and the other does not on purpose, then which one is more literate?" - "Probably the one who deliberately: after all, if he wants, he can write without mistakes." - "But does it not come out of this that an intentional deceiver is better and more just than an unintentional one: after all, if he wants, he will be able to talk to the people without deceiving!" - "Don't, Socrates, don't tell me that, I see now even without you that I don't know anything and it would be better for me to sit and be silent!"
Romans. Justice is right
The Romans were also concerned with the issue of justice. Rome, although it began as a small settlement, quickly grew to a huge state that dominates the entire Mediterranean. The Greek logic of polis justice did not work very well here. Too many people, too many provinces, too many different interactions.
The Romans were helped to cope with the idea of justice. A rebuilt and constantly being completed system of laws to which all citizens of Rome obeyed. Cicero wrote that the state is a community of people united by common interests and agreement in relation to laws.
The legal system combined the interests of society, and the interests of specific people, and the interests of Rome as a state. All this has been described and codified.
Hence the law as the initial logic of justice. What is right is just. And justice is realized through the possession of law, through the possibility of being an object of the action of law.
"Don't touch me, I'm a Roman citizen!" - A man included in the system of Roman law proudly exclaimed, and those who wanted to harm him understood that all the power of the empire would fall on them.
Christian Logic of Justice or Everything Has Become Complicated Again
Again, the New Testament confused things a little.
First, he set the absolute coordinates of justice. The Last Judgment is coming. Only there will true justice be manifested, and only this justice matters.
Secondly, your good deeds and a just life here on earth can somehow influence that very decision of the High Court. But these deeds and a just life should be an act of our free will.
Thirdly, the demand to love one's neighbor as oneself, declared by Christ as the main moral value of Christianity, is still something more than just a demand to try not to harm or have a disposition for the good. The Christian ideal presupposes the need to perceive the other as oneself.
And finally, the New Testament abolished the division of people into ours and strangers, into worthy and unworthy, into those whose destiny to be the master, and those whose destiny to be a slave: “In the image of the One who created it, where there is neither Greek nor Jew , neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all "(Epistle to the Colossians of the holy Apostle Paul, 3.8)
Based on the logic of the New Testament, now all people should be perceived as equal subjects of justice. And the same criteria of fairness should be applied to all. And the principle of "love for one's neighbor" requires more from justice than simply following the formal criteria of good. The criteria of justice cease to be the same, for everyone they turn out to be their own. And then there's the Last Judgment in the inevitable perspective.
In general, all this was too complicated, required too much mental and social effort. Fortunately, religious logic itself made it possible to perceive the world in the traditional paradigm of justice. Following the traditions and prescriptions of the church leads more reliably to the kingdom of heaven, for this is both good deeds and a just life. And all these acts of good free will can be omitted. We are Christians and believe in Christ (no matter what he says there), and those who do not believe - our criteria of justice do not fit those. As a result, Christians, when necessary, no worse than Aristotle justified the justice of any wars and any slavery.
However, what was said in the New Testament in one way or another still exerted its influence. And on the religious consciousness, and on the whole European culture.
Do not do what you do not want to be treated with you
“Therefore, in everything that you want people to do to you, so do you to them, for in this is the law and the prophets” (Matt. 7:12). These words of Christ from the Sermon on the Mount are one of the formulations of the universal moral maxim. Confucius has about the same formula, in the Upanishads and in general in many places.
And it was this formula that became the starting point for thinking about justice in the Age of Enlightenment. The world has become more complicated, people speaking different languages, believers in different ways and in different things, doing different things, more and more actively collided with each other. Practical reason demanded a logical and consistent formula of justice. And found it in a moral maxim.
It is easy to see that this maxim has at least two very different variants.
"Do not do what you do not want to be treated with you."
"Do as you would like to be treated with you."
The first was called the principle of justice, the second - the principle of mercy. The combination of these two principles solved the problem of who exactly should be considered the neighbor whom should be loved (in the Sermon on the Mount, it is the second option). And the first principle gave grounds for a clear justification of fair actions.
All these reflections were summed up and brought into a categorical imperative by Kant. However, he had to (as the consistent logic of his reflections demanded) slightly change the wording: "Do so that the maxim of your will could be a universal law." The author of the famous “Critic” also has another option: “Act so that you always treat humanity in your own person and in the person of everyone else the same way as a goal, and never treat it only as a means”.
How Marx put everything in its place and justified the struggle for justice
But there were big problems with this formula, in any of its wording. Especially if you go beyond the Christian idea of the highest (divine) good and the highest judge. But what if others do exactly what you would not want them to do to you? What if you are treated unfairly?
And further. People are very different, "what is great for a Russian is a karachun for a German." Some passionately want to see the holy cross on Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, while others do not care about this at all, some control the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles is vitally important, while others find it important to find somewhere a half for a shot of vodka.
And here Karl Marx helped everyone. He explained everything. The world is divided into warring ones (no, not cities like Aristotle's), but classes. Some classes are oppressed and others are oppressive. Everything that the oppressors do is unfair. Everything that the oppressed do is fair. Especially if these oppressed are the proletariat. Because science has proved that it is the proletariat that is the upper class, behind which is the future, and which represents an objectively good majority and the logic of progress.
So:
First, there is no justice for everyone.
Secondly, what is done for the benefit of the majority is fair.
Thirdly, what is true is that which is objective, immutable (cf. the objective laws of the universe among the Greeks) and progressive.
And finally, it is true that for the good of the oppressed, and therefore requires a fight. Demands the suppression of those who are against, those who oppress and stand in the way of progress
Actually, Marxism became for many years the main logic of the struggle for justice. And she still is. True, with one important change. Justice for the majority has fallen out of modern Marxist logic.
American philosopher John Rawls created the theory of "fair inequality", which is based on "equality of access to fundamental rights and freedoms" and "priority in access to any opportunity for those who have fewer of these opportunities." There was nothing Marxist in Rawls's logic; rather, on the contrary, it is obviously an anti-Marxist doctrine. However, it was precisely the combination of Rawls's formula and the Marxist approach that created the modern foundations for the struggle for justice and destruction.
The Marxist logic of the struggle for justice is based on the rights of the oppressed. Marx argued in the category of large groups and global processes, and the oppressed was the proletariat - the logic of progress was destined to be the majority. But if you shift the focus a little, then in the place of the proletariat, there may be any other oppressed marginal groups that do not necessarily constitute the majority. And so, from Marx's desire to achieve justice for all, a struggle for the rights of any minority grows, turning the ideas of a German from the century before last inside out.
Scythians are an exoethnonym of Greek origin, applied to a group of peoples who lived in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia in the era of antiquity. The ancient Greeks called the country where the Scythians lived, Scythia.
In our time, the Scythians in the narrow sense are usually understood as Iranian-speaking nomads who in the past occupied the territories of Ukraine, Moldova, South Russia, Kazakhstan and part of Siberia. This does not exclude a different ethnicity of some of the tribes, which were also called Scythians by ancient authors.
Information about the Scythians comes mainly from the works of ancient authors (especially the "History" of Herodotus) and archaeological excavations in the lands from the lower Danube to Siberia and Altai. The Scythian-Sarmatian language, as well as the Alanic language derived from it, was part of the northeastern branch of the Iranian languages and was probably the ancestor of the modern Ossetian language, as indicated by hundreds of Scythian personal names, tribal names, rivers, preserved in Greek records.
Later, starting with the era of the Great Migration of Peoples, the word "Scythians" was used in Greek (Byzantine) sources to name all peoples completely different in origin who inhabited the Eurasian steppes and the northern Black Sea region: in sources of the 3rd-4th centuries AD, "Scythians" are often called and the German-speaking Goths, in later Byzantine sources the Eastern Slavs - Russia, the Turkic-speaking Khazars and Pechenegs, as well as the Alans, related to the ancient Iranian-speaking Scythians - were called Scythians.
The origin of the ethnonym
Vasily Abaev, following Marr, raised the ethnonym skuta to skul-ta, where he considered skul (skol) "some important term of the pre-Iranian population of southern Russia." But K.T. Vitchak and S.V. Kullanda explain the Scythian self-name as follows: Σκόλοτοι< skula-ta < skuδa-ta < skuda-ta (т.е. "лучники", с закономерным переходом d >l in Scythian). Moreover, the form skuδa-ta existed in the 7th century BC, when the Greeks began to contact the Scythians (hence the Greek Σκύϑαι). Then the Assyrian campaign of the Scythians took place - that's why the Assyrian. Ašgūzai or Išgūzai. By the 5th century BC. - the time of Herodotus's visit to Olbia, the transition δ> l has already occurred.
Myths about the origin of the Scythians
Chipped - the self-name of the Scythians according to Herodotus. Almost 25 centuries ago, Herodotus applied it in the following context:
According to the stories of the Scythians, their people are the youngest of all. And it happened in 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 Borisfena (I, of course, do not believe this, despite their assertions). Targitai was of this kind, and he had three sons: Lipoksai, Arpoksai and the youngest, Kolaksai. During their reign, golden objects fell from heaven to the Scythian land: a plow, a yoke, an ax and a bowl.
The older brother was the first to see these things. As soon as he came up to pick them up, the gold blazed. Then he retreated, and the second brother approached, and again the gold was engulfed in flames. So the heat of the blazing 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 Lipoksais, as they say, a Scythian tribe called Avhats came, from the middle brother - the tribe of Katiars and Traspians, and from the youngest of the brothers - the king - the tribe of Paralats. All tribes together are called skolots, that is, royal. The Greeks call them Scythians
Herodotus. History. IV.5 - 6
At the same time, other fundamentally important testimonies of Herodotus are often ignored.
IV.7. This is how the Scythians tell about the origin of their people. They think, however, that from the time of the first king of Targitai to the invasion of their land by Darius, it was just 1000 years (about 1514-1512 BC; commentary). The Scythian kings carefully guarded the mentioned sacred golden objects and venerated them with reverence, bringing annually rich sacrifices. If someone falls asleep in the open air with this sacred gold during the holiday, then, according to the Scythians, he will not live even a year. Therefore, the Scythians give him as much land as he can go around 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. The biggest he made was the kingdom where gold was kept (not mined). In the area 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 the flying feathers. Indeed, the earth and the air there are full of feathers, and this is what interferes with vision.
8. So the Scythians themselves talk about themselves and about the neighboring northern countries. The Greeks, who live on Pontus, convey differently (claiming a deeper memory: commentary). Hercules, chasing the bulls of Geryon (more often - 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 Hellenes call this island Erythia). The ocean, according to the Hellenes, flows, starting from sunrise, around the whole earth, but they cannot prove this. It was from there that Hercules arrived in the now so-called country of the Scythians. There he was caught by bad weather and cold. Wrapped in a pig's skin, he fell asleep, and at this time his harness horses (he let them graze) miraculously disappeared.
9. Having awakened, Hercules went all over the country in search of horses and finally arrived in a land named Gilea. There, in a cave, he found a certain creature of mixed nature - a half-virgin, half-snake Goddess with snakes (the ancestor of the Scythians is known from a number of antique images: comments) The upper part of the body from the buttocks was female, and the lower part was a snake. Seeing her, Hercules asked with surprise if she had seen his lost horses somewhere. In response, the snake woman said that she had horses, but she would not give them up until Hercules entered into an 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 as long as possible, and he would gladly leave with the horses. Finally, the woman gave up the horses with the words: “These horses that came to me, I have kept 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? " So she asked. Hercules replied to this: “When you see that the sons have matured, then it is best for you to do this: look, which of them can pull my bow like this and gird yourself with this belt, as I indicate to you, leave him to live here. Those who do not follow my instructions were sent to a foreign land. If you do this, then you yourself will be satisfied and fulfill my desire. "
10. With these words, Hercules drew one of his bows (until then, Hercules wore two bows). Then, showing how to girdle, he handed over the bow and belt (there was a golden bowl at the end of the belt buckle) and left. When the children grew up, the mother gave them names. One she called Agathirs, the other Gelon, and the younger Scythian. Then, remembering the advice of Hercules, she did as Hercules ordered. Two sons - Agafirs 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 he remained in the country. From this Scythian, the son of Hercules, all the Scythian kings descended. And in memory of that golden bowl, to this day, the Scythians wear bowls on their belts (this is only what the mother did for the benefit of the Scythian).
11. There is also a third legend (which I myself most trust). It reads like this. The nomadic tribes of the Scythians lived in Asia. When the Massagets drove them out of there by military force, the Scythians crossed the Araks and arrived in the Cimmerian land (the country now inhabited by the Scythians, as they say, from ancient times belonged to the Cimmerians). With the approach of the Scythians, the Cimmerians began to hold advice on what to do in the face of a large enemy army. And at the council, opinions were divided. Although both sides stubbornly stood their ground, the proposal of the kings won. The people were in favor of retreat, considering it unnecessary to fight with so many enemies. The kings, on the other hand, 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 obey the people. The people decided to leave their homeland and give their land to the invaders without a fight; the kings, on the other hand, preferred to lie on the bones in their native land rather than flee with the people. After all, the tsars understood what great happiness they had experienced in their native land and what troubles await the exiles deprived of their homeland. Having made such a decision, the Cimmerians divided into two equal parts and began to fight among themselves. All those who died in the fratricidal war were buried by the Cimmerian people by the Tiras River (the tomb of the kings can still be seen there). After that, the Cimmerians left their land, and the arriving Scythians took possession of the deserted country.
12. And now even in the Scythian land there are Cimmerian fortifications and Cimmerian crossings; there is also an area called Cimmeria and the so-called Cimmerian Bosporus. Fleeing from the Scythians to Asia, the Cimmerians, as you know, occupied the peninsula where the Hellenic city of Sinop 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, kept to the left of the Caucasus until they invaded the land of the Medes. So, they turned inland. This last legend is transmitted equally by both the Hellenes and the barbarians.
Herodotus. History. IV.7 - 12
The absence of "gold" in the legend about the origin of the Scythians from Hercules, in particular, indicates its greater antiquity in comparison with the legends of the Scythians themselves about the times of Targitai. At the same time, according to one of the versions, the Scythians existed before Hercules, who was taught archery by the Scythian Teutar.
According to a number of modern linguists, "chipped" is a form of Iran. skuda-ta- "archers", where -ta- are an indicator of collectiveness (in the same meaning -tæ- is preserved in modern Ossetian). It is noteworthy that the self-name of the Sarmatians "Σαρμάται" (Sauromatæ), according to J. Harmatta, had the same meaning.
The transition of the ancient Iranian d into the Scythian l as a characteristic feature of the Scythian language is also confirmed by other Scythian words, for example:
The Scythian Παραλάται is a tribal name meaning, according to Herodotus (IV, 6), the ruling Scythian dynasty and explained by him in other places using the expression ΣκύÞαι βασιλητοι, that is, "royal Scythians";< иран. paradāta-«поставленный во главе, по закону назначенный», авестийское paraδāta- (почетный титул владыки, букв. «поставленный впереди, во главе»)
Scythian maluwyam “drink prepared with honey” (μελύγιου [gamma [G] instead of digamma [#]). πόμα τι οκυϑικόν μέλιτος ùψομένου σύν −δατι καί πο ÷ τινί - Hesychius)< иран. madu- «мед» (ср. скр. mádhu «мед», греч. μέϑυ тж., осет. ирон. myd, дигор. mud «мед») При этом в сарматском языке, как и в происходящем от него осетинском, иранское d перешло в d (или δ).
At the same time, there are other scientific versions of the etymology of these ononyms - from other Indo-European, Turkic, Ugric and Semitic languages.
Emergence
The basis of the early Indo-European, including the Scythian, culture is actively studied by the supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis. Archaeologists attribute the formation of a relatively generally recognized Scythian culture to the 7th century BC. NS. (Arzhan burial mounds). At the same time, there are two main approaches to the interpretation of its occurrence. According to one, based on the so-called "third legend" of Herodotus, the Scythians came from the east, expelling what can archeologically be interpreted as coming from the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, from Tuva or some other regions of Central Asia (see Pazyryk culture).
Another approach, which can also be based on the legends recorded by Herodotus, suggests that the Scythians by that time inhabited the territory of the Northern Black Sea region for at least several centuries, separating from the environment of the successors of the Srubna culture.
Maria Gimbutas and scholars of her circle attribute the appearance of the ancestors of the Scythians (horse domestication cultures) to 5-4 thousand BC. NS. According to other versions, these ancestors are associated with other cultures. They also appear as the descendants of the carriers of the Timber culture of the Bronze Age, who advanced from the XIV century. BC NS. from the territory of the Volga region to the west. Others believe that the main core of the Scythians emerged thousands of years ago from Central Asia or Siberia and mixed with the population of the Northern Black Sea region (including the territory of Ukraine). The ideas of Maria Gimbutas extend towards further research into the origins of the Scythians.
State formation
The beginning of the relatively generally recognized 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 ruled for centuries (Homers in a number of sources).
The Cimmerians were driven out by the Scythians from the Northern Black Sea region by the 7th century BC. e., and the campaigns of the Scythians in Asia Minor. In the 70s. VII century BC NS. the Scythians invaded Media, Syria, Palestine and, according to Herodotus, "ruled" in Asia Minor, where they created the Scythian Kingdom - Ishkuza, but by the beginning of the 6th century BC. NS. were driven out of there. Traces of the presence of the Scythians are also noted in the North Caucasus.
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 royal Scythians were dominant - the easternmost of the Scythian tribes, bordering on the Don with the Savromats, also occupied the steppe Crimea. To the west of them lived the Scythian nomads, and even further west, on the left bank of the Dnieper, the Scythian farmers. On the right bank of the Dnieper, in the basin of the Southern Bug, near the city of Olbia, the Callipids, or Hellenic-Scythians, lived, north of them - the Alazones, and even further north - the Scythians-Pahari, and Herodotus points to agriculture as a difference from the Scythians of the last three tribes and specifies that while callipids and alazons grow and eat bread, the Scythian plowmen grow bread for sale. According to Herodotus, the Scythians collectively all called themselves "chipped" and were divided into four tribes: Paralata ("the first"), Avhats (occupied the upper reaches of the Gipanis - Southern Bug), Traspia and Katiara.
Close relations with the slave-owning cities of the Northern Black Sea region, the intensive trade of the Scythians in cattle, bread, furs and slaves intensified the process of class formation in the Scythian society. It is known about the existence of a tribal union among the Scythians, which gradually acquired the features of a peculiar state of the early slave-owning type, headed by the 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, vigilantes and the priestly stratum. The political rallying of the Scythians was facilitated by their war with the Persian king Darius I in 512 BC. NS. - at the head of the Scythians were three kings: Idanfirs, Skopas and Taksakis. At the turn of the 5th-4th centuries. BC NS. King Atey eliminated other Scythian kings and usurped all power. By the 40s. IV century BC NS. he completed the unification of Scythia from the Sea of Azov to the Danube.
Flourishing
An archaeological study of the Kamensk settlement (area of about 1200 hectares) showed that during the heyday of the Scythian kingdom it was the administrative and commercial and economic center of the steppe Scythians. Sharp changes in the social structure of the Scythians by the IV century. BC NS. reflected in the appearance in the Dnieper region of the grandiose mounds of the Scythian aristocracy, the so-called. "Tsarist burial mounds", reaching a height of more than 20 m. The kings and their warriors were buried in them in deep and complex burial 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 golden sheaths, a mass of arrows with bronze tips, quivers or gorites lined with gold plates, spears and darts with iron tips. The rich graves often contained copper, gold and silver dishes, Greek painted ceramics and amphorae with wine, various ornaments, often of fine jewelry work of Scythian and Greek craftsmen. During the burial of ordinary Scythian community members, basically the same rite was performed, but the funeral inventory was poorer.
In 339 BC. NS. King Atey died in the war with the Macedonian king Philip II. In 331 BC. NS. Zopyrion, the governor of Alexander the Great in Thrace, invaded the western possessions of the Scythians, laid siege to Olbia, but the Scythians destroyed his army:
Zopyrion, left by Alexander the Great as the governor of Pontus, believing that he would be recognized as lazy if he did not undertake any undertaking, gathered 30 thousand troops and went to war against the Scythians, but was destroyed with the entire army ...
Sarmatian conquest of Scythia. Tauroscithia.
Between 280-260 BC NS. the power of the Scythians was significantly reduced under the onslaught of their kindred Sarmatians, who came from behind the Don.
The capital of the Scythians was moved to the Crimea, and, according to the latest data, to the settlement of Ak-Kaya, where excavations have been conducted since 2006. Based on the results of comparisons of excavation plans with aerial photography and filming from space, it was determined that a large city with a fortress had been found, which existed two centuries earlier than Scythian Naples. "The unusual size of the fortress, the power and nature of the defensive structures, the location of groups of" royal "Scythian burial mounds not far from White Rock - all this suggests that the Ak-Kaya fortress had a capital, royal status," - said the head of the expedition Yu. Zaitsev.
In the 30s. 2nd century BC on the river Salgir (within the boundaries of modern Simferopol) on the site of an existing settlement was built by the Scythian Naples, probably under the leadership of Tsar Skilur.
The highest prosperity of the Scythian kingdom in the Crimea reached in the 30-20s. II century. BC e., during the reign of Tsar Skylure, when the Scythians subjugated Olbia and a number of possessions of Chersonesos. After defeat in the war with the Pontine kingdom, Tauroscythia ceased to exist as a single state.
Disappearing
The Scythian kingdom with its center in the Crimea existed until the second half of the 3rd century. AD and was destroyed by the Goths. The Scythians finally lost their independence and ethnic identity, dissolving among the tribes of the Great Nations Migration. The name "Scythians" (Scythians - a Greek name, they called themselves Skolots (Herodotus. History. IV.5 - 6) ceased to be ethnic in nature and was applied to various peoples of the Northern Black Sea region, including medieval Russia.
Saki and Sarmatians
Saks disappeared in the early Middle Ages under the onslaught of other nomads (Tochars, Huns and other Turks, Sarmatians, Hephtalites).
After the Great Migration of Nations, the Sarmatians lost their dominant position in Eastern Europe and then, with the exception of the Alans, disappeared into other peoples.
Alans (Sarmatian tribe) around the 4th century BC NS. created their own state, which, according to Byzantine and Arab sources, was the strongest in the Caucasian region. Until the 10th century, the Alans played an important role in the struggle between the Khazars, Arabs, and the Byzantines, mainly supporting the latter. From the X century, after the weakening of the Khazars and Arabs, Alania began to flourish, which continued until the Mongol invasion in the XIII century. According to sources of that time (for example, Jehoshaphat Barbaro, Guillaume Rubruk), the Alans driven into the mountains continued to fight the invaders. The Alanian state was finally destroyed by the campaigns of Tamerlane in the XIV century. The direct descendants of the Alans are the Ossetians living in the Caucasus, as well as the Yases related to the Ossetians living in Hungary.
Scythian heritage
Numerous Scythian items have been found in southern Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
The names of many rivers and regions of Eastern Europe are of Scythian-Sarmatian origin.
Peoples of Scythia
Three main branches can be distinguished among the "Scythians":
European Scythians
The European Scythians were Iranian-speaking nomads who dominated the Black Sea region until the 4th-3rd centuries BC. NS. Significant data on the European Scythians are contained in ancient Greek sources, especially in Herodotus. Often the name of the Scythians is understood precisely as the European Scythians.
The Scythians themselves, according to Herodotus, call themselves chipped, and the Persians called them Saks.
Saki
Saki - Scythian tribes inhabiting the territory of modern Central Asia. The Asian peoples, especially the Persians, called them "Saki". Ancient Greek authors called the Sakas "Asian Scythians". It is noteworthy that the Persians, on the contrary, called the European Scythians "overseas Sakas".
Sarmatians
The tribes of the Sarmatians or Savromats, related to the Scythians, originally lived in the Volga region and the Ural steppes. According to Herodotus, the Sarmatians came from the union of Scythian youths and Amazons. Herodotus, however, reports that "the Sauromats speak the Scythian language, but distorted from the earliest times." From the IV century. BC NS. Between the Sarmatians and the Scythians proper, several wars take place, as a result of which the Sarmatians occupied a dominant position in European Scythia, which was later called Sarmatia in ancient sources.
The only surviving form of the Scythian-Sarmatian language, the Ossetian language, originates from the Sarmatian language.
Other peoples of Scythia
It is believed that some of the European Scythian tribes mentioned in ancient sources were not Iranian-speaking.
Thus, Nevras are considered Balts, not Iranians.
Taurus (the most ancient population of Crimea) are considered to be related to the Abkhaz-Adyghe peoples of the Caucasus.
Culture
In science, attempts are being made to trace the cultural genesis of the peoples of Eurasia since the Paleolithic. In particular, variants of burial rites, a number of symbols and images, elements of the animal style (the horse of the Paleolithic Sungiri), etc. find analogues in the cultures of the Eurasian peoples after 20-23 thousand.
Art
Among the art items found in the burials of the Scythians, the most interesting are objects decorated in an animal style: covers of quivers and scabbards, handles of swords, details of a bridle set, plaques (used to decorate horse harness, quivers, shells, and also as women's adornments). mirror handles, buckles, bracelets, hryvnias, etc.
Along with the images of animal figures (deer, elk, goat, birds of prey, fantastic animals, etc.), there are scenes of the struggle of animals (most often an eagle or other predator tormenting a herbivore). The images were made in low relief using forging, embossing, casting, embossing and carving, most often of gold, silver, iron and bronze. Rising to the images of totemic ancestors, in the Scythian time they represented various spirits and played the role of magical amulets; in addition, they may have symbolized the strength, dexterity and courage of a warrior.
An undoubted sign of the Scythian belonging of this or that product is a special way of depicting animals, the so-called Scythian animal style. Animals are always depicted in motion and from the side, but with their heads turned towards the viewer.
The peculiarities of the Scythian animal style are extraordinary liveliness, specificity and dynamics of images, a remarkable adaptability of images to the shapes of objects. In the art of the Scythians of the IV-III centuries. BC NS. images of animals received more and more ornamental, linear-plane interpretation. There were also stone, heavily schematized sculptures of Scythian warriors, installed on the mounds. From the V century. BC NS. Greek craftsmen made objects of decorative and applied art for the Scythians, in accordance with their artistic tastes. The most famous monuments of art of the Scythians who lived on the territory of the European part of the former USSR (as well as ancient Greek works) were found in the Kelermes mounds of the mounds of Karagodeuashkh, Kul-Oba, Solokha, Chertomlyk, Tolstaya Mogila, etc .; unique wall paintings were discovered in Scythian Naples.
Mythology
The mythology of the Scythians has numerous Iranian and Indo-European parallels, as Academician B. A. Rybakov and Professor D. S. Raevsky have shown in a number of works on paganism and are developing modern research.
Herodotus noted that in every region of Scythia there was a sanctuary for Ares, which was symbolized by a sword on top of huge piles of brushwood. Herodotus lists the names of the following deities: Tabiti (Hestia in Greek mythology), Papayos (Zeus), Api (Gaia), Oytosir (Apollo), Argimpasa (Aphrodite Urania), Fagimasad (Poseidon); in addition, he mentions Hercules and Ares. Tabiti, the deity of the family, home, enjoyed special respect, was considered the patron saint of the Scythians. To swear by the hearth, the household deity of the chief is the greatest oath; a false oath by this deity caused, according to the Scythians, illness to the chief. The image of the god of war (Ares, as Herodotus called him by analogy with Greek mythology) was a sword; once a year they brought him a sacrifice - various animals (in particular, horses) and prisoners, out of a hundred - one.
In general, Scythian mythology, taking into account the finds of archaeologists, is complex and diverse, requires taking into account a wide range of sources.
Warfare
Among the Scythians, the first among the peoples of the continent, the cavalry became really the main type of troops, numerically predominating over the infantry, and during the Near Asian campaigns - the only force.
The Scythians were the first (as far as the sources can judge) in the history of wars to successfully use a strategic retreat in order to radically change the balance of forces in their favor. They were the first to go to the division of the troops into two interacting parts with the setting of separate tasks for each of them. In military practice, they successfully applied the method of waging war, aptly called by the ancient authors "little war". They demonstrated skillful conduct of significant campaigns in a vast theater of military operations that led to the expulsion of the exhausted enemy troops (the war with Darius) or the defeat of significant masses of the enemy (the defeat of Zopirion, the Battle of Fata).
In the second century BC. NS. Scythian military art is already outdated. The Scythians are defeated by the Thracians, Greeks and Macedonians.
The Scythian military craft received two continuations: among the Sarmatians and Parthians, with an emphasis on heavy cavalry, adapted for close combat and operating in close formation, and among the eastern nomads: Sakas, Tochars, later - Turks and Mongols, with an emphasis on long-range combat and associated with the invention of fundamentally new bow designs.
Legendary history and chronology of the Scythians
Chronological indications associated with the ancient history of the Scythians are found in a number of ancient authors. They not only operate with round numbers familiar to approximate information, but often contradict each other, which makes their direct comparison with archaeological data inappropriate.
The first scheme was proposed by Herodotus. According to him, the Scythians are the youngest people. 1000 years passed from the first king of Targitai to the campaign of Darius. According to him, Pharaoh Sesostris, who allegedly conquered the Scythians, ruled two generations before the Trojan War. A visit to the Scythians by Hercules, from whose son Scythians the Scythian kings descended, Herodotus expounds later the story of Targitai, and, according to Greek views, Hercules lived a generation earlier than the Trojan War. Therefore, the appearance of the Scythians corresponds to about the 16th century BC. e., and their war with the Egyptians and the birth of Scythian, the son of Hercules - in the XIII century BC. NS.
As A.I. Ivanchik, who studied this issue in detail, points out, the concept that made the Scythians antiquated and idealized, and also attributed to them a victory over the Egyptians, dates back to the historian of the 4th century BC. NS. Efor. Thus, unlike Herodotus, the Scythians turned out to be not the youngest, but the most ancient people. The dialogue between the Egyptians and the Scythians about antiquity is given by Justin.
In Diodorus, Zeus is already called the father of Scyth, and not Hercules, which attributes his birth to a more ancient era, Pal and Nap are called the descendants of Scyth, who divided the kingdom among themselves and conquered a number of tribes. After this, Diodorus publishes a story about the Amazons.
The work of Justin, who abbreviated the work of Pompey Trog, contains the following chronological indications. After the victory of the Scythians over the Egyptians for 1500 years, Asia paid tribute to the Scythians. Then the Assyrians ruled Asia for 1,300 years, and the Medes for 350 years. Thus, since the end of the Medes rule was associated with the reign of the Persian king Cyrus (mid-VI century BC), the victory of the Scythians, according to Pompey Trogus, refers to about 3700 BC. NS.
Also, Justin gives a story about the young men of the royal family Plina and Skolopit, their death and the origin of the Amazons. These events are placed about two generations before the Trojan War, and the campaign of the Scythian prince Panasagoras against Athens - for one generation.
The Christian historian Orosius, generally using Justin's work, could not accept his dates, because they contradicted the biblical dating of the flood (it is noteworthy that in the Chronicle of Eusebius there is no information about the ancient history of the Scythians at all). Orosius attributed the achievement of domination by the Scythians in Europe and Asia to the period 1500 years before Ninus, which falls on 3553 BC. NS. Orosius rearranged the sequence of wars. He dates the victory of the Assyrian king Nin over the Scythians 1300 years before the founding of Rome (2053 BC), while Vesosis fights with the Scythians 480 years before the founding of Rome (1233 BC). Thus, Orosius, like Herodotus, dates this war shortly before the Trojan War, but the result of the war, like Justin's, is the victory of the Scythians. Orosius' story about Skolopit, Plina and the Amazons coincides with Justin.
Jordanus, also talking about the victory of the Gothic king Tanausis over the Egyptian pharaoh Vesosis, places it shortly before the Trojan War, mentioning also the origin of the Amazons, but omits the names of Skolopit and Plina.
Famous Scythians
Mythical
Targitai is the son of Zeus, the ancestor of the Scythians.
Kolaksai is the epic king of the Scythians, the ancestor of all "skolots" and the main tribe of the Paralats ("the first").
Arpoxai is one of the three epic grandchildren of Zeus, the progenitor of the Katiars and Traspians.
Lipoksai is one of the three epic grandchildren of Zeus, the progenitor of the Avhats.
Agathirs is the son of Hercules and the half-virgin-half-snake, the eponym of the Agathirs.
Gelon is the son of Hercules and a half-virgin-half-snake, an eponym of Gelons.
Scythian is the son of Hercules and half-virgin-half-snake, the king of all Scythians.
Prometheus is the king of the Scythians.
Linh is the mythical king of the Scythians.
Dardan is the mythical king of the Scythians.
Agaet (Agast) - the son of Aet (Eet) of Colchis, the king of the Scythians and Sarmatians.
Kirka is the daughter of Aeta of Colchis, the queen of the Scythians and Sarmatians.
Pal is the epic king of the Scythians during the early conquests.
Nap is the epic king of the Scythians during the early conquests.
Skolopety (Skolopit) - a young man of the royal family, the leader of the campaign.
Plin is a young man of a royal family, the king of the Scythians of the southern Black Sea region.
Sagil is the king of the Scythians, a contemporary of the Amazons' campaign against Athens.
Panasagoras is a Scythian prince, the son of Sagil.
Tanay (Tanausis) - the king of the Scythians, who fought with one of the pharaohs. There are several options for explaining the name mentioned by Justin and Jordan. According to one of them, it is associated with the name Tanais, in another, it is simply a handwritten distortion of the Iandis version, which in turn represents a modification of Herodot's Idanfirs (possibly made by Ephor).
Terodam (Ferodamant) - the mythical cruel king of the Scythians.
Zarina is the legendary queen of the Sarmatians, the ancestor of the Sarmatian kings, who ruled in the legendary city of Roskanak.
Sesostris (Vezosis) is a legendary pharaoh who went to Scythia.
In addition, the mythical northern people of the Hyperboreans were sometimes compared with the Scythians.
Historical
Dynasts (kings) of the Scythians and representatives of the dynasty, known from Assyrian sources:
Ishpakai - Scythian leader until 675 BC e., with which Esarhaddon fought.
Partatua - the king of the Scythians around 675-650. BC e., mentioned in the Assyrian texts. Identified with Madia's father Protophius, mentioned by Herodotus.
Dynasts (kings) of the Scythians and representatives of the dynasty mentioned by Herodotus:
Ariant is a semi-legendary king of the Scythians who conducted a "census".
Madiy - the king of the Scythians in the 2nd half of the 7th century. BC BC, the son of Protophius, who collected tribute from Media for 28 years ..
Spargapith - in the list of Herodotus, the first ruler of the Black Sea Scythia. (~ 580s BC)
Lik is the king of the Scythians, the son of Spargapith, the father of Gnur. Perhaps the Greek name Lik (Greek "wolf") is a translation of the original vṛka with the same meaning.
Gnur is the king of the Scythians, the son of Lik, the father of Anacharsis and Savli.
Anacharsis is a philosopher, the son of King Gnur, one of the seven sages. Although Herodotus cites his ancestry, he is often regarded as a semi-legendary character.
Savlius (Caduite, Caduin, Calvid - in some sources) - the king of the Scythians in the VI century BC. e., father of Idanfirs, brother and murderer of Anacharsis.
Idanfirs - the king of the Scythians, who fought with the Persian king Darius around 514/512 BC. NS.
Taksakis - one of the kings, a contemporary of Idanfirs, during the Scythian-Persian war led the army of Gelons and Budins.
Skopasis, one of the kings, a contemporary of Idanfirs, commanded a mobile detachment of Scythians and Savromats during the Scythian-Persian war.
Ariapith - king, father of Skila, Oktamasada, Orica (first half of the 5th century BC).
Opia is one of the wives of Ariapith, the mother of Orik.
Skil - the king of the Scythians in the 5th century. BC e., son of Ariapith and a Hellenic woman from Istria.
Oktamasad - the king of the Scythians in the 5th century. BC e., son of Ariapith and daughter of the Thracian king Tereus.
Orik is the son of Ariapith and Opia.
Dynasts (kings) of the Scythians and representatives of the dynasty, known from other sources:
Marsaget is the brother of the Scythian king (probably the brother of Idanfirs).
Argot is a name read on the "Skyla ring", possibly a Scythian dynast, not mentioned by Herodotus.
Eminak - known for the coins of Olbia (1st half - 40th IV century BC).
Sammak is a hypothetically representative of the Scythian dynasty in the Bosporus, known from the coins of Nympheus, dated 409-405. BC.
Atey - king of the Scythians (up to 358 - 339 BC)
Agar is the king of Scythia at the end of the 4th century. BC NS.
Dynasts (kings) and representatives of the dynasty of the Scythian kingdom in the Crimea (Tauro-Scythia) (~ 250 BC - 250 AD):
Argot, son of Id [...] ta - a representative of the ruling dynasty of the Scythians of the Crimea, who lived in the II century. BC NS.
Skilur - the king of the Scythians of Crimea and in the II century. BC NS.
Palak is the son and heir of Skilur.
Senamotis is the daughter of King Skilur and the wife of a certain Bosporan aristocrat Heraclides, known from a dedicatory inscription to the goddess Ditagoya, made on behalf of the king of the Bosporus Perisad.
Savmak is a Scythian, possibly a representative of the dynasty of kings of Tavroskifia, led a rebellion against the last Spartokides in the Bosporus. He ruled the Bosporus kingdom for about a year (between 112 and 107 BC).
Khodarz - the king of the Scythians of Crimea in the 1st century, the son of Ompsalak, was enthroned by the Bosporan king Aspurg.
Also:
Antir (so in Jordan: the distorted Herodotus name Idanfirs) is the king of the Goths (so in Jordan instead of the Scythians), who led the kingdoms of Scythia in the struggle against Darius. In the genealogies of the rulers of Mecklenburg - the ancestor of the ancient Vandal, Herul and Polish kings, a contemporary and ally of Alexander of Macdon.
Argunt is the king of the Scythians, mentioned in relation to the events of the middle of the 3rd century, when the Scythians themselves may no longer exist (according to other versions, the Gothic leader).
Scythian kingdom in Dobrudja (Lesser Scythia) (c. 330 - 70 BC).
Kanit - approx. 270 BC NS.
Harasp - II century. BC NS.
Akrosa - II century. BC NS.
Thanos - c. 100.
Zariax - 1st century BC NS.
Aelius - before 70 BC e., approx. 70 BC NS. Sarmatian conquest
Scythians in antiquity
The Scythians, as the main tribe of the Northern Black Sea region, were known in antiquity as a nomadic pastoralist people who lived in wagons, ate milk and cattle meat, and had cruel warlike morals that allowed them to gain the glory of the invincible. The Scythians became the personification of barbarism (either condemning or idealizing the model of attitude towards barbarians).
Scythians in the medieval tradition
Russian chronicles emphasized that the peoples of Russia were called by the Greeks "Great Scythia".
In the "Tale of Bygone Years" the Scythians are repeatedly mentioned:
"When the Slavic people, as we said, lived on the Danube, they came from the Scythians, that is, from the Khazars, the so-called Bulgarians, and settled along the Danube, and were settlers in the land of the Slavs."
“The Dulebs lived along the Bug, where the Volhynians are now, and the Uliches and Tivertsi were sitting along the Dniester and near the Danube. There were many of them: they sat along the Dniester to the sea, and their cities have survived to this day; and the Greeks called them "Great Scythia". "
“Oleg went to the Greeks, leaving Igor in Kiev; He took with him a multitude of Varangians, and Slavs, and Chudi, and Krivichi, and Meru, and Drevlyans, and Radimichs, and Polyans, and Northerners, and Vyatichi, and Croats, and Dulebs, and Tivertsy, known as Tolmachi: all of them were called Greeks "Great Scythia". "
The Russian chronicles of the 17th century considered the peoples of medieval Russia to be a continuation of the peoples of Great Scythia (see "The Legend of Slovenia and Ruse and the City of Slovensk").