Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/959

 SCYTHIA. the courses of the rivers and at their head-waters) of a more practicable character. JIouNTAiNS. — These were the eastern continuation of the Carpathians, and the hills of the Crimea or Tauris. These were but imperfectly known to Hero- dotus. Lakes. [ See ExAnrPAEus and Buck.] Towns, exclusively Greek colonies. [See Olbi- opoLis ; Panticapaeum.] Beyond the Sauromatae (s. v.) lay " other Scythians, who, having revolted from the Royal, reached this country," i. e. some part of Orenburg (c. 22). Thirdly, there were the Sacae, whom we may call the Scythians of the Persian frontier. Their occupancy was the parts conterminous with Bactria, and it was under Darius, the son of Hystaspes, that they, along with the Bactrians, joined in the invasion of Greece. Their dress was other than Bactrian, consisting of a pointed turban, a bonnet, leggings, native bows, daggers, and the axe called trdyapis — a word which is probably technical. There were Scythae Amyrgii, truly, however, Scythae, inasmuch as the Persians called all the Scythians by the name Sacae. Under the reign of Cyrus they were in- dependent. Under Darius, they, along with the Caspii, formed the 15th satrapy (iii. 93). This connects them with their frontagers on the west, rather than the east. There is no difficulty, however, in fixing them. From Asterahad to Balk they extended along the northern frontier of Persia, in the area, and probably as the ancestors, of the present Turcomans and Uzbeks. The name Amyrgii will be noticed in the sequel. The Sacae, if not separated from the " other Scy- thians" by the greater part oi Independent Tartary, were, at any rate, a population that presented itself to the informants of Herodotus under a different aspect. The Sacae were what the Persians found on their northern frontier. The eastern Scythae were the Scythians beyond the Sauromatae, as they appeared to the occupants of the parts about the Tanais. It is not difficult to see the effect of these three points of view upon future geographers. With Scy- thians m Transylvania, Scythians in Orenburg, with Scythians (even though called Sacae) in Khorasan and Tu7-comania, nrd with a terra incognita between, the name cannot but fail to take upon itself an in- ordinate amount of generality. The three isolated areas will be connected; and the historical or eth- nological unity wL'I give way to a geographical. At present, however, there is a true unity over the whole of Scythia in the way both of Physiognomy and JIanjjers. — The physical conformation of the Scythians is not only mentioned incidentally by Herodotus, but in a more special manner by Hippocrates: " The Scythian yivas is widely different from the rest of mankind, and is like to nothing but itself, even as is the Acgyptian. Their bodies are thick and fleshy, and their limbs loose, without tone, and their bellies the smoothest (?), softest (?), moistest (?) QcoiAiai vypoTarai) of all bellies as to their lower parts (jiaaiwv KotAeuv at Kara)) ; for it is not possible lor the belly to be dried in such a country, both from the soil and climate, but on account of the fat and tlie smoothness of their flesh, they are all like each other, the men like the men, the women like the women." (Hippocr. de Acre, &c. pp. 291, 292.) SCYTHIA. 9^0 Coming as this notice does from a physician, it has commanded considerable attention; it has, however, no pretensions to be called a description, though this has often been done. In the hands of later writers its leading features become exaggerated, until at length the description of a Scythian becomes an absolute caricature. We may see this by reference to Am- inianus Marcellinus and Jornandes, in their accounts of the Huns. The real fact inferred from the text of Hippocrates is, that the Scythians had a peculiar physiognomy, a physiognomy which the modem ethnologist finds in the population of Northern and Central Asia, as opposed to those of Persia, Cauca- sus, Western and Southern Europe. Tlieir general habits were essentially nomadic, pastoral, and migratory;- the commonest epithets or descriptive appellations being 'Afxa^uSioi, ^ef)4otKoi, 'iTnroTo^orai, and the like. Concerning their Religiox, we have something more than a mere cursory notice (iv. 59). (i.) Tahiti (TaSiTi) : This was the Scythian name for the nearest equivalent to the Greek Hlstia ( I'esta^, the divinity whom they most especially worshipped, (ii.) Papaeus : " Jlost properly, in my mind, is Zeus thus called." So writes Herodotus, thinking of the ideas engendered by such exclamations as nairus. (iii.) Apia : This is the name for earth ; as (iv.) Oeto- syrus (OiToiTL/poj) is for Apollo, and (v.) Artimpasa for Aphrodite, and (vi.) Thamimasada for Poseidon, the God of the Royal Scythians most especially. To Oestosyrus we have the following remarkable in- scription (^Gud. Tnscrip. Antiq. p. 56. 2; see Zeuss, s.v. Shjthen): 0EA. 2EA0IT02KTPA (? 2EA- ■nvii) KAI APOLLnNn. OITOSKTPn. MI0PA. M. OTAniOS. nAOKAMOS. NEHKOPOS. ANEO (j]Ki). Here the connection is with the Persian god Mithras. The Scoloti sacrificed to all their gods, but to Mars the most especially; for, besides the deities which have been mentioned under their several Scythian names, Mars and Heracles were objects of particular adoration. The Scythian Venus, too, was the 'A<ppo5iT7; ovpavii}. To Ares, however, they sacrificed most especially and most generally; for there was a place of worship to him in every voixos (mark the use of this word, which is applied to the divisions of the Persian empire as well), where horses, sheep, and captives were sacrificed, and where the emblem of the god was an iron sword, — even as it was with the Alani of Ammianus and the Huns of Priscus. Human beings were sacrificed, but no swine. Neither were swine eaten, nor wore they tolerated in the country. This is noticed, i)ecause in many of the nations of Northern Asia, e. g. the Wotiaks and others, the hog, even now, is held in abomination, and that by Pagan tribes uutinctured with Jlaho- metanism. Notwithstanding the praises of the earlier poets, the wars of the " just and illustrious " Scythians were of a piece with the worship of their war-god. They scalped their enemies, and they used their skulls as drinking cups (cc. 04 — 65). Once a vear the monarch of each nome filled a vast vat with wine and apportioned it to the warriors who had killed most enemies during the year. Those whose hands were unstained got none, and were disgraced; those who had killed many took a double allowance (c. 66). Their sooths.ayers, amongst other superstitions, practised rhabdomancy, amongst whom the Enarees