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Anyone know much about the legacy of the Scythians? Seems to be a people with vague boundaries hovering around the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Western Asia. However, it's hard to understand their role/power within the shifting tribal movements between about 1000-300 B.C.
Country and customs of the Scythians commentary on Herodotus, Book IV
What Herodotus tells about Scythian customs has often been conroborated by archaeologists. Examples are the human sacrifices, the use of skulls as mug, drinking blood, the funerary rituals, the existence of Amazons, the use of hemp to get 'high', etc. Herodotus may have learned all this from Greeks who lived on the Scythian coast.
They sound like such a pleasant group of people, do they not? 😮
Wow…interesting. I read an article on the Scythians just this afternoon but it did not mention anything about the blood-drinking or skull-mugs. Apparently they were at their height in the 7th century B.C.
Another link from the same source suggests they were antagonizers of the Persians until they were subdued.
Ski, you beat me to it. 8) I was going to say that the Scythians were absorbed by the expanding Persian Empire around the time of the Persian Wars with Greece.
The Scythians were also expert horsemen, and there's a possibility that this is where the Greeks got their idea of the centaur from (i.e. no distinction between horse and man).
Scythians were Indo-European people who lived in a vast area covering present-day Ukraine, Russia and Central Asia who spread around 3000 BC. These Indo-Europeans were the first to tame horses and were part of the so-called Indo-European migrations. In the late Antiquity, the notion of a Scythian ethnicity grew more vague, calling any people inhabiting the Pontic-Caspian steppe as “Scythians”, regardless of their language. Even during the Antiquity, Scythians seemed to be quite mysterious (see Strabo and Herodotus).
I heard a few days ago that Scythian slaves were used in Greece (Athens?) as policemen. It may sound funny that slaves were used as the police force, but it's true. The Scythians used were archers.
I heard a few days ago that Scythian slaves were used in Greece (Athens?) as policemen. It may sound funny that slaves were used as the police force, but it's true. The Scythians used were archers.
Absolutely right ! “Slaves were the lowest class in Athenian society, but according to many contemporary accounts they were far less harshly treated than in most other Greek cities. Indeed, one of the criticisms of Athens was that its slaves and freemen were difficult to tell apart.A fundamental part of economy, the most prized slaves worked as tutors and police officials, and one group of elite slaves was even empowered to herd citizens to the assembly with a long rope dipped in paint ! ” http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/32b.html
