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The History of Herodotus: Page 22
Volume One - Book IV
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31. As to the feathers of which the Scythians say that the air is
full, and that by reason of them they are not able either to see or to
pass through the further parts of the continent, the opinion which I
have is this:--in the parts beyond this land it snows continually,
though less in summer than in winter, as might be supposed. Now
whomsoever has seen close at hand snow falling thickly, knows what I
mean without further explanation, for the snow is like feathers: and
on account of this wintry weather, being such as I have said, the
Northern parts of this continent are uninhabitable. I think therefore
that by the feathers the Scythians and those who dwell near them mean
symbolically the snow. This then which has been said goes to the
furthest extent of the accounts given.
32. About a Hyperborean people the Scythians report nothing, nor do
any of those who dwell in this region, unless it be the Issedonians:
but in my opinion neither do these report anything; for if they did
the Scythians also would report it, as they do about the one-eyed
people.
Hesiod however has spoken of Hyperboreans, and so also has
Homer in the poem of the "Epigonoi," at least if Homer was really the
composer of that Epic.
33. But much more about them is reported by the
people of Delos than by any others. For these say that sacred
offerings bound up in wheat straw are carried from the land of the Hyperboreans and come to the Scythians, and then from the Scythians
the neighbouring nations in succession receive them and convey them
Westwards, finally as far as the Adriatic: thence they are sent
forward towards the South, and the people of Dodona receive them first
of all the Hellenes, and from these they come down to the Malian gulf
and are passed over to Eubœa, where city sends them on to city till
they come to Carystos.
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After this Andros is left out, for the Carystians are those who bring them to Tenos, and the Tenians to
Delos. Thus they say that these sacred offerings come to Delos; but at
first, they say, the Hyperboreans sent two maidens bearing the sacred
offerings, whose names, say the Delians, were Hyperoche and Laodike,
and with them for their protection the Hyperboreans sent five men of
their nation to attend them, those namely who are now called
/Perphereës/ and have great honours paid to them in Delos. Since
however the Hyperboreans found that those who were sent away did not
return back, they were troubled to think that it would always befall
them to send out and not to receive back; and so they bore the
offerings to the borders of their land bound up in wheat straw, and
laid a charge upon their neighbours, bidding them send these forward
from themselves to another nation. These things then, they say, come
to Delos being thus sent forward; and I know of my own knowledge that
a thing is done which has resemblance to these offerings, namely that
the women of Thrace and Paionia, when they sacrifice to Artemis "the
Queen," do not make their offerings without wheat straw.
34. These I
know do as I have said; and for those maidens from the Hyperboreans,
who died in Delos, both the girls and the boys of the Delians cut off
their hair: the former before marriage cut off a lock and having wound
it round a spindle lay it upon the tomb (now the tomb is on the left
hand as one goes into the temple of Artemis, and over it grows an
olive-tree), and all the boys of the Delians wind some of their hair
about a green shoot of some tree, and they also place it upon the
tomb.
35. The maidens, I say, have this honour paid them by the
dwellers in Delos: and the same people say that Arge and Opis also,
being maidens, came to Delos, passing from the Hyperboreans by the
same nations which have been mentioned, even before Hyperoche and
Laodike. These last, they say, came bearing for Eileithuia the tribute
which they had laid upon themselves for the speedy birth,[37] but Arge
and Opis came with the divinities themselves, and other honours have
been assigned to them by the people of Delos: for the women, they say,
collect for them, naming them by their names in the hymn which Olen a
man of Lykia composed in their honour; and both the natives of the
other islands and the Ionians have learnt from them to sing hymns
naming Opis and Arge and collecting:--now this Olen came from Lukia
and composed also the other ancient hymns which are sung in Delos:--
and moreover they say that when the thighs of the victim are consumed
upon the altar, the ashes of them are used to cast upon the grave of
Opis and Arge. Now their grave is behind the temple of Artemis, turned
towards the East, close to the banqueting hall of the Keïeans.
36. Let this suffice which has been said of the Hyperboreans; for the
tale of Abaris, who is reported to have been a Hyperborean, I do not
tell, namely[37a] how he carried the arrow about all over the earth,
eating no food. If however there are any Hyperboreans, it follows that
there are also Hypernotians; and I laugh when I see that, though many
before this have drawn maps of the Earth, yet no one has set the
matter forth in an intelligent way; seeing that they draw Ocean
flowing round the Earth, which is circular exactly as if drawn with
compasses, and they make Asia equal in size to Europe. In a few words
I shall declare the size of each division and of what nature it is as
regards outline.
37. The Persians inhabit Asia[38] extending to the Southern Sea, which
is called the Erythraian; and above these towards the North Wind dwell
the Medes, and above the Medes the Saspeirians, and above the
Saspeirians the Colchians, extending to the Northern Sea, into which
the river Phasis runs. These four nations inhabit from sea to sea.
38.
From them Westwards two peninsulas[39] stretch out from Asia into the
sea, and these I will describe. The first peninsula on the one of its
sides, that is the Northern, stretches along beginning from the Phasis
and extending to the sea, going along the Pontus and the Hellespont as
far as Sigeion in the land of Troy; and on the Southern side the same
peninsula stretches from the Myriandrian gulf, which lies near
Phenicia, in the direction of the sea as far as the headland Triopion;
and in this peninsula dwell thirty races of men.
39. This then is one
of the peninsulas, and the other beginning from the land of the
Persians stretches along to the Erythraian Sea, including Persia and
next after it Assyria, and Arabia after Assyria: and this ends, or
rather is commonly supposed to end,[40] at the Arabian gulf, into
which Dareios conducted a channel from the Nile. Now in the line
stretching to Phenicia from the land of the Persians the land is broad
and the space abundant, but after Phenicia this peninsula goes by the
shore of our Sea along Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, where it ends; and
in it there are three nations only.
40. These are the parts of Asia
which tend towards the West from the Persian land; but as to those
which lie beyond the Persians and Medes and Saspeirians and Colchians
towards the East and the sunrising, on one side the Erythraian Sea
runs along by them, and on the North both the Caspian Sea and the
river Araxes, which flows towards the rising sun: and Asia is
inhabited as far as the Indian land; but from this onwards towards the
East it becomes desert, nor can any one say what manner of land it is.
41. Such and so large is Asia: and Libya is included in the second
peninsula; for after Egypt Libya succeeds at once. Now about Egypt
this peninsula is narrow, for from our Sea to the Erythraian Sea is a
distance there of ten myriads of fathoms,[41] which would amount to a
thousand furlongs; but after this narrow part, the portion of the
peninsula which is called Libya is, as it chances, extremely broad.
42. I wonder then at those who have parted off and divided the world
into Libya, Asia, and Europe, since the difference between these is
not small; for in length Europe extends along by both, while in
breadth it is clear to me that it is beyond comparison larger;[42] for
Libya furnishes proofs about itself that it is surrounded by sea,
except so much of it as borders upon Asia; and this fact was shown by Necos king of the Egyptians first of all those about whom we have
knowledge. He when he had ceased digging the channel[43] which goes
through from the Nile to the Arabian gulf, sent Phenicians with ships,
bidding them sail and come back through the Pillars of Heracles to the
Northern Sea and so to Egypt. The Phenicians therefore set forth from
the Erythraian Sea and sailed through the Southern Sea; and when
autumn came, they would put to shore and sow the land, wherever in
Libya they might happen to be as they sailed, and then they waited for
the harvest: and having reaped the corn they would sail on, so that
after two years had elapsed, in the third year they turned through the
Pillars of Heracles and arrived again in Egypt. And they reported a
thing which I cannot believe, but another man may, namely that in
sailing round Libya they had the sun on their right hand.
43. Thus was
this country first known to be what it is, and after this it is the
Carthaginians who make report of it; for as to Sataspes the son of
Teaspis the Achaimenid, he did not sail round Libya, though he was
sent for this very purpose, but was struck with fear by the length of
the voyage and the desolate nature of the land, and so returned back
and did not accomplish the task which his mother laid upon him. For
this man had outraged a daughter of Zopyros the son of Megabyzos, a
virgin; and then when he was about to be impaled by order of king
Xerxes for this offence, the mother of Sataspes, who was a sister of
Dareios, entreated for his life, saying that she would herself lay
upon him a greater penalty than Xerxes; for he should be compelled
(she said) to sail round Libya, until in sailing round it he came to
the Arabian gulf. So then Xerxes having agreed upon these terms,
Sataspes went to Egypt, and obtaining a ship and sailors from the
Egyptians, he sailed to the Pillars of Heracles; and having sailed
through them and turned the point of Libya which is called the
promontory of Soloeis, he sailed on towards the South. Then after he
had passed over much sea in many months, as there was needed ever more
and more voyaging, he turned about and sailed back again to Egypt: and
having come from thence into the presence of king Xerxes, he reported
saying that at the furthest point which he reached he was sailing by
dwarfish people, who used clothing made from the palm-tree, and who,
whenever they came to land with their ship, left their towns and fled
away to the mountains: and they, he said, did no injury when they
entered into the towns, but took food[43a] from them only. And the
cause, he said, why he had not completely sailed round Libya was that
the ship could not advance any further but stuck fast. Xerxes however
did not believe that he was speaking the truth, and since he had not
performed the appointed task, he impaled him, inflicting upon him the
penalty pronounced before. A eunuch belonging to this Sataspes ran
away to Samos as soon as he heard that his master was dead, carrying
with him large sums of money; and of this a man of Samos took
possession, whose name I know, but I purposely pass it over without
mention.
44. Of Asia the greater part was explored by Dareios, who desiring to
know of the river Indus, which is a second river producing crocodiles
of all the rivers in the world,--to know, I say, of this river where
it runs out into the sea, sent with ships, besides others whom he
trusted to speak the truth, Skylax also, a man of Caryanda. These
starting from the city of Caspatyros and the land of Pactyïke, sailed
down the river towards the East and the sunrising to the sea; and then
sailing over the sea Westwards they came in the thirtieth month to
that place from whence the king of the Egyptians had sent out the
Phenicians of whom I spoke before, to sail round Libya. After these
had made their voyage round the coast, Dareios both subdued the
Indians and made use of this sea. Thus Asia also, excepting the parts
of it which are towards the rising sun, has been found to be
similar[44] to Libya.
45. As to Europe, however, it is clearly not
known by any, either as regards the parts which are towards the rising
sun or those towards the North, whether it be surrounded by sea: but
in length it is known to stretch along by both the other divisions.
And I am not able to understand for what reason it is that to the
Earth, which is one, three different names are given derived from
women, and why there were set as boundaries to divide it the river
Nile of Egypt and the Phasis in Colchis (or as some say the Maiotian
river Tanaïs and the Kimmerian ferry); nor can I learn who those
persons were who made the boundaries, or for what reason they gave the
names. Libya indeed is said by most of the Hellenes to have its name
from Libya a woman of that country, and Asia from the wife of
Prometheus: but this last name is claimed by the Lydians, who say that
Asia has been called after Asias the son of Cotys the son of Manes,
and not from Asia the wife of Prometheus; and from him too they say
the Asian tribe in Sardis has its name. As to Europe however, it is
neither known by any man whether it is surrounded by sea, nor does it
appear whence it got this name or who he was who gave it, unless we
shall say that the land received its name from Europa the Tyrian; and
if so, it would appear that before this it was nameless like the rest.
She however evidently belongs to Asia and did not come to this land
which is now called by the Hellenes Europe, but only from Phenicia to
Crete, and from Crete to Lykia. Let this suffice now which has been
said about these matters; for we will adopt those which are commonly
accepted of the accounts.
46. Now the region of the Euxine upon which Dareios was preparing to
march has, apart from the Scythian race, the most ignorant nations
within it of all lands: for we can neither put forward any nation of
those who dwell within the region of Pontus as eminent in ability, nor
do we know of any man of learning[45] having arisen there, apart from
the Scythian nation and Anacharsis. By the Scythian race one thing
which is the most important of all human things has been found out
more cleverly than by any other men of whom we know; but in other
respects I have no great admiration for them: and that most important
thing which they have discovered is such that none can escape again
who has come to attack them, and if they do not desire to be found, it
is not possible to catch them: for they who have neither cities
founded nor walls built, but all carry their houses with them and are
mounted archers, living not by the plough but by cattle, and whose
dwellings are upon cars, these assuredly are invincible and impossible
to approach.
47. This they have found out, seeing that their land is
suitable to it and at the same time the rivers are their allies: for
first this land is plain land and is grassy and well watered, and then
there are rivers flowing through it not much less in number than the
channels in Egypt. Of these as many as are noteworthy and also can be
navigated from the sea, I will name: there is Ister with five mouths,
and after this Tyras, Hypanis, Borysthenes, Panticapes, Kypakyris,
Gerros and Tanaïs. These flow as I shall now describe.
48. The Ister, which is the greatest of all the rivers which we know,
flows always with equal volume in summer and winter alike. It is the
first towards the West of all the Scythian rivers, and it has become
the greatest of all rivers because other rivers flow into it. And
these are they which make it great:[46]--five in number are those[47]
which flow through the Scythian land, namely that which the Scythians
call Porata and the Hellenes Pyretos, and besides this, Tiarantos and
Araros and Naparis and Ordessos. The first-mentioned of these is a
great river lying towards the East, and there it joins waters with the
Ister, the second Tiarantos is more to the West and smaller, and the
Araros and Naparis and Ordessos flow into the Ister going between
these two.
49. These are the native Scythian rivers which join to
swell its stream, while from the Agathyrsians flows the Maris and
joins the Ister, and from the summits of Haimos flow three other great
rivers towards the North Wind and fall into it, namely Atlas and Auras
and Tibisis. Through Thrace and the Thracian Crobyzians flow the
rivers Athrys and Noes and Artanes, running into the Ister; and from
the Paionians and Mount Rhodope the river Kios,[48] cutting through
Haimos in the midst, runs into it also. From the Illyrians the river
Angros flows Northwards and runs out into the Triballian plain and
into the river Brongos, and the Brongos flows into the Ister; thus the
Ister receives both these, being great rivers. From the region which
is above[20] the Ombricans, the river Carpis and another river, the
Alpis, flow also towards the North Wind and run into it; for the Ister
flows in fact through the whole of Europe, beginning in the land of
the Keltoi, who after the Kynesians dwell furthest towards the sun-
setting of all the peoples of Europe; and thus flowing through all
Europe it falls into the sea by the side of Scythia.
50. So then it is
because these which have been named and many others join their waters
together, that Ister becomes the greatest of rivers; since if we
compare the single streams, the Nile is superior in volume of water;
for into this no river or spring flows, to contribute to its volume.
And the Ister flows at an equal level always both in summer and in
winter for some such cause as this, as I suppose:--in winter it is of
the natural size, or becomes only a little larger than its nature,
seeing that this land receives very little rain in winter, but
constantly has snow; whereas in summer the snow which fell in the
winter, in quantity abundant, melts and runs from all parts into the
Ister. This snow of which I speak, running into the river helps to
swell its volume, and with it also many and violent showers of rain,
for it rains during the summer: and thus the waters which mingle with
the Ister are more copious in summer than they are in winter by about
as much as the water which the Sun draws to himself in summer exceeds
that which he draws in winter; and by the setting of these things
against one another there is produced a balance; so that the river is
seen to be of equal volume always.
51. One, I say, of the rivers which the Scythians have is the Ister;
and after it the Tyras, which starts from the North and begins its
course from a large lake which is the boundary between the land of the
Scythians and that of the Neuroi. At its mouth are settled those
Hellenes who are called Tyritai.
52. The third river is the Hypanis,
which starts from Scythia and flows from a great lake round which feed
white wild horses; and this lake is rightly called "Mother of
Hypanis." From this then the river Hypanis takes its rise and for a
distance of five days' sail it flows shallow and with sweet water
still;[49] but from this point on towards the sea for four days' sail
it is very bitter, for there flows into it the water of a bitter
spring, which is so exceedingly bitter that, small as it is, it
changes the water of the Hypanis by mingling with it, though that is a
river to which few are equal in greatness. This spring is on the
border between the lands of the agricultural Scythians and of the
Alazonians, and the name of the spring and of the place from which it
flows is in Scythian Exampaios, and in the Hellenic tongue Hierai
Hodoi.[50] Now the Tyras and the Hypanis approach one another in their
windings in the land of the Alazonians, but after this each turns off
and widens the space between them as they flow.
53. Fourth is the river Borysthenes, which is both the largest of
these after the Ister, and also in our opinion the most serviceable
not only of the Scythian rivers but also of all the rivers of the
world besides, excepting only the Nile of Egypt, for to this it is not
possible to compare any other river: of the rest however the
Borysthenes is the most serviceable, seeing that it provides both
pastures which are the fairest and the richest for cattle, and fish
which are better by far and more numerous than those of any other
river, and also it is the sweetest water to drink, and flows with
clear stream, though others beside it are turbid, and along its banks
crops are produced better than elsewhere, while in parts where it is
not sown, grass grows deeper. Moreover at its mouth salt forms of
itself in abundance, and it produces also huge fish without spines,
which they call /antacaioi/, to be used for salting, and many other
things also worthy of wonder. Now as far as the region of the
Gerrians,[51] to which it is a voyage of forty[52] days, the
Borysthenes is known as flowing from the North Wind; but above this
none can tell through what nations it flows: it is certain however
that it runs through desert[53] to the land of the agricultural
Scythians; for these Scythians dwell along its banks for a distance of
ten days' sail. Of this river alone and of the Nile I cannot tell
where the sources are, nor, I think, can any of the Hellenes. When the
Borysthenes comes near the sea in its course, the Hypanis mingles with
it, running out into the same marsh;[53a] and the space between these
two rivers, which is as it were a beak of land,[54] is called the
point of Hippoles, and in it is placed a temple of the Mother,[55] and
opposite the temple upon the river Hypanis are settled the
Borysthenites.
54. This is that which has to do with these rivers; and after these
there is a fifth river besides, called Panticapes. This also flows[56]
both from the North and from a lake, and in the space between this
river and the Borysthenes dwell the agricultural Scythians: it runs
out into the region of Hylaia, and having passed by this it mingles
with the Borysthenes.
55. Sixth comes the river Hypakyris, which
starts from a lake, and flowing through the midst of the nomad
Scythians runs out into the sea by the city of Carkinitis, skirting on
its right bank the region of Hylaia and the so-called racecourse of
Achilles.
56. Seventh is the Gerros, which parts off from the
Borysthenes near about that part of the country where the Borysthenes
ceases to be known,--it parts off, I say, in this region and has the
same name which this region itself has, namely Gerros; and as it flows
to the sea it borders the country of the nomad and that of the Royal
Scythians, and runs out into the Hypakyris.
57. The eighth is the
river Tanaïs, which starts in its flow at first from a large lake, and
runs out into a still larger lake called Maiotis, which is the
boundary between the Royal Scythians and the Sauromatai. Into this
Tanaïs falls another river, whose name is Hyrgis.
58. So many are the rivers of note with which the Scythians are
provided: and for cattle the grass which comes up in the land of
Scythia is the most productive of bile of any grass which we know; and
that this is so you may judge when you open the bodies of the cattle.
59. Thus abundant supply have they of that which is most important;
and as for the rest their customs are as follows. The gods whom they
propitiate by worship are these only:--Hestia most of all, then Zeus
and the Earth, supposing that Earth is the wife of Zeus, and after
these Apollo, and Aphrodite Urania, and Heracles, and Ares. Of these
all the Scythians have the worship established, and the so-called
Royal Scythians sacrifice also to Poseidon. Now Hestia is called in
Scythian Tabiti, and Zeus, being most rightly named in my opinion, is
called Papaios, and Earth Api,[57] and Apollo Oitosyros,[58] and
Aphrodite Urania is called Argimpasa,[59] and Poseidon
Thagimasidas.[60] It is not their custom however to make images,
altars or temples to any except Ares, but to him it is their custom to
make them.
60. They have all the same manner of sacrifice established for all
their religious rites equally, and it is thus performed:--the victim
stands with its fore-feet tied, and the sacrificing priest stands
behind the victim, and by pulling the end of the cord he throws the
beast down; and as the victim falls, he calls upon the god to whom he
is sacrificing, and then at once throws a noose round its neck, and
putting a small stick into it he turns it round and so strangles the
animal, without either lighting a fire or making any first offering
from the victim or pouring any libation over it: and when he has
strangled it and flayed off the skin, he proceeds to boil it.
61. Now
as the land of Scythia is exceedingly ill wooded, this contrivance has
been invented for the boiling of the flesh:--having flayed the
victims, they strip the flesh off the bones and then put it into
caldrons, if they happen to have any, of native make, which very much
resemble Lesbian mixing-bowls except that they are much larger,--into
these they put the flesh and boil it by lighting under it the bones of
the victim: if however thy have not at hand the caldron, they put all
the flesh into the stomachs of the victims and adding water they light
the bones under them; and these blaze up beautifully, and the
stomachs easily hold the flesh when it has been stripped off the
bones: thus an ox is made to boil itself, and the other kinds of
victims each boil themselves also. Then when the flesh is boiled, the sacrificer takes a first offering of the flesh and of the vital organs
and casts it in front of him. And they sacrifice various kinds of
cattle, but especially horses.
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