Episode 19: Scythians: Legendary and Humble Beginnings

We continue the narrative by assessing the mythological and historical origins of the Scythians.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NomadsandEmpires
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NomadEmpiresPod
Substack: https://nomadsandempirespodcast.substack.com/     

Relevant Books:

• Barry Cunliffe, The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe
• Claudia Chang, Rethinking Prehistoric Central Asia: Shepherds, Farmers, and Nomads
• Renate Rolle, The World of the Scythians
• Yulia Ustanova, The Supreme God of the Bosporan Kingdom: Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God 

Transcript

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Farnah was an ambitious young man. His father had been part of Chief Harya’s band of elite warriors. Farnah remembered those days so clearly. His father would ride with the other horsemen, capturing loot and slaves across the mighty Don River. Farnah’s own family was celebrated, and Farnah remembered the days around the campfire, where his father would regale countless numbers of people with stories of lands and peoples from far off. 

It had all changed when his father took an ax blow to the head. His comrades were able to retrieve his father and bring him back to camp, but his father was forever changed. He was barely a human, more of a living corpse that moaned incoherently every few days. Thankfully, his suffering was short. His family fortunes went down just as quickly, however.

In the decade since that terrible day, Farnah had witnessed many changes. The camp was packed. More individuals had made their way to Chief Harya, seeking protection and service. More children had been born and grown up and became adults. Though there was greater safety in numbers, there was significantly less goods to give around. Food had become more scarce, the flocks had begun to thin out, and tensions rose high.

Farnah, though a warrior in his own right, lacked the prowess and prestige of his father. He knew that. He received little as a result. 

What he did have were comrades. Several dissatisfied men, similar to his own age and circumstances, tired of their meaningless existence, began to conspire, to consider new options. Farnah was the most passionate of them, reminding them all of places full of plunder and pasture. Slowly, Farnah rallied a group of men in a united goal. 

Farnah, whose name meant “fortune” in the Scythian tongue, would lead his men out of Chief Harya’s domain. They would cross the Don River and enter the lands beyond. They would fight with bow and sword. They would ride with horse and ambition. They would carve their own lands, their own pastures, their own kingdoms. 

And so, in the midst of night time, when the steppe wolves howled in the air, under a blanket of evening stars and a pale moon, Farnah and his band of loyal warriors set off on their own. They crossed the Don and the Donest, they rode swiftly through the open plains, searching, desperately, for their own destiny in the world beyond. 

And welcome back to the Nomads and Empires podcast, episode 19. Over the last few episodes, we examined the Scythians from a number of different lenses. We assessed their arts, their religion, and their ways of war. We identified the diversity of Scythian lifestyles and geographic localities. By laying this contextual framework, we were able to view the Scythians holistically before diving into their historical narrative. 

That changes today. From today onward, we’ll now be examining the Scythians through the perspectives of time and space. History’s arrow will now march onwards. And so, starting on today’s episode of the Nomads and Empires podcast, we will examine the origins of the Scythians and better understand how they moved across the Eurasian steppes. 

If we think back to episode 14, then we should remember that broadly-Scythian groups could be found all over the steppe. Their geographic range extended from the outskirts of Hungary to the Sayan-Altai mountains. The Scythians, therefore, operated in this wide space of territory that stretched for over 6,000 kilometers. 

A key question that emerges then is where the Scythians originated. Now, we have talked about this answer in episode 7, episode 14, and others, so in some ways we may be treading old ground. In those episodes, we looked at archaeological and historical data to consider the emergence of the Kimmerians and so forth. Importantly, the Scythians do offer us their own perspectives on their genesis. They actually have origin myths that we’ve yet to examine. And so, before diving more deeply into the archaeological and historical record, let’s now consider some primary accounts first.  

According to our favorite Greek historian Herodotus, there were several competing explanations on the origins of the Scythians. We are given one perspective from the Scythians themselves and another from the Greeks of the Black Sea coasts. Herodotus then offers his own views. We should of course note that all of these origin myths derive from a Pontic Scythian perspective and may not represent… well, anything about the Scythians of other lands like in Central Asia and the Sayan-Altai. 

To this first narrative, we are told that the Scythians identified their own polity as the youngest of all others in the known world. The Scythians identified Targitaos as the founder of their nation. Targitaos, it is said, was the son of Zeus and a daughter of the River Borysthenes. Three sons were then born through Targitaos: Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais. One day, several golden objects fell from the sky: a plough, a yoke, a sword, and a flask. Each of the sons attempted to obtain these objects, and for the first two, Lipoxais and Arpoxais, the objects would ignite into a fiery blaze. Such embers might remind us of what we talked in episode 17, and how these two brothers may have lacked the blessings or approval of the fire goddess Tabiti.

It would be the youngest of these sons, Colaxais, who was allowed to handle these golden objects and claim them for himself. In consequence, the other brothers would submit and bend the knee to Colaxais. From that point forward, the lineage of Colaxais would act as the supreme king of the Scythian people. Indeed, each of these brothers would go on to father their own branch of the Scythian populace. Lipoxais would father the Auchatae, Arpoxais would give rise to the Catiari and the Traspians, and Colaxais’s line would become known as the Paralatae, or better known as the Royal Scythians.

From that point onward, the Royal Scythians would be in charge of the sacred golden objects that had come from Tabiti. Control of these objects legitimized the rule of the Royal Scythians, and they were thus allotted large amounts of territory. And thus is the origin account of the Scythians supposedly by the Scythians. 

There are some interesting details that we can glean from this story. Targitaos, for instance, was a son of Zeus, and thus maintained a strict connection to the Sky Father motif so important in Scythian belief. Furthermore, the names of the mythological Scythians do come from Iranian origins. The name of Targitaos may derive from the Old Iranian term darga-tavah, which means something like “he whose strength is long-lasting.” The brothers of Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais end with the Iranian suffix “xais,” which meant “ruling.” 

The Scythian origins of this myth are there, but, I have to say that there are details that I have issues with. I am immediately suspicious about the claim that the Scythians were the youngest of all nations, and I somehow doubt that this was admitted by the Scythians themselves. By asserting this point, the Scythians would have implied that other nations were older, perhaps more wiser than they. Thus, the origins of the Greeks, the Persians, and other settled peoples would be more primordial, and in a way more prestigious. It again heralds the potential bias that Herodotus may have had when constructing his narrative, and that even a supposedly-Scythian perspective may have been remodeled to maintain a sense of Greek superiority.

Furthermore, we must be keenly aware that if this narrative did originate from the Scythians, it probably came from those within the royal elite. The story feels less like an origin myth and more of a foundation myth for a particular dynasty… like that of the lineage of Colaxais, that is, the Royal Scythians. Bruce Lincoln, a professor emeritus of pre-Iranian religions at the University of Chicago, even notes that the Royal Scythians may have constructed such a narrative because it would have appealed to their Greek neighbors. The placement of Zeus as the father of Targitaos, rather than being a connection to Indo-Iranian motifs, could have been an attempt at placing the Scythians within a Greek worldview, implicitly identifying the Scythians as half-Greek in a way.

This attempt at placing the Scythians within a Greek space becomes even more evident when we examine a second origin myth espoused by Herodotus. Here, we are told that the account comes from the Pontic Greeks; such individuals likely learned details about Scythian beliefs from their commercial interactions in places like Olbia.

In this second account, the Scythians did not originate from Zeus or Targitaos. Here, the demi-god Heracles takes center stage. We are told that one day, Herakles was leading horses and oxen into the steppes of the Pontic region. For whatever reason, Herakles decided to move his cattle here in the winter, and upon feeling the frigid air, Herakles began to wrap himself in a lion’s pelt, perhaps that of the Nemean lion. He then decided to fall asleep.

When Herakles woke up, he found his horses missing and so he began to conduct a wide search. In a land known as Hylaia, or “the Woodland,” Heracles would find a cave. Inside the cave, there was no sign of horses, but instead he came upon a woman that was half snake. Heracles earnestly asked if she had seen his horses, and to his surprise, the half-snake woman announced that she had seen his animals and had taken them for herself. She would only return Heracles’ animals if he were to have intercourse with her.

The two would remain in the cave for some time; long enough, in fact, for the half-snake woman to have produced three children: Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scythes. Eventually, she did return the horses to Heracles, but before he left her for good, she asked Herakles what she was to do with their children. Heracles responded as follows:

“When you see these boys grown to manhood, do as I shall tell you and you will make no mistake. That one of them that you see stringing this bow, thus, and girdling himself with this belt, thus, him make to be a dweller of this country. But whichever of them fails in these tasks I have set, send him out of the land.” 

“At that Heracles drew one of his bows (for until then, they say, he always bore two) and showed her the belt and gave her the bow and the belt. The belt had at the point of its buckle a golden flask. Having given her these, away went Heracles… And mindful of her charge, she carried out all she had been bidden.”

The sons Agathyrsus and Gelonus were deemed to be lacking in capability, and so they were thrust out of their homelands. Once again, the youngest child takes center stage. Scythes receives the items of Heracles and would remain in the lands of his birth. From that point on, the line of Scythes would act as the high kings of the Scythian peoples. We are even told that this origin influenced clothing traditions, as many Scythians supposedly attached flasks to their belts due to this myth.

Symbolically, the myth echoes some of the ideas we talked about previously. The union of the sky and earth, as we discussed in episode 18, is somewhat preserved here, as the half-serpent woman may have connotations with the earth and soil. Though Heracles is not necessarily a “sky-father” archetype, his ancestry via Zeus would lend this connection to the heavens. It is for these reasons why some scholars connect Heracles to the Scythian name Targitaos, but this very connection is challenged by the fact that, if true, Targitaos would sit at the last rung of the Scythian pantheon, which may clash with the status a progenitor deity might deserve.

The fact that this legend is offered by the Pontic Greeks is another interesting point. Sure, the Pontic Greeks would have interacted with Scythian patrons. Some high-standing Scythians may have even described these stories to Greek craftsmen so they would better understand the motifs they were designing. However, Professor Bruce Lincoln notes that there is a curious power differential at play when we consider the figures of Heracles and the half-serpentine woman. Heracles, heralding from the land of the Greeks, acts as an outside force that changes the very essence of Scythia. The half-serpent woman represents the indigenous nature of this land, and indeed, this land is described as being “desolate” prior to the arrival of Heracles. It is only through Heracles’ interactions with the half-serpent woman does the land become cultivated. In essence, Heracles almost “civilizes” Scythia; put another way, the story implies that the Pontic region only became civilized after the Greeks arrived.

Both of these narratives are illuminating in how they place the Scythians within a wider worldview. These myths identify the origins of political institutions and even demonstrate the international context the Scythians were placed in. And yet, it becomes clear that none of these stories actually represent a meaningful explanation as to where the Scythians originated from. We can glean important sociopolitical and sociocultural elements, certainly, but details on their genesis are muddled by biases and agendas. 

Herodotus offers one final explanation for the beginnings of the Scythians, and it is this last story that does ring with some truth. We are told by our favorite historian that the Scythians came from the east. 

“There is another story, which is strongly urged, and it is this one to which I myself incline. It is this: the nomad Scythians living in Asia were hard pressed in war by the Massagetae and crossed the river Araxes into Cimmerian country.”

This final narrative acts as a form of Occam’s Razor. It is simple, it is clear, and it is generally corroborated by archaeological data. Here, we do not have to contend with sociopolitical subtext. Like many other steppe groups, the Scythians emerged from the east and displaced an existing peoples: the Kimmerians. And… if you’ve been with me since episode 1, you’ll know that this retelling is a very quick simplification.

But, it is in this last origin story where I now want to segue us into a more detailed exploration of Scythian beginnings. From our historical and archaeological perspectives, the Scythians probably didn’t originate from Targitaos or Heracles. The far-off east, meanwhile, has a bit more credence, and the Scythians will make the journey into Kimmerian territory. And so, we will start our search in that direction. 

As we’ve mentioned in several episodes, archaeologists have traced the earliest examples of Scythian material culture to the Minusinsk Basin. Once more, we are specifically talking about the Arzhan kurgans, though we should note that the broader area of Scythian inhabitation went beyond these burials. It is likely that various Scythian groups resided around the basin as well.  

Of course, the Arzhan community descended from prior peoples. Genetic research indicates that the early Scythians came from a number of preexisting cultures, namely the Srubnayan and Karasuk. The 1200s BCE would play a key role in molding the Scythians, as climate change in this period of time pushed many steppe communities out of preexisting pastures. In the Minusinsk Basin, such changes resulted in a more “humid and cooler climate,” which created increased grazing land for nomads. 

Archaeological evidence reveals that the number of sheep, goats, and horses increased between the 1200s BCE-800s BCE. As we talked about in episode 7, the increased prevalence of steppe nomadism as a socioeconomic form of life would also have resulted in greater competition, and so wealthy herders were incentivized to create structures to defend their flock; in this way, steppe communities may have militarized, and local strongmen could have developed a band of loyal followers: the commitatus, to borrow terminology from Professor Christopher Beckwith.

Further climate changes have been dated to around the mid-800s BCE, which would be in line with the westward movement of steppe groups out of the Sayan-Altai. According to a radiocarbon analysis in 2004, another period of humid conditions expanded the steppe zone and allowed more individuals to participate in the steppe-nomadic socioeconomic structure. Interestingly, the scholars of this study note that such shifts in the climate may have been a consequence of decreased solar activity. 

And so during the Karasuk and Tagar eras, we start to see the formation of more structured steppe communities. Aided by conducive environmental conditions, such communities were able to extend their influence to greater swathes of territory, which then allowed them larger herds of animals. Some members of this community would play specialized roles, crafting objects reminiscent of later Scythian artifacts. The Arzhan communities represent a culmination of these developments, and we’ve talked frequently already about the international relations and complexity exhibited by the people who built these kurgans.

As we reach the 800s BCE, these sociopolitical developments would foster one other phenomenon: migration. As populations increased, resources for individual members would have decreased. Some members of these Sayan-Altai communities may have believed that they would find their own successes in new territories. Greater international ties would have allowed certain members of these steppe communities knowledge of what lay outside their own territory. We can imagine that some independent bands of warriors decided to strike out on their own to claim their own pastures, to perhaps carve their own kingdoms.

And so from the Sayan-Altai region, a number of Scythian progenitor bands fanned their way westward. Some groups crossed the Central Asian mountains and would then reside in this proximate territory. These particular Scythians would become known as the Saka, with the Saka Tigraxauda residing in the lands around the Syr Darya and Semirech’ye region, while the Saka Haumuwarga would inhabit the Ferghana valley. Other Scythian groups, such as the Massagetae, probably lived on the Kazakh steppe to the north of these Saka, though the specific details of this are a bit murkier.

Once secured in these lands, the Central Asian Scythians would have been confronted by a unique environment. The territory consisted of steppeland that, as one moved south, transitioned into desert-steppe and then full desert. The presence of great mountains meant that the region was nurtured by bountiful rivers, including the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. A whole network of waterways could be found near Lake Balkhash, the aforementioned Semirech’ye region. Importantly for the Scythians here, the lands south of the Amu Darya river was home to a number of oases and garrison towns operated by the Persian Empire. 

The Scythians here maintained their nomadic structures, certainly. The economy of these groups centered around cattle, but the varying ecosystems allowed parallel systems to emerge. Those living along rivers could fish and those living near sedentary societies could have engaged in craftwork and trade. Near mountains with rich soils, semi-nomadism may have prevailed over full-time nomadism, with some herders moving their flocks to higher elevations depending on the season and conducting agriculture in other months. Professor Claudia Chang’s work Rethinking Prehistoric Central Asia provides a really good glimpse into the material culture of this era, and we’ll revisit this book in great detail later. All of this is to say that the Scythians of Central Asia likely engaged in a diverse socioeconomic lifestyle that was greatly influenced by proximity to the Persians. 

Politically, we have less ideas as to what may have occurred. Scholars like Abetekov do note that  leaders emerged among the Saka and Massagatea. Such leaders may have maintained the comitatus structure, creating for themselves a military consisting of their retainers and aristocratic members of the polity. Impressive kurgans found near the Syr Darya, such as the Tagisken grave complex, highlight the prestige and prowess such leaders may have possessed. In peripheral places, local leaders would have maintained greater power, but these individuals would still offer tribute and allegiance to their more powerful liege. 

This may sound like a diversion, and perhaps it is, but it may be helpful to avoid terms like tribes and clans in this discussion. Though useful in some contexts, we are often left with an idea that all members of a political entity derive from some shared common ancestry. This perspective is often incorrect, and instead I follow the ideas presented by the historian Christopher Atwood, who describes political relations in the steppe as based on an “appanage” system. In this system, nomadic groups are led by leading families who were part of a distinct noble class; under these families were a class of commoners who depended (and expected) protection and economic stability. We can therefore imagine a similar political structure emerging in Central Asia, even as some Scythian groups settled in places far from the steppe. Thus, those semi-nomadic groups living near mountains still paid homage to nomadic leaders from afar while supporting the political power of their local leader. 

Other Scythian groups likely sought pastures beyond Central Asia. Through the 9th and 7th centuries BCE, ambitious and independently-minded Scythians probably moved beyond the Kazakh grasslands and headed toward the underpass south of the Urals. As we discussed in episode 8, scholars like Barry Cunliffe speculated that the Kimmerians may have simply been one of several Scythian groups that migrated beyond Central Asia. These nomads would have entered the Pontic steppe and likely established themselves as a ruling elite. Some Scythians probably intermarried with the local cultures here, as indicated by some genetic research. 

For example, the emergence of the Sauromatians in the north Caucasus can be explained by this synthesis. The Sauromatians spoke a Scythian language and maintained a nomadic-pastoralist way of living, but they also held practices rather distinct from many Scythian groups. Women played a larger role in society, and some Sauromatian kurgans have found women buried with warrior equipment. The similarities and differences were so striking that Herodotus even mentions that the Sauromatians were a mixture between Scythian warriors and the legendary Amazonians. Combined with archaeological evidence, it is probable that the Sauromatians emerged after a Scythian migration melded together with an indigenous culture in the Don and Volga regions.

Beyond individual adventurism, other factors likely influenced this wave of migration, and they can explain the final origin myth recounted by Herodotus. As populations in the Central Asian steppes grew, we probably saw a repeat of what had happened in the Sayan-Altai. Competition and resource scarcity resulted in conflict. Facing these pressures, some Scythians probably saw migration as an avenue for survival. Considering Herodotus once again, he tells us that “the nomad Scythians living in Asia were hard pressed in war by the Massagetae and crossed the river Araxes into Cimmerian country.” This is speculative, but what if these particular Scythians were simply members of a Central Asian Scythian group that had been forced out of the region due to competition over dwindling resources? 

These migrating Scythians would then push across the Don River and enter the Pontic steppe. From there, these Scythians would wage conflict against the Kimmerians over this territory. A number of Kimmerians fled, with a large contingent heading south through the Caucasus. Some Scythians pursued these Kimmerians, while others stayed back to consolidate their gains, likely repeating the sociopolitical processes of the Kimmerians, integrating themselves into Pontic society as leading figures, and intermarrying with local populations. 

After securing the Pontic steppe, various Scythian groups continued their migration. Again, it is helpful to consider these movements as different bands in flux. There was almost certainly a fluid nature to these developments, with groups ebbing and flowing, competing and working with one another. Different Scythian groups at different times moved into different places, and there was no single authority directing the Scythians in any particular direction.

Therefore, from the Pontic region, Scythian bands migrated into several directions. Specific details on these groups can be found in episode 14, so I’ll be brief here. One contingent made its way into the Caucasus; we have some evidence of a Scythian presence along the Kuban River dated to around the mid-eighth century BCE. Though a large portion remained in the grasslands here, others would migrate across the mountains. Herodotus connects this migration to a vendetta against the Kimmerians, but it is more likely that such a narrative was invented to explain Scythian movements. It is more likely that, like in previous parts of the steppe, independent groups of Scythians made their way across the Caucasus. We can imagine a situation where Scythian warriors made raids across the mountains, bringing back loot and stories that would inspire later generations to make their own journey southward.

Overtime, we begin to find more evidence of a Scythian presence in the south Caucasus. Burial sites containing horse gear and other associated artifacts have been recovered. One survey identified at least 63 burial sites associated with the Scythians or Kimmerians in places in modern-day Armenia. The presence of Urartian, Assyrian, and Egyptian artifacts in many of these burials highlights possible trade and growing international connections between the Scythians and these wider powers. The movement of such goods and people would even influence the culture of the Scythians here, as we start to see Near Eastern artistic motifs in Scythian objects.

While one group of Scythians settled above and below the Caucasus, others continued their migration westward. As we already mentioned, many would reside past the Don River after ousting the Kimmerians, and such territory would become the main domain for the Royal Scythians. And yet, there were others who still pushed on. As we discussed in episode 14, archaeologists have identified two Scythian cultures that made their home in the Carpathian Basin. These consisted of the Transylvanian group that centered along the Muresh River, and the Vekerzug group that resided near the Tisza River. These Scythians likely moved into the area in the later end of the eighth century and are considered to be the most western extent of the Indo-Iranian steppe peoples.

The Scythians, as we saw, did not emerge from the semi-divine. They were not an example of creatio ex nihilo; they did not enter the world stage from the whims of gods and deities. Instead, the Scythians began as an Indo-Iranian people residing somewhere in the far-eastern edges of Central Asia. After conditions had changed, they would move westward, finding for themselves new territories to reside in. 

In a period of around three centuries, these ancient horse lords secured for themselves new homelands and new opportunities. By the end of this migratory period, Scythian groups existed from the Sayan-Altai to the Hungarian Plain. Centered near the borders of ancient China, Persia, and Greece, the Scythians in each of these regions would be able to play their own role in history. Whether through trade, warfare, or conquest, the Scythians now had an opportunity to play their part. 

One particular group was truly poised to take center stage. A contingent of Scythians were, supposedly, chasing down the remnant Kimmerians across the Caucasus and into the ancient Near East. They would come face to face with the great powers of antiquity and would mark one of the first major interactions the sedentary world would have with the steppe. For twenty-eight years, the Scythians would lord over the ancient Near East, becoming infamous in such time. At least, that’s what our ancient authors say.

Next time, we witness the Scythians enter world history by crossing through the Caucasus. 

Thank you all so much for sticking with me as we enter our next phase of the narrative. I have received a lot of great feedback and support from all of you, so it means so much. I would like to shout out one listener, who suggested I include relevant readings in the show notes, which you should see now. I’ll also again mention that this show is now on Patreon, so if you are interested in helping out, please check out the link in the show notes too! 

I am really excited to be continuing this journey onwards, and I hope you’re excited for what’s to come! I don’t really have anything else, so please, join us next time on the windy plains of the Eurasian steppe.