Kitap 4
and the report of Aristeas' death being spread about in the city was disputed by a man of +Cyzicus [27.9,40.4167] (Perseus) Cyzicus , who had come from the town of Artace,A Milesian colony, the port of +Cyzicus [27.9,40.4167] (Perseus) Cyzicus . and said that he had met Aristeas going toward +Cyzicus [27.9,40.4167] (Perseus) Cyzicus and spoken with him. While he argued vehemently, the relatives of the dead man came to the fuller's shop with all that was necessary for burial;
but when the place was opened, there was no Aristeas there, dead or alive. But in the seventh year after that, Aristeas appeared at +Marmara Adasi [27.616,40.633] (island), Balikesir, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Proconnesus and made that poem which the Greeks now call the Arimaspea, after which he vanished once again.
Such is the tale told in these two towns. But this, I know, happened to the Metapontines in Italy [12.833,42.833] (nation), Europe Italy , two hundred and forty years after the second disappearance of Aristeas, as reckoning made at +Marmara Adasi [27.616,40.633] (island), Balikesir, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Proconnesus and +Metapontum [16.8333,40.3833] (Perseus) Metapontum shows me:
Aristeas, so the Metapontines say, appeared in their country and told them to set up an altar to Apollo, and set beside it a statue bearing the name of Aristeas the Proconnesian; for, he said, Apollo had come to their country alone of all Italian lands, and he—the man who was now Aristeas, but then when he followed the god had been a crow—had come with him.
After saying this, he vanished. The Metapontines, so they say, sent to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi and asked the god what the vision of the man could mean; and the Pythian priestess told them to obey the vision, saying that their fortune would be better.
They did as instructed. And now there stands beside the image of Apollo a statue bearing the name of Aristeas; a grove of bay-trees surrounds it; the image is set in the marketplace. Let it suffice that I have said this much about Aristeas.
As for the land of which my history has begun to speak, no one exactly knows what lies north of it; for I can find out from no one who claims to know as an eyewitness. For even Aristeas, whom I recently mentioned—even he did not claim to have gone beyond the Issedones, even though a poet; but he spoke by hearsay of what lay north, saying that the Issedones had told him.
But all that we have been able to learn for certain by report of the farthest lands shall be told.
North of the port of the Borysthenites,Another Milesian colony, called by Greeks generally +Izmit [29.916,40.783] (inhabited place), Kocaeli, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Olbia (the Fortunate) or Miletopolis; it was the most important Greek center north of the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Euxine . which lies midway along the coast of Scythia (region (general)), Asia Scythia , the first inhabitants are the Callippidae, who are Scythian Greeks; and beyond them another tribe called Alazones; these and the Callippidae, though in other ways they live like the Scythians, plant and eat grain, onions, garlic, lentils, and millet.
Above the Alazones live Scythian farmers, who plant grain not to eat but to sell; north of these, the Neuri; north of the Neuri, the land is uninhabited so far as we know.
These are the tribes by the Hypanis river,The Bug. west of the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes . But on the other side of the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes , the tribe nearest to the sea is the tribe of the Woodlands; and north of these live Scythian farmers, whom the Greek colonists on the Hypanis river (who call themselves Olbiopolitae) call Borystheneïtae.
These farming Scythians inhabit a land stretching east a three days' journey to a river called Panticapes,Not identified. and north as far as an eleven days' voyage up the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes ; and north of these the land is desolate for a long way;
after the desolation is the country of the Man-eaters, who are a nation apart and by no means Scythian; and beyond them is true desolation, where no nation of men lives, as far as we know.
But to the east of these farming Scythians, across the Panticapes river, you are in the land of nomadic Scythians, who plant nothing, nor plough; and all these lands except the Woodlands are bare of trees. These nomads inhabit a country to the east that stretches fourteen days' journey to the Gerrus river.Not identified.
Across the Gerrus are those lands called Royal, where the best and most numerous of the Scythians are, who consider all other Scythians their slaves; their territory stretches south to the Tauric land, and east to the trench that was dug by the sons of the blind men, and to the port called The Cliffs Apparently on the west coast of the Sea of +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Azov ; cp. Hdt. 4.110. on the Maeetian lake; and part of it stretches to the +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Tanaïs river.
North of the Royal Scythians live the Blackcloaks, who are of another and not a Scythian stock; and beyond the Blackcloaks the land is all marshes and uninhabited by men, so far as we know.
Across the +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Tanaïs it is no longer Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia; the first of the districts belongs to the Sauromatae, whose country begins at the inner end of the Maeetian lake and stretches fifteen days' journey north, and is quite bare of both wild and cultivated trees. Above these in the second district, the Budini inhabit a country thickly overgrown with trees of all kinds.
North of the Budini the land is uninhabited for seven days' journey; after this desolation, and somewhat more toward the east wind, live the Thyssagetae, a numerous and a separate nation, who live by hunting.
Adjoining these and in the same country live the people called Iyrkae; these also live by hunting, in the way that I will describe. The hunter climbs a tree, and sits there concealed; for trees grow thickly all over the land; and each man has his horse at hand, trained to flatten on its belly for the sake of lowness, and his dog; and when he sees the quarry from the tree, he shoots with the bow and mounts his horse and pursues it, and the dog follows close behind.
Beyond these and somewhat to the east live Scythians again, who revolted from the Royal Scythians and came to this country.
As for the countryside of these Scythians, all the land mentioned up to this point is level and its soil deep; but thereafter it is stony and rough.
After a long journey through this rough country, there are men inhabiting the foothills of high mountains, who are said to be bald from birth (male and female alike) and snub-nosed and with long beards; they speak their own language, and wear Scythian clothing, and their food comes from trees.
The tree by which they live is called “Pontic”; it is about the size of a fig-tree, and bears a fruit as big as a bean, with a stone in it. When this fruit is ripe, they strain it through cloth, and a thick black liquid comes from it, which they call “aschu”;The fruit of the “Prunus Padus” is said to be made by the Cossacks into a drink called “atschi.” they lick this up or drink it mixed with milk, and from the thickest lees of it they make cakes, and eat them.
They have few cattle, for the pasture in their land is not good. They each live under a tree, covering it in winter with a white felt cloth, but using no felt in summer.
These people are wronged by no man, for they are said to be sacred; nor have they any weapon of war. They judge the quarrels between their neighbors; furthermore, whatever banished man has taken refuge with them is wronged by no one. They are called Argippeans.
Now as far as the land of these bald men, we have full knowledge of the country and the nations on the near side of them; for some of the Scythians make their way to them, from whom it is easy to get knowledge, and from some of the Greeks, too, from the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes port and the other ports of +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus; such Scythians as visit them transact their business with seven interpreters and in seven languages.
As far as these men this country is known, then, but what lies north of the bald men no one can say with exact knowledge; for high and impassable mountains bar the way, and no one crosses them. These bald men say (although I do not believe them) that the mountains are inhabited by men with goats' feet, and that beyond these are men who sleep for six months of the twelve. This I cannot accept as true at all.
But the country east of the bald-heads is known for certain to be inhabited by the Issedones; however, of what lies north either of the bald-heads or the Issedones we have no knowledge, except what comes from the report of these latter.
It is said to be the custom of the Issedones that, whenever a man's father dies, all the nearest of kin bring beasts of the flock and, having killed these and cut up the flesh, they also cut up the dead father of their host, and set out all the flesh mixed together for a feast.
As for his head, they strip it bare and clean and gild it, and keep it for a sacred relic, to which they offer solemn sacrifice yearly. Every son does this for his father, just like the Greeks in their festivals in honor of the dead. In other respects, these are said to be a law-abiding people, too, and the women to have equal power with the men.
Of these too, then, we have knowledge; but as for what is north of them, it is from the Issedones that the tale comes of the one-eyed men and the griffins that guard gold; this is told by the Scythians, who have heard it from them; and we have taken it as true from the Scythians, and call these people by the Scythian name, Arimaspians; for in the Scythian tongue “arima” is one, and “spou” is the eye.
All the aforesaid country is exceedingly cold: for eight months of every year there is unbearable frost, and during these you do not make mud by pouring out water but by lighting a fire; the sea freezes, as does all the Kerchenskiy Proliv [36.650,45.250] (strait), EuropeCimmerian Bosporus; and the Scythians living on this side of the trench lead armies over the ice, and drive their wagons across to the land of the +Sindi [24.666,58.4] (inhabited place), lost & found/Estonia, Estonia, EuropeSindi.
So it is winter for eight months, and cold in that country for the four that remain. Here, there is a different sort of winter than the winters in other lands: for in the season for rain scarcely any falls, but all summer it rains unceasingly;
and when there are thunderstorms in other lands, here there are none, but in summer there are plenty of them; if there is a thunderstorm in winter they are apt to wonder at it as at a portent. And so, too, if there is an earthquake summer or winter, it is considered a portent in Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia.
Horses have the endurance to bear the Scythian winter; mules and asses cannot bear it at all; and yet in other lands, while asses and mules can endure frost, horses that stand in it are frostbitten.
And in my opinion it is for this reason that the hornless kind of cattle grow no horns in Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia. A verse of Homer in the Odyssey attests to my opinion: “Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya, the land where lambs are born with horns on their foreheads,” Hom. Od. 4.85 in which it is correctly observed that in hot countries the horns grow quickly, whereas in very cold countries beasts hardly grow horns, or not at all.
In Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia, then, this happens because of the cold. But I think it strange (for it was always the way of my history to investigate excurses) that in the whole of +Elis [21.4,37.8833] (Perseus) Elis no mules can be conceived although the country is not cold, nor is there any evident cause. The Eleans themselves say that it is because of a curse that mules cannot be conceived among them;
but whenever the season is at hand for the mares to conceive, they drive them into the countries of their neighbors, and then send the asses after them, until the mares are pregnant, and then they drive them home again.
But regarding the feathers of which the Scythians say that the air is full, so thickly that no one can see or traverse the land beyond, I have this opinion. North of that country snow falls continually, though less in summer than in winter, as is to be expected.
Whoever has seen snow falling thickly near him knows himself my meaning; for snow is like feathers; and because of the winter, which is as I have said, the regions to the north of this continent are uninhabited. I think therefore that in this story of feathers the Scythians and their neighbors only speak of snow figuratively. So, then, I have spoken of those parts that are said to be most distant.