Kitap 4
But it is plain that this woman was of Asiatic birth, and never came to this land which the Greeks now call Europe (continent)Europe, but only from +Phoenicia (region (general)), Asia Phoenicia to +Crete [25,35.166] (region), Greece, Europe Crete and from +Crete [25,35.166] (region), Greece, Europe Crete to +Lycia (region (general)), Turkey, Asia Lycia. Thus much I have said of these matters, and let it suffice; we will use the names established by custom.
Nowhere are men so ignorant as in the lands by the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Euxine +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus (excluding the Scythian nation) into which Darius led his army. For we cannot show that any nation within the region of the +Black Sea [38,42] (sea) Pontus has any cleverness, nor do we know of (overlooking the Scythian nation and Anacharsis) any notable man born there.
But the Scythian race has made the cleverest discovery that we know in what is the most important of all human affairs; I do not praise the Scythians in all respects, but in this, the most important: that they have contrived that no one who attacks them can escape, and no one can catch them if they do not want to be found.
For when men have no established cities or forts, but are all nomads and mounted archers, not living by tilling the soil but by raising cattle and carrying their dwellings on wagons, how can they not be invincible and unapproachable?
They have made this discovery in a land that suits their purpose and has rivers that are their allies; for their country is flat and grassy and well-watered, and rivers run through it not very many fewer in number than the canals of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt.
As many of them as are famous and can be entered from the sea, I shall name. There is the Ister, which has five mouths, and the +Dnestr (river), Europe Tyras, and Hypanis, and +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes, and Panticapes, and Hypacuris, and Gerrhus, and +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Tanaïs. Their courses are as I shall indicate.
The Ister, the greatest of all rivers which we know, flows with the same volume in summer and winter; it is most westerly Scythian river of all, and the greatest because other rivers are its tributaries.
Those that make it great, five flowing through the Scythian country, are these: the river called by Scythians Porata and by Greeks Pyretus,Probably the +Prut [28.166,45.5] (river), Europe Pruth; the modern names of the other four rivers mentioned here are matters of conjecture. and besides this the Tiarantus, the Ararus, the Naparis, and the Ordessus.
The first-named of these rivers is a great stream flowing east and uniting its waters with the Ister; the second, the Tiarantus, is more westerly and smaller; the Ararus, Naparis, and Ordessus flow between these two and pour their waters into the Ister.
These are the native-born Scythian rivers that help to swell it; but the Maris river, which commingles with the Ister, flows from the Agathyrsi. The Atlas, Auras, and Tibisis, three other great rivers that pour into it, flow north from the heights of +Stara Planina (mountain range), Europe Haemus.The +Balkan [29.6,37.966] (inhabited place), Denizli Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Balkan range. None of the rivers in this chapter can be certainly identified; the names Κάρπις and Ἄλπις must indicate tributaries descending from the +Alps (mountain system), Europe Alps and +Carpathian Mountains [25.5,47] (mountain system), Europe Carpathians. The Athrys, the Noes, and the Artanes flow into the Ister from the country of the Crobyzi in Thrace (region (general)), EuropeThrace; the Cius river, which cuts through the middle of +Stara Planina (mountain range), Europe Haemus, from the Paeonians and the mountain range of +Nomos Rodhopis [25.5,41.83] (department), Western Thrace, Greece, Europe Rhodope.
The Angrus river flows north from +Illyria (region (general)), Europe Illyria into the Triballic plain and the Brongus river, and the Brongus into the Ister, which receives these two great rivers into itself. The Carpis and another river called Alpis also flow northward, from the country north of the Ombrici, to flow into it;
for the Ister traverses the whole of Europe (continent)Europe, rising among the Celts, who are the most westerly dwellers in Europe (continent)Europe, except for the Cynetes, and flowing thus clean across Europe (continent)Europe it issues forth along the borders of Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia.
With these rivers aforesaid, and many others, too, as its tributaries, the Ister becomes the greatest river of all, while river for river the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), AfricaNile surpasses it in volume, since that owes its volume of water to no tributary river or spring.
But the Ister is always the same height in summer and winter, the reason for which, I think, is this. In winter it is of its customary size, or only a little greater than is natural to it, for in that country in winter there is very little rain, but snow everywhere.
In the summer, the abundant snow that has fallen in winter melts and pours from all sides into the Ister; so this snow-melt pours into the river and helps to swell it and much violent rain besides, as the summer is the season of rain.
And in proportion as the sun draws to itself more water in summer than in winter, the water that commingles with the Ister is many times more abundant in summer than it is in winter; these opposites keep the balance true, so that the volume of the river appears always the same.
One of the rivers of the Scythians, then, is the Ister. The next is the +Dnestr (river), Europe Tyras;The +Dnestr (river), Europe Dniester. this comes from the north, flowing at first out of a great lake, which is the boundary between the Scythian and the Neurian countries; at the mouth of the river there is a settlement of Greeks, who are called Tyritae.
The third river is the Hypanis; this comes from Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia, flowing out of a great lake, around which wild, white horses graze. This lake is truly called the mother of the Hypanis.
Here, then, the Hypanis rises; for five days' journey its waters are shallow and still sweet; after that for four days' journey seaward it is amazingly bitter,
for a spring runs into it so bitter that although its volume is small its admixture taints the Hypanis, one of the few great rivers of the world. This spring is on the border between the farming Scythians See Hdt. 4.17. and the Alazones; the name of it and of the place where it rises is in Scythian Exampaeus; in the Greek tongue, Sacred Ways.
The +Dnestr (river), Europe Tyras and the Hypanis draw near together in the Alazones' country; after that they flow apart, the intervening space growing wider.
The fourth is the Borysthenes river. This is the next greatest after the Ister, and the most productive, in our judgment, not only of the Scythian but of all rivers, except the Egyptian Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), AfricaNile, with which no other river can be compared.
But of the rest, the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes is the most productive; it provides the finest and best-nurturing pasture lands for beasts, and the fish in it are beyond all in their excellence and abundance. Its water is most sweet to drink, flowing with a clear current, whereas the other rivers are turbid. There is excellent soil on its banks, and very rich grass where the land is not planted;
and self-formed crusts of salt abound at its mouth; it provides great spineless fish, called sturgeons, for salting, and many other wonderful things besides.
Its course is from the north, and it is known as far as the Gerrhan land; that is, for forty days' voyage; beyond that, no one can say through what nations it flows; but it is plain that it flows through desolate country to the land of the farming Scythians, who live beside it for a ten days' voyage.
This is the only river, besides the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), AfricaNile, whose source I cannot identify; nor, I think, can any Greek. When the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes comes near the sea, the Hypanis mingles with it, running into the same marsh;
the land between these rivers, where the land projects like a ship's beak, is called Hippolaus' promontory; a temple of Demeter stands there. The settlement of the Borystheneïtae is beyond the temple, on the Hypanis.
This is the produce of these rivers, and after these there is a fifth river called Panticapas; this also flows from the north out of a lake, and the land between it and the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes is inhabited by the farming Scythians; it flows into the woodland country, after passing which it mingles with the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes.
The sixth is the Hypacuris river,Perhaps in the Molotschna region, considerably east of the +Dnepr (river), Europe Dnieper. The “city of Carcine” lay at the eastern end of the Scythian coast, close to the Tauric Chersonese ( +Krym [34,45] (autonomous republic), Ukraine, Europe Crimea). The Racecourse of Achilles was a strip of land, now broken into islands, about 80 miles long, between the +Krym [34,45] (autonomous republic), Ukraine, Europe Crimea and the mouth of the +Dnepr (river), Europe Dnieper. which rises from a lake, and flowing through the midst of the nomadic Scythians flows out near the city of Carcine, bordering on its right the Woodland and the region called the Racecourse of Achilles .
The seventh river, the Gerrhus, separates from the +Dnepr (river), Europe Borysthenes at about the place which is the end of our knowledge of that river; at this place it separates, and has the same name as the place itself, Gerrhus; then in its course to the sea it divides the country of the Nomads and the country of the Royal Scythians, and empties into the Hypacuris.
The eighth is the +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Tanaïs river;The Don. in its upper course, this begins by flowing out of a great lake, and enters a yet greater lake called the Maeetian, which divides the Royal Scythians from the Sauromatae; another river, called Hyrgis,Perhaps the “Syrgis” of Hdt. 4.123; it may be the modern Donetz. is a tributary of this +Azov [39.433,47.1] (inhabited place), Rostov, Rossiya, Russia, Asia Tanaïs.
These are the rivers of note with which the Scythians are provided. For rearing cattle, the grass growing in Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia is the most productive of bile of all pastures which we know; that this is so can be judged by opening up the bodies of the cattle.
The most important things are thus provided them. It remains now to show the customs which are established among them. The only gods whom they propitiate are these: Hestia in particular, and secondly Zeus and Earth, whom they believe to be the wife of Zeus; after these, Apollo, and the Heavenly Aphrodite, and Heracles, and Ares. All the Scythians worship these as gods; the Scythians called Royal sacrifice to Poseidon also.
In the Scythian tongue, Hestia is called Tabiti; Zeus (in my judgment most correctly so called) Papaeus;As the “All-Father”; cp. such words as πάπας, παπίας, etc. Earth is Apia; Apollo Goetosyrus; the Heavenly Aphrodite Argimpasa; Poseidon Thagimasadas. It is their practice to make images and altars and shrines for Ares, but for no other god.
In all their sacred rites they follow the same method of sacrifice; this is how it is offered. The victim stands with its forefeet shackled together; the sacrificer stands behind the beast, and throws it down by pulling the end of the rope;
as the victim falls, he invokes whatever god it is to whom he sacrifices. Then, throwing a noose around the beast's neck, he thrusts in a stick and twists it and so strangles the victim, lighting no fire nor offering the first-fruits, nor pouring any libation; and having strangled and skinned the beast, he sets about cooking it.
Now as the Scythian land is quite bare of wood, this is how they contrive to cook the meat. When they have skinned the victims, they strip the meat from the bones and throw it into the cauldrons of the country, if they have them: these are most like Lesbian bowls, except that they are much bigger; they throw the meat into these, then, and cook it by lighting a fire beneath with the bones of the victims. But if they have no cauldron, then they put all the meat into the victims' stomachs, adding water, and make a fire of the bones beneath,
which burn nicely; the stomachs easily hold the meat when it is stripped from the bones; thus a steer serves to cook itself, and every other victim does likewise. When the flesh is cooked, the sacrificer takes the first-fruits of the flesh and the entrails and casts them before him. They use all grazing animals for sacrifice, but mainly horses.
This is their way of sacrificing to other gods and these are the beasts offered; but their sacrifices to Ares are of this sort. Every district in each of the governments has a structure sacred to Ares; namely, a pile of bundles of sticks three eighths of a mile wide and long, but of a lesser height, on the top of which there is a flattened four-sided surface; three of its sides are sheer, but the fourth can be ascended.
Every year a hundred and fifty wagon-loads of sticks are heaped upon this; for the storms of winter always make it sink down. On this sacred pile an ancient scimitar of iron is set for each people: their image of Ares. They bring yearly sacrifice of sheep and goats and horses to this scimitar, offering to these symbols even more than they do to the other gods.