as these people relate. 26. The Issedones are said to observe these customs. When a man's father dies, all his relations bring cattle, and then having sacrificed them, and cut up the flesh, they cut up also the dead parent of their host, and having mingled all the flesh together, they spread out a banquet; then having made bare and cleansed his head, they gild it; and afterwards they treat it as a sacred image,1 performing grand annual sacrifices to it. A son does this to his father, as the Greeks celebrate the anniversary of their father's death. These people are likewise accounted just; and the women have equal authority with the men. These, then, are well known. 27. Above them, the Issedones affirm, are the men with only one eye, and the gold-guarding griffins. The Scythians repeat this account, having received it from them; and we have adopted it from the Scythians, and call them, in the Scythian language, Arimaspi; for Arima, in the Scythian language, signifies one, and Spou, the eye. 28. All this country which I have been speaking of is subject to such a severe winter, that for eight months the frost is so intolerable, that if you pour water on the ground you will not make mud, but if you light a fire you will make mud. Even the sea freezes, and the whole Cimmerian bosphorus ; and the Scythians who live within the trench, lead their armies and drive their chariots over the ice to the Sindians, on the other side. Thus winter continues eight months, and during the other four it is cold there. And this winter is different in character from the winters in all other countries; for in this no rain worth mentioning falls in the usual season, but during the summer it never leaves off raining. At the time when there is thunder elsewhere there is none there, but in summer it is violent if there should be thunder in winter, it is accounted a prodigy to be wondered at. So, should there be an earthquake, whether in summer or winter, in Scythia it is accounted a prodigy. Their horses endure this cold, but their asses and mules cannot endure it at all; but in other places, horses that stand exposed to frost become frost-bitten in 66 1 I have adopted Baehr's interpretation of ¿yáλuari, in preference to that of Schweighauser, who considers it to mean a sacred ornament," or to that of Larcher, who takes it to mean "a precious vessel." the cold, waste away, but asses and mules endure it. 29. On this account also the race of beeves appears to me to be defective there, and not to have horns; and the following verse of Homer, in his Odyssey, 2 confirms my opinion: "And Libya, where the lambs soon put forth their horns:" rightly observing, that in warm climates horns shoot out quickly; but in very severe cold, the cattle either do not produce them at all, or if they do produce them they do so with difficulty. Here, then, such are the effects of the cold. 30. I am surprised, (for my narrative has from its commencement sought for digressions,) that in the whole territory of Elis no mules are able to breed, though neither is the climate cold, nor is there any other visible cause. The Eleans themselves say, that mules do not breed with them in consequence of a curse; therefore, when the time for the mares breeding approaches, they lead them to the neighbouring districts, and there put the he-asses wi h them, until they are in foal; then they drive them home again. 31. With respect to the feathers, with which the Scythians say the air is filled, and that on account of them it is not possible either to see farther upon the continent, or to pass through it, I entertain the following opinion: in the upper parts of this country it continually snows, less in summer than in winter, as is reasonable; now, whoever has seen snow falling thick near him, will know what I mean; for snow is like feathers and on account of the winter being so severe, the northern parts of this continent are uninhabited. I think, then, that the Scythians and their neighbours call the snow feathers, comparing3 them together. These regions, therefore, which are said to be the most remote, have been sufficiently described. 32. Concerning the Hyperboreans, neither the Scythians say any thing, nor any people of those parts, except the Issedones; and, as I think, neither do they say any thing, for then the Scythians would mention it, as they do the one-eyed people. Hesiod, however, has made mention of the Hyperboreans, and Homer, in the Epigoni, if indeed Homer was in reality the author of that poem. 33. But the Delians say very much more than any others about them, affirming that sacred things, wrapped in wheat-straw, were brought from the Hyperboreans and came to the Scythians; and from the 3 That is, "speaking figuratively." 2 B. IV. 1. 85. Scythians each contiguous nation receiving them in succession, carried them to the extreme west as far as the Adriatic; that being forwarded thence towards the south, the Dodonæans, the first of the Greeks, received them; that from them they descended to the Maliac Gulf, and passed over into Eubœa, and that one city sent them on to another as far as Carystus; that after this Andros was passed by, for the Carystians conveyed them to Tenos, and the Tenians to Delos: in this manner they say these sacred things reached Delos. They add, that the Hyperboreans first sent two virgins, whom they call by the names of Hyperoche and Laodice, to carry these sacred things; and with them, for the sake of safety, the Hyperboreans sent five of their citizens as attendants, the same who are now called Perpherees, and are held in high honour at Delos. But when those who were sent out by the Hyperboreans did not return, they, thinking it a grievous thing if it should always happen to them not to receive back those whom they sent out, therefore carried their offerings wrapped in wheat-straw to their borders, and enjoined their neighbours to forward them to the next nation; and these being so forwarded, they say, reached Delos. I myself know that the following practice is observed, resembling that of these sacred things: the Thracian and Pæonian women, when they sacrifice to Royal Diana, do not offer their sacrifices without wheatstraw; and I know that they do this. 34. In honour of these Hyperborean virgins who died in Delos, both the virgins and youths of the Delians shear their hair: the former, having cut off a lock before marriage, and having wound it about a distaff, lay it upon the sepulchre; the sepulchre is within the temple of Diana, on the left as one enters, and on it grows an olive tree: the youths of the Delians having wound some of their hair round a plant, place it also on the sepulchre. These virgins receive such honour from the inhabitants of Delos. 35. These same persons also affirm, that Arge and Opis, who were Hyperborean virgins, passing through the same nations, came to Delos, even before Hyperoche and Laodice: that these last came to bring the tribute they had agreed to pay to Ilithya for a speedy delivery; but they say that Arge and Opis arrived with the gods themselves, and that different honours are paid them by themselves, for that the women collect contributions for them, calling on their names in a hymn, which Olen, a Lycian, composed for them; and that the islanders and Ionians afterwards, having learnt it from them, celebrate Opis and Arge in song, mentioning their names, and collecting contributions; (now this Olen, coming from Lycia, composed also the other ancient hymns which are sung in Delos ;) and that the ashes of the thighs burnt on the altar are thrown and expended on the sepulchre of Opis and Arge: but their sepulchre is behind the temple of Diana, facing the east, very near the banqueting-room of the Ceians. 36. And thus much may be said concerning the Hyperboreans, for I do not relate the story concerning Abaris, who was said to be an Hyperborean, to the effect that he carried an arrow round the whole earth without eating any thing. If, however, there are Hyperboreans, there must also be Hypernotians. But I smile when I see many persons describing the circumference of the earth, who have no sound reason to guide them; they describe the ocean flowing round the earth, which is made circular as if by a lathe, and make1 Asia equal to Europe. I will therefore briefly show the dimensions of each of them, and what is the figure of each. 37. The Persian settlements extend to the southern sea, called the Erythræan; above them to the north are the Medes; above the Medes, the Saspires; and above the Saspires, the Colchians, who reach to the northern sea, into which the river Phasis discharges itself. These four nations occupy the space from sea to sea. 38. Thence westward two tracts stretch out to the sea, which I shall describe. On one side, the one tract, beginning at the north from the Phasis, extends along the Euxine and the Hellespont, as far as the Trojan Sigæum; and on the south, this same tract, beginning from the Myriandrian Gulf, which is adjacent to Phoenicia, stretches towards the sea as far as the Triopian promontory. In this tract dwell thirty different nations. This, then, is one of the tracts. 39. The other, beginning at Persia, reaches to the Red Sea; it comprises Persia, and after that Assyria, and after Assyria, Arabia; it terminates (terminating only by custom) at the Arabian Gulf, into which Darius carried a canal5 from 4 Baehr observes that TOLEÚTOV is the genitive participle, depending on yɛλ preceding; "I smile when they make Asia equal to Europe." It would be difficult to express the connexion in an English version. 5 See B. II. chap. 158. the Nile. Now, as far as Phoenicia from Persia the country is wide and open, but from Phoenicia the same tract stretches along this sea by Syrian Palestine and Egypt, where it terminates; in it are only three nations. These, then, are the parts of Asia that lie westward of Persia. 40. Beyond the Persians, Medes, Saspires, and Colchians, towards the east and rising sun, extends the Red Sea, and on the north the Caspian Sea and the river Araxes, which flows towards the rising sun. Asia is inhabited as far as India; but beyond this, it is all desert towards the east, nor is any one able to describe what it is. Such and so great is Asia. 41. Libya is in the other tract; for Libya commences from Egypt. Now in Egypt this tract is narrow; for from this sea to the Red Sea are a hundred thousand orgyæ, which make one thousand stades. But from this narrow neck the tract which is called Libya becomes very wide. 42. I wonder therefore at those who have described the limits of and divided Libya, Asia, and Europe, for the difference between them is not trifling for in length Europe extends along both of them, but with respect to width, it is evidently not to be compared." Libya shows itself to be surrounded by water, except so much of it as borders upon Asia. Neco, king of Egypt, was the first whom we know of, that proved this; he, when he had ceased digging the canal leading from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf, sent certain Phoenicians in ships, with orders to sail back through the pillars of Hercules into the northern sea, and so to return to Egypt. The Phoenicians accordingly, setting out from the Red Sea, navigated the southern sea; when autumn came, they went ashore, and sowed the land, by whatever part of Libya they happened to be sailing, and waited for harvest; then having reaped the corn, they put to sea again. When two years had thus passed, in the third, having doubled the pillars of Hercules, they arrived in Egypt, and related what to me does not seem credible, but may to others, that as they sailed round Libya, they had the sun on their right hand. Thus was Libya first known. 43. Subsequently the Carthaginians say that Libya is surrounded by water. For Sataspes, son of Teaspes, one of the Achæmenidæ, did not sail round Libya, 6 He means, "it is much wider than either of them." |