 Volume 2, Part 1 of Herodotus' Histories. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Carolina. Histories, Volume 2 by Herodotus of Halecarnassus. Translated by E.D. Godly. Volume 2, Part 1. After taking Babylon, Darius himself marched against the Scythians. For since Asia was bursting with men and vast revenues were coming in, Darius desired to punish the Scythians for the wrong they had begun and invaded Medea first and defeated those who opposed them in battle. For the Scythians, as I have said before, ruled Upper Asia for 28 years. They invaded Asia in their pursuit of the Sumerians and ended the power of the Medes, who were the rulers of Asia before the Scythians came. But when the Scythians had been away from their homes for 28 years and returned to their country after so long an absence, as much trouble as their median war awaited them. They found themselves opposed by a great force. For the Scythian women, when their husbands were away for so long, turned to their slaves. Now the Scythians blind all their slaves because of the milk they drink. And this is how they get it. Taking tubes of bone very much like flutes, they insert these into the genitalia of the Mares and blow into them. Some blowing while others milk. According to them, their reason for doing this is that blowing makes the Mares veins swell and hurt other drop. When done milking, they pour the milk into deep wooden buckets and make their slaves stand around the buckets and shake the milk. They draw off what stands on the surface and value this most. What lies at the bottom is less valued. This is why the Scythians blind all prisoners whom they take, for they do not cultivate the soil but are nomads. So it came about that the younger generation grew up, born of these slaves and the women. And when they used learned of their parentage, they came out to fight the Scythians returning from media. First, they barred away to their country by digging a white trench from the Tauric mountains to the broadest part of the Miishin lake. And then, when the Scythians tried to force a passage, they camped opposite them and engaged them in battle. There were many fights and the Scythians could gain no advantage. At last one of them said, Men of Scythia, look at what we are doing. We are fighting our own slaves. They kill us and we grow fewer. We kill them and shall have fewer slaves. Now then, my opinion is that we should drop our spares and bows and meet them with horse whips in our hands. As long as they see us armed, they imagine that they are equals and the sons of our equals. Let them see us with whips and no weapons and they will perceive that they are our slaves. And taking this to heart, they will not face our attack. The Scythians heard this and acted on it and their enemies, stunned by what they saw, did not think of fighting but fled. Thus the Scythians ruled Asia and were driven out again by the Medes and returned to their own country in such a way. Desiring to punish them for what they had done, Darius assembled an army against them. The Scythians said that their nation is the youngest in the world and that it came into being in this way. A man whose name was Staghitaus appeared in this country which was then desolate. They say that his parents were Zeus and a daughter of the Baristainus River. I do not believe the story, but it is told. Such was Staghitaus' lineage. He had three sons, Lepoxes, Arpoxes and Collaxes, youngest of the three. In the time of their rule, the story goes, certain implements, namely a plow, a yoke, a sword and a flask, all of gold, fell down from the sky into Scythia. The eldest of them, seeing these, approached them, meaning to take them, but the gold began to burn as he neared and he stopped. Then the second approached and the gold did as before. When these two had been driven back by the burning gold, the youngest brother approached and the burning stopped and he took the gold to his own house. In view of this, the elder brothers agreed to give all the royal power to the youngest. Lepoxes, it is said, was the father of the Scythian clan called Alhathai. Arpoxes, the second brother of those called Catiari and Trespians, the youngest who was king of those called Paralate. All these together bear the name of Scolite after their king. Scythians is the name given them by the Greeks. This, then, is the Scythians account of their origin and they say that neither more nor less than a thousand years in all past from the time of their first king, Tangitaos to the entry of Darius into their country. The kings got this sacred gold very closely and every year offer solemn sacrifices of propitiation to it. Whoever falls asleep at this festival in the open air having the sacred gold with him is said by the Scythians not to live out the year for which reason they say as much land as he can ride around in one day is given to him. Because of the great size of the country the lordships that collect days established for his sons were three one of which, where they keep the gold was the greatest. Above and north of their neighbors of their country no one, they say can see or travel further because of showers of feathers for earth and sky are full of feathers and these hinder sight. This is what the Scythians say about themselves and the country north of them but the story told by the Greeks who live in Pontus is as follows Heracles driving the cattle of Gerionnes came to this land which was then desolate but is now inhabited by the Scythians. Gerionnes lived west of the Pontus settled in the island cult by the Greeks Erythia on the shore of ocean near Gadira outside the pillars of Heracles. As for ocean the Greeks say that it flows around the whole world from where the sun rises they cannot prove that this is so. Heracles came from there to the country now called Scythia where in country wintry and frosty weather he drew his lion skin over him and fell asleep and while he slept his mares which were grazing yoke to the chariot were spirited away by divine fortune. When Heracles awoke he searched for them visiting every part of the country until at last he came to the land called the woodland and there he found in a cave a creature of double form that was half maiden and half serpent above the buttocks she was a woman below them a snake. When he saw her he was astonished and asked if she had seen his mares straying she said that she had them and would not return them to him before he had intercourse with her Heracles did in hope of his reward but though he was anxious to take the horses and go she delayed returning them so that she might have Heracles with her for as long as possible at last she gave them back telling him these mares came and I kept them safe here for you and you have paid me for keeping them for I have three sons by you now tell me what I am to do when they are grown up shall I keep them here as a queen of this country or shall I send them away to you thus she inquired and then it is said Heracles answered when you see the boys are grown up do as follows and you will do rightly whichever of them you see bending this bow and wearing this belt so make him an inhibitor of this land but whoever falls short of these accomplishments that I require send him away out of the country do so and you shall yourself have comfort and my will shall be done so he drew one of his bows for until then Heracles always carried two and showed her the belt and gave her the bow and the belt that had a golden vessel on the end of its clasp and having given them he departed but when the sons born to her were grown men she gave them names calling one of them Agithaerces and the next Galonas and the youngest Scythes furthermore remembering the instructions she did as she was told two of her sons Agithaerces and Galonas were cast out by their mother and left the country unable to fulfill the requirements set but Scythes the youngest fulfilled them and so stayed in the land from Scythes son of Heracles come the whole line of kings of Scythia and it is because of the vessel that the Scythians carry vessels on their belts to this day this alone his mother did for Scythes this is what the Greek dwellers in Pontus say there is yet another story to which account I myself especially inclined it is to this effect the nomadic Scythians inhabiting Asia when hard-pressed in war fled across the Araxes river to the Sumerian country for the country which the Scythians now inhabit is said to have belonged to the Sumerians before and the Sumerians at the advance of the Scythians deliberated as men threatened by a great force should opinions were divided both were strongly held but that the princes was the more honorable for the people believed that their part was to withdraw and that there was no need to risk their lives for the dust of the earth but the princes were for fighting to defend their country against the attackers neither side could persuade the other neither the people the princes nor the princes the people the one party planned to depart without fighting and leave the country to their enemies but the princes were determined to lie dead in their own country and not to flee with the people for they considered how happy their situation had been and what ills were likely to come upon them if they fled from the native land having made up their minds the princes separated into two equal bands and fought with each other until they were all killed by each other's hands then the Sumerian people buried them by the Tyra's river where their tombs are still to be seen and having buried them left the land and the Scythians came to the possession of the country left empty and to this day there are Sumerian walls in Scythia and a Sumerian ferry and there is a country Sumeria and a straight named Sumerian furthermore it is evident that the Sumerians in their flight from the Scythians into Asia also made a colony on the peninsula where the Greek city of Sinope has been founded and it is clear that the Scythians pursued them and invaded media missing their way for the Sumerians always fled along the coast and the Scythians pursued with the Caucasus on their right until they came into the Median land turning inland on their way that is the other story current among Greeks and foreigners alike there is also a story related in a poem by Aristes son of Caustrovius a man of prokinesis this Aristes possessed by Phoebes visited the Isidonis beyond these he said live the one eyed Arimaspians beyond whom are the griffins that guard gold and beyond these again are the Hyperborians whose territory reaches to the sea except for the Hyperborians all these nations and first the Arimaspians are always at war with their neighbours the Isidonis were pushed by their lands by the Arismaspians and the Scythians by the Isidonis and the Sumerians living by the southern sea were hard pressed by the Scythians and left their country thus Aristes story does not agree with the Scythian account about this country where Aristes wrote this came from I have already said I will tell the story that I heard about him at prokinesis and Scythicus that this Aristes who was as well born as any of his town folk went into a fuller shop at prokinesis and there died the owner shut his shop and went away to tell the dead man's relatives and the report of Aristes death being spread about in the city was disputed by a man of Scythicus who had come from the town of Attache and said that he had met Aristes going towards Scythicus and spoken with him while he argued vehemently the relatives of the dead man came to the fuller shop with all that was necessary for burial but when the place was opened there was no Aristes there dead or alive but in the seventh year after that Aristes appeared at prokinesis and made their poem which the Greeks now called the Erismas Peia 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 240 years after the second disappearance of Aristes as reckoning made at prokinesis and metapontum shows me Aristes, 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 Aristes the prokinesian for he said so had come to their country alone of all Italian lands and he the man who was now Aristes but then when he followed the god had been a crowd had come with him after saying this he vanished the metapontines, so they say sent to 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 Aristes a grove of batres surrounds it the image is set in a marketplace let it suffice that I have said this much about Aristes as for the land of which my story 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 Aristes whom I recently mentioned even he did not claim to have gone beyond the Isidonis even though a public but he spoke by hearsay of what lay north saying that the Isidonis had told him but all that we have been able to learn for certain by the port of the father's lands shall be told north of the port of the Boris Tannits which lies midway along the coast of Skithia the first inhabitants are the Salipidae who are Skithian Greeks and beyond them another tribe called Elezonis these and the Salipidae though in other ways they live like the Skithians plant and eat grain, onions, garlic lentils and millet above the Elezonis lives Skithian farmers who plant grain not to eat but to sell north of these the Neury north of the Neury the land is uninhabited so far as we know these are the tribes that the Hippanas river west of the Boris Tannits but on the other side of the Boris Tannits the tribe nearest to the sea is the tribe of the Woodlands and north of these lives Skithian farmers from the Greek colonists on the Haipianis river who call themselves Obiopulite call Boris Tannietae these farming Skithians inhabit a land stretching east a three days journey to a river called Pantycapes and north as far as an 11 days voyage up the Boris Tannits 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 Skithian and beyond them is true desolation where no nation of man lives as far as we know the east of these farming Skithians across the Pantycapes river you are in the land of nomadic Skithians who plant nothing nor plough and all these lands except the Woodlands are bear of trees these nomads inhabit a country to the east that stretches 14 days journey to the Geras river across the Geras are those lands called Royal where the best and most numerous of the Skithians are who consider all the Skithians 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 on the Mishin lake and part of it stretches to the Tannits river north of the Royal Skithians live the Black Cloaks who are of another and not a Skithian stock and beyond the Black Cloaks the land is all marshes and uninhabited by man as far as we know across the Tannits it is no longer Skithia the first of the districts belongs to the Saromite whose country begins at the inner end of the Mishin lake and stretches 15 days journey north and is quite bear of both wild and cultivated trees above these in the second district the Bidini inhabit a country thickly overgrown with trees of all kinds north of the Bidini the land is uninhabited for 7 days journey after this desolation and somewhat more toward the East wind live the Tisagaitai a numerous and separate nation who live by hunting adjoining these and in the same country live the people called Yikai these also live by hunting in the way that I will describe the hunter climbs in 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 Skithians again who revolted from the royal Skithians and came to this country Skithians all the land mentioned up to this point is level and 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 set to be bold from birth male and female alike and snub nosed and with long beards they speak their own language and wear Skithian clothing and their food comes from trees the tree by which they live is called Pantik 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 ashu they lick this up or drink it mixed with milk and from the thickest leaves of it they make cakes and eat them they are few cattle for the pastry in their land is not good 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 set to be sacred nor have they any weapon of war they judge the quarrels between their neighbours furthermore whatever banished man has taken refuge with them is wronged by no one they are called argipians end of volume 2 part 1 volume 2 part 2 of Herodotus's Histories this is the Libyrox recording all Libyrox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libyrox.org recording by Shirley Anderson Histories volume 2 by Herodotus of Halicannassus translated by A. D. Godley volume 2 part 2 of Herodotus's Histories this is the Libyrox recording volume 2 part 2 now as far as the land of these bold 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 from and from some of the Greeks too from the Baristines port and the other ports of Pontus such Scythians as visit them transact their business with 7 interpreters and in 7 languages as far as these men this country is known then but what lies north of the bold men no one can say with exact knowledge for high and impassable mountains by the way as no one crosses them these bold men say although I do not believe them that the mountains are inhabited by men with goat's feet and that beyond these are men who sleep for 6 months after the 12 this I cannot accept as true at all but the country east of the bold heads is known for certain to be inhabited by the Isidonis however of what lies north either the bold heads or the Isidonis we have no knowledge except what comes from the report of these latter it is said to be the custom of the Isidonis that whenever 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 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 yearling every son does this for his father just like the Greeks in their festivals of honour of the dead in other respects these are said to be allure biding people too and the women to have equal power with the men of these two then we have knowledge of them it is from the Isidonis 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 Spau is the eye all the aforesaid country is exceedingly cold for 8 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 Khmerian 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 Cyndi so it is winter for 8 months and cold in that country for the fall 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 the summer there are plenty of them if there is a thunderstorm in winter they are apt to wonder at it as a portant and so too if there is an earthquake summer or winter it is considered a portant in Scythia 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 hornest kind of cattle grow no horns in Scythia a verse of Homer in the Odyssey attests to my opinion Libya, the land where lambs are born with horns on their foreheads Homer, Odyssey 4, 85 in which it is correctly observed that in hot countries the horns go quickly whereas in very cold countries beasts hardly grow horns or not at all in Scythia then this happens because of the cold but I think it is strange for it was always the way of my history to investigate excursors that in the whole of Ellis no mules can be conceived although the country is not cold nor is there any evident cause the aliens themselves said that it is because of a curse that mules cannot be conceived among them but whenever the season is at hand for the mules to conceive they drive them into the countries of their neighbours and then send asses after them until the mules 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 in all of that country snow falls continually though less in summer than in winter as is to be expected 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 neighbours only speak of snow figuratively so then I have spoken of those parts that are said to be most distant concerning the Hyperborean people neither the Scythians nor any other inhabitants of these lands tell us anything except perhaps the Isidonis and I think even they say nothing for if they did then the Scythians too would have told just as they tell of the one-eyed men and Homer too in his poem the Hero's Sons if that is truly the work of Homer the Delions say much more about them than any others do they say that offerings wrapped in straw are brought from the Hyperboreans to Scythia when these have passed Scythia each nation in turn receives from its neighbours until they are carried to the Adriatic Sea which is the most westerly limit of their journey from there they are brought onto the south the people of Dodona being the first Greeks to receive them from Dodona they come down to the Melian Gulf and are carried across to Euboea and one city sends them on to another until they come to Caristus after this Andros is left out of their journey for Caristians carry them to Tenos and Tennians to Delos thus they say these offerings come to Delos but on the first journey the Hyperboreans sent two maidens bearing the offerings to whom the Delians give the names Hyperrosh and Laodice and five men of their people with them as escort for safe conduct those who are now called Perferes and greatly honoured in Delos but when those whom they sent to never return they took it amiss that they should be condemned always to be sending people and not getting them back and so they carry the offerings wrapped in straw to their borders and tell their neighbours to send them on from their own country to the next and the offerings it is said come by this conveyance to Delos I can save my own knowledge that there is a custom like these offerings namely that when the Thracian and Pionian women sacrifice the royal Artemis they have straw with them while they sacrifice I know that they do this the Delian girls and boys cut their hair in honour of these Hyperborean maidens who died at Delos the girls before marriage cut off a tress and lay it on the tomb wound around a spindle this tomb is at the foot of an olive tree on the left hand of the entrance of the temple of Artemis the Delian boys twine some of their hair around a green stalk and lay it on the tomb likewise in this way then these maidens are honoured by the inhabitants of Delos these same Delians relate that two virgins Arch and Opus came from the Hyperborean's way of the aforesaid peoples to a Delos earlier than hyperroshinal airdice these latter came to bring to Aletheia the tribute which they had agreed to pay for easing child burying but Arch and Opus they say came with the gods themselves and received honours of their own from the Delians for the women collected gifts for them calling their names in the hymn made for them by Olan of Lycea it was from Delos that the islanders and the Ionians learnt to sing hymns to Opus and Arch calling upon their names and collecting gifts this Olan, after coming from Lycea also made the other and ancient hymns that are sung at Delos furthermore they say that when the thigh bones are burnt and sacrificed on the altar the ashes are all cast on the burial place of Opus and Arch behind the temple of Artemis looking east nearest the refectory of the people of Seos I have said this much of the Hyperboreans and let it suffice for I do not tell the story of that Aberus alleged to be a Hyperborean who carried the arrow over the whole world lasting all the while but if there are men beyond the north wind then there are others beyond the south and I laugh to see how many have before now drawn maps of the world not one of them reasonably for they draw the world as round as if fashioned by compasses encircled by the ocean river and Asian Europe of a like extent for myself I will in a few words indicate the extent of the two and how each should be drawn the land where the Persians live extends to the southern sea which is called red beyond these to the north are the medes and beyond the medes the saspias and beyond the saspias the coltunes whose country extends to the northern sea into which the fasses river flows so these four nations live between the one sea and the other but west of this region two peninsula stretch out from it into the sea which I will now describe on the north side one of the peninsula begins at the fasses and stretches seawood along the pontus and the helispont as far as sygium in the trod on the south side the same peninsula has a sea coast beginning of the myriandric gulf that is near finicia and stretching seawood as far as the triopian headland on this peninsula live 30 nations this is the first peninsula but the second beginning with persia stretches to the red sea and is the persian land and next the neighbouring land of assyria and after assyria arabia this peninsula ends not truly but only by common consent add the arabian gulf to which darius brought a canal from the nile now from the persian country to finicia there is a wide and vast tract of land and from finicia this peninsula runs beside assy by way of the syrian palestine and egypt which is at the end of it in this peninsula there are just 3 nations so much for the part of asia west of the persians but what is beyond the persians and medes and saspias and colchians east towards the rising sun this is bounded on the one hand by the red sea and to the north by the caspian sea and the araxies river which flows towards the sun's rising as far as india asia is an inhabited land but thereafter all to the east is desolation nor can anyone say what kind of land is there such is asia and such its extent but libia is on this second peninsula for libia comes next after egypt the egyptian part of this peninsula is narrow for fromas sea to the red sea that is 125 miles that is 1000 states but after this narrow part the peninsula which is called libia is very broad i wonder then at those who have mapped out and divided the world into libia asia and europe for the difference between them is great seeing that in length europe stretches along both the others together and it appears to me to be wider beyond all comparison libia shows clearly that it is bounded by the sea except where it borders on asia nekos king of egypt first discovered this and made it known when he had finished digging the canal that leads from the Nile to the arabian gulf he sent finicians and ships instructing them to sail on their return voyage path the pillars of heracles until they came into the northern sea and so to egypt so the finicians set out from the red sea and sailed to the southern sea whenever autumn came they would put in and plant the land in whatever part of libia they had reached and there await the harvest then having gathered the crop they sailed on so that after two years had passed it was in the third that they rounded the pillars of heracles and came to egypt there they said what some may believe though i do not that in sailing around libia they had the sun on their right hand thus was the first knowledge of libia gained the next story is that of the cathedronians for as for sotaspes son of tiaspes an aciminid he did not sail around libia although he was sent for that purpose but he feared the length and loneliness of the voyage and so returned without accomplishing the task laid upon him by his mother for he had raped the virgin daughter of megabizus and when on this charge he was to be impaled by king xerxes sotaspes mother who was daris's sister interceded for his life saying that she would impose a heavier punishment on him than xerxes for he would be compelled to sail around libia until he completed his voyage and came to the arabian gulf xerxes agreed to this and sotaspes went to egypt where he received a ship and a crew from the egyptians and sailed past the pillars of heracles having sailed out beyond them and rounded the libian promontory called solois he sailed south but when he had been many months sailing over the sea and always more before him he turned back and made sail for egypt coming to king xerxes from there he related in his narrative that when he was far this distant he sailed by a country of little men who wore palm leaf clothing these, whenever he and his men put into land with their ship left their towns and fled to the hills he and his men did no harm when they landed and took nothing from the people except cattle as to his not sailing completely around libia the reason, he said was that the ship could move no farther but was stopped but xerxes did not believe that sotaspes spoke the truth and as the task appointed was unfulfilled he impaled him punishing him on the charge first brought against him this sotaspes had a eunuch who, as soon as he heard of his master's death escaped to samos with a great horde of wealth of which a man of samos got possession i know the man's name but deliberately omitted but as to asia most of it was discovered by darious there is a river, indus second of all rivers in the production of crocodiles darious desiring to know where this indus empties into the sea sent ships man by silax a man of carriander and others whose word he trusted these set out from the city of caspiterus and the pactiic country and sailed down the river toward the east and the sunrise until they came to the sea and voyaging over the sea west they came in the thirtieth month to that place from which the egyptian king sent the above mentioned finnissians to sail around libya after this second navigation darious subjugated the indians and made use of this sea thus it was discovered that asia except the parts toward the rising sun was in other respects like libya but it is plain that none have obtained knowledge of europe's eastern or norban regions so as to be able to say if it is bounded by seas its length is known to be enough to stretch along both asias and libya i cannot guess for what reason the earth which is one, has three names all women's and why the boundary lines set for it are the egyptian nile river and the coltian facis river though some say that the myeten tarnas river and the comarian ferries are boundaries and i cannot learn the names of those who divided the world or where they got the names which they used for libya is said by most women for libya is said by most greeks to be named after a native woman of that name and asia after the wife of prometheus yet the lidians claim a share in the latin name saying that asia was not named after prometheus's wife asia but after asias the son of cotus who was the son of manes and that from him the asia had clan at sardis also takes its name but as for europe no men have any knowledge whether it was bounded by seas or not or where it got its name nor is it clear who gave the name unless we say that the land took its name from the tyrian europe having been it would seem before then nameless like the rest but it is plain that this woman was of asiatic birth and never came to this land which the greeks now call europe but only from finisia to crete and from crete to lycia thus much i have said of these matters that suffice we will use the names established by custom nowhere are men so ignorant as in the lands by the yuxin pontus excluding the sithian nation into which daeus led his army for we cannot show that any nation within the region of pontus has any cleverness nor do we know of overlooking the sithian nation and anacosis any notable man born there but the sithian race has made the cleverest discovery in what is the most important of all human affairs i do not praise the sithians 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 as many of them as are famous and can be entered from the sea i shall name there is the ester which has five mouths and the tirus and hippiness and baristhenes hypercuris and gerus and tannas their courses are as i shall indicate the ester the greatest of all rivers which we know flows with the same volume in summer and winter it is the most westerly sythian river of all and the greatest because other rivers are its tributaries those that make it great five flowing through the sythian country are these the river called by the sythians pirata and by the greeks pirateus and besides this the tirantus the avarus the naperis and the ordesus the first named of these rivers is a great stream flowing east and uniting its water with the ester the second the tirantus is more westerly and smaller the avarus, naperis and ordesus flow between these two and pour their waters into the ester these are the native born sythian rivers that helped us well it but the marlis river which commingles with the ester flows from the agatheosy the atlus, auras and tibesis three other great rivers that pour into it flow north from the heights of hymus the atheris, the nose and the artanes flow into the ester from the country of the crobyzi in Thrace the seaus river which cuts through the middle of hymus flows from the pionians and the mountain range of rhodo the angus river flows north from Illyria into the tribalic plain and the brongrus river and the brongrus into the ester which receives these two great rivers into itself the carpis and another river called the alpis also flow northward from the country north of the ombresi to flow into it for the ester traverses the whole of Europe rising among the Celts who are the most westerly dwellers in Europe except for the Sinites and flowing thus clean across Europe it issues forth along the borders of Scythia with these rivers are foresaid and many others too as its tributaries the ester becomes the greatest river of all while river for river now surpasses it in volume since that owes its volume of water to no tributary river or spring but the ester is always the same height in summer and winter the reason for which I think is this in winter it is more 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 ester so that 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 the summer than in winter the water that commingles with the ester 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 end of volume 2 part 2 recording by Shirley Anderson volume 2 part 3 of Herodotus Histories this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Histories volume 2 by Herodotus of Heliconarsis translated by E. D. Godly volume 2 part 3 one of the rivers of the Scythians then is the ester the next is the Tyrus this comes from the north flowing at first out of a great lake which is the boundary between the Scythian and the Nurean countries which are called Tyrate the third river is the Hippanus this comes from Scythia flowing out of a great lake around which wild white horses graze this lake is truly called the mother of the Hipponese here then the Hipponese rises for five days journeys 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 Hipponese one of the few great rivers of the world this spring is on the border between the farming Scythians and the Alzonese the name of it and the place where it rises is in Scythian Exampaus in the Greek tons sacred ways the Tyrus and the Hipponese draw near together in the Alzonese country after that they flow apart the intervening space growing wider the fourth is the Boristhenes river this is the next greatest after the Easter and the most productive in our judgment not only of the Scythian but of all rivers except the Egyptian Nile with which no other river can be compared but of the rest the Boristhenes is the most productive it provides the finest and best nurturing pasturelands 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 it's banks and very rich grass where the land is not planted and self-form crust of salt about it at it's mouth it provides great spineless fish called sturgeons for salting and many other wonderful things besides it's courses from the north and it is known as far as the Garenland 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 beside the Nile whose source I cannot identify nor I think can any Greek when the Boristhenes comes near the sea the Hipponese mingles with it running into the same marsh the land between these rivers where the land projects like a ship-speak is called Hippolysis Promatory a temple of Demeter stands there the settlement of the Boristhenes is beyond the temple on the Hipponese this is the produce of these rivers and after these there is a fifth river called Panticapus this also flows from the north out of a lake and the land between it and the Boristhenes is inhabited by the farming Scythians it flows into the woodland country after passing which it mingles with the Boristhenes the sixth is the Hapacurus river which rises from a lake and flowing through the midst of the nomadic Scythians flows out near the city of Carci bordering on its right the woodland and the region called the Racecourse of Achilles the seventh river, the Geras separates from the Boristhenes at about the place which is at the end of our knowledge of that river at this place it separates and has the same name as the place itself Geras then in its course to the sea and the country of the royal Scythians and empties into the Hapacurus the eighth is the Tenaeus river in its upper course this begins by flowing out of a great lake and enters a yet greater lake called the Metian which divides the royal Scythians from the Saromate another river called Hergis is a tributary of the Tenaeus these are the rivers of note with which the Scythians are provided for rearing cattle the grass growing in Scythia 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 Papeus earth is Apia Apollo go Tociris the heavenly Aphrodite Argympasa Poseidon sagamasades it is their practice to make images 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 four feet 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 twist 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 likely lesbian bulls 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 victim's stomach 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 in the entrails and casts them before him they use all grazing animals for sacrifice but mainly horses they use 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 cemetery of iron is set for each people their image of Ares they bring yearly sacrifice of sheep and goats and horses to this cemetery offering to these symbols even more than they do to the other gods of enemies that they take alive they sacrifice one man in every hundred not as they sacrifice sheep and goats but differently they pour wine on the men's heads they throw it over a bowl then they carry the blood up onto the pile of sticks and pour it on the cemetery they carry the blood up above but down below by the sacred pile they cut off all the slain men's right arms and hands and throw these into the air and depart when they have sacrificed the rest of the victims the arm lies where it has fallen and the body apart from it these then are their established rights of sacrifice but these Scythians make no offerings of swine nor are they willing for the most part to rear them in their country as to war these are their customs a Scythian drinks the blood of the first man whom he has taken down he carries the heads of all whom he has slain in the battle to his king for if he brings a head he receives a share of the booty taken but not otherwise he scalps the head by making a cut around it by the ears then grasping the scalp and shaking the head off then he scrapes out the flesh with the rib of a steer and needs the skin with his hand and having made it supple he keeps it for a hand towel fastening it to the bridle of the horse which he himself rides and taking pride in it for he who has most scalps for hand towels is just the best man many Scythians even make garments to wear out of these scalps sewing them all together like coats of skin many too take off the skin nails and all from their dead enemies' right hands and make coverings for their quivers the human skin wise as it turned out thick and shining the brightest and whitest of skin one might say many flay the skin from the whole body too and carry it about on horseback stretched on a wooden frame the heads themselves not all of them but those of their bitterest enemies they treat this way each saws off all the part beneath the eyebrows and cleans the rest if he is a poor man then he covers the outside with a piece of rawhide and so makes use of it but if he is rich he covers the head with the rawhide and guilds the inside of it and uses it for a drinking cup such a man also makes out of the head of his kinsmen with whom he has been feuding and whom he has defeated in single combat before the king and if guests whom he honors visit him he will serve them with these heads and show how the dead were his kinsfolk who bought him and were beaten by them this they call manly valor furthermore once a year each governor of a province brews a bowl of wine in his own province which these sythians who have slain enemies drink those who have not achieved this do not taste this wine but sit apart dishonored and this they consider a very great disgrace but as many as have slain not one but many enemies have two cups of peace and drink out of both there are many definers among the sythians who divine by means of many willow wands as I will show they bring great bundles of wands which they lay on the ground and unfasten and utter their divinations as they lay the rods down one by one and while still speaking they gather up the rods once more and place them together again this manner of divination is hereditary among them the anaries who are hermaphrodites say that Aphrodite gave them the art of divination which they practiced by means of lime tree bark they cut this bark into three portions and prophesy while they braid and unbraid these in their fingers whenever the king of the sythians falls ill he sends for the three most reputable diviners who prophesy in the aforesaid way and they generally tell him that such and such a man naming whoever it may be of the people has sworn falsely by the king's hearth for when the sythians will swear their mightiest oath it is by the king's hearth that they are accustomed to swear immediately the man whom they alleged to have sworn falsely is seized and brought in and when he comes the diviners accuse him saying that their divination shows to him falsely by the king's hearth and that this is the cause of the king's sickness and the man vehemently denies that he has sworn falsely when he denies it the king sends for twice as many diviners and if they too consulting their art prove him guilty of perjury then he is instantly beheaded and his goods are divided among the first diviners but if the latter diviners acquit him then the other diviners come and yet again others if the greater number of them acquit the man the first diviners themselves be put to death and this is how they die men yoke oxen to a wagon laden with sticks and tie the diviners up in these feathering their legs and binding their hands behind them and gagging them then they set fire to the sticks and drive the oxen away stampeding them often the oxen are burnt to death with the diviners and often the yoke pole of their wagon is burnt through and the oxen escape with a scorching they burn their diviners for other reasons too they are deprived calling them false prophets when the king puts them to death he does not leave the sons alive either but kills all the males of the family the females he does not harm as for giving sworn pledges to those who are to receive them this is the Scythian way they take blood from the parties to the agreement by making a little cut on the body with an awl or knife and pour it mixed with wine into a big earthenware bowl into which they then dip a scimitar and arrows and an axe and a javelin and when this is done those swearing the agreement and the most honorable of their followers drink the blood after solemn curses the burial places of the kings are in the land of the gary which is the end of the navigation of the Boristhenes whenever their king has died the Scythians dig a great four cornered pit in the ground there when this is ready they take up the dead man his body enclosed in wax his belly cut open and cleaned and filled with cut marsh plants and frankincense parsley and any seed and sewn up again and transport him on a wagon to another tribe then those who receive the dead man on his arrival do the same as the royal Scythians that is they cut off a part of their ears shave their heads, make cuts around their arms tear their foreheads and noses and pierce their left hands with arrows from there the escorts transport the king's body on the wagon to another of the tribes that they rule and those to whom they have already come to follow them and having carried the dead man to all in turn they are at the place of burial in the country of the gary the farthest distant tribe of all under their rule then having laid the body on a couch in the tomb they plant spears on each side of the body and lay wooden planks across them which they then roof over with braided ossears in the open space which is left in the tomb they bury one of the king's concubines his cup-bearer his cook, his groom and his messenger after strangling them besides horses and first-fruits of everything else and golden cups for the Scythians do not use silver or bronze having done this they all build a great barrel of earth vying eagerly with one another to make this as great as possible after a year has passed they next do as follows they take the most trusted of the rest of the king's servants and these are native-born Scythians for only those whom he tells to do to the king and none of the Scythians have servants bought by money and strangle fifty of these and fifty of their best horses and empty and clean the bellies of them all fill them with chaff and sew them up again then they fasten half a wheel to two posts the hollow upward and the other half to the pair of posts until many posts thus prepared are planted in the ground and after driving thick stakes lengthways through the horses' bodies to their necks they place the horses up on the wheels the wheel in front supports the horses four quarters and the wheel behind takes the weight of the belly by the hind quarters and the four legs and hind legs hung free and putting bridles and bits in the horses' mouths they stretch the bridles to the front and fasten them with pegs then they take each one of the fifty strangled young men and mount him on the horse their way of doing it is to drive an upright stake through each body passing up alongside the spine to the neck leaving enough of the stake projecting below to be fixed in a hole made in the other stake which passes through the horse so having set the horsemen of this fashion around the tomb they ride away this is the way they bury their kings all other Scythians when they die are laid in wagons and carried about among their friends by their nearest of kin each receives them and entertains the retinue hospitably setting before the dead man about as much of the fare as he serves to the rest all but the kings are carried about like this for forty days and then buried after the burial the Scythians cleanse themselves as follows they anoint and wash their heads and for their bodies set up three poles leaning together to a point and cover these over with wool mats then in the space so enclosed to the best of their ability they make a pit in the center beneath the poles and the mats and throw red hot stones into it they have hemp growing in their country very light flax except that the hemp is much thicker and taller this grows both of itself and also by their cultivation and the Thracians even make garments of it which are very like linen no one, unless you were an expert in hemp could determine whether they were hemp in or linen whoever has never seen hemp before will think the garment linen the Scythians then take the seed of this hemp and crawling in under the mats throw it on the red hot stones where it smolders and sends forth such fumes that no Greek vapor bath could surpass it the Scythians howl in their joy at the vapor bath this serves them instead of bathing where they never wash their bodies with water but their women pound cypress and cedar and frankincense wood on a rough stone adding water also and with the thick stuff thus pounded they anoint their bodies and faces as a result of which not only does a fragrant scent come from them but when on the second day they take off the ointment their skin becomes clear and shining but as regards foreign customs the Scythians like others very much shun practising those of any other country and particularly of Helus as was proved in the case of Anarchis as was proved in the case of Anacarsis and also of Scyllites for when Anacarsis was coming back to the Scythian country after having seen much of the world in his travels and given many examples of his wisdom he sailed through the Hell's Pond and put in at Sisychus where finding the Sisythians celebrating the Feast of the Mother of the Gods with great ceremony he vowed to this same mother that if he returned to his own country safe and sound he would sacrifice to her as he saw the Sisythians doing and establish a nightly rite of worship so when he came to Scythia he hid himself in the country called Woodland which is beside the race of Achilles and is all overgrown with every kind of timber hidden there Anacarsis celebrated the goddess's ritual with exactness carrying a small drum and hanging images about himself then some Scythians saw him doing this and told the king, Sollius who coming to the place himself and seeing Anacarsis performing these rites shot an arrow at him and killed him and now the Scythians if they are asked about Anacarsis say they have no knowledge of him this is because he left his country for Helus and followed the customs of strangers but according to what I heard from Timneys the deputy for Aria Pythes Anacarsis was an uncle of Idanthrasis, king of Scythia and he was the son of Neurus, son of Lycus son of Spargopithes now if Anacarsis was truly of this family then let him know he was slain by his own brother for Idanthrasis was the son of Sollius and it was Sollius who killed Anacarsis it is true that I have heard another story told by the Peloponnesians namely that Anacarsis had been sent by the king of Scythia and had been a student of the ways of Helus and after his return told the king who sent him that all Greeks were king for every kind of learning except the Lachodemonians but that these were the only Greeks who spoke and listened with discretion but this is a tale pointlessly invented by the Greeks themselves and be this as it may the man was put to death as I have said End of volume 2 part 3 Volume 2 part 4 of Herodotus's Histories This is a Librivox recording All Librivox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org Recording by Morgan Scorpion Histories volume 2 by Herodotus of Halicarnassus translated by Ed Godly Volume 2 part 4 This then was how Anacarsis fed owing to his foreign ways and consorting with Greeks and a great many years afterwards Skylis, son of Aureopithes suffered a like fate Skylis was one of the sons born to Aureopithes King of Skithia but his mother was of Istria and not native born and she taught him to speak and read Greek As time passed Aureopithes was treacherously killed by Spargapithes king of the Agathersi and Skylis inherited the kingship and his father's wife was a young woman whose name was Opea and she bore Skylis a son, Oricus So Skylis was king of Skithia but he was in no way content with the Skithian way of life and was much more inclined to Greek ways from the upbringing that he had received So this is what he would do He would lead the Skithian army to the city of the Boristanites who say that they are Mylesians and when he arrived there to protect the city while he himself, entering within the walls and shutting the gates would take off his Skithian apparel and put on Greek dress and in it he would go among the townsfolk unattended by spearmen or any others who would guard the gates lest any Skithian see him wearing this apparel and in every way follow the Greek manner of life and worship the gods according to Greek usage When he had spent a month or more like this he would put on Skithian dress and leave the city He did this often and he built a house in Boristanites and married a wife of the people of the country and bought her there But when things had to turn out badly for him they did so for this reason He conceived a desire to be initiated into the rights of the Bacchic Dionysus and when he was about to begin the sacred mysteries he saw the greatest vision He had in the city of Boristanites a gorgeous house ground and costly the same house I just mentioned all surrounded by sphinxes and griffins worked in white marble This house was struck by a thunderbolt and though the house burnt to the ground Skiles nonetheless performed the right to the end Now the Skithians reproached the Greeks for this Bacchic reveling saying that it is not reasonable to set up a god who leads men to madness So when Skiles had been initiated into the Bacchic right someone of the Boristanites scoffed at the Skithians You laugh at us Skithians because we play the Bacchant and the god possesses us but now this deity has possessed your own king so that he plays the Bacchant and is maddened by the god If you will not believe me follow me now and I will show him to you The leading men among the Skithians followed him and the Boristanites brought them up secretly onto a tower and when the Skiles passed by with his company of worshippers they saw him playing the Bacchant thinking it a great misfortune they left the city and told the whole army what they had seen After this Skiles rode off to his own place but the Skithians rebelled against him setting up his brother Octimus Sardis son of the daughter of Therese for their king Skiles learning what had happened concerning him and the reason why it had happened fled into Thrace and when Octimus Sardis heard this he led his army there but when he was beside the Istha the Thracians barred his way and when the armies were about to engage Cetalkis sent this message to Octimus Sardis Why should we try each other's strength? You are my sister's son and you have my brother with you Give him back to me and I will give up your Skiles to you and let us not endanger our armies Such was the office Cetalkis sent to him for Cetalkis brother had fled from him and was with Octimus Sardis The Skithian agreed to this and took his brother Skiles giving up his own uncle to Cetalkis Cetalkis then took his brother and carried him away but Octimus Sardis beheaded Skiles on the spot This is how closely the Skithians guard their customs and these are the penalties they inflict to guard foreign customs to their own How numerous the Skithians are I was not able to learn exactly and at the accounts that I heard did not tally some saying that they are very numerous and some that they are very few so far as they are two Skithians But this much they let me see for myself There is a region between the Boris Tennies and Heparnus Rivers whose name is Exampius This is the land that I mentioned There is a spring of salt water in it whose water makes the Heparnus unfit to drink In this region is a bronze vessel as much as six times greater than the cauldron dedicated to Parsonius son of Cleombrotus at the entrance of the Pontus For anyone who has not yet seen the latter I will make my meaning plain The Skithian bronze vessel easily contains 5,400 gallons and it is of six fingers thickness The vessel, so the people of the country said was made out of arrowheads For their king, whose name was Ariantis Desiring to know the census of the Skithians commanded every Skithian to bring him the point from an arrow threatening death to all who did not So a vast number of arrowheads was brought and he decided to make and leave a memorial out of them and he made of these this bronze vessel and set it up in this country, Exampius This much I heard about the number of the Skithians As for marvels there are none in the land except that it has by far the greatest and the most numerous rivers in the world and over and above the rivers and the great extent of the plains there is one most marvellous thing for me to mention They show a footprint of Heracles by the Tyrus River stamped on rock like the mark of a man's foot but 40 inches in length Having described this I will now return to the story which I begin to tell While Darius was making preparations against the Skithians and sending messengers to direct some to furnish infantry and some to furnish ships and others again to bridge the Thracian Bosporus Arta Bonus Son of Hystaspis and Darius's brother by no means wanted him to make an expedition against the Skithians telling him how hard that people were to deal with But when, for all his good advice he could not deter the king Arta Bonus ceased to advise and Darius, all his preparations made led his army from Susa Then the Persian, Oyo Bazus who had three sons, all with the army asked Darius that one be left behind You are my friend said the king and your request is reasonable I will leave all your sons Oyo Bazus was very happy supposing his sons were leased from service But Darius told those whose job it was to execute all of Oyo Bazus' sons so their throats were cut and they were left there But Darius, when he came to that place in his march from Susa where the Bosporus was bridged in the territory of Calcadon went aboard the ship and sailed to the dark rocks as they are called which the Greeks say formally moved There he sat on a headland and viewed the Pontus, a marvellous sight For it is the most wonderful sea of all Its length is 11,100 stades and its breadth is 3,300 stades at the place where it is widest The channel at the entrance of this sea is four stades across The narrow neck of the channel called the Bosporus across which the bridge was thrown is about 120 stades long The Bosporus reaches as far as to the propontis and the propontis is 500 stades wide and 1,400 long Its outlet is the helispont which is no wider than 7 stades and 400 long The helispont empties into a gulf of the sea which we call Aegean These measurements have been made in this way A ship will generally accomplish 70,000 orguri in a long day's voyage and 60,000 by night This being granted seeing that from the pontis' mouth to the faces which is the greatest length of the sea it is a voyage of 9 days and 8 nights The length of it will be 1,110,000 orguri which make 11,000 stades From the Sindic region to Themiskura on the Thermodon River the greatest width of the pontis is the voyage of 3 days and 2 nights that is of 330,000 orguri or 3,300 stades Thus have I measured the pontis and the Bosporus and the helispont and they are as I have said Furthermore a lake is seen issuing into the pontis and not much smaller than the sea itself It is called the Mehissian lake and the mother of the pontis After having viewed the pontis shelled back to the bridge whose architect was Mandrakles of Samos and when he had viewed the Bosporus also he set up 2 pillars of white marble by it engraving on the one in Assyrian and on the other in Greek characters the names of all the nations that were in his army all the nations subject to him The full census of these over and above the fleet was 700,000 men including horsemen whose ships assembled was 600 These pillars were afterwards carried by the Byzantines into their city and there used to build the order of Athosian Artemis except for one column covered with Assyrian writing that was left beside the temple of Dionysus at Byzantium Now if my reckoning is correct the place where King Darius bridged the Bosporus was midway between Byzantium and the temple at the entrance of the sea After this being pleased with his bridge of boats Darius made a gift of 10 of everything to Mandrakles the Samian the architect of it Mandrakles took the first fruits of these and had a picture made with them showing the whole bridge of the Bosporus and Darius sitting aloft on his throne and his army crossing he set this up in the temple of Hera with the inscription After bridging the Bosporus that teems with fish Mandrakles dedicated a memorial to the floating bridge to Hera having won a crown for himself and fame for the Samians during the will of King Darius This memorialized the builder of the bridge Darius, after rewarding Mandrakles crossed over to Europe He had told the Ionians to sail into the Pontus as far as the Ister River and when they got to the Ister to wait there for him bridging the river meanwhile for the fleet by Ionians and Aeolians and men of the Hellespont So the fleet passed between the dark rocks and sailed straight for the Ister and after a two days voyage up the river from the sea set about bridging the narrow channel of the river where its various mouths separate, but Darius passing over the Bosporus on the floating bridge of ships journeyed through Thrace to the sources of the Tiaris River where he camped for three days The Tiaris is said by those living on it to be the best river of all for purposes of healing especially for healing mange in men and horses Its springs are 38 in number some cold and some hot all flowing from the same rock There are two roads to the place one from the town of Heraeum near Perinthus one from Apollonia on the Yuxing sea Each is a two days journey This Tiaris is a tributary of the Contadesdus river and that of the Agriannis and that of the Hebrus which empties into the sea near the city of Aenus Having come to this river and camped there then Darius was pleased with the sight of it and set up yet another pillar there cut with this inscription From the headwaters of the river Tiaris flows the best and finest water of all which came leading an army against Ascythians the best and finest man of all Darius son of Histaspis king of Persia and all the continent Such was the inscription From there Darius set out and came to another river called Artescus which flows through the country of the Odrisae and having reached this river he pointed out a spot to the army and told every man to lay one stone and he pointed out After his army did this he led it away leaving behind there great piles of stones But before he came to the Istha he first took the Getai who pretended to be immortal The Thracians of Salmidesis and of the country above the towns of Apollonia and Messambria who are called Cirmianae and Nipsae surrendered without a fight to Darius But the Getai resisted stubbornly and were enslaved at once the bravest and most just Thracians of all Their belief in their immortality is as follows They believe that they do not die but that one who perishes go to the deity Salmoxes or Gabalaisis as some of them call him Once every five years they choose one of their people by lot and send him as a messenger to Salmoxes with instructions to report their needs and this is how they send him Three lances are held by designated men Others seize the messenger to Salmoxes by his hands and feet and swing and toss him up on the spear points If he is killed by the toss they believe that the God regards them with favour But if he is not killed they blame the messenger himself considering him a bad man and send another messenger in place of him It is while the man still lives that they give him the message Furthermore when there is thunder and lightning these same Thracians shoot arrows skyward as a threat to the God believing in no other God but their own I understand from the Greeks who live behind the Hellespont and Pontus that this Salmoxes was a man who was once a slave in Samos his master being Pythagoras son of Nesarchus Then after being freed and gaining great wealth he returned to his own country The Thracians were a poor and backward people but this Salmoxes knew Ionian ways and a more advanced way of life than the Thracian for he had consorted with Greeks and moreover with one of the greatest Greek teachers Pythagoras Therefore he made a hall where he entertained and fed the leaders among his countrymen and taught them that neither he nor his guests nor any of their descendants would ever die but that they would all go to a place while he was doing as I have said and teaching this doctrine he was meanwhile making an underground chamber when this was finished he vanished from the sight of the Thracians and went down into the underground chamber where he lived for three years while the Thracians wished him back and warned him for dead then in the fourth year he appeared to the Thracians and thus they came to believe what Salmoxes had told them such is the Greek story about him he disbelieved nor entirely believed the tale about Salmoxes and his underground chamber but I think that he lived many years before Pythagoras and as to whether there was a man called Salmoxes or this is some deity native to the Getai let the question be dismissed such were the ways of the Getai who were subdued by the Persians and followed their army when Darius and the land army with him had come to the Easter and all had cost he had the Ionians break the bridge and follow him in his march across the mainland together with the men of the fleet so the Ionians were preparing to break the bridge and do Darius's bidding but Cori's son of Alexander the general of the Mytilenians after first asking if Darius were willing to listen to advice from one who wanted to give it said thus if we find the Scythians and do what we want we have a safe way of return and even if we do not find them at least our way back is safe for my fear has never been that we shall be overcome by the Scythians in the field but rather that we may not be able to find them and so go astray to our harm now it may perhaps be said that I say this for my own sake because I want to remain behind but it is not so I only declare publicly the opinion that I think best for you and I will follow you and do not want to be left here Darius was very pleased with this advice and he answered Cori's thus my friend from Lesbos do not fail to show yourself to me when I return to my house safe so that I may make you a good return for your good advice after saying this he tied 60 knots in a song and summoning the Ionian sovereigns to an audience said to them gentlemen of Ionia I take back the decision which I delivered before about the bridge now take this song and do as follows begin to reckon from the day when you see me march away against the Scythians and untie one knot each day and if the days marked by the knots have all passed and I have not returned embark for your own homes but until then since the plan has changed guard the bridge making every effort to keep and watch it you will please me very much having said this Darius hastened to march further Thrace runs farther out into the sea than Skidia and Skidia begins where a bay is formed in its coast and the mouth of the Ister facing southeast is in that country now I am going to describe the coast of the true Skidia from the Ister and give its measurements the ancient Skidian land begins at the Ister and faces south and the south wind as far as the city Karkinitis beyond this place the country fronting the same sea is hilly and projects into the Pontus it is inherited by the Tauric nation as far as what is called the rough peninsula and this ends in the eastern sea for the sea to the south and the sea to the east are two of the four boundary lines of Skidia just as seas are boundaries of Attica and the Tauri inhabit a part of Skidia like Attica as though some other people were to inhabit the heights of Sunium from Thoricus to the town of Anaphystis if Sunium jutted further out into the sea I mean so to speak to compare small things with great such a land is the Tauric country but those who have not sailed along that part of Attica may understand from this other analogy it is though in Calabria some other people not Calabrian were to live on the promontory from the harbour of Brundisium to Tarentum I am speaking of these two countries but there are many others of a similar kind that Tauris resembles beyond the Tauric country the Skidians begin living north of the Tauri and beside the eastern sea west of the Cimmerian Bosporus and the Maesian lake as far as the Tanius river which empties into the end of that lake now it has been seen that on its northern it is bounded first by the Agathersi next by the Nualae next by the Man-eaters and last by the Black Cloaks Skidia then is a four-sided country two of whose sides are coastline the frontier is running inland and those that are by the sea making it a perfect square for it is a ten days journey from the Istha to the Boristhenes and the same from the Boristhenes to the Maesian lake and it is a twenty days journey from the Black Cloaks who live north of Skidia now as I reckon a day's journey at 200 studies the cross measurement of Skidia would be a distance of 500 miles and the line drawn straight up inland the same such then is the extent of this land end of volume 2 part 4 volume 2 part 5 of Herodotus's histories this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings from the main for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org histories volume 2 by Herodotus of Halecanarsis translated by E.D. Godly volume 2 part 5 convinced that they alone were not able to repel Darius's army in open warfare the Scythians sent messengers to their neighbors whose kings had already gathered and were deliberating on the presumption the assembled kings were those of the Tari Agathirsi Nuri Man-eaters Black Cloaks Gilani Boudini and Saramate among these the Tari have the following customs all shipwrecked men and any Greeks whom they capture in their sea raids they sacrifice to the virgin goddess as I will describe after the first rites of sacrifice they strike the victim on the head with a club according to some they then place the head on a pole and throw the body off the cliff on which their temple stands others agree as to the head but say that the body is buried not thrown off the cliff the Tari themselves say that this deity to whom they sacrifice is Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia as for enemies whom they defeat each cuts his enemies head off and carries it away to his house where he places it on a tall pole and stands it high above the dwelling above the smoke vent for the most part these heads they say are set up to guard the whole house the Tari live by plundering in war the Agathirsi are the most refined of men and especially given to wearing gold their intercourse with women is promiscuous so that they may be consequent with one another and all being relations not harbor jealousy or animosity toward one another in the rest of their customs they are like the Thracians the Nuri follow Scythian customs but one generation before the advent of Darius's army they happen to be driven from their country by snakes for their land produced great numbers of these and still more came down on them out of the desolation on the north until at last the Nuri were so afflicted they left their own country and lived among the Budini it may be that these people are wizards for the Scythians and the Greeks settled in Scythia say that once a year every one of the Nuri becomes a wolf for a few days and changes back again to his former shape those who tell this tale do not convince me but they tell it nonetheless and swear to its truth the man-eaters are the most savage of all men in their way of life they know no justice and obey no law they are nomads wearing a costume like the Scythian but speaking a language of their own of all these they are the only people that eat men the black cloaks all wear black clothing from which they get their name their customs are Scythian the Budini are a great and populous nation the eyes of them all are very bright and they are ready they have a city built of wood called Galanis the wall of it is three and three quarters miles in length on each side of the city this wall is high and all of wood and their houses are wooden and their temples for there are temples of Greek gods among them furnished in Greek style with images and altars and shrines of wood and they honor Dionysius every two years with festivals and revelry for the Galani are by their origin Greeks who left their trading ports to settle among the Budini and they speak a language half Greek and half Scythian but the Budini do not speak the same language as the Galani nor is their manner of life the same the Budini are indigenous they are nomads and the only people in these parts that eat fur crones the Galani are farmers eating grain and cultivating gardens they are altogether unlike the Budini in form and coloring yet the Greeks call the Budini too Galani but this is wrong their whole country is thickly wooded with every kind of tree in the depth of the forest there is a great wide lake and a marsh surrounded by reeds otter is trapped in it and beaver besides certain square faced creatures whose skins are used to trim mantles and their testicles are used by the people to heal sickness of the womb about the Sarramate the story is as follows when the Greeks were at war with the Amazons whom the Scythians call Oerpata a name signifying in our tongue killers of men for in Scythian a man is Oori and to kill is Pata the story runs that after their victory on the Thermodon they sailed away carrying in three ships as many Amazons as they had been able to take alive and out at sea the Amazons attacked the crew and killed them but they knew nothing about ships or how to use rudder or sail or ore and with the men dead they were at the mercy of waves and winds until they came to the cliffs by the Mietin lake this place is in the country of the free Scythians the Amazons landed there and set out on their journey to the inhabited country and seizing the first troop of horses they met they mounted them and raided the Scythian lands the Scythians could not understand the business for they did not recognize the women's speech or their dress or their nation but wondered where they had come from and imagined them to be men all of the same age and met the Amazons in battle the result of the fight was that the Scythians got possession of the dead and so came to learn that their foes were women therefore after deliberation they resolved by no means to slay them as before but to send their youngest men to them of a number corresponding as they guessed to the number of the women they directed these youths to camp near the Amazons and to imitate all that they did if the women pursued them not to fight but to flee and when the pursuit stopped to return and camp near them this was the plan of the Scythians for they desired that children be born of the women the young men who were sent did as they were directed when the Amazons perceived that the youths meant them no harm they let them be but every day the two camps drew nearer to each other now the young men like the Amazons had nothing but their arms and their horses and lived as did the women by hunting and plunder at midday the Amazons would scatter and go apart from each other singly or in pairs roaming apart for greater comfort the Scythians noticed this and did likewise and as the women wandered alone a young man laid hold of one of them and the woman did not resist him but let him do his will and since they did not understand each other's speech and she could not speak to him she signed with her hand that he should come the next day to the same place and bring another youth with him showing by signs that there should be two and she would bring another woman with her the youth went away and told his comrades and the next day he came himself with another to the place where he found the Amazon and another with her awaiting them when the rest of the young men learned of this they had intercourse with the rest of the Amazons presently they joined their camps and lived together each man having for his wife the woman with whom he had had intercourse at first now the men could not learn the women's language but the women mastered the speech of the men and when they understood each other the men said to the Amazons we have parents and possessions therefore let us no longer live as we do but return to our people and be with them and we will still have you and no others for our wives to this the women replied we could not live with your women for we and they do not have the same customs we shoot the bow and throw the javelin and ride but have never learned women's work and your women do none of the things of which we speak but stay in their wagons and do women's work and do not go out hunting or anywhere else so we could never agree with them if you want to keep us for wives and to have the name of fair men go to your parents and let them give you the allotted share of their possessions and after that let us go and live by ourselves the young men agreed and did this so when they had been given the allotted share of possessions that fell to them and returned to the Amazons the women said to them we are worried and frightened how we are to live in this country after depriving you of your fathers and doing a lot of harm to your land since you propose to have us for wives do this with us come let us leave this country and live across the Tenaeus River to this too the youths agreed and crossing the Tenaeus they went a three days journey east from the river and a three days journey north from Lake Mateus and when they came to the region in which they now live they settled there ever since then the women of the Soromate have followed their ancient ways they ride out hunting with their men or without them they go to war and dress the same as the men the language of the Soromate is Scythian but not spoken in its ancient purity since the Amazons never learned it correctly in regard to marriage it is the custom that no maid weds until she has killed a man of the enemy and some of them grow old and die unmarried because they cannot fulfill the law the kings of the aforesaid nations having gathered then the Scythian messengers came and laid everything before them explaining how the Persian now that the whole of the other continent was subject to him had crossed over to their continent by a bridge across the neck of the Bosphorus and how having crossed it and subjugated the Thracians he was now bridging the Easter so as to make that whole region subject to him like the others by no means stand aside and let us be destroyed they said rather let us unite and oppose this invader if you will not then we shall either be driven out of our country or stay and make terms for what is to become of us if you will not help us and afterward it will not be easy for you either for the Persian has come to attack you no less than us and when he has subjugated us he will not be content to leave you alone we will give you a convincing proof of what we say if indeed the Persian were marching against us alone wanting vengeance for our former enslavement of his country he ought to leave others alone and make straight for us and would show everyone that Scythia and no other country was his goal but as it is from the day he crossed over to this continent he has been taming all that came in his way and he holds in subjection not only the rest of Thrace but also our neighbors the Gete after the Scythians had made this speech the kings who had come from the nations deliberated and their opinions were divided the kings of the Galani and the Boudini and the Saromate were of one mind and promised to help the Scythians but the kings of the Agathaercy and Nuri and Man-eaters and Black Cloaks and Tari gave this answer to the messengers had it not been you who wronged the Persian first and began the war what you now ask would seem to us right and we would listen and act together with you but as it is you invaded their land without us and ruled the Persians for as long as God granted and the Persians urged on by the same God are only repaying you in kind but we did these men no wrong at that former time nor do we intend now to wrong them first but if the Persian comes against our land too and begins the wrongdoing then we will not accept it either but until we see that we shall keep to ourselves for in our judgment the Persians have not come for us but for those who were the agents of wrong when this answer was brought back to the Scythians they determined not to meet their enemy in the open field since they could not get the allies that they sought but rather to fall back driving off their herds choking the wells and springs on their way and destroying the grass from the earth and they divided themselves into two companies it was their decision that to one of their divisions which Scopasus ruled the Saromate be added if the Persian marched that way this group was to retire before him and fall back toward the Tenaeus River by the Metian Lake and if the Persian turned to go back then they were to pursue and attack him this was one of the divisions of the royal people and it was appointed to follow this course there are two other divisions namely the greater whose ruler was Adan Thyrsus and the third whose king was Taxacus were to unite and taking with them also the Galanian Boudini to draw off like the others at the Persian approach always keeping one day's march ahead of the enemy avoiding a confrontation and doing what had been determined first then they were to retreat in a straight line toward the countries which refused their alliance so as to involve these two in the war for if they did not of their own accord support the war against the Persians they must be involved against their will and after that the division was to turn back to its own country and attack the enemy if in deliberation they thought this best determined on this plan the Scythians sent an advance guard of their best horsemen to meet Darius's army as for the wagons in which their children and wives lived all these they sent forward with instructions to drive always northward and they sent all their flocks with the wagons keeping none back except what was required for their food after this convoy was first sent on its way the advance guard of the Scythians the Persians about a three days march distant from the Easter and having found them they camped a day's march ahead of the enemy and set about scorching the earth of all living things when the Persians saw the Scythian cavalry appear they marched on its track the horsemen always withdrawing before them and then making for the one Scythian division the Persians held on in pursuit toward the east and the Tanaus river when the horsemen crossed this the Persians crossed also they had marched through the land of the Saromate to the land of the Boudini as long as the Persians were traversing the Scythian and Saromate territory there was nothing for them to harm as the land was dry and barren but when they entered the country of the Boudini they found themselves before the wooden walled town the Boudini had abandoned it and left nothing in it and the Persians burnt the town then going forward still on the horsemen's track they passed through this country into desolation inhabited by no one it lies to the north of the Boudini and its breath is a seven days march beyond this desolation live the Thysigete four great rivers flow from their country through the land of the Metians and issue into the land called the Metian their names are Lichus, Orus, Tanaus, and Sergius when Darius came into the desolate country he halted in his pursuits and camped on the Orus river where he built eight great forts the ruins of which were standing even in my lifetime all at an equal distance of about seven miles from one another while he was occupied with these the Scythians whom he was pursuing doubled north and turned back into Scythia then when they had all together vanished and were no longer within the Persians sight Darius left those forts only half finished and he too doubled about and marched west thinking that those Scythians were the whole army and that they were fleeing toward the west but when he came by forced marches into Scythia he met the two divisions of the Scythians and pursued them who always kept a day's march away from him and because Darius would not stop pursuing them the Scythians according to the plan they had made fell back before him to the countries of those who had refused their alliance to the land of the black cloaks first the Scythians and Persians burst into their land agitating them and from there the Scythians led the Persians into the country of the man-eaters and agitating them too from there they drew off into the country of the Nuri and agitating them also fled to the Agathirsee but the Agathirsee seeing their neighbors fleeing panicked stricken at the Scythians approach before the Scythians could break into their land sent a herald to forbid them to set foot across their borders warning the Scythians that if they tried to break through they would have to fight with the Agathirsee first with this warning the Agathirsee mustered on their borders intending to stop the invaders when the Persians and the Scythians broke into their lands the black cloaks and man-eaters and Nuri put up no resistance but forgot their threats and fled panic-stricken north into the desolate country but warned off by the Agathirsee the Scythians made no second attempt on that country but led the Persians from the lands of the Nuri into Scythia as this went on for a long time and did not stop Darius sent a horseman to, it in thesis the Scythian king with this message you crazy man, why do you always run when you can do otherwise if you believe yourself strong enough to withstand my power stand and fight and stop running but if you know you are weaker then stop running like this and come to terms with your master bringing gifts of earth and water it in thesis the Scythian king replied it is like this with me Persian I never ran from any man before out of fear and I am not running from you now I am not doing any differently now than I am used to do in time of peace too as to why I do not fight with you at once I will tell you why we Scythians have no towns or cultivated land out of fear for which that the one might be taken or the other wasted we would engage you sooner in battle but if all you want is to come to that quickly we have the graves of our fathers come on, find these and try to destroy them you shall know then whether we will fight you for the graves or whether we will not fight until then unless we have reason we will not engage with you as to fighting enough as to masters I acknowledge Zeus my forefather and Hestia queen of the Scythians only as for you instead of gifts of earth and water I shall send such as ought to come to you and for your boast that you are my master I say weep such as the proverbial Scythian speech end of volume 2 part 5