Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cimmerian Problem Re-Examined PDF
Cimmerian Problem Re-Examined PDF
Cimmerian Problem Re-Examined PDF
Jadwiga Pstrusinska
Andrew Fear
Technical editor:
Agnieszka Kuczkiewicz-Fras
The editors generally respect the authors editorial choices contained in the volume.
The printing of this volume would not have been possible without the financial
support of the Philological Faculty and the Institute of Oriental Philology,
Jagiellonian University, Cracow.
The Celto-Asiatic Seminar wishes also to express its gratitude to the Jagiello
nian University for the 1996 and 1998 research grants.
The cover shows the motives of the Celtic cross and the cross on a cult pilar in
the Hindukush region.
ISBN: 83-7188-337-4
KSIIJGARNIA AKADEMICKA
ul. Sw. Anny 6, 31-008 Krakow
tel./fax (+48 12) 43 127 43, 422 10 33 ext. 1167
e-mail: ksakadem@cicero.law.uj.edu.pi
http :/www. ch.uj .edu. pl/ksiegarnia.htm 1
C ontents
Preface.............................................................................................................. 5
Marzenna Czerniak-Drozdzowicz
Celto-Indian parallels in a r t..................................................................... 7
Andrew Fear
Solum liter a scripta m anet?...................................................................... 17
Tadeusz Majda
The Celts, the Scythians, and the Turks. Parallels
in the visual arts and in literature............................................................ 33
Iwona M ilewska
Sandhi w sanskrycie i w jqzykach celtyckich.......................................... 61
Marek J. Olbrycht
The Cimmerian problem re-examined: the evidence
o f the Classical sources............................................................................ 71
Marek J. Olbrycht
Notes on the presence o f Iranian peoples in Europe
and their Asiatic relations ........................................................................ 101
Zygmunt Pucko
A cidt o f severed heads in Cracow?......................................................... 141
Jolanta Sierakowska-Dyndo
Wzor ladu spolecznego w kulturze pasztunskiej
i kulturach staroceltyckich........................................................................ 149
Piotr Stalmaszczyk
Bibliography o f Celtic studies in Poland.
Part one: culture and history................................................................... 169
Lidia Sudyka
Possible traces o f the Indo-Aryan presence in the
prehistoric homeland o f the C elts............................................................ W
P reface
1. Introduction
O f all the nomadic peoples who were present in the Caspian steppes
and in Western Asia in the 1st millenium B.C. none has probably caused histori
ans and archaeologists so much trouble than the Cimmerians. The history of the
Cimmerians is still being discussed and reconstructed in different ways2. The
whole problem contains lots of misunderstandings mainly due to the fact that
the most important source groups, i.e. literary and archaeological evidences,
have been examined on the basis of some aprioric assumptions not all of which
are immidiately obvious.
1 The present article is an extended version of a paper presented in February 1998 at the
Celto-Asiatic Seminar, Jagiellonian University, Institute of Oriental Philology, Krakow.
2 During the last decade more than ten articles and monographs on the Cimmerians
have been published. General histories of the Cimmerians are: Kristensen 1988;
Lanfranchi 1990; Ivantchik 1993; Tokhtasev 1993; Ivancik 1996; Diakonov 1994;
Parker 1995. Amongst recent archaeological works we should mention: Dudarev 1991;
Pogrebova/Raevskii 1992;Kaalova/AIekseev 1993;Chochorowski 1993; Makhortych
1994; Dudarev 1995.
72 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
cal and philological studies3. The well documented history of the Cimmerians in
Western Asia is not the topic of this paper, but it provides important fixing
points for a reconstruction of the whole development of that people. In explor
ing the Classical testimonies related to the Cimmerians, it is hoped that a greater
insight into the complex history of the earliest known ethnic entities of South
eastern Europe may be achieved.
and cloud. Never does the bright sun look down on them with his rays either
when he mounts the starry heaven or when he turns again to earth from heaven,
but baneful night is spread over wretched mortals. Thither we came and beached
our ship, and took out the sheep, and ourselves went beside the stream of Oceanus
until we came to the place of which Circe had told us7.
7 Translation quoted after: Homer, The Odyssey, vol. I, transl. by A. T. Murray, London/
Cambridge (Mass.) 1953 (LCL). In the present paper, translations - unless otherwise
stated - will be drawn from Loeb editions (with some improvements).
8 Lesky 1967, 693.
9 For a discussion of this problem, see Lehman-Haupt 1921,428ff.; Huebeck/ Hoekstra
1989, 78.
10 Chochorowski 1993, 9f. Similarly Parker 1995, 31.
11 The Nekyia, the eleventh book of the Odyssey, tells the story of Odysseus journey
into Hades and describes the magic rites by which the ghosts of the dead were called
up, cf. Lesky 1967, 81 Iff.
12 Od. 24.12.
13 Cf. Od. 24.11-14. Odysseus leaves Aiaia, the island of Circe, and travels to the en
trance of the Underworld (Od. 12.3-4). Cf. also Od. 10.490-515.
74 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
and their country belong the the world of legend14. In such circumstances, it is
not difficult to accept the opinion of Huebeck/Hoekstra: The mythological lo
cation of the Homeric Cimmerians country at the entry to the Underworld in
fact exclude any possibility of connecting them with the historical Cimmerians15.
It is worth noting that the idea of a people in the dark West, which
is never penetrated by the sun, was apparently created to be in complete contrast
to the location of the peoples of the Laestrygonians and the Ethiopians who
inhabited the eastern borders of the world and lived in perpetual light16. Modern
authorities overlook the fact that Homer mentions the city (polis) o f the
Cimmerians. Assuming that Homers description is reliable, it is hardly possi
ble to understand the existence of a city in the homeland of a people which was
unanimously treated in the ancient tradition as a nomadic tribe.
What might actually the source for the Homeric knowledge of the
Cimmerians have been? To pursue this issue the discussion has to turn to the
Argonautic saga. Some modem authorities maintain that the Odyssey took some
themes, especially the notion of Cimmerians, from the Argonautic tale17. This
story was a favourite subject for Greek poetry already before Homer and the
poet knew it18. The saga of the Argonauts was connected with the Black Sea and
14 Cf. the valid arguments of Huebeck/Hoekstra 1989, 78: Both the people (of the
Cimmerians, M. J.O.) and their country do, of course, belong to the realm of folk-tale;
they are part of irrational world which lies beyond the confines of the real world and
surrounds it, itself being bordered by the circumambient Oceanus.
15 Huebeck/Hoekstra 1989, 78.
16 See II. 1.423; 23.205; Od. 1.22. Cf. Huebeck 1963, 491.
17 See Meuli 1921 and Willamowitz-Moelendorf 1920, 3621T. For a convincing discus
sion of this issue, see Tokhtasev 1993, 47ff.
18 In the Odyssey 12.70 the good ship Argo is said to be of interest to all.
Marek J. Olbrycht The Cimmerian problem re-examined.. 75
Colchis, the land on the river Phasis in modem Georgia19. On the other hand, the
Cimmerians are placed in Transcaucasia according to Assyrian sources of the
last quarter of the 8th century B.C., i.e. in Homeric times. Assyrian records lo
cate the first known country of the Cimmerians in Asia, Gamir, in the Gori area
(Georgia) on the eastern borders of Colchis20. Based upon this evidence, then,
one can assume that Homer was indebted to the Argonautic saga for informa
tion recording the mysterious people of the Cimmerians.
Alongside the Odyssey the earliest Classical source for the Cim
merians in Europe seems to be the Arimaspea, a poem written by Aristeas of
Proconnesus. Aristeas lived in all probability in the first half of the 6th century
B.C., anyway not earlier than circa 650 B.C.21. Consequently, his activities can
not be dated earlier than the establishment of the first Greek colonies in the
northern shores of the Black Sea. This circumstance permits the supposition
that Aristeas could not have witnessed Cimmerian tribal movements north of
the Caucasus or get any reliable current information on the Cimmerians in the
North Pontic area, for that people - if we believe Herodotus account - migrated
into Western Asia, and this happened prior to 715 B.C. in the light of Assyrian
records. On the other hand, Aristeas must have known the Cimmerian movements
in Asia Minor22. In his Arimaspea, which we know only from few fragments trans
mitted by other authors, he describes some tribes of the Eurasian steppe area such
as the Issedones, the Arimaspi, and the Hyperboreans. There can be little doubt
that those accounts, with their speculative (Pythagorean) and mythological tenden
cies, did not intend to provide strictly documentary evidence on ethnography and
geography o f the Eurasian tribes23. Nevertheless, they were of primary
28 Herodotus was heavily influenced by Hecataeus not only in his description of Scythia
but also in other accounts, see Easterling/Knox 1989b, 18f. Cf. also Herrmann 1914,
12ff.; Junge 1939, 20ff.
29 Cf. Aly 1921, 122ff.; Junge 1939, 21ff.; Lendle 1992, 44; Tokhtasev 1993, 22.
30 FGrHist 1 F 184-195 with Jacobys commentary.
31 Cf. Jacoby 1912, 2717ff.; Plezia 1959/1960.
32 See the excellent analysis if this issue by Tokhtasev 1993, 22f.
33 Hecateaus in Strabo (7.3.6) mentions a Cimmerian polis in that region.
34 Cf. Jacoby 1912,2717.
35 For a convincing discussion of this problem, see Tokhtasev 1993, 22ff.
36 Cf. Sulimirski 1985,165ff. On the sources of this passage Jacoby 1913,43 If.; Fehling
1971, 33ff.
78 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
According to the first version, taken from the Scythians, their origins stemmed
from a hero named Targitaos37. In the second account, given by the Pontic Greeks,
Heracles entered the inhabited land, now called Scythia, and met a monster, half
serpent, half maiden, who bore him three sons. One of them, Scythes, became
the first Scythian king38. In both accounts there is no mention of the Cimmerians.
Undoubtedly, these accounts reflect local traditions of the inhabitants of the
North Pontic area. It is striking that the two accounts considered the Scythians
to be autochthons in their country39. The stories are historically not credible, but
they contain valuable details attested in other sources40. They differ from the
third version of the descendance of the Scythians (given as aXXoc, Xoyo g),
which Herodotus considers the most probable as resting on the authority of the
barbarians and Greeks41. This account combines the migration o f the
Cimmerians and the establishment of the Scythians in the Pontic steppes.
Herodotus writes:
There is yet another tale (aXXoc, X oyog), to the tradition whereof
I myself do especially incline. It is to this purport: the nomad Scythians inhabit
ing Asia, being hard pressed in war by the Massagetae, fled away across the
river Araxes to the Cimmerian country (for the country which the Scythians
now inhabit is said to have belonged of old to the Cimmerians), and the
Cimmerians, at the advance of the Scythians, took such counsel as behoved men
threatened by a great host. Their opinions were divided; both were strongly
held, but that of the princes was the more honourable; for the commonalty deemed
that their business was to withdraw themselves 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 would be persuaded by
the other, neither the people by the princes nor the princes by the people; the one
part planned to depart without fighting and deliver the country to their enemies,
but the princes were resolved to lie slain in the own country and not to flee with
the people, for they considered how happy their state had been and what ills
were like to come upon them if they fled from their native land. Being thus
resolved they parted asunder into two equal bands and fought with each other
37 Hdt. 4.5-7.
38 Hdt. 4.8-10.
39 See Tokhtasev 1993, 19 with further references.
40 Fehling 1971, 33-37.
41 Cf. Fehling 1971, 37f.
Marek J. Olbrycht The Cimmerian problem re-examined.. 79
till they were all slain by their own hands; then the commonalty of the Cimmerians
buried them by the river Tyras, where their tombs are still to be seen, and having
buried them departed out of the land; and the country being empty, the Scythians
came and took possessions of it {Histories 4.11)
42 Hdt. 4.11.
43 Hdt. 4.12.
44 On the problem of the sources see Jacoby 1913, 419ff.; Tokhtasev 1993, 21.
45 Mullenhoff 1896, 23; Jacoby 1913, 419ff.
46 Cf. Aly 1921, 122ff; Junge 1939, 21ff.; Lendle 1992, 44; Tokhtasev 1993, 22.
Herodotus may have taken some details also from other writers such as Pherekydes of
Syros or Damastes, cf. Tokhtasev 1993, 24.
80 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
low). Herodotus also reports a story related to the Cimmerians written by Aristeas
of Proconnesus (see above, Histories 4.13).
47 As to this issue it may be noted that in Greece there were many local traditions in
which Pelasgi or Cyclops were credited with lots of mythical achievements, see, e.g.
Grimal 1987, 282 and 64f. Cf. also Hdt. 6.137ff.
48 Herrmann 1914, 13, note 1.
Marek J. Olbrycht The Cimmerian problem re-examined.. 81
acquaintance with the region is well attested49. Herodotus could find a more
certain attestation of the existence of the Araxes amongst the merchants of Olbia
who must have travelled in the Ponto-Caspian steppes50. In the passage under
discussion Herodotus makes the pressure of the Massagetae responsible for the
retreat of the Scythians from beyond the Araxes. This statement is very signifi
cant for the issue under discussion. In the 6^-4* centuries B.C., the northwestern
parts of Central Asia were dominated by a powerful tribal confederation named
Massagetae in Greek sources. Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid
Empire, met his death while fighting against this group. The earliest description
of the Massagetaeis provided by Hecataus of Miletus transmitted by Herodotus51.
Hecataeus was familiar with the peoples living in the Transcaspian plains of
Turkestan. Consequently, he may be expected to know of the tribal struggles in
the region. This assumption can be supported by the quoted above fragment
describing a conflict between the Massagetae and Scythians. We should not
overlook the fact that in Aristeas, who probably had no knowledge of the
Massagetae, the people pressing on the Cimmerians are Issedones (perhaps a
Sarmatian tribe?).
49 Hecataeus knew the Caspian/Hyrcanian Sea and the river Araxes which is differently
identified by modern scholars, cf. Pyankov 1975, 50.
50 On the informants from Olbia see Herrmann 1914, 13.
51 Pyankov 1975, passim.
82 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
assed by the Massagetae, went across the river Araxes and drove out the
Cimmerians of their country. In this story, Herodotus apparently followed
Hecataeus of Miletus.
in the interior of Asia Minor54. We may assume, on the whole, that Herodotus -
when describing the Cimmerian migration - combined some different local tra
ditions taken from Greek cities in the North Pontic area and from Asia Minor
and those tales constituted one of his chief sources for his Cimmerian logos55.
54 Cf. Hdt. 1.15-16 on the Cimmerians in Lydia and their decline. See, also, Hdt. 1.102.
55 Such a combination was assumed by Ali 1921, 122f. Cf. also Tokhtasev 1993, 3 If.
56 Hdt. 4.12. The same also in 1.103.
57 Hdt. 4.12. The same in 1.104.
84 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
58 Diod. 2.43.1-5.
59 I am following here Herrmann 1914, 21, note 5.
60 Cf. Pogrebova-Raevskii 1992, 2If. Main early Scythian complexes come from that
area (ibid. 185) and to the south beyond the Caucasus up to Urmia Lake (ibid., map on
p. 197).
61 On these names see Tokhtasev 1993, 30.
62 Tokhtasev 1993, 34ff.
63 Strab. 7.3.6.
64 Aesch. Prom. 730.
65 Strab. 11.2.5. See Tokhtasev 1993, 35.
Marek J. Olbrycht The Cimmerian problem re-examined. 85
cate the mountain Cimmerius, so called because the Cimmerians once held
sway in the Bosporus; and it is because of this fact that the whole of the strait
which extends to the mouth of Lake Maeotis is called the Cimmerian Bosporus66.
Posidonius in Strabo maintains that the Cimmerian Bosporus in the region of
Lake Maeotis was named after the Cimbri for the Greeks named the Cimbri
Cimmerians67.
66 Strab. 7.4.3.
67 Strab. 7.2.2.
68 Parker 1995, lOf.
69 Lanfranchi 1990, 142.
70 Chochorowski 1993, 19f.
71 Tokhtasev 1993, 37f.
72 Cf. Tokhtasev 1993, 34.
73 Ps. Scymnus 896ff.
74 Tokhtasev 1993, 35. According to Rohde 1901, 92, note 2, the name was invented
in gelehrter Reminiszenz of Homeric traditions.
86 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
Cimmerium oppidum, located by Strabo (after Ephorus, see below) and by Pliny75
in Italy in the vicinity of Avemium Lake. On the whole, it would seem probable
that the evidence of Cimmerian toponyms is of secondary importance for a
discussion on the homeland of the Cimmerians. Classical sources reflect the deep
dependance of the Cimmerians location upon the Homeric idea of that people.
The first Greek colonists could not meet the alleged Cimmerians in
the Bosporus and Tyras region. The earliest Greek settlements in the north Pon
tic area are datable to the period after about 650 B.C.76 On the other hand, the
Cimmerians are attested in Transcaucasia prior to 715 B.C. We have really no
indications of encounters or contacts between Greek colonists and Cimmerians
in the North Pontic region. On the contrary, as the earliest neighbours of the
Pontic Greeks appear merely Scythian tribes. At present, the Scythian period in
the region can be evidently detected up to the middle of the 7th century B.C.77
The Greek colonists of the North Pontic region came primarily from
Miletus in Asia Minor78. The Oriental Greeks knew the Cimmerians in Asia and
that is why the existing settings of the Cimmerians in the west, e.g. in Italy, were
for them not acceptable. This circumstance and the nomadic nature of the in
vaders in Asia stimulated attempts to locate their homeland north of the Cauca
sus in the colonized Pontic areas79.
75 Plin. NH 3.61: lacus Lucrinus etAvernus iuxta quem Cimmerium oppidum quondam.
76 For the Greek settlement in Tyras on the Dniester (as established circa 600-550 B.C.),
see KarySkowskii/Kleyman 1985, 40ff. Cf. Tokhtasev 1993, 32. For the Bosporus
region, colonized by the Greeks from about 600 B.C., see Tokhtasev 1993, 18. A
small settlement was founded on Berezan island in the second half of the 7lh century
B.C., see Vinogradov/Marcenko 1989,541. Istria, the oldest colony in the northwest
ern part of the Pontic shore, was established also in the second half of the 7thcentury.
77 Vinogradov/MarCenko 1989.
78 Ehrhardt 1988.
79 So Tokhtasev 1993, 42ff.
Marek J. Olbrycht The Cimmerian problem re-examined.. 87
80 Cf. Eustathios, Commentarii in Odysseam, 1379, 29-31. Eustathios remarks that the
Cimmerians in reality lived in the north, cf. 1667, 43; 1704, 57; 1670-1671, 1705.
81 On Ephorus of Cumae see Lendle 1992, 136ff.
82 Strab. 5.4.5; FGrHist 70 F 134a with a commentary.
83 Cf. Grimal 1987, 184.
84 Bolton 1962, 24. On the location of the Cimmerians as seen by Classical commenta
tors see also Lehmann-Haupt 1921, 425f.
88 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
Others, however, say that the Cimmerians who were first known to the ancient
Greeks were not a large part of the entire people, but merely a body of exiles or
a faction which was driven away by the Scythians and passed from the Maeotic
Lake into Asia under the lead of Lygdamis; whereas the largest and most war
like part of the people dwelt at the confines of the earth along the outer sea,
occupying a land that is shaded, wooded, and wholly sunless by reason of the
height and thickness of the trees, which reach inland as far as the Hercynii; and
as regards the heavens, they are under that portion of them where the pole gets
a great elevation by reason of the declination of the parallels, and appears to
have a position not far removed from the spectators zenith, and a day and a
night divide the year into two equal parts; which was of advantage to Homer in
his story of Odysseus consulting the shades of the dead. From these regions,
then, these Barbarians sallied forth against Italy, being called at first Cimmerians,
and then, not inappropriately, Cimbri (...)86.
S9Thus, he tried to rationalize the accounts of the Hyperboreans, cf. Schol. Apoll. Rhod.
2.675.
90 For the passage see Tokhtasev 1993, 13f.
91 According to Strabo (1.3.21) Lygdamis captured Sardes but lost his life in Cilicia.
92 Strab. 7.2.1-2. Cf. Malitz 1983, 206f.
93 Diod. 5.32.3. Cf. Malitz 1983, 210.
90 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
Western Asia are on Assyrian cuneiform records coming from the reign of Sargon
(722-705 B.C.). This testimony mentions a Cimmerian attack against Urartu
conducted probably from the Manna region shortly before 714 B.C.100 In 714
B.C., the Assyrian records describe an Urartian expedition against the country
of Gamir inhabited by the Cimmerians101. The most probable location of this
region is the area to the north and northwest of Sevan Lake in southern Geor
gia102. Other locations are more debatable103. The incidents setting in southern
Georgia seems to be supported by some archaeological materials testifying to a
nomadic presence in the region in the second half of the 8th century B.C.104
some scholars, the Cimmerians were of Iranian stock117. In his current study, A.
Ivancik supports this hypothesis, but at the same time he stresses that the known
Cimmerian kings names have much in common with Luwian, a language from
Asia Minor. Although the hypothesis ascribing Iranian origins to the Cimmerians
is the most probable at the present stage of research, it cannot be confirmed
without further evidence. In fact, it is highly probable that the term Cimmerians
designated a tribal entity which was not homogenous118. In a similar way,
Herodotus called different steppe peoples Scythians for they were dominated
by a tribe designated by this name119. As mentioned above, the scholars of antiq
uity were very interested in the name of the Cimmerians120. At present too, there
is much debate on this issue. According to I. M. Diakonoff, the name of the
Cimmerians was an autonym and the Assyrian form Gimirraia is the most cred
ible121.
Treres. As mentioned above, attested are Cimmerian alliances with several different
peoples of Western Asia.
1.7 Harmatta 1970, 7; Trubaev 1976; Grantovskii 1970, 81.
1.8 As correctly stated by Chochorowski 1993, 17.
1.9 Cf. Hdt. 4.6-7; 17-20.
120 Ivanttk 1996, 133ff.
121 Diakonoff 1981,125f.; IvanCik 1996,138f. In the most Assyrian texts the Cimmerians
are designated as Gimirraia.
122 IvanCik 1996, 159f.
123 Dandamayev 1992, passim, esp. 169ff.
94 Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia
9. Conclusions
124 Terenozkin 1976; Bouzek 1983; Chochorowski 1993, esp. 22. It is evident, in the
light of archaeological relics, that there were nomadic migrations from the Ponto-
Caspian steppes into Central Europe in the pre-Scythian period.
125 Thus, according to J. Harmatta, the Cimmerians penetrated Central Europe in the 8lh
century B.C. They were the first people who introduced to Europe a nomadic type
of warfare (Harmatta 1970, 8).
126 KaSalova/Alekseev 1993.
127 All in all, Homers pictures of many peoples were of the greatest importance for the
studies of them in antiquity, cf. IvanCik 1996a (for the Homeric Abioi and their treat
ment in antiquity).
Marek J. Olbrycht The Cimmerian problem re-examined.. 95
There, they conducted plundering raids against the rich Oriental states. The
same can be said of the Scythians who entered Asia several decades after the
Cimmerians.
Bibliography