Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

2
THE SCYTHIANS AS
OTHERS SAW THEM
For someone used to life in a civilized community, like the city states of Greece,
the kingdoms of Asia Minor, or the empires of Assyria or Persia, those living
beyond the frontiers were ‘Other’—people different from us, foreigners. To the
Greeks they were barbarians, aliens who made incomprehensible sounds like ‘bar
bar’. Yet the Other, by their very nature, were worthy of attention. They commanded
valuable resources such as gold, tin, furs, and horses and they had worthwhile skills,
like their ability to use the bow and to fight in close formation on horseback, which
could be learned or their horsemen hired. And for the more thoughtful these uncomplicated
barbarians, as they were perceived to be, were a source of endless interest
simply because of their otherness. They were a reminder of the deep fascination of
the little-known outer world and a refreshing contrast to the complexities and perversions
of civilized society.
Lands of Mists
By the eighth century bc Greeks from the Aegean world were making regular journeys
into the Black Sea. Much later the sea was to be known as the Euxine—the hospitable
sea—but in the early days, when its moods were unknown and the inhabitants of its
shores were regarded as dangerous savages, it was the Pontos Axeinos—the ‘unfriendly,
dark sea’—a term first used in the fifth century by the poet Pindar, who was no lover
of oceans. Little is known of the early Greek explorations. A few ships making brief
29