Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 200

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

Mythical, oldest son of HERACLES and a snake‐goddess of SCYTHIA (4.10.1–2). Herodotus recounts the tale of Agathyrsus’ and his brothers’ birth as the version of the Scythian foundation story told by the Greeks living around the EUXINE (Black) Sea (4.8–10), though artistic and other evidence points ultimately to a Scythian origin for the legend (Ivantchik 2001). Agathyrsus and GELONUS fail to draw their father’s bow and put on his belt and are banished from Scythia, while their younger brother SCYTHES accomplishes those tasks and becomes the first Scythian king. All three names are eponyms of Scythian tribes.

SEE ALSO: Agathyrsians; Gelonians; Myth; Olbia; Snakes