Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 619

JOSEPH SKINNER

Newcastle University

Mythical race of one‐eyed men, whose name Herodotus links etymologically to the Scythian words for “one” (arima) and “eye” (spou, 4.27; an ethnonym linked to the Iranian word for horse, aspa, is now deemed more plausible). Although skeptical as to their existence (3.116), Herodotus locates the Arimaspians beside the ISSEDONES in the outermost reaches of the oikoumenē, where they remain in a state of perpetual conflict with their neighbors, the GRIFFINS, covetous of the latter’s GOLD (4.13). Some ancient commentators linked monopthalmony to the practice of ARCHERY (see Asheri in ALC, 505). Scholars have variously interpreted such tales as a (garbled) reference to a historical population; as a smoke screen designed to protect the interests of the gold‐trading Issedones (cf. How and Wells on the Arabian spice TRADE, e.g., 3.111 on the source of cinnamon), or a refraction of Central Asian folklore (Corcella in ALC, 601). Although knowledge of the Arimaspians is attributed to ARISTEAS OF PROCONNESSUS’ Arimaspea, a poetic work thought to date to the seventh century BCE, Herodotus claims it to be derived from Issedonian informants rather than AUTOPSY. Further details regarding these shaggy‐haired, horse‐riding strong men were familiar to Greek audiences by the fifth century (Aesch. PV 803–7), and conflicts between Arimaspians and griffins were a popular theme in Athenian red‐figure vase painting (e.g., an Athenian bell krater, Ashmolean Museum 1917.61). The earliest known depiction of Arimaspians indicates that such stories were indeed familiar to populations inhabiting the northern CAUCASUS and the lands beyond: an ornate SILVER mirror (c. 650–620) which formed part of the grave goods deposited in Kelermes Barrow no. 4, a wealthy “Scythian” burial located in Kuban, Krasnodar Region, features an image of two bearded, long‐haired men (albeit sporting two eyes) grappling with a griffin (State Hermitage Museum Ку.1904‐1/27).

SEE ALSO: Art; Etymology; Extremes; Poetry; Scythians