One of my favorite stories from Herodotus is the tale he relates to account for the appearance of both the Amazons north of the Euxine (Black) Sea and the origins of the Sauromatai tribes across the Tanais (Don) River east of the Scythians.
While the story he tells of these origins is probably a fabrication, there is no doubt that there were close relations between these nomadic tribes, and the presence of women among them who wore men’s clothes and rode to battle has been demonstrated with evidence from numerous archaeological excavations.
Who were the Sauromatai?
For practical purposes, the people called “Sauromatians” are essentially the same as the people who would later be designated “Sarmatians,” and the two names can be used more or less interchangeable unless referring to specific historical periods, of which the Sauromatian period refers to roughly the 6th–5th centuries BCE and the Early, Middle, and Late Sarmatian periods extend from the 4th c. BCE through the 4th c. CE.
The Sarmatians were a closely related people to the Scythians with an almost identical culture and similar Indo-Iranian languages which may have been mutually intelligible if not dialects of a common tongue. Not only were they genetically related, but their nomadic lifestyle, diet, burial customs, style of clothing, warfare and weapons, etc. were very similar.
Their actual origins remain a bit murky, but it is generally accepted that they, like the Cimmerians and Scythians before them, are East Iranian people descended from one or both of the overlapping traditions represented by the Timber grave/Srubnaya culture (roughly the area from the Dnieper to the Caspian Sea) and the Andronovo culture (roughly the area from the southern Urals to the upper Yenisei River in central Siberia).
Because the Sarmatians occupied a somewhat stingier plot of land with less access to lucrative trade than the Scythians did, their burials tended to be less rich, and their lifestyle tended to be a bit less lavish, absent the abundance of imported prestige goods found in elite Scythian burials. Life for the Sarmatians was harder, and they seem to have been scrappier, thriftier, and more inventive for it. When they lacked the resources for metal armor, they made scale armor out of horse hooves (a style of mounted warfare that would become the model for medieval knights.) They went old-school and made arrowheads from bone. But they were a force to be reckoned with. Eventually, they’d make a conquest of their neighbors’ rich pastures, overwhelming the Scythians around 200 BCE and mostly dominating the Pontic Steppe until the Huns came around 375 CE.
Even though I know the following account is fiction, there is a certain charm to it that transcends factual history, and it reminds me that, when trying to assemble a complete picture of the past, its people, and their beliefs, we sometimes have to compartmentalize the rational to allow the mythical to speak.
The Sauromatai of Herodotus
§ 4.110 About the Sauromatai the following tale is told: — When the Hellenes had fought with the Amazons, — now the Amazons are called by the Scythians Oiorpata, which name means in the Hellenic tongue "slayers of men," for "man" they call oior, and pata means "to slay," — then, as the story goes, the Hellenes, having conquered them in the battle at the Thermodon, were sailing away and conveying with them in three ships as many Amazons as they were able to take prisoners. These in the open sea set upon the men and cast them out of the ships; but they knew nothing about ships, nor how to use rudders or sails or oars, and after they had cast out the men they were driven about by wave and wind and came to that part of the Maiotian lake where Cremnoi stands; now Cremnoi is in the land of the free Scythians. There the Amazons disembarked from their ships and made their way into the country, and having met first with a troop of horses feeding they seized them, and mounted upon these they plundered the property of the Scythians.
There are some Greek traditions that place the homeland of the Amazons on the southern shore of the Black Sea rather than the north, and some locate them in modern Turkey or even Libya, so it is not surprising that Herodotus has them captured somewhere across the sea and speaking a foreign language. However, I am unaware of any convincing evidence to support this belief, as genetic studies have begun to be performed on the remains from Scythian/Sarmatian graves, and nothing yet seems to indicate ancestry from south of the Black Sea, including for female warriors. But, it’s worth keeping an open mind about….
§ 4.111 The Scythians meanwhile were not able to understand the matter, for they did not know either their speech or their dress or the race to which they belonged, but were in wonder as to whence they had come and thought that they were men, of an age corresponding to their appearance: and finally they fought a battle against them, and after the battle the Scythians got possession of the bodies of the dead, and thus they discovered that they were women. They took counsel therefore and resolved by no means to go on trying to kill them, but to send against them the youngest men from among themselves, making conjecture of the number so as to send just as many men as there were women. These were told to encamp near them, and do whatsoever they should do; if however the women should come after them, they were not to fight but to retire before them, and when the women stopped, they were to approach near and encamp. This plan was adopted by the Scythians because they desired to have children born from them.
There are some interesting nuggets of information about Scythian culture hidden in this passage even if it is delivered as legend. The Scythians thought the Amazons were a warrior band of young boys because they had no beards, which would not be unusual, as this was a rite of passage among many tribes throughout history. They also are instructed to practice the famous Scythian battle tactic of the feigned retreat, wherein, as the enemy pursues, the fighter pretends to retire from battle, luring the enemy closer. It also describes their cultural practice of exogamous marriage (or preference for finding wives from outside the clan or tribe.) This is often done to solidify political alliances, but it also obviously has genetic benefits, as inbreeding obviously is a danger within smaller gene pools. But, more than anything, I find the tentative, patient nature of the Scythians’ approach in this story kind of endearing.
§ 4.112 The young men accordingly were sent out and did that which had been commanded them: and when the Amazons perceived that they had not come to do them any harm, they let them alone; and the two camps approached nearer to one another every day: and the young men, like the Amazons, had nothing except their arms and their horses, and got their living, as the Amazons did, by hunting and by taking booty.
Neither group seems to pursue or flee. They just coexist peacefully.
§ 4.113 Now the Amazons at midday used to scatter abroad either one by one or by two together, dispersing to a distance from one another to ease themselves; and the Scythians also having perceived this did the same thing: and one of the Scythians came near to one of those Amazons who were apart by themselves, and she did not repulse him but allowed him to lie with her: and she could not speak to him, for they did not understand one another's speech, but she made signs to him with her hand to come on the following day to the same place and to bring another with him, signifying to him that there should be two of them, and that she would bring another with her. The young man therefore, when he returned, reported this to the others; and on the next day he came himself to the place and also brought another, and he found the Amazon awaiting him with another in her company. Then hearing this the rest of the young men also in their turn tamed for themselves the remainder of the Amazons;
Interesting that the text is careful to say “she did not repulse him, but allowed him,” as the women are warriors in their own right and could presumably resist. It always makes me laugh that this amorous encounter coincides with a toilet break in the bushes. It really sets the mood. Then she organizes another date and promises to bring a friend, which leaves me pondering what sign language, specifically, one would use for such an arrangement. It’s very bold. The word “tamed,” however, is not only creepy but unconvincing. We’ll see why….
§ 4.114 and after this they joined their camps and lived together, each man having for his wife her with whom he had had dealings at first; and the men were not able to learn the speech of the women, but the women came to comprehend that of the men. So when they understood one another, the men spoke to the Amazons as follows: "We have parents and we have possessions; now therefore let us no longer lead a life of this kind, but let us go away to the main body of our people and dwell with them; and we will have you for wives and no others." They however spoke thus in reply: "We should not be able to live with your women, for we and they have not the same customs. We shoot with bows and hurl javelins and ride horses, but the works of women we never learnt; whereas your women do none of these things which we said, but stay in the waggons and work at the works of women, neither going out to the chase nor anywhither else. We therefore should not be able to live in agreement with them: but if ye desire to keep us for your wives and to be thought honest men, go to your parents and obtain from them your share of the goods, and then let us go and dwell by ourselves."
The women assimilate to their new homes and learn the language. But they also expect some concessions from their new husbands. They negotiate the terms of their future lives together and what their roles will be. It’s interesting that they claim none of the Scythian women were hunters or warriors like themselves, as some female warrior graves have been found in western Scythian territories. However, the bulk of them seem to have been discovered in the Sarmatian zone. Some 20-25% of the female graves here are of warriors.
§ 4.115 The young men agreed and did this; and when they had obtained the share of the goods which belonged to them and had returned back to the Amazons, the women spoke to them as follows: "We are possessed by fear and trembling to think that we must dwell in this place, having not only separated you from your fathers, but also done great damage to your land. Since then ye think it right to have us as your wives, do this together with us, — come and let us remove from this land and pass over the river Tanais and there dwell."
The women assume they will not be welcome anywhere in this country after raiding it. They also probably understand they won’t fit in. Making this one last demand, the men graciously accept.
§ 4.116 The young men agreed to this also, and they crossed over the Tanais and made their way towards the rising sun for three days' journey from Tanais, and also towards the North Wind for three days' journey from the Maiotian lake: and having arrived at the place where they are now settled, they took up their abode there: and from thenceforward the women of the Sauromatai practise their ancient way of living, going out regularly on horseback to the chase both in company with the men and apart from them, and going regularly to war, and wearing the same dress as the men.
The Greek mind probably demanded an explanation for how so many of these women came to be warriors, which was wholly unnatural in their eyes, and this neat little myth served the purpose. Or maybe a version of the story came from the Sarmatians themselves and has some basis in history. We may never know.
§ 4.117 And the Sauromatai make use of the Scythian tongue, speaking it barbarously however from the first, since the Amazons did not learn it thoroughly well. As regards marriages their rule is this, that no maiden is married until she has slain a man of their enemies; and some of them even grow old and die before they are married, because they are not able to fulfil the requirement of the law.
This tidy explanation also allowed for why the related Sarmatian language sounded similar to Scythian. It accounted for the many cultural similarities between these different peoples, who according to the Greeks were once one people. The rule about slaying an enemy in battle was true, apparently, for Scythian men also.
So, who did the taming?
That’s a question open to interpretation. In the story left us by Herodotus, which is surprisingly civil for something set in the ancient world, the young Scythian men and Amazon women seem to choose each other and come to a mutual decision about their future together. There is something romantic about their desire to set out and start new lives for themselves in a new country where they can leave behind the baggage of the past—the expectations and animosities of their society—and start anew. Perhaps instead of taming one another, they set each other free.
Herodotus, The Histories, translated by George Campbell Macaulay (1852-1915), from the 1890 Macmillan edition now in the public domain.
I so get the frustration of the "generated" pictures. I was trying to put pictures up and getting horses with three legs, and nothing even close to what I was asking for. I put them up anyway.
Great work, Jacquie. Love Herodotus. Love a little antiquity. Love a good legend. 🏹