Environment and Habitation around the Ancient Black Sea by David Braund Vladimir F. Stolba Ulrike Peter

Author:David Braund, Vladimir F. Stolba, Ulrike Peter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2021-05-10T22:39:03.018000+00:00

The Cimmerians

The Odyssey (11.13 – 19) offers a second reference to the inhabitants of the Pontic north, and the Cimmerians.16 The Cimmerians are said to live in a country, covered by perpetual darkness, located near the entrance to the underworld.17 We may note the formula here, Κιμμερίων ἀνδρῶν δῆμος τε πόλις (‘the people and city of the Cimmerians’, where πόλις is surely a Greek projection. The Odyssey’s reference to perpetual darkness has been interpreted as possible knowledge of the polar winter among Greeks. In any event, it is a reference to a real feature of the north. According to A. Ivantchik, the use of the word δῆμος in relation to the Cimmerians is not random, and seems to raise this people to the same level as the Greeks, Trojans and others who know the polis not only as a form of city but also as a form of political and civil institution. The Odyssey does not convey other details about this people, living in long-term darkness (in contrast with the climate and the nature of the Mediterranean lands).18 It should also be said that the connection between Cimmerians and darkness is a common topos in classical literature.19

In Greek mythical and historical tradition, the Cimmerians were viewed as terrible conquerors,20 who destroyed Greek cities in Asia Minor and caused the fall of the Phrygian kingdom.21 According to the Greek and oriental sources (annals of Assurbanipal), the Cimmerian invasion must have taken place in the first half of the 7th century BC. Callinus of Ephesos and Archilochus (Fr. 19 Diehl), for instance, evoke of the conquest of Sardis and Magnesia by the Cimmerians.22 In the Callinus fragment, the Cimmerians are said to be ὀβριμοέργοι, violent (ὅβριμος = strong),23 a negative characterisation of this people from the dark north, bringing destruction with them. Moreover, the local traditions of many Pontic cities, collected and studied by A. Ivantchik, reveal the importance of the Cimmerians in the context of local mythological and historical memories there.24 Yet, we do not find any reference to the physical features of the Cimmerians in all these traditions. The only exception is a story transmitted by Polyaenus (7.2.1) on how Alyattes, king of the Lydians, had defeated them through the use of fighting dogs.25 Herodotus (1.16) confirms this victory, though he does not tell how it had happened. Polyaenus calls the Cimmerian bodies ἀλλόκοτα καὶ θηριώδη (horrible and beastly), placing the barbarians on the same level as beasts.26 For this reason, the dogs would fiercely attack these barbarians by shaking their bodies. Handed down to a later source, this tradition is the only one that tries to differentiate the Cimmerians from the Greeks in terms of physical appearance. The bodies of the Cimmerians are said to be ugly and monstrous. Such a characterisation is appropriate to their barbarian culture-less nature. A well-known inscription from Priene in the time of Lysimachus recalls the invasion of the Cimmerians in Asia in a juridical argument in a territorial dispute.27 According to this text, Lygdamis and

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