The Amazons of old, after having by constant losses worn out their neighbours, and devastated them by bloody raids, had higher aspirations; and considering their strength and feeling that it was too great merely for frequent attacks upon their neighbours, being carried away besides by the headstrong heat of covetousness, they broke through many nations and made war upon the Athenians.In the days of Theseus. The war of the Greeks and the Amazons is a frequent subject in works of Greek art. But after a bitter contest they were scattered in all directions, and since the flanks of their cavalry were left unprotected, they all perished.

Upon the news of their destruction the remainder, who had been left at home as unfit for war, suffered extreme hardship; and in order to avoid the deadly attacks of their neighbours, who paid them like for like, they moved to a quieter abode on the Thermodon. Thereafter their descendants, who had greatly increased, returned, thanks to their numerous offspring, with a very powerful force, and in later times were a cause of terror to peoples of divers nationalities.Cf. Justin, ii. 4.

Not far from there the hill called Carambis lifts itself with gentle slope, rising towards the Great Bear of the north, and opposite this, at a distance of 2500 stadia, is Criumetopon,κριοῦ μέτωπον,The Ram’s head. a promontory of Taurica. From this point the whole seacoast, beginning at the river Halys, as if drawn in a straight line, has the form of the string joined to the two tips of the bow.

Bordering on these regions are the Dahae, the fiercest of all warriors, and the Chalybes, by whom iron was first mined and worked. Beyond these are open plains, inhabited by the Byzares, Sapires, Tibareni, Mossynoeci, Macrones and Philyres, peoples not known to us through any intercourse.

A short distance from these are the tombs of famous men, in which are buried Sthenelus,Val. Flacc. v. 89 f. Idmon,Id. v. 2 ff. and Tiphys;Id. v. 15 ff. the first of these was a companion of Hercules, mortally wounded in the war with the Amazons, the second the augur of the Argonauts, the third the careful steersman of that same craft.

After passing the places mentioned, one comes to the grotto of Aulion and the river Callichorus,Of beautiful dances. which owes its name to the fact that Bacchus, when he had after three years vanquished the peoples of India, returned to those regions, and on the green and shady banks of that river renewed the former orgies and dances;Val. Flacc. v. 75. some think that this kind of festival was also called trieterica.As celebrated every third year; cf. Virg., iv. 302.

Beyond these territories are the populous districts of the Camaritae,Bands of pirates, using small ships called camarae. and the Phasis in impetuous course borders on the Colchians, an ancient race of Egyptian origin. There,Cf. Hdt. ii. 103-4; Val. Flacc. v. 418 ff. among other cities, is Phasis, which gets its name from the river, and Dioscurias, well known even to this day, said to have been founded by Amphitus and Cercius of Sparta, the charioteers of Castor and Pollux, and founders of the nation of the Heniochi.From ἡνίοχος, charioteer; Dioscurias is derived from Dioscuri, i.e. (διόσκουροι), the sons of Zeus, Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux).

A short distance from these are the Achaei, who, after the end of an earlier war at Troy (not the one which was fought about Helen, as some writers have asserted), being carried out of their course by contrary winds to Pontus, and meeting enemies everywhere, were unable to find a place for a permanent home; and so they settled on the tops of mountains covered with perpetual snow, where, compelled by the rigorous climate, they became accustomed to make a dangerous living by robbery, and hence became later beyond all measure savage. About the Cercetae, who adjoin them, we have no information worth mentioning.

Behind these dwell the inhabitants of the Cimmercian Bosporus, where Milesian cities are, and Panticapaeum, the mother, so to speak, of all; this the river Hypanis washes, swollen with its own and tributary waters.

Next, at a considerable distance, are the Amazons, who extend to the Caspian Sea and live about the Tanaïs,To-day the Don. which rises among the crags of Caucasus, flows in a course with many windings, and after separating Europe from Asia vanishes in the standing pools of the Maeotis.

Near this is the river Ra,Now the Volga. on whose banks grows a plant of the same name, the root of which is used for many medicinal purposes.Rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum, Linnaeus), the vegetable radix Pontica (Celsus, v. 23, 3); the drug is made from Chinese rhubarbs.

Beyond the Tanais the Sauromatae have a territory of wide extent, through which flow the never - failing rivers Maraccus, Rombites, Theophanes and Totordanes. However, there is also another nation of the Sauromatae, an enormous distance away, extending along the shore which receives the river Corax and pours it far out into the Euxine Sea.

Nearby is the Maeotic GulfThe Sea of Azov. of wide circuit, from whose abundant springs a great body of water bursts through the narrows of Panticapes into the Pontus. On its right side are the islands Phanagorus and Hermonassa, founded by the industry of the Greeks.

Around these farthest and most distant marshes live numerous nations, differing in the variety of their languages and customs: the Ixomatae, Maeotae, Iazyges, Roxolani, Halani, Melanchlaenae, and with the Geloni, the Agathyrsi, in whose country an abundance of the stone called adamantadamas,untamable,unbreakable is variously applied to a kind of steel, and to diamonds and like stones. is found; and farther beyond are other peoples, who are wholly unknown, since they are the remotest of all men.

But near the left side of the Maeotis is the Cherronesus,The Crimea. The colonies were from Miletus. full of Greek colonies. Hence the inhabitants are quiet and peaceful, plying the plough and living on the products of the soil.

At no great distance from these are the Tauri, divided into various kingdoms, among whom the Arichi, the Sinchi, and the Napaei are terrible for their ruthless cruelty, and since long continued license has increased their savageness, they have given the sea the name of Inhospitable; but in ironyThe principle is probably irony in some cases, but in the case of the Furies it appears to be euphemism. Sometimes we have neither; cf. Plutarch, 12, who says that some of the Greeks call night εὐφρόνη (kindly), because it brings good and salutary resolves; others, because it invites gaiety or refreshes the body. it is called by the contrary name of Pontus εὔξεινος,Hospitable. Cf. Ovid, , iv. 4, 55 f., frigida me cohibent Euxini litora Ponti, dictus ab antiquis Axenus (inhospitable) ille fuit. just as we Greeks call a fool εὐήθης, and night εὐφρόνη, and the Furies εὐμενίδες.εὐήθης,Good-natured,εὐφρόνη,the well-wisher, and εὐμενίδες, kindly goddesses. There seem to be varying motives here; see note 1.

For these peoples offer human victims to the gods and sacrifice strangers to Diana, whom they call Orsiloche, and affix the skulls of the slain to the walls of her temple, as a lasting memorial of their valorous deeds.See Strabo, vii. 3, 6; Mela, ii. 1, 13; Ovid, , iii. 2, 45 K. The story of Iphigenia.

In this Tauric country is the island of Leuce,The island is located more accurately by Mela (ii. 7, 98) at the mouth of the Dnieper; see §40, below. entirely uninhabited and dedicated to Achilles. And if any happen to be carried to that island, after looking at the ancient remains, the temple, and the gifts consecrated to that hero, they return at evening to their ships; for it is said that no one can pass the night there except at the risk of his life. At that place there are also springs and white birds live there resembling halcyons, of whose origin and battles in the Hellespont I shall speakThis promise was not fulfilled, unless a lost book is referred to: see crit. note. at the appropriate time.

Now there are some cities in the Taurica, conspicuous among which are Eupatoria, Dandace, and Theodosia, with other smaller towns, which are not contaminated with human sacrifices.

So far the peak of the bow is thought to extend; the remainder of it, gently curved and lying under the Bear in the heavens, we shall now follow as far as the left side of the Thracian Bosporus, as the order demands, with this warning; that while the bows of all other races are bent with the staves curved, in those of the Scythians alone, or the Parthians, since a straight roundedThese apparently contradictory words have given a good deal of trouble, but the meaning is plain. The handle is straight laterally, but is rounded like a broomstick for example, or a hoe-handle, and for the same reason; see note on § 10, above. handle divides them in the middle, the ends are bent downwards on both sides and far apart,That is, the Greek bow is bent in a continuous curve; in the Scythian, the two sides are bent, but not the handle. presenting the form of a waning moon.I.e. in the gibbous stage; see xx. 3, 11, notes.