The cruelty of the whole race and the despotism
of their kings were notorious in the ancient world. When the king i)ut a man to death all the male relations of the unfortunate victim were slain as well, for feiir of blood revenge. When engaged in battle, the Scythian warrior drank the blood of the lirst of the foe he slew, using the skull as a drinking cup. No one was allowed to share in the booty who did not luing the head of a foeman to the king. The scalps of those slain in battle were tanned and hung on the bridle of the warrior ( Herod, iv. 64 f.). The eyes of those taken captive and held as slaves were put out. The kings were invested with absolute despotic powers. On their death a vast multitude of slaves and even free-born servants were slain and buried in great funeral mounds along with horses and vessels of gold and .silver.
The Scythians first come into history in con- nexion with their invasion of Asia and particularly of Media in the 7th cent. B.C. At this time there took place one of those great movements among the uncivilized peoples of the north which the Germans call a Vblkcriiianderung. Pressed on by Asiatic tribes, the Scythians seem to have driven the Cimmerians into Asia Minor and invaded Media. Herodotus speaks (i. 103-105) of a great victory of the Scythians over Cyaxares and the Medes which compelled the latter to raise the siege of Nineveh. Thereafter the victorious hordes overran all Asia, plundering at will for thirty years, from 634-604 B.C., till the Medes again under Cyaxares destroyed mo.st of them after making them drunk at a banquet (i. 106). He also tells (i. 105) of king Psammetichus, who died 611 B.C., buying off these northern invaders who had come as far south as Philistia. The panic of these invading hordes reached Palestine, and several times the land seems to have been threatened and actually overrun with marauding bands. The reports of warriors light- ing on horseback with bow and arrows, and drink- ing the blood of the slain, were fltted to appeal to the imagination of the Hebrew prophets, who thought of the messengers of God's wrath on a sinful nation. Jeremiah's description of ' the evil coming from the north' (1"4'* 5'*''' 6') and of the mighty nation of riders and bowmen, as well as Zephaniah's picture of the Day of the Lord, was probably suggested by the Scythian invasion and the terror it inspired. The memory of this invasion was perpetuated in the name Scythopolis, which was given to the old town Beth-sbean CZKvduiv tt&Xis, Jth 3'" ; cf. ^KveuwoXenm, 2 Mac 1'2^"), which was probably taken, and, as Pliny (HN v. 16) and G. Syncellus (Chronographia, ed. P. J. Goar, Venice, 17"29, p. 171) state, rebuilt by the remnant of the Scythians who remained after the main body was bought off by the king of Egypt.
To the Jews the name 'Scythian' became synonymous with ' barbarian,' Just as terrors which are only partially known assume gigantic proportions, so these Scythians, by their rapid descent on Palestine, their unwonted appearance, their .savage cruelty, and their short sojourn, im- pressed the imagination. They became the symbol of savagery, inhumanity, barbarity, treachery, cruelty, and perhaps under the names Gog and Magog (q.v.) became types of the evil world-powers opposed to the Kingdom of God. Thus Josephus [Ant. I. vi. 1) identifies Gog and Magog of Ezk 38. 39 with the Scythians. When the apostle Paul is speaking of the absolute way in which the gospel of Christ abolishes all racial distinctions, he mentions in the list ' Greek and Jew . . . barbari.an, Scythian' (Col 3''), where undoubtedly ' Scythian ' is referred to as being universally re- garded as the lowest in the scale of humanity, the most savage of barbarians — ' ScythiB barbaris bar- bariores' (Bengel) (cf. J. B. Lightfoot, Colossians', 1879, p. 216). Even Scythians, the Apostle main-
SEA
SEA
463
tains, can be renewed unto the knowledge of Jesus Clii'ist and become one in Iliin along witb members of otiiei" races. Jiistin Maifyr, the apologist (I)inl. 28), in extolling Christianity, refers to its having room for Scythians and I'ersians, the ferocity of the former and the licentiousness of the latter being notorious, while the pseudo-Lucian (I'liilv- piitrin, IT) satirizes Christianity for suggesting that Scythians should have any place in heaven. 'I'he oiiponents of Clirislianity, such as Celsus anil the |>scudo-Luciari, could not understand a religion wiiich had a place for those so low in the scale of huui.inity as the Scythians. The Apostle, on the other band, gloried in a religion which could re- deem and elevate the most degraded.
Literature.— Herodotus, iv. 1-82, 97-142 ; Hippocrates, de At:n; ariuis et Iocs, xvii.-xxii., ed. P. M. K. l-iMr6, 10 vols., Paris, 1S39-61, ii. «(>-82 ; J. C. Zeuss, Die DeuUchcii und die yac/ibarstdtnine, 18.'i7 ; K. Neumann, IHe Ut'llencn ini Skythenlande, lS.'i5 ; G. Grote. Uixtory of Greece, 10 vols., ir'W ed., 1888; H. Ewald, Gisehiehle des Volkes Israel, iii.3 [I8li0) 742-74S : J. B. Lightfoot, Culassiau>i-, 1879, ji. 2IB ; artt. * Scythians' in UDIl and Elli, and art. '.Scythia' ui Elir^,
W. F. Boyd.
SEA {Od\aai/a). — The term is employed in a|)os- tolic history to designate (1) a large body of water or collection of waters ; ('2) tlie Red Sea ; (3) the Mediterranean Sea ; (4) with 7^ and "ocparis, the whole created universe; and (5) the ' .sea of glass ' before the throne of God.