Aucient Representation of a Scythian Family.
SCYTHIAN
490
SCYTHOPOLIS
sagetae, they descended into Asia INIinor, where they took Sanlis (B.C. tJ'i'J), and maintained a lung war with the Lvdiaii monarchs; tlience they spread into ;Media (B.C. G2-i), where they defeated Cyaxares. They then di- rected their course to Egypt, and were bribed off by Psammetichus; on their return they attacked the Tem- ple of Venus Urania at Asealon. They were tinally ejected B.C. 59G, after having made their name a terror to the whole Eastern world (Herod, i, 103 sq.). The name of Scythopolis, by which Beth-shean was known in our Saviour's time, was regarded as a trace of the Scythian occupation (Pliny, v, 16). This, however, is doubtful. See Scythopolis. The Hebrew records are silent respecting this Scythian invasion, though some scholars suppose it to be referred to by the prophets Joel and Zephaniah. The Scythians are described by classi- cal writers as skilful in the use of the bow (Herod, i, 73 ; iv, 132; Xenoph..4«o6. iii, 4, 1.5), and even as the invent- ors of the bow and arrow (Pliny, vii, 57); they were
A Scythian Horseman. (From the .sculptures at Kertch.)
specially famous as mounted bowmen ((TTTroro^orai, Herod, iv, 46; Thucyd. ii, 96); they also enjoyed an ill- fame for their cruel and rapacious habits (Herod, i, 106).
With the memory of these events yet fresh on the minds of liis countrymen, Ezekiel seems to select the Scj'thians, under the name of (iog (q. v.), as the symbol of earthly violence, arrayed against the people of God, but meeting with a signal and utter overthrow. He depicts their avarice and violence (xxxviii, 7-18), and the fearful vengeance executed upon them (ver. 14-23) — a massacre so tremendous that seven months would hardly suffice for the burial of the corpses in the vallcj- which should thenceforth be named Hamon-gog (xxxix, 11-16). The imagery of Ezekiel has been transferred in the Apocalypse to describe the final struggle between Christ and Antichrist (Kev. xx, 8).
As a question of ethnology, the origin of the Scythi- ans presents great difficulties. JNIany eminent writers, with Niebuhr and Neumann at their head, regard them as a Mongolian, and therefore a non-Japhetic, race. It is unnecessary for us to enter into the general question,
1. A bcjiuiau Footmau; 2. A sci'tliiiui UeueraL
which is complicated bj"^ the undefined and varying ap- plications of the name Scythia and Scythians among an- cient writers. So far as the Biblical notices are concern- ed, it is sufficient to state that the Scythians of Ezekiel's age — the Scythians of Herodotus — were in all probabil- ity a Japhetic race. They are distinguished, on the one hand, from the Argippaii, a clearly Mongolian race (He- rod, iv, 23), and they are connected, on the other hand, with the Agathyrsi, a clearly Indo-European race (ibid. iv, 10). The mere silence of so observant a writer as He- rodotus as to any striking features in the physical con- formation of the Scythians must further be regarded as a strong argument in favor of their Japhetic origin. P'or the geographical and ethnographical relations of the term, see Smith, IHci. of Class. Geo//, ii, 936-945. Perhaps it may be inferred from Col. iii, 11 that there were Scythians also among the early converts to Chris- tianity. Man}' of this people lived in Greek and Koman lands, and could have heard the Gos])el there, even if some of the first preachers had not already penetrated into Scythia itself. — Kitto; Smith. See Xat. Quar. Jier. Dec. 1876; Jour. Sac. Lit. April, 1853.
Scython, in Greek mythology, was a man whom the ijoets represent as possessed of the ability to change his sex at will.
Scythop'olis {Ekv^wv ttoXic; Peshito-Syriac, Beischi; Vidg. ciri/as Scythai-vni), that is, "the city of the Scythians," occurs in the A. V. of Judith iii, 10 and 2 Mace, xii, 29 only. In the Sept. of Judg. i, 27, how- ever, it is inserted (in both the great MSS. ) as the synonym of Beth-shean (q. v.), and this identification is confirmed by the narrative of 1 Mace, v, 52, a parallel account to that of 2 Mace, xii, 29, as well as by the re- peated statements of Josephus {Ant. v, 1, "22; vi, 14, 8; xii, 8, 5). He uniformly gives the name in the con- tracted shape (S/cuS-ottoXh), in which it is also given by Eusebius {Onomast. passim), Pliny (//. A', v. 18), Strabo (xvi), etc., and which is inaccurately followed in the A. V. Polybius (v, 70, 4) employs the fuller form of the Sept. Beth-shean has now, like so many other places in the Holy Land, regained its ancient name, and is known as Beisdn only. A mound close to it on the west is called Tell Shuk, in which it is perhaps just possible that a trace of Scythopolis may linger. But although there is no doubt whatever of the identity of the place, there is considerable difference of oj)inii)n as to the origin of the name. The Sept. (as is evident from the form in which they present it) and Pliny {H.X.v, 16) attribute it to the Scythians, who, in the words of the Byzantine historian George SynCellus, "overran Palestine and took possession of Baisan, which from them is called Scythopolis." This has been in modern times generally referred to the invasion record- ed by Herodotus (i, 104-106), when the Scythians, after their occiipatiim of Media, passed through Palestine on their road to Egyjit (about B.C. 600— a few years be- fore the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar), a statement now recognised as a real fact, though some of the details may be open to question (Kawlinson's Herod, i, 246). It is not at all improbable that either on their passage through, or on their return after being repulsed by Psammetichus (Herod, i, 105), some Scythi- ans may have settled in tlie country (Ewald, Gesch. iii, 694, note) ; and no place would be more likely to attract them than Beisaii — fertile, most abundantly watered, and in an excellent military position. In the then state of the Holy Laud they would hardly meet with much resistance. See Scythian.