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427 Analogy, Polarity and Morality in Scythian Hip

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427 Analogy, Polarity and Morality in Scythian Hip УДК: [904:80]”6383” D. Braund ANALOGY, POLARITY AND MORALITY IN SCYTHIAN HIP- PAKE: REFLECTIONS ON HERODOTuS, (HISTORIES 4. 2) This paper has two principal purposes. First, in sec- and Mediterranean) cultural tradition in which tion 1, I offer some very general points about how we may Scythia and Scythians already had a reputation best understand Greek treatments of Scythian themes. (further, Skrzhinskaya 1998). And that reputation It is argued that the tendency to stress the difference (which might be simple or complex) had been forged (even polarity) between Greeks and Scythians should be balanced and at least contextualised by consideration and established within their Mediterranean culture of similarities and analogies too. In the second part, it (s), often with little or no knowledge or even concern is argued in detail that the milking of horses was by for Scythian «realities». The Greek creation of Ana- no means strange to Greeks, even though Greeks made charsis is a fine example of that process (e. g. Kind- much less use of horse milk, and preferred to consume it strand 1981; Ungefehr-Kortus 1996; Schubert 2010). in liquid form and not as cheese (hippake). The striking fact is that when we begin to have writ- Keywords: Northern Black Sea region, Scythia, ten texts from Greek culture in the archaic period Greek, hippake, auloi Herodotus. (Homer, Hesiod etc.), we find Scythia and Scythians already embedded in that culture, whether or not 1. GENERAL REMARKS the term Scythia or the like is used. All this is not doubt very inconvenient, especially In the study of Scythia and Scythians the usual for those who are not willing or prepared to tackle gap or «poor fit» between archaeological data and the many-sided problems of Greek culture. It would written evidence is especially troublesome. For, certainly be much easier for scholars if they could while archaeology concerns the peoples of the north- simply cut bits of information, statements and short ern Black Sea region in a very direct way, our writ- sentences from our Greek texts, and then apply ten sources come from a very different environment. them to Scythia and its archaeology. In fact, that has The authors of these texts were not only Greeks often been the method used by archaeologists in all themselves, but (perhaps more important) were also regions of the ancient world, but there is something writing for Greeks. Furthermore, and perhaps most obviously and profoundly unsatisfactory about such important of all, they and their intended audiences a method, in which enormous care is taken properly were part of a culture that was far removed from the to handle archaeological data, on the one hand, but Black Sea, except in a very few cases. Only rarely did little or no such care is devoted to understanding the they have or claim to have any direct experience of texts which are used to explain its significance and Scythia or even of the Greek settlements around the more (my disagreements with Müller 2010 mostly Black Sea. This matters enormously, especially be- arise from this issue). At the same time, we must be cause these writers were therefore engaged in a crea- very clear that our ethnic terminology is only helpful tive (and not just descriptive) process which looked, and applicable to a limited extent. A familiar problem Janus-like, in two different directions. On the one in Scythian studies is that the term «Scythian» is ap- hand, such writers sought to understand the Scythi- plied to an extraordinary range of different cultures, an world and show it to their audiences and readers, across an enormous geographical expanse. Nomad- in whatever spirit. On the other hand, however, they ism is often taken to be characteristic of Scythians, had also to create their works in a (broadly Greek but of course there are many kinds and degrees of © D. BRAUND, 2018 pastoralist activity that may be termed «nomadism», ISSN 2227-4952. археологія і давня історія України, 2018, вип. 2 (27) 427 археологія і писемні джерела while the inhabitants of the huge settlements, for ex- (as Herodotus knew). As, for example, Euripides ample, of the wooded steppe (Bel’sk and the rest) were shows in his Bacchae, resistance to Dionysiac cult hardly nomads, but are routinely called «Scythians», was key to its very identity: this was a god whose nevertheless. Geographically, we can hardly be com- arrival was met with a mixture of suspicion, hostil- fortable with a terminology which makes Scythians ity and prurience among Greeks, not least because of peoples who stretch from Centra Europe almost to of the nature of his rites. Here and elsewhere, the Japan, and across Central Asia into the Indian sub- god uses his overwhelming power (which includes continent. This terminology is at root the creation of much more than simple force) to undermine, ridicule Greek culture, extended by subsequent scholarship. and punish the human powers that fail to embrace Already in the fifth century BC, of course, Herodotus him. At Athens, the fact that this and similar tales showed the weakness of this crude terminology and (notably about Thracian Lycurgus: Braund 2001; tried to do better, stressing for example that this was Shaub 2007) were celebrated at the very festivals of Greek terminology and that Scythian ethnicity was Dionysus, shows clearly enough how these notions something to be tested and contested in the region of human resistance and divine conquest were inte- itself (Herod., 4. 6 is especially clear). His direct expe- gral to Dionysiac cult in the city. At Olbia, this tale rience of at least a small corner of the region at Olbia of Scythian resistance was no doubt part of the civic helps to explain his attempt to create more nuance in treatment of Dionysus, as it was in Athens and else- Greek perceptions of Scythia and Scythians. At the where across Greek culture (further Braund 2008). same time, he also knew full well, as we too should In one sense, therefore, Dionysus’ cult marks a gulf remember, that Greek ethnicity was also a many- between Scythians and Greeks, especially as under- sided and complex issue. Athenians, Spartans and stood at Olbia, but in a way that might be imagined many more constituted a range of very different ways entirely amomg Greeks (as at Euripidean Thebes), of being Greek. Although Herodotus is not much in- while, at the same time, the examples of Scyles and terested in Greeks of the Black Sea (except insofar as Anacharsis (on Cybele) show how ethnicity need not they connect with Scythains, his primary concern in be a conclusive factor in human-divine interactions. Book Four of his Histories), he is careful to indicate Clearly, these very Olbian stories show the impor- when the views and beliefs of Black Sea Greeks dif- tance (not least for the Olbiopolitans) of the contrast fer substantially from those of Greeks elsewhere, as and distinction between Greeks and Scythians, but notably in their treatment of Heracles (esp. Herod., even while they do that they also illustrate the lim- 4. 8—10). It is worth stressing that Greeks not only ited importance of that same distinction. There was differed among themselves in very many ways, but also the considerable extent to which a neglect of Di- were also prone to mutual disdain and outright hos- onysus might be much less problematic among non- tility, both in the Greek mainland and beyond, as in Ionian Greeks. The awkward fact is that much-bruit- the Black Sea itself. ed polarity between Scythian and Ionian (whether Much of this may seem obvious, but the truth is Olbia or Athens) was accompanied by a good deal of that a great deal of scholarship goes about its busi- analogy between Scythian and Dorian (as Herodotus ness in complete neglect of these fundamentals. saw: Braund 2004). Complexity may be unwelcome and inconvenient, but any study of the ancient world that seeks a depth 2. MORALITY, of understanding must embrace and work with its THE AuLOS AND hiPPAKe reality. The habit of contrasting Greek and Scythian is almost a founding principle of ancient studies, of- With these broad problems very much in mind, ten enshrined in institutional and departmental di- we may proceed to the much-discussed phenom- visions. There are good reasons for this, but we must enon of hippake. It is not my concern here to re- also be aware that we are reproducing in this sim- peat all that we know about the term and the ple, polarised contrast the broadly Greek perception substance. Instead, I wish to make a single point that was already unsatisfactory (if also inescapable) about the tendency (ancient and modern) to iden- for Herodotus, who observes the interplay between tify hippake as a key feature of the polarity of Greeks and Scythians in a range of ways, including Scythians and Greeks. In doing so, it is my inten- the existence of Greek Scythians (Herod., 4. 17, the tion also to illustrate by this example the limited Callippidae) and the gone-native Greeks of Gelonus value of such polarised thinking as well as the (Herod., 4. 108—110). He shows us a world in which relevance of what has been called the «Scythian the polarity of Greek and Scythian may be useful for mirage» (Lévy 1981; Ivanchik 1999). interpretation and discussion, but which is in reality The Scythians’ special relationship with horses an environment of interaction and exchange, even appears everywhere in Greek ideas and statements if that might entail friction (further, Braund 2008). about them. Herodotus, for example, affirms that Famously he shows Scythian hostility to the adop- Scythian (men) are all mounted archers.
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