Editing Scythians (section)

===Antiquity===
[[File:Xerxes detail three types of Sakas cleaned up.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|For the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenids]], there were three types of Sakas:
* the ''Sakā tayai paradraya'' ("beyond the sea", presumably the Scythians between the Greeks and the [[Thracians]] on the Western side of the [[Black Sea]]),
* the ''[[Sakā tigraxaudā]]'' ([[Massagetae]], "with [[Phrygian cap|pointed caps]]"),
* the {{translit|peo|Sakā haumavargā}} ("who lay down [[Haoma|Hauma]]", furthest East).
Soldiers in the service of the [[Achaemenid army]], [[Xerxes I]] tomb detail, circa 480 BC.{{sfn|Schmitt|2003a}}]]
The inroads of the Cimmerians and the Scythians into West Asia over the course of the 8th to 7th centuries BC, which were early precursors of the later invasions of West Asia by steppe nomads such as the [[Huns]], various [[Turkic peoples]], and the [[Mongol Empire|Mongols]], in [[Late Antiquity]] and the [[Middle Ages|Mediaeval Period]],{{sfn|Fuchs|2023|p=761}} had destabilised the political balance which had prevailed in the region between the dominant great powers of Assyria, Urartu, and Phrygia,{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=75}} thus irreversibly changing the geopolitical situation of West Asia.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=75-76}} These Cimmerians and Scythians also influenced the developments in West Asia through the spread of the steppe nomad military technology brought by them into this region.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=75}}

The first mention of the Scythians in ancient Greek literature is in Hesiod's [[Catalogue of Women|{{translit|en|Catalogue of Women}}]], which refers to them as the "mare-milking Scythians" ({{langx|grc|Σκυθας ιππημολγους|translit=Skythas hippēmolgous}}) and as the "milk-drinkers who have wagons for houses" ({{langx|grc|γλακτοφαγων εις γαιαν απηναις οικι εχοντων|translit=glaktophagōn eis gaian apēnais oiki ekhontōn}}){{sfn|Sulimirski|1954|p=284}} Hesiod also referred to the Scythians along with the Ethiopians and Libyans as peoples "whose mind is over their tongue," that is who approve of prudent reserve.{{sfn|West|2002|p=444}}

[[Herodotus|Herodotus of Halicarnassus]] wrote a legendary account of the arrival of the Scythians. Herodotus's narrative also contracted the events of the Scythians' arrival into West Asia by portraying Madyes as the king led them from the steppes into West Asia.{{sfn|Kõiv|2022|p=270-271}} Herodotus also exaggerated the power of the Scythians in West Asia by claiming that they dominated all of it.{{sfn|Fuchs|2023|p=750}} Herodotus's narrative depicted Scythia as an opposite of [[Africa]], especially [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], which was a theme continued by other ancient Greek authors,{{sfn|West|2002|p=444}} such as [[Pseudo-Hippocrates]], who represented Greece as being the mean situated between these two extremes.{{sfn|West|2002|p=445}}

By the 5th century BC, the image of the Scythians in Athens had become the quintessential stereotype used for barbarians, (non-Greeks).{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=52}} They increasingly associated the Scythians with drunkenness.{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=54}} Ancient Greek authors considered the Scythians and Persians, not as related Iranic peoples, but in opposition to each other. The Scythians represented "savagery" and were linked to the Thracians, while the Persians represented "refined civilisation" and were connected to the Assyrians and Babylonians.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2006|p=147}}

The 4th century BC Greek historian, [[Ephorus|Ephorus of Cyme]], described the Scythians as one of the "four great barbarian peoples" of the known world, along with the Celts, Persians, and Libyans.{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=48}} Ephorus used the perception of Anacharsis as a personification of "Barbarian wisdom" to create an idealised image of the Scythians being as an "invincible" people, which became a tradition of Greek literature.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}} Ephorus created a fictitious account of a legendary Scythian king, named Idanthyrsos or Iandysos, who became the ruler of all Asia.{{sfn|Ivantchik|1999a|p=498}}

The Ancient Greeks included the Scythians in their mythology, with [[Herodorus]] making a mythical Scythian named Teutarus into a herdsman who served [[Amphitryon]] and taught archery to [[Heracles]]. Herodorus also portrayed the Titan [[Prometheus]] as a Scythian king, and, by extension, described Prometheus's son [[Deucalion]] as a Scythian as well.{{sfn|Braund|2021|p=179}} The Romans confused the peoples whom they perceived as archetypical "Barbarians," namely the Scythians and the [[Celts]], into a single grouping whom they called the "Celto-Scythians" ({{langx|la|Celtoscythae}}) and supposedly living from Gaul in the west to the Pontic steppe in the east.{{sfn|Burns|2003|p=65}}

Strabo of Amasia idealised the Scythians as leading a nomadic life founded on simplicity. According to Strabo's narrative, the Scythians became "corrupted" and lost their simple and honest life because of the influence of the Greeks' "love of luxury and sensual pleasures."{{sfn|Jacobson|1995|p=16}} Following Strabo, the Scythians continued to be represented as an idealised freedom-loving and truthful people.{{sfn|Harmatta|1996|p=182}} Later [[Greco-Roman world|Graeco-Roman]] tradition transformed the Scythian prince [[Anacharsis]] into a legendary figure as a kind of "[[noble savage]]" who represented "[[Barbarian]] wisdom," due to which the ancient Greeks included him as one of the [[Seven Sages of Greece]]{{sfn|Ivantchik|2016|p=314}} and he became a popular figure in Greek literature.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}

The richness of Scythian burials was already well known in Antiquity, and, by the 3rd century BC, the robbing of Scythian graves had begun,{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=551}} initially carried out by Scythians themselves.{{sfn|West|2002|p=452}}{{sfn|Parzinger|2004|p=111}} During [[Late Antiquity]] itself, another wave of grave robbery of Scythian burials occurred at the time of the Sarmatian and [[Huns|Hunnish]] domination of the Pontic Steppe, when these peoples reused older Scythian kurgans to bury their own dead.{{sfn|Parzinger|2004|p=111}}