Editing Cimmerians (section)

======According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus======
Herodotus of Halicarnassus wrote a legendary account, partly based on Hecataeus's narrative,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=95}} of the arrival of the Scythians into the lands of the Cimmerians:<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Tokhtas’ev|1991}}|{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2000a|pp=78–79}}|{{harvnb|Cunliffe|2019|p=30}}|{{harvnb|Cunliffe|2019|p=106}}|{{harvnb|Cunliffe|2019|pp=111–112}}|{{harvnb|Adalı|2017|p=60}}|{{harvnb|Kõiv|2022|p=266}}}}</ref>
#after the Scythians were expelled from Central Asia by the Massagetae, they moved to the west across the Araxes, and took possession of the Cimmerians' lands after chasing them away;
#the approach of the Scythians led to a civil war among the Cimmerians because the "royal tribe" wanted to remain in their lands and defend themselves from the invaders, while the rest of the people saw no use in fighting and preferred to flee;
#since neither side could be persuaded by the other, the "royal tribe" divided themselves into two equally numerous sides that fought each other till death, after which the commoners buried them by the [[Dniester|Tyras river]].

Basing himself on Greek folk tales from the [[Tyras|city of Tyras]], Herodotus claimed the tombs of the Cimmerian princes could still be seen in his days near the Tyras river.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=79}}

Herodotus also referred to the presence of several "Cimmerian" toponyms as existing in the Bosporan region, such as:{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985|p=93}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=81}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=30}}
*"Cimmerian walls" ({{langx|grc|Κιμμερια τειχεα|translit=Kimmeria teikhea}}),
*a "Cimmerian ferry" ({{langx|grc|πορθμηια Κιμμερια|translit=porthmēia Kimmeria}}),
*a "country of Cimmeria" ({{langx|grc|χωρη Κιμμερια|translit=khōrē Kimmeria}}),
*and a "Cimmerian Bosporus" ({{langx|grc|Βοσπορος Κιμμεριος|translit=Bosporos Kimmerios}}).

Herodotus likely used Bosporan Greek folk tales as source for these claims, although some of the "Cimmerian" toponyms in the Bosporan region might have originated from a genuine Cimmerian presence in this area.{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=557-558}}{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985|p=93}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=86}}

The story of the fratricidal war of the Cimmerian "royal tribe," that is of the defeat and destruction of its ruling class, is contradicted by how powerful the Cimmerians were according to the Assyrian records contemporaneous with their presence in West Asia. Another inconsistency in Herodotus's description of the flight of the Cimmerians is the direction through which they retreated: according to this narrative, the Cimmerians moved from the Pontic Steppe to the east into Caucasia to flee from the Scythians, who were themselves moving from the east into the Pontic Steppe.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=80}}

These inconsistencies suggest that Herodotus's narrative of an eastern flight of the Cimmerians was a later folk tale invented by Greek colonists on the north shore of the Black Sea to explain the existence of ancient tombs, reflecting the motif of assigning old tombs and buildings with mythical heroes or with lost ancient valiant peoples, similarly to how the Greeks within Greece proper claimed similar remains had been built by the [[Pelasgians|Pelasgi]] and the [[Cyclopes|Cyclops]],{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985|p=93}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=80}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=82}} or how later Ossetian tradition [[Nart saga|recounted the death of the Narts]].{{sfn|Ivantchik|2001|p=322}}

Herodotus's account of the Cimmerians' flight contracted the actual events into a more condensed story where they moved south by following the shore of the Black Sea under the leadership of Lygdamis, while their Scythian pursuers followed the Caspian Sea's coast, thus leading the Cimmerians into Anatolia and the Scythians into [[Media (region)|Media]].{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=31}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=106}}{{sfn|Kõiv|2022|p=270-271}} While Cimmerian activities in Anatolia and Scythian activities in Media are attested, the claim that the Scythians arrived in Media while pursuing the Cimmerians is unsupported by evidence,{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=31}} and the arrival of the Scythians in West Asia about 40 years after that of the Cimmerians suggests that there is no available evidence to the later Graeco-Roman account of the Cimmerians crossing the Caucasus and moving south into West Asia under pressure from the Scythians migrating into their territories.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=83}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=96}}

Moreover, Herodotus's account also ignored the earlier Cimmerian activities in West Asia during the reigns of Sargon II to the ascension of Ashurbanipal, including the two separate invasions of Lydia, and instead contracted them into a single event during which Lydgamis led the Cimmerians from the steppes into Anatolia to sack Sardis under the reign of Ardys.{{sfn|Kõiv|2022|p=270-271}}{{sfn|Kõiv|2022|p=289}}