Unless you’re a fan of comic-book series (and Netflix film) The Old Guard, you may never have heard of the Scythians before now, but chances are you’ve seen some aspect of their influence, down through the long years of human history.
, and thank goodness he did because they left no written records of their own. Herodotus noted that “none who attack [the Scythians] can escape, and none can catch them if they desire not to be found.”
As nomads, they had no real cities to besiege — Herodotus thought this made them a particularly challenging people to attack and subdue. It also made them highly desirable fighters to have on your side, and history records that ancient Scythian mercenaries sometimes hired out to Greek cities. They were also known to worship some Greek gods, especially Ares, the god of war, and would sacrifice some of the men they captured in battle to Ares. They were literally bloodthirsty. “A Scythian drinks the blood of the first man he has overthrown,” noted Herodotus, whose writing also goes into some detail about the ways in which Scythian warriors would repurpose the bodies of their foes — including turning their skulls into drinking cups.
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