The term Scythians refers to a wide variety of mostly nomadic Iranic tribes that inhabited the Eurasian steppe in antiquity. These tribes, which the Greeks would later refer to as Scythians (Skuthoi in Greek), migrated from Central Asia in the late eighth century BCE to modern-day Ukraine and southern Russia. By no means unified politically, these tribes of pastoral horsemen roamed their vast territories from season to season, trading and fighting along the way. Because the Scythians did not use writing, everything we know about this culture either comes from Assyrian, Persian, and Greek sources or through surviving Scythian art and archaeological finds, most of which come from their burial mounds (often referred to as kurgans).
The Greeks first encountered the Scythians in the seventh century BCE, as the Greeks began exploring and then settling the northern coast of the Black Sea. Over the next centuries, the independent Greek cities in that region and those of the Bosporan kingdom would closely interact with their Scythian neighbors. In this context, Greek settlers and the Scythian peoples around them would profoundly impact each other’s culture and art for centuries. By the late second century BCE, the Scythians were largely replaced in the steppes by a new nomadic people known as Sarmatians.
Greek Depictions of Scythians
For the Greeks, the Scythians were archetypal barbarians (barbaroi in Greek); that is, non-Greek speakers who, from an ancient Greek perspective, spoke gibberish—what sounded to them like “bar bar bar.” To the Greeks, the word barbarian was not exclusively negative but simply denoted a foreigner. Because of their radically different customs, such as nomadism, Scythians fascinated the Athenian historian and ethnographer Herodotus, who described them at length in the fourth book of his Histories (ca. 430 BCE). Scythians were also frequently depicted on Attic pottery, identifiable by distinctive costumes and attributes. On an Athenian black-figure amphora fragment (2011.604.3.152), an archer can be identified by his felt “Scythian cap,” as well as by his bow and arrow, a quintessentially barbarian weapon that contrasted with the heavy armor and spears preferred by Greek hoplites. Interestingly, this figure wears more characteristically Greek greaves to protect his shins instead of the trousers typical of Scythian attire, suggesting that distinctions between Greeks and Scythians were not always clear cut.
From the ancient Greek perspective, the remote and vast territories of the Scythians—sometimes referred to as Hyperborea (the land “beyond the North Wind”)—made it a realm beyond sure knowledge, where fantasy and reality freely mixed. Herodotus wrote of a semi-mythical Scythian tribe of one-eyed men called the Arimaspeans who spent their time stealing gold from “gold-guarding griffins.” Griffins and Arimaspeans became a popular artistic motif in Greek art, as seen on an Athenian red-figure pelike (wine jar) from the fourth century BCE (06.1021.179). The figures on this vessel, wielding such non-Greek weapons as bows and axes and wearing headdresses with flaps and patterned trousers characteristic of Scythians, are usually interpreted as Arimaspeans. While mythical creatures were often associated with distant, unknown, barbarian lands in Greek thought, it is possible that the connection between Scythians and gold-guarding griffins in Greek art and literature shows that the Greeks were aware of the prominence of griffins in Scythian art. Indeed, following their conquest of large swathes of the Near East in the seventh century BCE, the Scythians probably adopted the artistic motif of the lion-headed griffin from Mesopotamia. This hybrid creature could also combine the attributes of the lion and the eagle, as was common in Greek art; both animals were popular in the Scythian artistic repertoire.
A Masterpiece of Greco-Scythian Art: The Scabbard Decoration
As a result of sustained intercultural contact, the Scythians began to adopt Greek motifs and styles into their rich goldsmithing tradition. A sheet-gold plaque for a sword scabbard (30.11.12) from the fourth century BCE testifies to this new form of syncretic Greco-Scythian art. This gold casing would have been fitted onto a leather sword sheath, now lost. This scabbard casing was most probably found in a Scythian burial mound in Crimea in the 1880s.
The main frieze in embossed relief features a battle scene between Greeks—characterized by partial nudity, crested helmets, and round shields—and undetermined barbarians who are identified by their headdresses with flaps, trousers, belted tunics, and non-Greek weapons such as axes. It is unclear who these warriors were, since, following Greek aesthetic conventions, different barbarians, whether mythical or real, were often depicted with similar attributes. The grim realities of battle are convincingly rendered, from a Greek trying to protect his fallen comrade from an assailant on the left, to another Greek bandaging up his wounded comrade’s leg further on the right. On the far-right of the scene, a dead or wounded barbarian clings to his horse as he is dragged away from the battlefield.
It is unclear whether the scabbard casing was traded or gifted to a local Scythian ruler or whether it was specifically commissioned by a Scythian aristocrat. It was most likely made in a workshop in a Greek city, perhaps Pantikapaion (modern Kerch, in Crimea), which also produced two nearly identical casings found in two other opulent burials in the northern Black Sea area. Yet trying to ascribe this piece to a single culture—Greek or Scythian—would miss the point: In the fourth century BCE, Greeks and Scythians were in close contact throughout the region, including in nominally Greek cities. As a result, these different ethnic groups seem to have adopted elements of each other’s culture, leading to the emergence of Greco-Scythian art, of which this scabbard decoration is a fine example. While the battle between Greeks and barbarians is stylistically and thematically Greek, the shape of the sword for which this scabbard was intended is a typically Scythian type of short sword called acinaces. Moreover, elements of the so-called Scythian animal style (although by this stage clearly influenced by Greek art) are represented in the triangular side projection showing a deer being mauled by a lion and a griffin, as well as in the two-horned heraldic griffins at the start of the main frieze. Similar scenes of violent fantastical animal combat can be found on nineteenth-century electrotype copies of original Scythian goldwork, now in St. Petersburg (83.18.128, 83.18.224).
The Social Significance of Scythian Art: The Maikop Treasure
The Scythian animal style is best represented by smaller plaques made using the repoussé technique that likely served as dress ornaments (24.97.50–51). Note the characteristic combination of naturalism with heavily stylized elements, such as the three bird heads growing out of the antlers of a stag (24.97.55). All these dress ornaments, alongside others now in the Penn Museum and the Neues Museum in Berlin, probably came from a single fifth-century BCE aristocratic Scythian tomb in the Maikop region of southern Russia.
These animal adornments, alongside the more common nonfigural cruciform and circular floral rosette decorations (24.97.58–67, 24.97.68–79), were likely important status markers for the Scythian aristocrat buried at Maikop. Perforations visible in these gold ornaments (24.97.56) suggest that they would have been sewn onto garments and the tall pointy caps of the deceased Scythian elite as expressions of conspicuous wealth and power.
For more than a hundred years, scholars have debated the meaning of Scythian animal art. It is possible that animals were understood to signify specific physical or mental traits (such as agility or strength) and enhanced the abilities of the person wearing their depictions or provided protection from evil spirits. Other scholars have interpreted different animal scenes as mythological, reconstructing possible Scythian religious beliefs and practices, including shamanism. Whatever the precise meanings of the animals, they were clearly significant to the Scythian worldview: Scythians not only adorned themselves with animal motifs but even tattooed their bodies with similar stylized depictions, as the partially mummified body of the Scythian “Ice Maiden” of Pazyryk (fifth century BCE), discovered in a “frozen” tomb in southern Siberia, attests. The shoulder of this person was tattooed with a stag, with stylized antlers and griffin heads, just like the stag ornament in The Met collection (24.97.55).
Scythian Artistic Impact Across Eurasia
Ultimately, the broader impact of Scythian art can be seen in how their art became entangled with artistic traditions from cultures as far afield and as varied as Thrace (modern Bulgaria), with a fourth-century BCE silver beaker (47.100.88); Iran, with a seventh-century BCE gold plaque, possibly from the village of Ziwiye (50.196a, b); and Mongolia, with a third-century BCE gold belt buckle (17.190.1672). The artistic tendency evident in the Maikop treasure—depicting an animal in all its natural glory while also heavily stylizing it—characterizes all of these objects. Note especially the antlers of the stag on the Thracian beaker, which are extended with decorative bird heads like the Maikop griffin ornaments (24.97.50–51). The stags on the Iranian plate are similarly crouched in the characteristically Scythian recumbent posture and also have extended antlers with volutes emerging from them, like the Maikop stags (24.97.55). And the Mongolian belt buckle’s depiction of the violent attack of a feline on an ibex condenses and twists their bodies to stress movement and is evocative of late Scythian art, including animal combat scenes on the scabbard casing (30.11.12) and in the copies of Scythian plaques (83.18.128).
The wide geographical diffusion of Scythian artistic motifs can be explained by the mobility of the Scythians as well as the essential hybridity of their animal art, as evidenced by their griffins, which were depicted both as eagle headed, following Greek fashion, and lion headed, reflecting West Asian conceptions. It is fitting that a hybrid creature remains emblematic of the art of nomadic tribes that adapted elements of different artistic traditions they encountered as they roamed the vast Eurasian steppe.