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Skythia was a Greek name for the area between the Carpathians and the river Tanais (Don). The Scythians were an Indo-European people who moved into eastern Europe and the Caucasus after 1000 BC. They fought with the Medes and limited the power of the Iranian Cimmerians (biblical Gomer). The Scythians were allies of the Assyrians during the time of Esarhaddon (681 - 669 BC). They also had contact with the Greek world. Around 589 BC, Anacharsis, the brother of the Scythian king Saulius, was an envoy in Greece. Anacharsis became known for "Scythian eloquence". From the 7th and 5th centuries BC, their tombs were adorned with gold objects. The Royal Scyth kingdom lasted until the Goths destroyed it in the 3rd century AD. Scythia Minor became part of the Roman province of Scythia. (3, 4)
Scythian Male Names
Anacharsis - Brother of King Saulius and envoy to Greece around 589 BC (4)
Arapeithes - Son of the Scythian king Idanthyrsus (4)
Atheas - Scythian king who defeated the Thracians and fought Philip of Macedon (2)
Idanthyrsus - Scythian king in 513 BC who was attacked by the Achaemenid Persian King Darius I (4)
Madyes (Greek) - Son of Protothyes (2)
Palacus - Son of Scylurus (4)
Partatua (Assyrian), Protothyes (Greek) - A Scythian king recorded by the Assyrians and the Greeks (2)
Saulius - Scythian king around 589 BC (4)
Scyles - Son of Arapeithes and a Greek woman (4)
Scylurus - Scythian king of the Hellenized city of Neapolis around the second century AD (4)
Skunxa (1)
Sources:
(1) Avesta.org.
(2) From the Land of the Scythians: Ancient Treasures From the Museums of the USSR, 3000 BC to 100 BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New York, 1975.
(3) The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East, Wolfram von Soden, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994.
(4) A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names, Michael Grant, New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1986, 1997.
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Updated November 2001