Inscriptions Some scholars ascribe certain inscribed objects found in the
Carpathian Basin and in
Central Asia to the Scythians, but the interpretation of these inscriptions remains disputed (given that nobody has definitively identified the alphabet or translated the content).
An inscription from
Saqqez written in the
Hieroglyphic Hittite script may represent Scythian:
[9]
| Transliteration: |
par-tì-ta₅-wa₅ ki-ś₃-a₄-á KUR-u-pa-ti QU-wa-a₅ | i₅-pa-ś₂-a-m₂ |
| Transcription: |
Partitava xšaya DAHYUupati xva|ipašyam |
| Translation: |
King Partitavas, the masters of the land property." |
King Partitava equates to the Scythian king called Prototyēs in Herodotus (1.103) and known as
Par-ta-tu-a in the Assyrian sources. ("Partatua of Sakasene" married the daughter of
Esarhaddon c. 675 BC)
The
Issyk inscription, found in a Scythian
kurgan dating approximately to the 4th century BC, remains undeciphered, but some authorities assume that it represents Scythian.
Personal names The primary sources for Scythian words remain the Scythian toponyms, tribal names, and numerous personal names in the ancient Greek texts and in the Greek inscriptions found in the Greek colonies on the Northern
Black Sea Coast. These names suggest that the Scythian-Sarmatian language had close similarities to modern Ossetian.
Some scholars believe that many toponyms and hydronyms of the Russian and Ukrainian steppe have Scythian links. For example,
Vasmer associates the name of the river
Don with an assumed/reconstructed unattested Scythian word *
dānu "water, river", and with Avestan
dānu-, Pashto
dand and Ossetian
don.
[10] The river names
Don,
Donets,
Dnieper,
Danube,
Dniester and lake
Donuzlav (the deepest one in Crimea, Ukraine) may also belong with the same word-group.
[11]
Herodotus' Scythian etymologies The Greek historian
Herodotus provides another source of Scythian; he reports that the Scythians called the
Amazons Oiorpata, and explains the name as a compound of
oior, meaning "man", and
pata, meaning "to kill" (
Hist. 4,110).
- Most scholars associate oior "man" with Avestan vīra- "man, hero", Sanskrit vīra-, Latin vir (gen. virī) "man, hero, husband",[12][13] PIE *u̯iHro-. Various explanations account for pata "kill":
- Avestan paiti- "lord", Sanskrit pati-, PIE *poti-, cf. Lat. potestate (i.e. "man-ruler");[14]
- Ossetian maryn "kill", Pashto mrəl, Sanskrit mārayati, PIE *mer- "die" (confusion of Greek Μ and Π);[15]
- Ossetian fædyn "cleave", Sanskrit pātayati "fell", PIE *peth₂- "fall".[16]
- Alternatively, one scholar suggests Iranian aiwa- "one" + warah- "breast",[17] the Amazons believed to have removed a breast to aid drawing a bow, according to some ancient folklorists, and as reflected in Greek folk-etymology: a- (privative) + mazos, "without breast".
Elsewhere Herodotus explains the name of the mythical one-eyed tribe
Arimaspoi as a compound of the Scythian words
arima, meaning "one", and
spu, meaning "eye" (
Hist. 4,27).
- Some scholars connect arima "one" with Ossetian ærmæst "only", Avestic airime "quiet", Greek erēmos "empty", PIE *h₁(e)rh₁mo-?, and spu "eye" with Avestic spas- "foretell", Sanskrit spaś-, PIE *speḱ- "see".[18]
- However, Iranian usually expresses "one" and "eye" with words like aiwa- and čašman- (Ossetian īw and cæst).
- Other scholars reject Herodotus' etymology and derive the ethnonym Arimaspoi from Iranian aspa- "horse" instead.[19]
- Or the first part of the name may reflect something like Iranian raiwant- "rich", cf. Ossetian riwæ "rich".[20]
Herodotus' Scythian theonyms Herodotus also gives a list of Scythian theonyms (
Hist. 4.59):
- Tabiti = Hestia. Perhaps related to Sanskrit Tapatī, a heroine in the Mahābhārata, literally "the burning (one)".[21]
- Papaios = Zeus. Either "father" (Herodotus) or "protector", Avestan, Sanskrit pā- "protect", PIE *peh₃-.[22]
- Api = Gaia. Either "mother"[23] or "water", Avestan, Sanskrit āp-, PIE Hep-[24]
- Goitosyros or Oitosyros = Apollo. Perhaps Avestan gaēθa- "animal" + sūra- "rich".[25]
- Argimpasa or Artimpasa = Aphrodite Urania. To Ossetic art and Pashto or, "fire", Avestan āθra-.[26]
- Thagimasadas = Poseidon.
Pliny the Elder Pliny the Elder's
Natural History (AD 77-79) derives the name of the
Caucasus from the Scythian
kroy-khasis = ice-shining, white with snow (cf. Greek
cryos = ice-cold).
