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| Battles between griffons and warriors in Scythian tunics and leggings were a theme for Greek vase-painters. |
Legendary Arimaspi
THE ARIMASPOI (or Arimaspians) were a tribe of one-eyed men who lived at the foot of the Rhipaion Mountains (probably the Carpathians) in northern Skythia, according to theoi.com.They appear in my book Indigo Traveler and I have recently written and been interviewed about them. Here is further information.
They were constantly at war with the gold-guarding, mountain-dwelling Grypes (Griffins)--winged beasts with the heads of eagles and the bodies of lions.
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 802 ff. (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :
"[Prometheus warns the wandering maiden Io:] But now listen to another and a fearsome spectacle. Beware of the sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that do not bark, the Grypes (Griffins), and the one-eyed (monôpoi) Arimaspoi (Arimaspians), mounted on horses, who dwell about the flood of Plouton's (Pluto's) stream that flows with gold. Do not approach them."
Infoplease.com says Arimaspians are one-eyed people of Scythia, who adorned their hair with gold. They were constantly at war with the gryphons who guarded the gold mines. Then the site quotes:
Milton: Paradise Lost, ii. 943.6)As when a gryphon, through the wilderness ... Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth Had from his wakeful custody purloined The guarded gold.
SOURCE: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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Battles between griffons and warriors inScythian tunics and leggings
were a theme for Greek vase-painters. Spiritual descendants of the
one-eyed Arimaspi of Inner Asia may be found in the decorative
borderlands of medieval maps and in the monstrous imagery of Hieronymus Bosch.
The Arimaspi were described by Aristeas of Proconnesus in his lost archaic poem Arimaspea. Proconnesus is a small island in the Sea of Marmora near the mouth of the Black Sea, well situated for hearing travellers' tales of regions far north of the Black Sea. Aristeas narrates in the course of his poem that he was "wrapt in Bacchic fury" when he travelled to the north and saw the Arimaspians, as reported by Herodotus:
Ignoring the skepticism of Herodotus, Strabo and Pliny's Natural History perpetuated the fables about the northern people who had a single eye in the center of their foreheads and engaged in stealing gold from the griffins, causing disagreements between the two groups.
The Arimaspians are the neighbors of the
Gryphons in Scythia, usually by a river, according toThe Gryphon Pages. It is quite possible that the Greek Cyclopes were influenced by Aristeas's description of the Arimaspia. At first, the Arimaspians were simply almost gigantic one-eyed men, "fair haired" yet fierce and cruel. However they were also described as monsterous, scruffy and ugly, such as in this quote from Pliny:
"We have pointed out that some Scythian tribes, and in fact a good many, feed on human bodies... and that quite recently the tribes of the parts beyond the Alps habitually practiced human sacrifice, which is not far removed from eating human flesh. But also a tribe is reported next to these... the Arimaspi whom we have spoken of already, people remarkable for having one eye in the centre of the forehead."
Nonetheless, regardless of how the Arimaspians look and act, one fact remains constant: they are the relentless enemies of the Gryphons. It is written by many that the Arimaspians try to steal the gold guarded by the Gryphons, "both with remarkable covetousness".
The Arimaspi were described by Aristeas of Proconnesus in his lost archaic poem Arimaspea. Proconnesus is a small island in the Sea of Marmora near the mouth of the Black Sea, well situated for hearing travellers' tales of regions far north of the Black Sea. Aristeas narrates in the course of his poem that he was "wrapt in Bacchic fury" when he travelled to the north and saw the Arimaspians, as reported by Herodotus:
This Aristeas, possessed by Phoibos, visited the Issedones; beyond these (he said) live the one-eyed Arimaspoi, beyond whom are the Grypes that guard gold, and beyond these again the Hyperboreoi, whose territory reaches to the sea. Except for the Hyperboreoi, all these nations (and first the Arimaspoi) are always at war with their neighbors.Arimaspi and griffins remained stock images associated with the outlands of the north: the Aeschylan Prometheus Bound (415 BC), describing the wanderings of Io, notes that she is not to pass through the north, among the Arimaspi and griffins, but southward. Herodotus, "Father of History", admits the fantastic allure of the edges of the known world: "The most outlying lands, though, as they enclose and wholly surround all the rest of the world, are likely to have those things which we think the finest and the rarest."
Ignoring the skepticism of Herodotus, Strabo and Pliny's Natural History perpetuated the fables about the northern people who had a single eye in the center of their foreheads and engaged in stealing gold from the griffins, causing disagreements between the two groups.
The Arimaspians are the neighbors of the
Gryphons in Scythia, usually by a river, according toThe Gryphon Pages. It is quite possible that the Greek Cyclopes were influenced by Aristeas's description of the Arimaspia. At first, the Arimaspians were simply almost gigantic one-eyed men, "fair haired" yet fierce and cruel. However they were also described as monsterous, scruffy and ugly, such as in this quote from Pliny:"We have pointed out that some Scythian tribes, and in fact a good many, feed on human bodies... and that quite recently the tribes of the parts beyond the Alps habitually practiced human sacrifice, which is not far removed from eating human flesh. But also a tribe is reported next to these... the Arimaspi whom we have spoken of already, people remarkable for having one eye in the centre of the forehead."
Nonetheless, regardless of how the Arimaspians look and act, one fact remains constant: they are the relentless enemies of the Gryphons. It is written by many that the Arimaspians try to steal the gold guarded by the Gryphons, "both with remarkable covetousness".
| FURTHER READING: Rose, Carol. Giants, Monsters & Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth. W. W. Norton & Company: New York, 2000. Sedgwick, Paulita. Mythological Creatures: A Pictoral Dictionary. Holt, Rinehart and Winston: New York, 1974. |
