The Central-Asian steppe has been the home of nomad tribes for centuries. Being nomads, they roamed across the plains, incidentally attacking the urbanized countries to the south, east and west.
The first to describe the life style of these tribes was a Greek researcher, Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century BCE. Although he concentrates on the tribes living in modern Ukraine, which he calls Scythians, we may extrapolate his description to people in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and possibly Mongolia, even though Herodotus usually calls these eastern nomads 'Sacae'. In fact, just as the Scythians and the Sacae shared the same life style, they had the same name: in their own language, which belonged to the Indo-iranian family, they called themselves Skudat ('archers'?). The Persians rendered this name as Sakâ and the Greeks as Skythai. The Chinese called them, at a later stage in history, Sai.
Tribes are, almost by definition, very loose organizations. Every now and then, new tribal coalitions came into being, and sometimes, new languages became prominent among the nomads from the Central-Asian steppe.
The oldest group we know of, is usually called Indo-Iranian. (The old name 'Aryan' is no longer used.) There are no contemporary reports about their migration, but it can be reconstructed from their language. It is reasonably certain that at the beginning of the second millennium BCE, the speakers of the Proto-Indo-Iranian language moved from Ukraine to the southeast. From an archaeological point of view, their migration is attested in the change from the Yamnaya culture into the Andronovo culture.
They invaded the country that was later called Afghanistan, where they separated in an Iranian and an Indian branch. The first group settled in Aria, a name that lives on in our word 'Iran', where they settled after 1000 BCE; the second group reached the Punjab c.1500 BCE. From the second millennium on, three groups of languages can be discerned: the Indian group (Vedic, Sanskrit...), the Scythian group (in the homeland on the steppe), and the Iranian group (Gathic, Persian...). Even when, in the sixth century, the Persian empire was at its most powerful and the Persians lived in comfortable towns, they still remembered their earlier, nomadic life style:
The Persian nation contains a number of tribes, and the ones which Cyrus assembled and persuaded to revolt were the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished; they contain the clan of the Achaemenians from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the remainder -the Dahae, Mardi, Dropici, Sagarti, being nomadic. (Herodotus, Histories 1.125; tr. by Aubrey de Selincourt)
The second group of nomads known to have gone south, is the tribe of the Cimmerians. Their name Gimirru -given to them by the Assyrians- means 'people traveling back and forth'; this name still exists in our word 'Crimea'. The Cimmerians destroyed the kingdoms of Urartu (an old name for Armenia) and Phrygia (in Turkey) in the first quarter of the seventh century BCE; other Scythians reached Ascalon in Palestine. According to Herodotus, they ruled the northwest of Iran (which Herodotus calls Media) for twenty-eight years.
In the sixth, fifth and fourth centuries BCE, the Persians discerned several nomad tribes on the Central-Asian steppe. As we have seem, they called them Sakâ. We know the names of these tribes from Persian royal inscriptions and can add information from Herodotus and other Greek authors.
The Sakâ haumavargâ ('haoma-drinking Sacae') were subjected by Cyrus the Great. Herodotus calls them Amyrgian Scythians. Haoma was a trance inducing drink, made from fly agaric. This mushroom does not occur south of the river Amudar'ya (Oxus). Consequently, we may assume that these nomads lived in Uzbekistan. Herodotus informs us that they wore trousers and pointed caps; they fought as archers. He also mentions their use of the battle ax (which they called sagaris).
The Sakâ tigrakhaudâ ('Sacae with pointed hats') were defeated in 520/519 BCE by the Persian king Darius the Great, who gave this tribe a new leader. One of the earlier leaders was killed, the other, named Skunkha, was taken captive and is visible on the relief at Behistun. (It is possible that Darius created a new tribe from several earlier tribes.) Herodotus calls the Sakâ tigrakhaudâ the Orthocorybantians ('pointed hat men'), and informs us that they lived in the same tax district as the Medes. This suggests that the Sakâ tigrakhaudâ lived on the banks of the ancient lower reaches of the Amudar'ya, which used to have a mouth in the Caspian Sea south of Krasnovodsk. The pointed hat is a kind of turban.
The Apâ Sakâ ('Water Sacae') are also known as the Pausikoi, as Herodotus prefers to call them. Later authors, like Arrian (in his Anabasis) and Ammianus Marcellinus (in his Roman history) call them the Abian Scythians; still later, we encounter them as the Apasiaki, first east and later southwest of Lake Aral. They must be situated along the ancient lower reaches of the Amudar'ya.
The tribe that Herodotus calls 'Massagetes' must have been called something like Mâh-Sakâ in Persian, which means 'Moon Sacae', but this is confusing. Ma-Sakâ means Moon Sacae, and it is known that the Massagetes venerated only one god, the Sun. The Massagetes were responsible for the death of the Persian king Cyrus the Great (in December 530). From Herodotus' description, it is clear that they lived along the Syrdar'ya (Jaxartes).
The nomad tribe known as Dahâ, which means 'robbers', is mentioned for the first time in the Daiva inscription of Xerxes; he must have subjected them. Herodotus calls the Dai a Persian nomad tribe (above), but they can not have lived in Persia proper, because they are mentioned in the Anabasis of Arrian as living along the lower reaches of the Syrdar'ya. In the days of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, they were famous for their mounted archers. It is possible that this tribe desintegrated after the fall of the Persian empire; one of the tribes that came into being, was that of the Parni, who went south in the third century BCE and founded the Parthian empire.
The Sakâ paradrayâ ('Sacae across the sea') were living in Ukraine. These are the nomads that the Greeks called Scythians. In 514 or 513 BCE, king Darius launched a disastrous campaign against the Sakâ paradrayâ. Herodotus gives a long description of their way of life and discerns many tribes in the neighborhood.
The Royal Scythians lived in the southern part of Ukraine, immediately north of the Greek towns.
The Scythian-Farmers seem to be identical with the archaeological culture known as Chernoles, which has been identified with the Iron Age Slavs.
Probably, we may identify the Neuri with the so-called Milograd culture, the archaeological remains of which have been found on the confluence of the rivers Dnepr and Pripyat, north of modern Kiev. They may be the ancestors of the Balts.
Herodotus' story about the Man-eaters received some confirmation with the excavation of human remains that were gnawed at by human jaws; these excavations were along the river Sula, to the southeast of Kiev.
The Argippaeans are sometimes identified with the ancestors of the Calmucs.
The Issedones may be identical to the Wu-sun who (according to Chinese texts) lived on the shore of Lake Balchash.
The Sauromatae are mentioned by Herodotus as the descendants of Scythian fathers and Amazon mothers. Of course, this is a legend, but the tribe did exist and was to move to the west after 130 BCE. In the process, they assimilated the Royal Scythians (above). In the first century BCE, the Sarmatian coalition consisted of four tribes:
The Iazyges, which had once lived on the shores of the Sea of Azov, were now living on the northern bank of the Danube. They were to move to what is now eastern Hungary, where they settled in c.50 CE. They were defeated by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (in 175).
The Urgi lived on the banks of the Dnepr, south of Kiev.
The Royal Scythians were still living in the south of Ukraine and had become the most important Sarmatian tribe. They and the Urgi became known as the Sarmati.
The Roxolani initially lived between the Don and the Dnepr but settled on the lower reaches of the Danube, where the Iazyges had been living before they migrated to Hungary.
The steppe nomads frequently attacked the urbanized regions to the east, south or west. Usually, this created great havoc, but after some time, they went back to their homeland. However, it was necessary for the attacked states to defend themselves. The Indians thought that they did not need walls because they were was protected by the Himalayas; c.110 BCE, the valley of the Indus was run over. The Chinese built the 'Wall of ten thousand miles' to protect themselves. The rulers of the Persian empire, from Cyrus the Great to Alexander the Great, may have built walls as well. These walls are mentioned in the eighteenth sura of the Quran and in medieval legend, but cannot be identified with known archaeological remains. It is certain, however, that both Cyrus and Alexander built garrison towns along the river Syrdar'ya or Jaxartes; our sources call them Cyreschata and Alexandria Eschatê.
Nomadism continued to exist into the first and second millennium CE. Several tribes may be mentioned. The Alani -whose language lives on in modern Ossetian- are known from the first century CE; they lived in modern Kazakhstan. Later, they moved to the west, being pushed forward by the Huns, which are known from Chinese texts as the Xiung-nu. Later tribal formations were the Avars, the Chasars, the Bulgars, the Turks, the Magyars, the Cumans, the Tatars, the Mongols and the Cossacks.
Sarmatian Matriarchy and Amazon Women
The most fascinating feature of Sarmatian culture is their women warriors. Herodotus reported that the Sarmatians were said to be the offsprings of Scythians who had mated with Amazons and that their female descendants "have continued from that day to the present to observe their ancient [Amazon] customs, frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands; in war taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the men" Moreover, said Herodotus, "No girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle."
Both Herodotus and Hippocrates accounts inform us the Sarmatians took interest in turning their women into strong-armed huntresses and fighters. Archaeological materials seem to confirm Sarmatian women's active role in military operation and social life. Burial of armed Sarmatian women comprise large percent of the military burial in the group occupy the central position and appear the be the richest.
Sauromatian - Blyumenfeld culture, 6th - 4th century B.C.
K.F. Smirnov suggests that Sauromatian culture was originated from two kindred cultures - the Timber Grace culture in the Volga River region and Andronovo culture located in the southern Ural steppes. The Sauromatians were the eastern neighbors of the Scythians and both were kindred tribes. The relations between the Sauromatians and the Scythians were peaceful between the 6th to 4th centuries B.C. According to Herodotus, the Sauromatians fought with the Scythians against Darius in the 5th century B.C.
Early Sauro-Sarmatian - Prokhorovskaya culture, 4th - 2th century B.C.
The term "Sarmatian" or "Sirmatian" was first mentioned by Greek authors such as Eudox, Pseudo-Skilak, Heraklidus of Pont, and Theophrastus in the 4th-2nd century B.C. According to the researchers, the Early Sarmatian culture most probably developed as a result of the influx of populations from the forest-steppe trans-Urals, northwestern Kazakhstan, and the Aral Sea region. In the 4th century B.C. individual Sarmatian groups penetrated into the lower Volga River region, where Sauromatian dominated the area. From the 4th to 2nd centuries B.C., massive nomadic migrations westward from the southern Ural steppes reached the lower Don River and Kuban River regions and absorbed the local Sauromatiansa. During the 3rd century B.C. new powerful Sarmatian tribes were formed - the Aorsi, the Roxolani, the Alans, and the Lazyges advanced westwards. The massive Sarmatian western expansion ultimately brought down Scythian rule in the North Black Sea area between the end of the 3rd century and early 2nd century B.C.
From Strabo's Geography we know that in the 2nd century B.C., the Lazyges settled between the Don and the Dnieper while the Roxolani occupied the Black Sea steppes and conducted raids on Taurida (The Crimea). In the middle of the 1st century, the Roxolani reached further west around Danube and threatening the eastern provinces of Rome.
Some of the new burial traits during this time include side niches (podbois), catacombs, grave pits with ledges, and the southern orientation of the deceased. Animal style ornamentation began to die out. New types of swords, bronze mirrors, and decorations started to appear and the earlier Sauromatian style pottery underwent significant changes. The tribes from the trans-Ural steppes brought new techniques for pottery manufacturing, including the mixing of talc into the paste. New forms such as round-bottom pots and uniquely rich ornamental motifs were incorporated into the Sarmatian pottery style.
Middle Sarmatian - Suslovo cultures, late 2nd century B.C. - 2nd century A.D.
The Middle Sarmatian culture covered the steppes of Eurasia from the Danube River to the southern Ural Steppes. During this time a sharp decrease in the population occured in the region because of deteriorating climatic conditions in the southern Ural area and the tribal migration to the west and southeast.
Late Sarmatian - the Alan or Shipovskaya cultures, 2nd - 4th century A.D.
Late Sarmatian sites were first identified by P.D. Rau, who also associated the Late Sarmatian sites with the historical Alans. At the beginning of the 1st century A.D., the Alans had occupied lands in the northeast Azov Sea area, along the Don. Based on the archaeological material they were one of the Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes began to enter the Sarmatian area between the middle of the 1st and the 2nd century A.D. The written sources suggest that from the second half of the 1st to 4th century A.D. the Alans had supremacy over the tribal union and created a powerful confederation of tribes. They continued to rule in the North Black Sea steppes until they were invaded by the Huns in the late 4th century A.D. Most of the Alans were absorbed by the Huns while a small number of them fled to the North Caucasus or went west and reached the shores of Gilbraltar.
One of the most characteristic traits of the Late Sarmatian culture was the artificial deformation of skulls. This was probably accomplished by tying a soft cloth around the infant's head forcing an elongation of the cranium. This cultural trait was specific to the populations living east of the Don River and included the Southern Ural population. In contrast to the Middle Sarmatian culture, the predominant orientation of the deceased was to the north.
Land of Myth and Gold
Perhaps the most striking feature of Scythians was the enormous amount of gold they wore and used. The ancient legend tells the story about the one-eyed people, Arimaspians in Scythia who had on-going battle with the griffins who guarded the gold. This gold undoubtedly came from the rich fields in the Altai district. It is common that the Scythians wore golden ornaments and belts. Gold plates were sewn to their garments and gold gleamed from their weapons. The archaeologists are consistently amazed by the amount of gold offerings deposited in the great burial- mounds of the Scythian kings.
Where had they come from? The Scythians themselves had a legend that they sprang from the three sons of certain Targitaus, a person of supernatural birth who dwelled in the Black Sea domain. Together the three brothers ruled the land until four golden implements - a plow, a yoke, a battle-ax and a drinking cup - fell from the sky and suddenly began to blaze. Colaxais, the youngest, proved to be the only one of the brothers who could pick up the burning objects, and thus became sole ruler of the Scythian kingdom.
Another Scythian creation story was told by the ancient Diodorus Siculus at the 1st century B.C. According to Diodorus, Scythians "lived in very small numbers at the Araks River....that they gained for themselves a country in the mountains up to the Caucasus, in the lowland on the coast of the Ocean (Caspian Sea) and the Meot Lake (Azov Sea) and other territories up to the Tanais River (Don River). Born in that land from the conjugal union of Zeus and a snake-legged goddess was a son Scyth who gave the name Scythian to the people." His descendants were named Pal and Naps and were the ancestors of two congenetic people - pals and naps. "They won for themselves a country "behind the Tanais River up to the Egyptian Nile River" (Diodorus II, 43).
Taming the Horse
The first of these mounted nomads to attract the attention of historians were the Scythians. If the Scythians were not the first to domesticate the horse they were among the earliest, if not the first of the Central Asian people to learn to ride it. Mounted soldiers was the Scythians' success in war; so when they penetrated into Asia, the technique of riding was rapidly adopted and mastered throughout the entire Middle Eastern area.
Though the Scythian had elaborate bitted bridles, the stirrup was not known to them and they rode on saddleclothes, relying on grip and balance. Even so, they were formidable horsemen in battle.
Life Style in the Steppes
The Scythians were famous for their bloody tribal custom. Warriors not only cut off the heads of slain enemies but also made leather-bound drinking cups from their enemies' skulls. They lined these grisly trophies with gold and proudly displayed them to impress their guests. The Scythians were traditionally polygamous and male-dominated society. Even though the ancient Greeks' impression that Scythia was a matriarchy ,it is not supported by the archaeological evidence. A wealthy Scythian could take several wives, and upon his death a son or a brother would assume them as his own. Scythian women had little power beyond the confines of their households, unlike their neighboring tribe the Sarmatians, whose women not only rode but fought with the men equally. Scythian women travlled in waggons with their children instead. Some scholars suggest that the women may have lived a more active and influential life at one time.
Since fish and game are abundant the tribesmen were never short of food. Their staple diet consisted of kumis, a form of fermented mare's milk which is still popular in Central Asia, a good deal of cheese, and vegetables such as onions, garlic and beans. They cooked their meat as a stew. As for cleaning, Herodotus noted that the Scythians did not use water for washing. Instead the women used a paste of pounded cypress, cedar and frankincense that, according to Herodotus, they applied to the face and body: A sweet odor is thereby imparted to them, and when they take off the plaster on the day following, their skin is clean and glossy." Scythians are said to be passionate people - bearded men with dark, deep set eyes with long, wind-snarled hair. They are one of the earlist races wore trousers, reflecting their horseback lifestyle. They wore pliable boots with heels. From the 2000-years-old frozen body recovered in 1947 in Siberia, we learned that Scythians liked to cover themselves with elaborate tattoos.
Religion
The Scythians had no temples, or altars or religious images, and evidently no priests. It is known that the northern nomads including the Scythians practiced Shamanism in their religion: they used shamans to deal with the world of spirits and gave advice to the kings and chiefs. Being superstitious people, they believed in witchcraft, magic and the power of amulets. The most highly honoured of the Scythian shamans came from certain specific families. They are effeminate males called 'enarees' - meant 'men-women' or 'halfmen'. They spoke with high-pitched voices and wore women's clothes.
Rites of Death
Prolonged and demonstrative grieving followed the death of every Scythian tribesman. At the death of a king all Scythian tribes joined a show of stupendous grief that last 40 days. Men of the dominant tribe, the Royal Scythians, cropped their hair, lacerated their ears, forehead, noses and arms. After the king was buried with the best of all his weapons and possessions, the funeral party strangled one of his concubines, his cupbearer, his cook, his lackey, his messenger and his best horses and place all the bodies by him. Then the grave was to be covered with 60-feet hight mound.
Even then, the funeral was not over. One year later as many as 50 Scythian youths might be selected from among those who had directly served the king. They would be strangled and buried in a circle around the royal tomb.
Animal Art Style
One thing that Herodotus failed to report about these Scythian warriors is that they produced art of stunning force and vitality. Around the 6th century B.C., the Scythian created an art of pattern and ornament with naturalistic motifs based on animals. The favorite animals of the Scythian style are the stag, the horse, the ibex, the boar, the bear, the wolf, the felines, the eagle and the fish. The Scythian animal art style was adopted by all the mounted nomads as far as the borders of China by the end of the first millennium BC. During last two centuries, many rich and extraordinary finds were excavated from Scythian tombs and graves such as Pazyryk site in the Altai mountain of south-central Siberia, Kul Oba in the Kuban basin of the northern Black Sea.
KELERMES MIRROR
In 1903 mine technician D.G.Shultz, keeping to no methodical requirements, excavated four burial mounds at the Kelermesskaya stanitsa. The excavations were quite barbarian but the finds - unique and valuable by their artistic function objects. Schultz is said to re-melt and sell some golden things. The rest were sent to the Imperial archaeological commission and now they are in the Special storeroom of the Hermitage. A cast silver mirror (diameter - 17 cm), one side once polished, the other side covered with an electrum (a golden-silver alloy) sheet and decorated with engraved pictures, is one of these things. There are two pins in the center of the mirror - the remains of a handle. In general such mirrors (golden or silver) were widely spread in the Ancient World. Their main function was sacral (remember the speaking mirror from the Pushkin's fairy- tale), not reflective.
The mirror is divided into seven equal segments with different mythological characters made in the traditional front-eastern style in each of them. The specialists see elements of Assyrian, Iranian and other artistic styles. Imported things (Greek, Egyptian, Iranian etc.) are often met in the Scythian burials, so it is no surprise but one small detail. In the segment with two standing sphinxes a predator (a panther) is depicted at their feet. On one side, the predator completely "falls out" from the stylistic manner, on the other side, it fully concurs with the norms of the Scythian - Siberian animal style. This interesting fact is not explained as yet. Recently D.A. Machinsky tried to give a new interpretation to the meaning of the depictions on the Kerelmess mirror as a universal cosmogram with the World Mountain (a rosette) in the middle and the main characters of the Indo-Iranian myth in the segments: the goddess "the mistress of animals", sphinxes - mouthpieces of the equinox, sunrise and sunset. Two bearded men, covered with hairs, fighting with a griffin, are аримаспы , "one-eyed' people, who lived, according to some sources somewhere between the Ural and the Altai. One can judge of the variety of readings, for example, by the article in one of the French archaeological magazines (in two numbers), arguing that the shaggy characters on the Kerelmess mirror are the fabulous at the Caucasus "almasty" : relict Homonodae ("snow men" or relict Neanderthals).
Pegasus
Sometimes objects from Scythian burials can tell us surprising details. For example, not so long ago in 1982 Professor A.M.Leskov, a Moscow archaeologist, while excavating a Scythian burial at aul Ulyap in Adyghe found a silver horn-shaped vessel with the lower part imitating the winged horse Pegasus. E.V.Vlasova, a Hermitage research worker, found out that there were at least two periods in the history of this thing. At the end of the VI th c. BC it was a Greek horn, used as such for about 40 - 50 years (till 470-460 years BC). Then a protomem, the front half of the Pegasus's figure was fixed on it and the joint was covered with a gilded rim, the lower part of the mouth was engirded with another wide rim , decorated with engraved fight of titans. A stem with a round base was soldered from below.
The engraving on the rim with depictions of the fight between gods and titans is of special interest. Together with the usual fights of people, armed with short swords, there is a fight scene, strange at first sight. The personage, interpreted by some researchers (e.g. F.R. Balonov) as Zeus, holds in his hand a bundle of grass or some plant stalks, not a thunderbolt or any other weapon. Specialists think, it is either mandrake or iris. Both plants figure in Greek mythology and are provided with medicinal and lethal qualities. Among other recognizable personages there are Hephaestus with forging tongs and a goddess, probably Hera. The engraved frieze on the rhyton will be studied by specialists for a long time.
The legend of Stag
In a Persian legend of the very early (pre-Aryan) period, when Iran was civilized by a western Mesopotamian ruler, Takma Urupi (Takma=Tana) whose wife was Eneth. Eneth or Nana are names of the mother goddess of waters, rivers, and fertility among Mesopotamian and Scythian peoples. She was symbolized by Virgo.
In the legends of Iran the ruler Feridun, a Scythian king who was a descendant of Takhma Urupi (Nimrod), has three sons Tura, Sin, and Iredj. The first two stick together against the third son who inherits Iran. Tura becomes the ancestor of the Turanians, that is Scythians and Huns. Nimrod was known by several names in the Near East and was also symbolized by the constellations Sagittarius and Orion amongst the Turanian/Scythian nations.
The Persian Legend of the Stag is Scythian in origin: Prince Rustvan-shad (Rustam?), the son of the Chinese emperor (an eastern emperor, more likely the HUNs not the HANs) was hunting while he came across a wondrous stag: his fur was blue (a heavenly symbol), and his eyes looked like rubies, his hooves shone as though they were of gold.
This stag always lead him on and eluded him, he never could catch him. Finally it lead him to a small lake where it jumped into it's center and disappeared. The prince therefore camped and went to sleep and when he awoke he heard gay laughing and music. Following the sounds he heard, he came to a wondrous marble palace, and there surrounded by a dozen beautiful young girls, sitting on a throne, was a beautiful goddess of a girl. He asked her who she was, and she replied "Only a tame DOE, and my name is Sehr-istani." (Old Iranian sraw=horn, Hungarian szarv, while Isten=god in old/pre-Iranian and Hungarian).
In the Greek story the twin sons of Zeus and Nemesis are known as Castor and Pollux. (Gemini) Castor and his brother Pollux steal the daughters of Leukepius. (Leuk=white) Castor is the Cushite Tura, a son of Nimrod after whom northern Mesopotamia (Eturia) and the Aral and Caspian lowlands (Turan) were named. Pollux or Polydeuces is Polli, or Apollo the sun god whose other Near Eastern name is Makar (Magor). Zeus was once a king in the Near East, a Cushite king (Nimrod) which the Greeks deified.
Another Scythian legend recorded by the Greeks states that the sons of the Scythian king named Scythes were Palos (Pollux) and Naes (Castor,Nesus ancient ancestors of the Cushites). The meaning of SAKA, from which Scyth comes from means Chief, Lord.
Another Greek recorded the legend of the MEGARI of Anatolia, and of course translated it into it's Greek equivalent, with slight changes. Here Zeus marries a Scythian Nymph of the area, and from their union is born Megaros, the ancestor of the people of Megari.Again the Scythian connection is emphasized with the results that the Megari, Magyari nation is created.)
In the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, the stag is the favorite animal of the queen of the underworld (Yumala), which leads the hero to his doom. Kaleva is the mythical kingdom where much of the epic takes place. It can be equated with Kalama of the Sumerians.
In the legend of the Ostjak, the hunting pair, with their whole tribe are hunting for a reindeer. The animal baited them on towards the north, where finally it turned into fog. In the age, when the first ice-rain (snow) began to fall. (The coming of the ice age trapped the hunting nation?)
In northern Siberia, the heavenly reindeer, symbolized by the big dipper, steals the sun, and that is why there is no sun for half a year in the arctic. When the mythical hunter, who is often symbolized by a bear, kills the female reindeer, it starts the new days.
This is an important key to the stories, for the chase after the stag is a hunt for the return of the sun, which during winter is taken by the stag. The hunters are searching for it's light and heat, perhaps a southern migration from northern pastures with the coming of winter? The recapturing of it (the sighting of the southern constellation?) then brings back summer. The girls of the legend are the does, the daughters of light, who return the light and fertility of the sun. For that reason they have names which indicate "light, white, burning." Dula=Gyula,Gyul. Sar=gold,light, stag. Bular or Bugur=Stag in Turkic.
The Astrological Symbology of the Chase of the Stag
We must remember that in the early times the zodiac was not based on 12 stations but only 8 representing two quad cycles one represented by Aries (ancestor), Sagittarius (father), Virgo (mother) and Gemini (twins,children). The second quadrant which is between these events is the cycles of nature the seasons and the elements of nature. Aquarius (water,winter), Scorpio (air), Leo (sun, summer), Taurus (earth, spring). The signs have shifted in meaning and relevance since this very early time. The following legend originates from the time of the hunters and still uses the old zodiac rather than the new 12 station one. The sequence also first goes through the cycle of generation then through the cycles of nature.
Epilogue
Their descendants, the Huns and Magyars originated from them and their men and peopled the land called Scythia.
Their people were divided into 108 clans. When the land could no longer hold them they gathered into a council where they urged moving toward the west. (108 is another "magic"number related to astronomy and astrology).
The people of the Huns decided on leaving, while the Magyars stayed behind and came later to settle in central Europe. (Both the HUN and MAGYAR name can be related to aspects of the Sun. KÜN=sun in Turkic KUN=dawn in Sumer and even found in Hungarian and Japanese).