Everything about The Massagetae totally explained
The
Massagetae were an
Iranian people of antiquity known primarily from the writings of
Herodotus. Their name was probably akin to
Getae and
Thyssagetae.
Customs
According to Herodotus:
Scythians in their dress and mode of living. Each man had one woman, yet their wives were held in common, this custom differentiating the Massagetae from the Scythians. Queen
Tomyris succeeded her dead husband, the former king of the Massagetae. The Massagetae worshipped only one god, the sun, and sacrificed a horse in its honour.
History
A number of different versions have been transmitted concering the death of
Cyrus the Great. One version reported
According to Herodotus
Cyrus the Great of
Persia met his death in a battle with the Massagetae living beyond Araxes river. They were a people from the southern deserts of
Khwarezm in today's
Bukhara,
Uzbekistan. The queen of the Massagetae,
Tomyris, prevailed, although Cyrus had defeated Tomyris's son
Spargapises. Herodotus mentions:
Of all the combats in which the barbarians [aterm meaning non-Greeks which wasn't a derogatory term in Herodotus's time]
have engaged among themselves, I reckon this to have been the fiercest.
Continuity
Ammianus Marcellinus considered the
Alans to be the former Massagetae.. At the close of the fourth century CE,
Claudian (the court poet of Emperor
Honorius and
Stilicho) wrote of Alans and Massagetae in the same breath: "the Massagetes who cruelly wound their horses that they may drink their blood, the Alans who break the ice and drink the waters of
Maeotis' lake." (
In Rufinem)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Massagetae'.
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