RECONSIDERATIONS ON THE ACCOUNT OF THE SCYTHIAN FOUNDATION MYTH OF TARGITAEUS IN HERODOTUS

Abstract

A critical approach on myth starts by refusing the seductions of romanticism, emphasizing on the particularities of each variant, aiming to identify as best as possible the unnamed narrators, and endeavouring to comprehend the way of the details of a given variant not only correlate with, but actively move forward the interests of the narrator and that fraction of society s/he stands for. From his own statements we learn that Herodotus had traveled through some countries including Scythia. It should be more taken into account that he undertook these journeys simply as a means of collecting evidence for the culture and history of foreign countries and then of using them for writing the History. This is because Herodotus himself points out that his History was also written that the great and wondrous works of non-Greeks may not lose their name. Despite he lived at a period when the Greek-Barbarian antithesis crystallized, he respected and took an interest in the intrinsic values of non-Greeks and was ready to accept foreign cultures on their own terms. Herodotus, especially in his fourth book about the Scythian origins, geography, etnography, culture and history, had held the opportunity to use his own observations and the Greek informants like Aristeas, living in this country, and compared them with the works of early Greek poets and logographers which he did not take for granted. This enabled him to present more credulous, impartial, critical views and informations at times about the origins of Scythians, which seems to have balanced the errors and deficiencies of his race and time. Herodotus cites two myths about the founding of the Scythian dynasty. Targitaeus, transmitted by the Scythians themselves, and the myth of Heracles and the Serpent-Woman brought forward by the Hellenic colonists in the region. He does not comment on the veracity of both myths, preferring to remain neutral, leaving it to the reader. In this article, we will try to reinterpret the Targitaeus myth from a historical point of view, especially in the context of royal symbols representing the establishment of the khanate, by giving examples from the Shahnameh, one of the masterpieces of Iranian-Sassanid literature.