Bacchic King Skyles
Scythian · mortal · historical; mid 5th c. BCE, king of the Scythians, son of Ariapeithes · Recorded classification
Historical king (mortal tier); the second of Herodotos' two cautionary tales (with Anacharsis) on Scythian rejection of foreign cult, here specifically the Greek god Dionysos. His existence is corroborated by a 5th-c. BCE gold finger-ring inscribed with his name.
Domains
- kingship
Relations
- sibling: King OctamasadesReciprocal of scythian_octamasades.sibling (alphabetical family sweep). (auto reciprocal)
- enemy: King OctamasadesReciprocal of scythian_octamasades.enemy (alphabetical family sweep). (auto reciprocal)
- descendant of: Sun-King KolaxaisBacchic king of the royal Scythians; as a royal Scythian he descends from the first king Kolaxais, recorded as lineage descent parallel to King Idanthyrsus.Herodotus, Histories 4.78-80 (Skyles, son of King Ariapeithes) (primary)
Sources
- Skyles, a Scythian king with a Greek (Istrian) mother, secretly took up Greek ways at Olbia/Borysthenes and had himself initiated into the rites of the Bacchic Dionysos; exposed reveling with the god, he was overthrown and beheaded by his brother Octamasades.: Herodotos, Histories 4.78-80 (Godley) (primary)
- Herodotos pairs his fate with that of Anacharsis to show that the Scythians sternly refuse foreign religious customs; his story is read as a tragedy of cultural boundary-crossing.: G. Hinge, 'Dionysos and Herakles in Scythia,' Black Sea Studies 8 (2008); Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Scythians' (secondary)