Cimmerians
From WCD
Cimmerians (Gk. Κιμμέριοι) were nomads driven from southern Russia into western Anatolia by invading Scyths in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The Cimmerians were fierce warriors and expert horsemen.
The fourth book of Herodotus relates a story concerning this invasion: To ensure burial in their ancestral homeland, the men of the Cimmerian royal family divided into groups and fought each other to the death. The Cimmerian commoners buried the bodies along the river Tyras and fled the Scythian advance.
During their invasion the Cimmerians and destroyed the Phrygian kingdom under the historical Midas, a date given variously as ca. 696-5 BC or ca. 676 BC. The also killed the Lydian king Midas, and took the Lydian capital Sardis, except the acropolis. They terrorized Ionia, but were prevented from plundering the temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
In Homer's Odyssey, the Cimmerians live near Hades, in a place where the sun never shines. As a result, the word Cimmerian in the English language has become synonymous with the adjectives "dark", "gloomy," and "deep".
The Cimmerians are traditionally identified with the "Gomer" of Gen. 10:2 (translation (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/genesis/genesis10.htm)) and Ezek. 38:6 (translation (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/ezekiel/ezekiel38.htm)).
Resources
- Lygdamis (1) (http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1968.html) from Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1867); see also Ardys (http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0284.html), Alyattes (http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0143.html).
- Wikipedia: Cimmerians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimmerians)
- Cimmerians (http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/cimmerians/cimmerians.html)
