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Scylax of Caryanda

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Scylax of Caryanda(Greek:Σκύλαξ ὁ Καρυανδεύς) was aGreekexplorerand writer of the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE. His own writings are lost, though occasionally cited or quoted by later Greek and Roman authors. Theperiplussometimes called thePeriplus of Scylaxis not, in fact, by him; that so-calledPeriplus of Pseudo-Scylaxwas written in about the early 330s BCE by an unknown author working in the ambit of the post-Platonic Academyand/or the AristotelianPeripatos(Lyceum) at Athens.

Exploration

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The world according to Herodotus. The ancient Greeks imagined that the Indus flowed southeast and India was its lower basin, i.e. modern daySindh.
Gandhara and Peshawar on a modern Pakistan map

Scylax was fromCaryanda,a small city on an island close toIasosinAsia Minor.[1]He was probably an ethnicCarian,who might have been familiar withGreekand used it for his writings.[2]Not much is known about Scylax, except for the few fragments of information relayed by later Greek writers.Herodotuscalls him a sea-captain from Ionia. He is said to have sailed down theIndus Riverat the behest of the Achaemenid emperorDarius I(522–486 BCE) and then around the Arabian peninsula to reachSuez.[3]In the narrative of Herodotus:

Darius was the discoverer of the greater part of Asia. Wishing to know where the Indus (the only river with crocodiles, save one) ran into the sea, he sent a number of men, on whose trustworthiness he could rely, and among them Scylax of Caryanda, to sail down the river. They set out from the city of Caspatyrus, in the region called Pactyica, and sailed downstream in an easterly direction to the sea. Here they turned westward, and after a voyage of thirty months, reached the place from which the Egyptian king... sent the Phoenicians to sail round Libya. Once the voyage was completed, Darius conquered the Indians, and made use of the sea in those parts. Thus all Asia, except the eastern section, has been found to exhibit the same features as Libya. (Herodotus,Histories4.44)[3]

The greatest extent of the Achaemenid Empire in the east (Oxford Atlas of World History, 2002)

Several questions have been raised about this narrative. The city of Caspatyrus and the country of Pactyica have not been traced to any real locations. Assuming that it is somewhere in the vicinity ofGandhara,which was under the control of the Achaemenid emperor, it is unclear how Scylax was able to assemble a fleet of vessels in this land-locked country. More importantly, the Indus does not flow east, but rather in a south-westerly direction.[3]Due to these reasons, some commentators doubted if Scylax's journey ever took place. But these doubts are now laid to rest by the excavations at Suez, which seem to corroborate Scylax's account, and Darius's subsequent acquisition of control overSindh.[4]

Scholars have constructed various explanations for these questions.David Bivarhas noted that 'Caspatyrus' was written as 'Caspapyrus' by the later Greek writerHekataios,and both the names seem to have been misspellings of 'Paskapyrus', a known Greek spelling of the name ofPeshawar.Scylax is presumed to have started by sailing east along theKabul Riverand turned south after its confluence with theIndus RivernearAttock.[5][a]The idea that the Indus itself flowed east must have been a misunderstanding by Herodotus or his source.[7]

Scholars state that Scylax's expedition was not merely for exploration, but rather for reconnaissance for future conquest by Darius. According to Matthew R. Christ andGrant Parker,"Herodotus presents geographical curiosity as a feature of foreign kings, particularly when they plan conquest".[8]Olmstead characterised it as a "spying" expedition.[9]It lasted thirty months. Soon afterwards, Darius seems to have added to his empire the lands explored by Scylax as a new province calledHinduš.It was referred to as "India" by the Greek writers. The extent of the province is not precisely known, though Herodotus's description of it as lying to the west of the desert (Thar desert) limits it to essentiallySindh(middle and lower Indus basin).[10][11]

Darius also commissioned the completion ofthe canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea,stating inan inscription:

I commanded to dig this canal from the Nile...to the sea which goes from Persia; afterwards this canal [was dug] thus as I commanded, and [ships] passed from Egypt by this canal to Persia as was my [will].[12]

Afterwards, oceanic communication between India and Persia as well as Egypt and Mediterranean were established and maintained for some time.[12]

Works

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Scylax wrote an account of his travels, perhaps entitledPeriplus(Circumnavigation) and said to have been dedicated to Darius. The work has disappeared except for seven quotations by later writers. The surviving quotations indicate it was not merely a logbook, but contained accounts of people, landscape, the natural conditions and perhaps also political affairs. Scholar Klaus Karttunen believes that it might have been written in Greek, in which case it would have been among the first works to be written in Greek prose. Hekataios was influenced by the work and Herodotus knew about it, though he may not have actually seen it himself.[7][13]

The surviving quotations appear fabulous. One talks about Troglodytes (cave-dwellers), another about Monophthalmic (one-eyed people), yet another about Henotiktontes (people that produce only one offspring). According to Tzetzes, Scylax claimed that all these things were true and not made up. Scholar R. D. Milns states that Scylax would have reported the stories he heard from the natives, which he would have accepted in good faith.[7]

Scylax'sPeriplusprovided the West with its first account of the easterly people and served as a model for later Greek writers.[9]More lastingly, it gave India its name. The people of the Indus region were referred to asHidušorHindushin Persian (due to sound change of*s>hfrom Proto-IranianSindhu).[14]If Scylax wrote in the Ionic dialect of Greek, which did not pronounce initialhsounds, he would have transformed it toIndos(plural:Indoi). Their land was characterised asIndike(the adjectival form, meaning "Indian" ).[15]Herodotus uses these terms as equivalent to the Persian termsHidušandHindush,even though he also generalised them to all the people living east of Persia, leading to considerable ambiguities.[16]

Scylax was famous in the ancient world. He is mentioned byStraboas an "ancient writer."[17]According to theSuda,he also wrote (perhaps "in the decades around 480 BC"[18]) a life of his contemporary, Heraclides ofMylasa(τὰ κατὰ Ἡρακλείδην τὸν Μυλασσῶν βασιλέα), who is mentioned in Herodotus 5.121.

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In the historical fiction novelCreationbyGore VidalScylax of Caryanda appears as a character who is on such familiar terms with King Darius I of Persia that they engage in humorous banter about extending Persian rule to India.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^A fragment from Athanaeus cites Scylax describing the Indus passing between towering cliffs covered with wild forest and thorny plants, a description that fits the Attock gorge.[6]

References

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  1. ^Mouton, Rutherford & Yakubovich, Luwian Identities 2013,p. 450.
  2. ^Karttunen, India in Early Greek Literature 1989,pp. 65–66.
  3. ^abcParker, The Making of Roman India 2008,pp. 14–15.
  4. ^Parker, The Making of Roman India 2008,p. 16.
  5. ^Bivar, The Indus Lands (Cambridge Ancient History) 1988,pp. 202–204.
  6. ^Bivar, The Indus Lands (Cambridge Ancient History) 1988,p. 202.
  7. ^abcMilns, Greek Writers on India Before Alexander 2008,p. 354.
  8. ^Parker, The Making of Roman India 2008,p. 14–15, footnote 8.
  9. ^abOlmstead, History of the Persian Empire 1948,pp. 144–145.
  10. ^Gray & Cary, The Reign of Darius (Cambridge Ancient History) 1926,p. 183.
  11. ^Vogelsang, The Achaemenids and India 1986,p. 107.
  12. ^abGray & Cary, The Reign of Darius (Cambridge Ancient History) 1926,p. 200.
  13. ^Karttunen, India in Early Greek Literature 1989,p. 66.
  14. ^Tola, Fernando (1986). "India and Greece before Alexander".Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.67(1/4): 159–194.JSTOR41693244.
  15. ^Milns, Greek Writers on India Before Alexander 2008,p. 353.
  16. ^Vogelsang, The Achaemenids and India 1986,pp. 102–103.
  17. ^Strabo, Geography 14. 2. 20(Σκύλαξ ὁ παλαιὸς συγγραφεύς). Scylax was mentioned12. 4. 8and13. 1. 4
  18. ^Arnaldo Momigliano,The Development of Greek Biography,Harvard UP, 1971, p. 29

Sources

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Ancient sources

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