Editing Anacharsis

{{Short description|Scythian philosopher}}
{{for|the Prussian revolutionary nobleman known as Anacharsis|Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce, baron de Cloots}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Anacharsis
| title        = Prince of [[Scythians#North Pontic Scythian kingdom|Scythia]]
| image        = Anacharsis.jpg
| caption      = 18th-century portrait, based on an ancient [[engraved gem]].
| birth_date   = Middle 6th century BC
| death_date   = Late 6th century BC
| father       = [[Gnurus]]
| occupation   = Philosopher
| religion     = [[Scythian religion]]
}}

'''Anacharsis''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|n|ə|ˈ|k|ɑr|s|ɪ|s}}; {{langx|grc|Ἀνάχαρσις|translit=Anakharsis}}) was a [[Scythians|Scythian]] prince and philosopher of uncertain historicity{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}} who lived in the 6th century BC.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2016|p=314}}

==Life==
Anacharsis was the brother of the Scythian king [[Saulius]], and both of them were the sons of the previous Scythian king, [[Gnurus]].{{sfn|Ivantchik|2016|p=314}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}

Few concrete details are known about the life of the historical Anacharsis. He is known to have travelled to [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], where he possibly became influenced by Greek culture.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2016|p=314}}

Anacharsis was later killed by his brother Saulius for having sacrificed to the Scythian ancestral [[Snake-Legged Goddess]] at her shrine in the country of Hylaea{{sfn|Ivantchik|2016|p=314}} by performing an [[orgia]]stic and [[shamanism|shamanistic]] ritual at night during which he wore images on his dress and played drums.{{sfn|Ustinova|1999|p=79}}

The ancient Greek author, [[Herodotus|Herodotus of Halicarnassus]], claimed that Anacharsis had been killed because he had renounced Scythian customs and adopted Greek ones, although this claim was likely invented by Herodotus himself.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2016|p=314}} The religious rituals practised by Anacharsis instead corresponded more closely to those of the transvestite [[Enaree|Anarya]] priesthood of the Scythians.{{sfn|Ustinova|1999|p=79}}

===Legacy===
An amphora found in the western {{transliteration|grc|temenos}} at [[Pontic Olbia]] where was located the temple of Apollo Iētros ({{lit|Apollo the Healer}}) recorded the dedication of "paternal honey" to this god by a Scythian named Anaperrēs ({{lang|grc|Αναπερρης}}), who may have been the son of Anacharsis.{{sfn|Rusyayeva|2007|p=99-100}}{{sfn|Rusyayeva|2003|p=97}}

The nephew of Anacharsis, [[Idanthyrsus]], who was the son and successor of Saulius, would later become famous among the Greeks in his own right for having resisted the [[Persians|Persian]] [[Scythian campaign of Darius I|invasion]] of [[Scythia]] in 513 BC.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}

====In Graeco-Roman philosophy====
Later [[Greco-Roman world|Graeco-Roman]] tradition transformed Anacharsis into a legendary figure as a kind of "[[noble savage]]" who represented "[[Barbarian]] wisdom," due to which the ancient Greeks included him as one of the [[Seven Sages of Greece]].{{sfn|Ivantchik|2016|p=314}} Consequently, Anacharsis became a popular figure in Greek literature,{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}} and many legends arose about him, including claims that he had been a friend of [[Solon]].{{sfn|Ivantchik|2016|p=314}}

The ancient Greek historian [[Ephorus|Ephorus of Cyme]] later used this image of Anacharsis to create an idealised image of the Scythians.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}

Eventually, Anacharsis completely became an ideal "man of nature" or "noble savage" figure in Greek literature, as well as favourite figure of the [[Cynicism (philosophy)|Cynics]], who ascribed to him a 3rd-century BC work titled the {{transliteration|en|Letters of Anacharsis}}.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}} Lucian wrote two works on him, ''Anacharsis or Athletics'' (Ἀνάχαρσις ἢ Περὶ Γυμνασίων) and ''The Scythian'' (Σκύθης).<ref>{{Citation |last=Martin |first=R. P. |title=The Scythian Accent: Anacharsis and the Cynics |date=1996-12-31 |work=The Cynics |pages=136–155 |editor-last=Branham |editor-first=R. Bracht |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520921986-008/html |access-date=2024-10-16 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.1525/9780520921986-008 |isbn=978-0-520-92198-6 |editor2-last=Goulet-Cazé |editor2-first=Marie-Odile|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Due to the transformation of Anacharsis into a favourite character of Greek philosophers, nearly all of the ancient writings concerning him are about Greek literature, which makes the information regarding the historical Anacharsis himself difficult to assess.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last=Ivantchik |first=Askold I. |author-link=Askold Ivantchik |date=2016 |title=L'idéologie royale des Scythes et son expression dans la littérature et l'iconographie grecques : l'apport de la numismatique |trans-title=The Royal Ideology of the Scythians and its Expression in Greek Literature and Iconography: the Contribution of Numismatics |language=fr |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_2016_num_42_1_4213 |journal=[[:fr:Dialogues d'histoire ancienne|Dialogues d'histoire ancienne]] |trans-journal=Dialogues of Ancient History |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=305–329 |access-date=17 May 2023}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Ivantchik |first=Askold |author-link=Askold Ivantchik |title=Scythians |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/scythians |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |date=2018 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation]]; [[Brill Publishers]] |location=[[New York City]], [[United States]] |access-date=23 October 2021 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Braund |editor-first1=David |editor-last2=Kryzhintskiy |editor-first2=S. D. |editor-link2=:ru:Крижицький Сергій Дмитрович |last=Rusyayeva |first=A. S. |author-link=:uk:Русяева, Анна Станиславовна |date=2007 |chapter=Religious Interactions between Olbia and Scythia |title=Classical Olbia and the Scythian World: From the Sixth Century BC to the Second Century AD |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/7960971 |location=[[Oxford]], [[United Kingdom]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=93–102 |isbn=978-0-197-26404-1 }}
* {{cite book |last=Rusyayeva |first=Anna S. |author-link=:uk:Русяева, Анна Станиславовна |editor-last1=Bilde |editor-first1=Pia Guldager |editor-last2=Højte |editor-first2=Jakob Munk |editor-last3=Stolba |editor-first3=Vladimir F. |date=2003 |title=The cauldron of Ariantas: studies presented to A.N. Ščeglov on the occasion of his 70th birthday |chapter=The Main Development of the Western Temenos of Olbia in the Pontos |chapter-url=https://antikmuseet.au.dk/fileadmin/www.antikmuseet.au.dk/Pontosfiler/BSS_1/BSS1_10_Rusjaeva.pdf |location=[[Aarhus]], [[Denmark]] |publisher=[[Aarhus University Press]] |pages=93–116 |isbn=978-8-779-34923-0 }}{{sfn|Rusyayeva|2003|p=}}
* Schubert, Charlotte (2010). ''Anacharsis der Weise. Nomade, Skythe, Grieche'' [Anacharsis the Wise. Nomad, Scythian, Greek]. Leipziger Studien zur Klassischen Philologie, volume 7. Tübingen: Narr, {{ISBN|978-3-8233-6607-2}}.
* {{cite book |last=Ustinova |first=Yulia |author-link= |date=1999 |title=The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom: Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God |url=https://archive.org/details/supremegodsofbos0000usti |location=[[Leiden]], [[Netherlands]]; [[Boston]], [[United States]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |page= |isbn=978-9-004-11231-5 }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*{{cite LotEP |chapter=Anacharsis}}
*[http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/livres/anacharsis/table.htm Jean Jacques Barthelemy's The Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece] (French)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anacharsis}}
[[Category:6th-century BC Greek philosophers]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek murder victims]]
[[Category:Immigrants to Archaic Athens]]
[[Category:Presocratic philosophers]]
[[Category:Scythian people]]
[[Category:Seven Sages of Greece]]
[[Category:6th-century BC Iranian people]]
[[Category:Ancient Iranian philosophers]]