Scythian Heraldry
There is very little “heraldry” recognizable in the western medieval sense, which can be frustrating for the SCAdian seeking a useful analogue.
There are, however, many frequent animal-style motifs that appear in a wide range of Scythian art:
- Leaping/twisting hooved animals
- Predators, usually griffons or big cats, but wolves make appearances as well
- Predators taking down prey (usually hooved animals)
- Fish
The one arguably “heraldic” standard that we know of is the Sarmatian draco, which was described by Arrian as having a Scythian origin. (Arrian’s description, in Greek, is available via the Perseus Digital Library, Tactica 35). The following translation of Tactica 35.3-5 is included thanks to Google Translate:
The Scythian signs are dragons suspended on short and long poles. They are made of dyed rags, and their heads and bodies are like snakes on their tails, as terrifying as anything that can be imagined. and these sophistications. Trembling with the horses, nothing more than rags, if you see them hanging down, and being praised, they swell, so that they are even more like beasts, and what will they do to the forward movement under the breath that passes through violently. stay. And these signs not only provide pleasure or surprise to the eye, but also are useful in distinguishing the order and not falling into one another’s ranks.
Marciniak (2018) has suggested the “Scythians” described by Arrian are more likely the Alans, which is potentially significant only in terms of the identifiable history/origin point of the standard (namely, that Arrian had contemporary observation of the draco, rather than recounting a more historically-oriented description):
However, we may suspect that he meant the Alans instead of the Scythians, whom he fought while holding the post of the Prefect of Cappadocia and the commander of the legions on the Armenian border. The use of the term “Scythians” by Arrian should not surprise us, considering that the Alans were related to the Iazyges and the Roxolani, who shared a similar type of culture with the Scythians.
References
Marciniak, M. (2018). Caesar (…) quo agnito per purpureum signum draconis (…). In C.S. Sommer & S. Matešić (eds.), ''Limes XXIII Sonderband 4 / I Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies Ingolstadt 2015, pp. 314-321. https://www.academia.edu/download/57593207/Caesar__quo_agnito_per_purpureum_signum_draconis_-_23rd_International_Limes_Congress.pdf.