Amyrgians

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People group

title: "Amyrgians" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["scythian-tribes", "tribes-described-primarily-by-herodotus"] description: "People group" topic_path: "general/scythian-tribes" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyrgians" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary People group ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Assimilation_of_Baltic_and_Aryan_Peoples_by_Uralic_Speakers_in_the_Middle_and_Upper_Volga_Basin_(Shaded_Relief_BG).png" caption="Distribution of Central Asian Iranic populations during the Iron Age."] ::

The Amyrgians (Ancient Greek: {{script|Grek|Αμύργιοι}} grc; Latin: {{script|Latn|Amyrgii}}; Old Persian: {{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐏃𐎢𐎶𐎺𐎼𐎥𐎠}}}} peo "Sakas who lay hauma (around the fire)") were a Saka tribe.

Name

The Greek name for this tribe, grc ({{script|Grek|Αμύργιοι}}), is the Hellenised form of the Old Persian term peo ({{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐏃𐎢𐎶𐎺𐎼𐎥}}}}), meaning "who lay hauma (around the fire)," and can be interpreted as "revering hauma." The full name of this tribe in Persians Achaemenid inscriptions is peo ({{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐏃𐎢𐎶𐎺𐎼𐎥𐎠}}}}), that is the Sakas who lay hauma (around the fire).

Identification

The country of the peo may have been the same place named as Mujavant in Indo-Aryan literature, where it appears in close connection with Gandhāra and Bahlika.

Geography

The peo were always mentioned alongside the peo in ancient Persian inscriptions, implying that the peo and peo were neighbours, although it is less certain whether the peo lived to the east or to the west of the peo. The peo most likely lived somewhere between the Caspian Sea and the Pamir Mountains, and to the north of the Oxus, near the Bactrians and Sogdians, possibly in the region corresponding to modern-day Tashkent or Dushanbe around Fergana, or across a large region stretching from Margiana to the upper Oxus river, or between the Altai and Pamir mountains, or in the territory corresponding to the modern-day Afghan district of Monjan in the upper Kokcha valley.

Based on Herodotus's list of the units of the Achaemenid army, within which the Amyrgii and the Bactrians together were under the command of Hystaspes, the scholar Willem Vogelsang locates the peo to the immediate north and east of Bactria.

Other possible locations of the peo include the Fergana valley itself, or both the Fergana and Alay valleys, or the region to the north of the Iaxartes.

History

According to the Greek historian Ctesias, once the Persian Achaemenid Empire's founder, Cyrus, had overthrown the Median king Astyages, the Bactrians accepted him as the heir of Astyages and submitted to him, after which he founded the city of Cyropolis on the Iaxartes river as well as seven fortresses to protect the northern frontier of his empire against the Saka. Cyrus then attacked the peo, initially defeated them and captured their king, Amorges. After this, Amorges's queen, Sparethra, defeated Cyrus with a large army of both men and women warriors and captured Parmises, the brother-in-law of Cyrus and the brother of his wife Amytis, as well as Parmises's three sons, whom Sparethra exchanged in return for her husband, after which Cyrus and Amorges became allies, and Amorges helped Cyrus conquer Lydia.

Cyrus, accompanied by the peo of his ally Amorges, later carried out a campaign against the Massagetae/peo in 530 BCE. After Cyrus had been mortally wounded by the Derbices and their Indian allies, Amorges and his Saka army helped the Persian soldiers defeat them. Cyrus told his sons to respect their own mother as well as Amorges above everyone before dying.

Legacy

The name of the Afghan district of Monjan in its Farsi (fa), Yidgha (ydg) and Kati (bsh) forms might have been derived from that of the peo.

References

Sources

References

  1. {{harvnb. Lendering. 1996: The '''{{Transliteration. peo. Sakâ haumavargâ''' ("haoma-drinking Sacae") were subjected by Cyrus the Great. Herodotus calls them {{Transliteration. en. Amyrgian Scythians.
  2. (1989). "The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran". [[Cambridge University Press]].
  3. {{harvnb. Vogelsang. 1992. sa. Mujavant may be the name for the land of the {{Transliteration. peo. Sakâ Haumavargâ. In the Vedic texts, the land of {{Transliteration. sa. Mujavant is linked to Gandhâra (the Peshâwar valley) and {{Transliteration. sa. Bahlika (the Bactria of the classical source)."
  4. {{harvnb. Vogelsang. 1992. peo. Sakâ Haumavargâ are normally located east or north of ancient Bactria"
  5. {{harvnb. Vogelsang. 1992. peo. Sakâ Haumavargâ north and east of {{Transliteration. peo. Bâxtrish"
  6. {{harvnb. Vogelsang. 1992
  7. (1994). "History of Civilizations of Central Asia". [[UNESCO]].
  8. Srinivasan, Doris. (2007). "On the Cusp of an Era: Art in the Pre-Kuṣāṇa World". [[Brill Publishers.
  9. Olbrycht, Marek Jan. (2021). "Early Arsakid Parthia (ca. 250-165 B.C.): At the Crossroads of Iranian, Hellenistic, and Central Asian History". [[Brill Publishers.
  10. Francfort, Henri-Paul. (1988). "The Cambridge Ancient History". [[Cambridge University Press]].
  11. Dandamayev, M. A.. (1994). "History of Civilizations of Central Asia". [[UNESCO]].
  12. Gera, Deborah Levine. (2018). "Warrior Women: The Anonymous Tractatus De Mulieribus". [[Brill Publishers.
  13. Mayor, Adrienne. (2014). "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World". [[Princeton University Press]].
  14. Kuhrt, Amélie. (2013). "The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period". [[Routledge]].
  15. Schmitt, Rüdiger. (1989). "AMORGES".

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