--- andrew_and_inge <
100761.200@...> wrote:
>
> But what were these serpents? This story is likely
> to have come a
> long way and been translated through different
> languages. Just as an
> example, could this have been a plague of plant
> eating caterpillars?
>
> It is in fact hard to imagine a plague of cold
> blooded snakes so far
> north (or anywhere).
>
> Best Regards
> Andrew
*****GK: Just a couple of remarks. Note that in the
time of Herodotus, the "Neuroi" lived as far south as
the upper reaches of the Boh(g) (= Hypanis) river.
This correlates well with hydronymic and
archaeological data. But while agreeing that the term
can be explained in terms of contemporary Baltic
languages, I am not so sure that Herodotus' "Neuroi"
referred exclusively to the ancestors of today's
Balts. I am of the opinion that it included
populations which were in the process of evolving into
"Slavs" though in the 5th c. BC they could still
easily be mixed up with their northern neighbours. As
to the "serpents" I have another theory, speculative
to be sure. The "serpent" symbolized steppe elements
in many East Slavic folk tales. The second "Polanian"
brother was called just that ("Shchek", "the
Serpent"). The mother of Targitaos, eponymous ancestor
of the Scythians, was represented as a serpent from
the waist down. To cut things short, this "invasion of
the serpents" sounds like a story of the conquest of
southern "Neurida" by the Scythians in the 6th c. BC.
Those who left were the Neurian elements who refused
to accept this domination. Those who stayed continued
to evolve into Slavs. The area involved by the
conquest would be located between the Pripet and the
Boh. That's the only way I've been able to make sense
of the Herodotan tale.******
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