Book 2, Letter 12

Dear Herodotus,

Thank you for writing so much about the Scythians. Their primal and wild ways are exciting to read about, their customs and history are an endless source of fascination for me. From the Caspian Sea in the west, reaching as far as China in the east, the Scythian lands are a womb of nations, a colossal expanse of tribal peoples, united by the horse, the bow, and the endless steppe. It's very romantic. So today Herodotus, I will tell you another story I found inside the labyrinth of my mind.

In Scythia, there is a legend of the origin of hermaphroditism among the Scythian people, involving the Goddess Aphrodite. This is not that story, you already told that one Herodotus.

This is a story I have written about the Enarees, the seers who could foretell the future by means of twining grass around their fingers and entering a trance. The Enarees were hermaphrodites. Some translators of your work Herodotus, do not use that word, and there is some debate among modern scholars about the specifics, but this myth is about two Enarees who were neither male nor female, but were somehow both, and neither.

Introducing the Scythians - British Museum

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The Secret Scythian Wedding

Once upon an endless land, there were two Enarees, Yhasa and Zill. These two didn't know each other, in fact they came from such distant parts of their people's land, that neither had ever heard the name of the other's tribe.

One moonlit night, they both dreamed the same dream, of two trees with roots entwining. Both Yhasa and Zill knew what it did portend, and so, without saying goodbye, they each mounted their horse and left their tribe in search of this dream.

Yhasa travelled east, their face towards the sun every morning, finding roads and crossing them, meeting kinfolk and waving as they rode past. For a month of travel they met no-one who was entwined with their dream, and saw no omens or signs to encourage them. On the way Yhasa practised the flute, and continued hunting the wild animals they knew to hunt. Finding the journey comfortable but lonely, Yhasa travelled east, their face towards the sun every morning.

Zill travelled west, the sun on their back and their long shadow leading them on through the morning. Zill travelled for two weeks, crossing many rivers, before being ambushed by a raiding tribe and taken prisoner. The neighbouring tribe did not believe in the power of the Enarees, Scythian society was wildly varied and Zill's esteemed cultural position at home was not recognised among the raiders' people. Zill was raped many times before escaping captivity, cutting many throats and creeping barefoot through the clouded gloom of evening. Stealing a horse, a bow, arrows and a knife, Zill continued riding west, their long shadow leading them on.

Far away, Yhasa dreamed of a river running dry, the trees and grasses and fish all dying, until all that was left was the faded stain of water long since withdrawn into the earth.

But the water was still there, deep inside.

Yhasa, tiring of loneliness, joined caravans and travelled with other families, careful always to keep her magic hidden. Learning stories, songs and meeting other flute players, Yhasa grew ever more aware of the essential entwining of all interactions, whether with humans, animals, or the natural world, and they found great kindness present in the hearts of many others in the endless Scythian lands. The grasses grew tall as a horse upon the bountiful steppe, and eagles hunted on the wind. Yhasa wandered with the caravans for a long time, always dreaming of a river running dry.

Zill began to travel by night and hide by day, avoiding the world, making arrows, hunting eagles, sleeping in creek beds. Their body became painted with the ochre of the earth that hid them from predators, and Zill was safe, for a time. Zill didn't dream at all. Tracing the passing nights by the slivers of the moon, Zill became empty. Zill left humanity behind, and attended instead only upon instinctual reactions, learning all that nature could teach of survival.

And Zill was safe, for a time.

Yhasa, leading a life crowded with the society of her kinfolk, became entangled in a series of bloody battles, fighting foreign invaders who wore metal armour, marched in formation, and plundered the land in search of cities to destroy and kings to slay.

They never stood a chance. Within a year there was no foreign army left, and all that metal armour and fine weaponry was in the hands of the Scythians.

Yhasa rode on, facing the sun every day.

The dreams of the river had passed, war interrupts everything, and for a time, Yhasa did not dream either. Instead they found greater security in their instincts. Having lived through a year of war, the value of the present moment became paramount. The sense of universal entwining seemed to contract, and Yhasa was not sure what that might mean. So, finding a solitary hill, Yhasa began to twine grasses around their fingers, and singing a song, let the visions come rolling in.

Yhasa saw an eagle with one wing.

Yhasa saw two trees with roots entwining.

Far away, Zill slept alone in the tall grass, but woke one morning to find another Enaree watching over them. Zill quietened the urge to run away, and instead accepted the healing of a foreign tribe. The foreigner took Zill to a steam bath hut, where green herbs were thrown upon glowing hot rocks and the smoke and steam and powerful magic of nature entered them and for a time, Zill was healed. Zill stayed with this foreign tribe for a long time, forgetting the two trees entwining, instead remaining with these people who treated them well and who helped abort the unwanted, unborn child of rape, burying all the pain and fear along with the tiny part-formed body in the All-Mother earth. The friendly tribe washed the clay from Zill's skin, and Zill took a new name. Kesu.

Kesu found happiness, but in time, the dream of two trees entwining returned, and they knew that their journey must continue. So, giving thanks to those who gave assistance, and packing arrows, knives, food and water, Kesu once again travelled west, rising each morning with the sun on their back and their long shadow stretching out before them across the endless earth of Scythia.

Some say that a man meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.

But the Enarees are not men.

Some say a woman's fate is the fate of the whole world.

But the Enarees are not women either.

So the day came when Yhasa met Kesu and the dream came true. Their hands bound together with grasses, they made love beneath the open sky and said to each other, We are Married.

This was the Secret Scythian Wedding, for the Enarees did not normally marry, and both Yhasa and Kesu had learned the value of secrets. So together they lived, hidden away from the tribes, hidden away from the wars. Together they hunted and rode free and content across the steppe, and for a time they were safe, with their horses and their arrows and the eagles upon the wind.

There are no limits to the mysteries of Scythia, and though both Kesu and Yhasa were able to see the future, neither of them predicted the outcome of their secret wedding, for they both fell pregnant, and in time Yhasa gave birth to a girl, and Kesu, to a boy.

...this story has no ending.

Yasa begat Nim, Kesu begat Daf, and the generations that passed down from them were lived unrecorded through the centuries.

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Herodotus, I am amazed at how you came to know so much of the Scythians. Your travels across the ancient world brought you into contact with thousands of storytellers, historians, priests, priestesses, kings, queens, fishermen and sailors, and your book is a collation of all that you learned. I have read your book over and again, and now I'm telling you my stories.

The new myths, for a new destiny.

Is it a lie, if we know these things never happened, but we believe the message anyway?

Or is it all happening now?

Thank you Herodotus.

With gratitude and awe.

Morgan.

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P.S.

The potential for 'true hermaphroditism' in humans seems very, very rare, but possible. People tend to use the term 'intersex' these days to describe humans with both male and female genitals, since true hermaphroditism is most commonly known in fish, frogs, snails and plants. I think, considering the vast history of the human animal, and the potential for genetic diversity in any species, that almost anything is possible. I recently read a story of an intersex person in modern Australia who had themselves artificially impregnated with their own sperm, and had two children through this process...so...yeah, almost anything is possible.

Especially in mythology.

https://www.quora.com/Can-an-intersex-person-hermaphrodite-get-pregnant