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.
*
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.
*
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.
*
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
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