The Enarei Cursed by Aphrodite

We have already mentioned, among the various Scythian tribes one was particularly prominent — the tribe of the Enarei. It was believed that the goddess Aphrodite had endowed them with foresight.
Although, according to Herodotus, “Among the Scythians there are many diviners who predict by means of numerous willow rods as follows: bringing large bundles of rods and laying them on the ground, they spread them apart and then, moving the rods one by one, they divine; speaking the predictions, they at the same time gather the rods again and lay them out one by one. Such is their ancestral method of divination“, the most venerated of the diviners were precisely the Enarei, for the Great Goddess had given them this ability.

The very word “enarai” (Iranian “anarya” — not-man) literally means “not-man”, “emasculated”.
Herodotus also related a phenomenon typical of the Scythians: men became effeminate in character, donned women’s clothing and performed women’s work. To explain this “Scythian disease” Herodotus offers a myth that Aphrodite inflicted this malady on the Scythians.
Herodotus thought that the Enarei’s “feminine disease” was a punishment the goddess had visited upon the Scythians who sacked the sanctuary of Heavenly Aphrodite in Ascalon, and upon all their descendants. By Heavenly Aphrodite (Aphrodite Ourania) he meant one aspect of the Great Goddess, worshipped in Ascalon under the name Derketo and depicted as a half-woman, half-fish. But elsewhere in his work Herodotus reports that the Enarei were connected with the cult practice of the Scythian goddess Argimpasa, whom he again identifies with Aphrodite.

Thus there is a link between Scythian and Near Eastern religious beliefs (Aphrodite — Derketo — Argimpasa), as well as between their cultic practices. This link is further confirmed by the fact that some images of the goddess Argimpasa originating from Scythia demonstrate the closeness of the local religious tradition to the Near Eastern one — depictions of a snake-legged goddess who appears as the Mistress of Animals of the Animal World, analogous to the Anatolian Cybele.
The phenomenon of cross-dressing is known among many peoples and is connected not only with the priesthood but with ideas about the deities and the structure of the universe as a whole. Thus, in the ancient Mediterranean an image of Aphrodite as the goddess of love with a mustache and male genitalia was widely known.

Pseudo-Hippocrates, in his treatise “On Airs, Waters, and Places”, where he says much about the Scythians, speaks of the Enarei: “Among the Scythians there are people who are born at the nape of the neck; they do all the women’s work, they are called ‘enarai’, or womanlike. Their countrymen consider that this condition is by the will of the gods; they honor those whom this ailment has struck so that it may spare them. As for me, I hold the opinion that this disease is no more than something sent to us by the gods, for I consider that everything has a cause, without which nothing can occur.” Pseudo-Hippocrates believed that Scythian healers simply treated the afflicted by opening a vein near the ear, which supposedly led to impotence.
Nineteenth-century physicians thought that atrophy of the sexual organs developed simply from excessive horseback riding and cited a similar affliction among Tatar horsemen.

However, the Enarei were not “sick”. They were a professional priestly caste associated with the cult of the goddess Aphrodite — Argimpasa, and they were diviners. According to Herodotus, “the art of divination was given to them by Aphrodite; they divine by means of linden bark: the diviner cuts it into three strips, then, intertwining them between his fingers and unweaving them, he utters the prediction”
In addition, they practiced healing, predicted the future, served as advisers to chieftains, and were consulted in the most difficult situations.

The occupations of the Enarei were hereditary. Their “womanlike” features, clearly tied to the requirements of the cult, were also transmitted to their offspring. Thus some Scythians from childhood lost interest in marriage and reproduction, as well as in war and other masculine pursuits. Moreover, the Enarei came from the aristocracy, perhaps even close to the royal family. Pseudo-Hippocrates notes that the Enarei are “wealthy Scythians, not of low birth, but, on the contrary, the most noble and possessing the greatest power“.

The Enarei enjoyed considerable influence and prestige in Scythian society. Pseudo-Hippocrates explains this by saying that the cause of this phenomenon (i.e., the “womanlikeness” of the Enarei) the Scythians ascribe to the deity and therefore honor such people and worship them, each fearing for his safety.

However, Herodotus’s account suggests that fear of the Enarei and of diviners in general was well-founded, because human life sometimes depended on their divination, and the priests were often also judges.

But if their forecasts did not come true, the fate of the seers was very grim. Soothsayers with their hands and feet bound were placed on a pile of brushwood which was loaded onto a cart yoked to oxen. The brushwood was set on fire, and the frightened oxen ran off. Moreover, in such a case both the Enare and his sons were executed; the daughters were not harmed.

Therefore it is necessary to emphasize once more that the knowledge of the future, the Enarei’s faculty of foresight, was perceived as a punishment, as their duty to atone for their guilt before the Goddess. Their service to the tribes was precisely a sacrifice, a sacrifice for the common good.