by Lucian of Samosata

This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Ancient Greek text of Lucian, Toxaris vel amicitia 36-38.

Lucian was a second-century Syrian writer of Greek prose. In Toxaris, he stages a dialogue between the Greek Mnesippus and the Scythian Toxaris on friendship, with Toxaris defending Scythian friendship as a severe covenant tested by war, oath, and death.

This source-unit gives the immediate Scythian passage: Toxaris' transition into Scythian examples, the rite by which friends cut their fingers, mix blood in a cup, dip the sword-points, and drink, and the oath by Wind and the Akinakes.

The English translation was made from the Greek text in Perseus. The public-domain Fowler translation in Project Gutenberg was consulted only as a control.

Translation

36

Mnesippus: I have told you these few from among many good and steadfast friends, the first ones memory put before me. Now, coming down from my speech, I hand the agreement over to you. It is your concern to make sure you do not report the Scythians as worse than these, but much better, if you care at all about your right hand and do not want it cut off. Be a good man. Otherwise it would be ridiculous: you would have praised Orestes and Pylades with great skill, and then, on behalf of Scythia, you would appear to be a poor speaker.

Toxaris: Well done, Mnesippus, for urging me on to the speech, as though it did not trouble you much whether your tongue should be cut off if you were defeated in words. Still, I will begin now, without decorating the speech beautifully as you did. That is not Scythian, especially when the deeds speak louder than the words.

Expect nothing from us like the things you went through: praising a man if he married an ugly woman without a dowry, or if he gave two talents of silver to the daughter of a friend when she was marrying, or even, by Zeus, if he handed himself over to be bound when it was already clear that he would be released a little later. Those things are very cheap. There is nothing great-hearted or brave in them.

I will tell you of many killings, wars, and deaths for the sake of friends, so that you may know how your examples are child's play beside the Scythian ones. And yet this has happened to you not without reason, but naturally: you praise these small things because you have no very great occasions for displaying friendship, living as you do in deep peace. You would not learn, in calm weather, whether the helmsman is good. You need a storm for the test.

Among us, wars are continual. Either we ride against others, or we withdraw from those who come against us, or, when we clash, we fight for pasturage or plunder. There above all we need good friends. For this reason we bind our friendships as firmly as possible, believing this alone to be a weapon that cannot be fought down and is hard to war against.

37

But first I want to tell you the way we make friends. We do not make them from drinking parties, as you do, nor because someone was a fellow youth or a neighbor. When we see a good man, one able to accomplish great things, all of us hurry toward him. What you think right to do in marriages, we think right to do with friends: we court for a long time and do everything together, so that we do not miss friendship or seem rejected from it.

When someone has been chosen out and is already a friend, then from that point there are compacts and the greatest oath: truly, to live with one another and, if need be, to die each for the other. And this is how we do it. Once we have cut our fingers, dripped the blood into a cup, dipped the points of the swords, and both at once have taken hold and drunk, there is nothing afterward that could dissolve us from each other.

At most, up to three may enter the compacts. Whoever has many friends seems to us like those common and adulterous women; we think his friendship is no longer equally strong, since it has been divided among many affections.

38

I will begin with what happened recently to Dandamis. Dandamis, in the clash with the Sauromatae, when Amizoces his friend was carried away captive. But rather, first I will swear our oath to you, since I agreed to this at the beginning too. No, by Wind and the Akinakes, I will tell you no lie about the Scythian friends.

Mnesippus: I did not greatly need you to swear. Still, you do well that you did not swear by any of the gods.

Toxaris: What are you saying? Do Wind and the Akinakes not seem to you to be gods? Then you have not understood that, for human beings, there is nothing greater than life and death. So when we swear by Wind and the Akinakes, we swear by them because Wind is the cause of life, and the Akinakes because it causes death.

Mnesippus: And yet, if that is the reason, you could have many other gods of the same kind as the Akinakes: Arrow, Spear, Hemlock, Noose, and such things. This god Death is many-shaped and offers countless roads leading to himself.

Toxaris: Do you see how contentious and lawyerly you are making this, striking in between and spoiling my speech? I kept quiet while you were speaking.

Mnesippus: I will not do that again, Toxaris. You rebuked me quite rightly. So speak confidently from here on, as though I were not even present for your words. I will keep silence for you in that way.

Toxaris: Then I will begin.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from the Ancient Greek of Lucian, Toxaris vel amicitia 36-38. The English is independently derived from the Greek source text. The working source was the Greek text in Perseus; the public-domain Fowler translation in Project Gutenberg's The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Volume 3 was consulted only as a control.

This passage belongs beside Herodotus' Scythian oath ritual and Pomponius Mela's blood treaty notice as a second-century Greek literary witness to Scythian friendship ideology. It also belongs beside Herodotus, Ammianus, and Mela in the archive's sword-cult evidence chain, because Toxaris names the Akinakes as an oath-god of death.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Toxaris vel amicitia 36-38

Ancient Greek source text from Perseus' Lucian, Toxaris vel amicitia 36-38. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Lucian, Toxaris 36

ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν τούτους ὀλίγους ἀπὸ πλειόνων , οὓς πρώτους ἡ μνήμη ὑπέβαλε , διηγησάμην σοι ἀγαθοὺς καὶ βεβαίους φίλους . καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν ἤδη καταβὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ λόγου σοὶ τὴν ῥήτραν παραδίδωμι : σὺ δὲ ὅπως μὴ χείρους ἐρεῖς τοὺς Σκύθας , ἀλλὰ πολλῷ τούτων ἀμείνους , αὐτῷ σοὶ μελήσει , εἴ τι καὶ τῆς δεξιᾶς πεφρόντικας , ὡς μὴ ἀποτμηθείης αὐτήν . ἀλλὰ χρὴ ἄνδρα ἀγαθὸν εἶναι : ἐπεὶ καὶ γελοῖα ἂν πάθοις Ὀρέστην μὲν καὶ Πυλάδην πάνυ σοφιστικῶς ἐπαινέσας , ὑπὲρ δὲ τῆς Σκυθίας φαῦλος ῥήτωρ φαινόμενος . Τόξαρις εὖ γε , ὦ Μνήσιππε , ὅτι καὶ παροτρύνεις με πρὸς τὸν λόγον , ὥσπερ οὐ πάνυ σοι μέλον εἰ ἀποτμηθείης τὴν γλῶτταν κρατηθεὶς ἐν τοῖς λόγοις . πλὴν ἄρξομαί γε ἤδη , μηδὲν ὥσπερ σὺ καλλιλογησάμενος : οὐ γὰρ Σκυθικὸν τοῦτο , καὶ μάλιστα ἐπειδὰν τὰ ἔργα ὑπερφθέγγηται τοὺς λόγους . προσδοκήσῃς δὲ μηδὲν τοιοῦτο παρ᾽ ἡμῶν οἷα σὺ διεξελήλυθας , ἐπαινῶν εἴ τις ἄπροικον ἔγημεν αἰσχρὰν γυναῖκα ἢ εἴ τις ἀργύριον ἐπέδωκε γαμουμένῃ φίλου ἀνδρὸς θυγατρὶ δύο τάλαντα , ἢ καὶ νὴ Δί᾽ εἴ τις παρέσχεν ἑαυτὸν δεδησόμενον ἐπὶ προδήλῳ τῷ μικρὸν ὕστερον λυθήσεσθαι : πάνυ γὰρ εὐτελῆ ταῦτα καὶ μεγαλουργὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἢ ἀνδρεῖον ἔνι οὐδέν . ἐγὼ δέ σοι διηγήσομαι φόνους πολλοὺς καὶ πολέμους καὶ θανάτους ὑπὲρ τῶν φίλων , ἵν᾽ εἰδῇς ὡς παιδιὰ τὰ ὑμέτερά ἐστιν παρὰ τὰ Σκυθικὰ ἐξετάζεσθαι . καίτοι οὐδὲ ἀλόγως αὐτὸ πεπόνθατε , ἀλλὰ εἰκότως τὰ μικρὰ ταῦτα ἐπαινεῖτε : οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ εἰσιν ὑμῖν ἀφορμαὶ ὑπερμεγέθεις πρὸς ἐπίδειξιν φιλίας ἐν εἰρήνῃ βαθείᾳ βιοῦσιν , ὥσπερ οὐδ᾽ ἂν ἐν γαλήνῃ μάθοις εἰ ἀγαθὸς ὁ κυβερνήτης ἐστί : χειμῶνος γὰρ δεήσει σοὶ πρὸς τὴν διάγνωσιν . παρ᾽ ἡμῖν δὲ συνεχεῖς οἱ πόλεμοι , καὶ ἢ ἐπελαύνομεν ἄλλοις ἢ ὑποχωροῦμεν ἐπιόντας ἢ συμπεσόντες ὑπὲρ νομῆς ἢ λείας μαχόμεθα , ἔνθα μάλιστα δεῖ φίλων ἀγαθῶν : καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ὡς βεβαιότατα συντιθέμεθα τὰς φιλίας , μόνον τοῦτο ὅπλον ἄμαχον καὶ δυσπολέμητον εἶναι νομίζοντες .

Lucian, Toxaris 37

πρότερον δέ σοι εἰπεῖν βούλομαι ὃν τρόπον ποιούμεθα τοὺς φίλους , οὐκ ἐκ τῶν πότων , ὥσπερ ὑμεῖς , οὐδὲ εἰ συνέφηβός τις ἢ γείτων ἦν , ἀλλ᾽ ἐπειδάν τινα ἴδωμεν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα καὶ μεγάλα ἐργάσασθαι δυνάμενον , ἐπὶ τοῦτον ἅπαντες σπεύδομεν , καὶ ὅπερ ὑμεῖς ἐν τοῖς γάμοις , τοῦτο ἡμεῖς ἐπὶ τῶν φίλων ποιεῖν ἀξιοῦμεν , ἐπὶ πολὺ μνηστευόμενοι καὶ πάντα ὁμοῦ πράττοντες ὡς μὴ διαμαρτάνοιμεν τῆς φιλίας μηδὲ ἀπόβλητοι δόξωμεν εἶναι . κἀπειδὰν προκριθείς τις ἤδη φίλος ᾖ , συνθῆκαι τὸ ἀπὸ τούτου καὶ ὅρκος ὁ μέγιστος , ἦ μὴν καὶ βιώσεσθαι μετ᾽ ἀλλήλων καὶ ἀποθανεῖσθαι , ἢν δέῃ , ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἑτέρου τὸν ἕτερον : καὶ οὕτω ποιοῦμεν . ἀφ᾽ οὗ γὰρ ἂν ἐντεμόντες ἅπαξ τοὺς δακτύλους ἐνσταλάξωμεν τὸ αἷμα εἰς κύλικα καὶ τὰ ξίφη ἄκρα βάψαντες ἅμα ἀμφότεροι ἐπισχόμενοι πίωμεν , οὐκ ἔστιν ὅ τι τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο ἡμᾶς διαλύσειεν ἄν . ἐφεῖται δὲ τὸ μέγιστον ἄχρι τριῶν ἐς τὰς συνθήκας εἰσιέναι : ὡς ὅστις ἂν πολύφιλος ᾖ , ὅμοιος ἡμῖν δοκεῖ ταῖς κοιναῖς ταύταις καὶ μοιχευομέναις γυναιξί , καὶ οἰόμεθα οὐκέθ᾽ ὁμοίως ἰσχυρὰν αὐτοῦ τὴν φιλίαν εἶναι , πρὸς πολλὰς εὐνοίας διαιρεθεῖσαν .

Lucian, Toxaris 38

ἄρξομαι δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν Δανδάμιδος πρῴην γενομένων . ὁ γάρ Δάνδαμις ἐν τῇ πρὸς Σαυρομάτας συμπλοκῇ , ἀπαχθέντος αἰχμαλώτου Ἀμιζώκου τοῦ φίλου αὐτοῦ — μᾶλλον δὲ πρότερον ὀμοῦμαί σοι τὸν ἡμέτερον ὅρκον , ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτο ἐν ἀρχῇ διωμολογησάμην οὐ μὰ γάρ τὸν Ἄνεμον καὶ τὸν Ἀκινάκην , οὐδὲν πρὸς σέ , ὦ Μνήσιππε , ψεῦδος ἐρῶ περὶ τῶν φίλων τῶν Σκυθῶν Μνήσιππος ἐγὼ μὲν οὐ πάνυ σου ὀμνύντος ἐδεόμην σὺ δ᾽ ὅμως εὖ ποιῶν οὐδένα θεῶν ἐπωμόσω . Τόξαρις τί σὺ λέγεις ; οὔ σοι δοκοῦσιν ὁ Ἄνεμος καὶ ὁ Ἀκινάκης θεοὶ εἶναι ; οὕτως ἄρα ἠγνόησας ὅτι ἀνθρώποις μεῖζον οὐδέν ἐστιν ζωῆς τε καὶ θανάτου ; ὁπόταν τοίνυν τὸν Ἄνεμον καὶ τὸν Ἀκινάκην ὀμνύωμεν , ταῦτα ὀμνύομεν ὡς τὸν μὲν ἄνεμον ζωῆς αἴτιον ὄντα , τὸν ἀκινάκην δὲ ὅτι ἀποθνήσκειν ποιεῖ . Μνήσιππος καὶ μὴν εἰ διά γε τοῦτο , καὶ ἄλλους ἂν ἔχοιτε πολλοὺς θεοὺς οἷος ὁ Ἀκινάκης ἐστί , τὸν Ὀιστὸν καὶ τὴν Λόγχην καὶ Κώνειον δὲ καὶ Βρόχον καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα : ποικίλος γὰρ οὗτος ὁ θεὸς ὁ θάνατος καὶ ἀπείρους τὰς ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτὸν παρέχεται ἀγούσας ὁδούς . Τόξαρις ὁρᾷς τοῦτο ὡς ἐριστικὸν ποιεῖς καὶ δικανικόν , ὑποκρούων μεταξὺ καὶ διαφθείρων μου τὸν λόγον ; ἐγὼ δὲ ἡσυχίαν ἦγον σοῦ λέγοντος . Μνήσιππος ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ αὖθίς γε , ὦ Τόξαρι , ποιήσω τοῦτο , πάνυ γὰρ ὀρθῶς ἐπετίμησας : ὥστε θαρρῶν τό γε ἐπὶ τούτῳ λέγε , ὡς μηδὲ παρόντος ἐμοῦ τοῖς λόγοις , οὕτω σιωπήσομαί σοι . Τόξαρις

Source Colophon

The Ancient Greek source text was extracted from Perseus' Lucian, Toxaris vel amicitia 36-38 pages, using the stable work reference Perseus:text:2008.01.0463 and the shorthand section references Luc. Tox. 36, Luc. Tox. 37, and Luc. Tox. 38. The source was cleaned of navigation, footnote, and line-break artifacts and normalized into section headings. The text is ancient source material; the source presentation here is provided for reference, study, and verification.

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