Androphages

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The androphagists (from Ancient Greek "Ἀνδροφάγοι" for "man-eater") were according to Herodotus , a tribe that north of Scythia moved. Their areas presumably comprised the forests between the upper reaches of the Don and Dnieper in today's border region between Russia and Ukraine , for example in the settlement area of ​​today's Mordvinen .

In his histories  , Herodotus describes them as "the rudest of all peoples" (Book 4.106). They have no laws or legal institutions . They roamed the country with their herds, dressed like the Scythians, but spoke their own language . They are the only cannibals he (Herodotus) heard of.

Pliny the Elder later described in the Naturalis historia that they carried the scalp of men like napkins on their chests and watered them from skulls .

Individual evidence

  1. Marija Gimbutas : The Balts. History of a people in the Baltic Sea region . Herbig, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-7766-1266-5 and The Slavs . Thames and Hudson, London 1971.