The One Eyed Bigfoot

And Herodotus said…. “back in my day Bigfoot only had one eye”!
Ok maybe he did not say those exact words but he did write about a race of creatures that resembled Bigfoot. Written around 350BC he stated  “strong warriors, good horsemen rich in flocks of cattle and sheep and goats; they are one-eyed, shaggy with hairs, the toughest of men”. Known in Greek literature as the Arimaspoi or Arimaspians.

The first mention of these creatures comes from the 7th century BC in a poem by Aristeas titled Arminsapia. Although the writing has been lost to time Herodotus makes reference to it noting that Aristeas made the journey to the Northern part of Europe where he heard of this race of creatures. On a side note Herodotus also recorded that he did not believe the stories Aristeas spoke of regarding one-eyed giants and griffons. However he would go on to write about them in detail. It is worth saying that modern scholars are at times less than impressed by his work and state he fails to weed out actual history from myth. Later poets and bards would also tell tales of these creatures that would eventually lead to legends of the cyclops. Homer also mentions another similarly named Skythian tribe, the Kimmeroi in his epic,  The Odyssey.

Herodotus, Histories 4. 27. 1  : “Of these too, then, we have knowledge; but as for what is north of them, it is from the Issedones that the tale comes of the one-eyed men [Arimaspoi, Arimaspians] and the Grypes (Griffins) that guard gold; this is told by the Skythians (Scythians), who have heard it from them; and we have taken it as true from the Skythians, and call these people by the Skythian name, Arimaspoi; for in the Skythian tongue arima is one, and spou is the eye.”

Herodotus, Histories 3. 116. 1 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :”But in the north of Europe there is by far the most gold. In this matter again I cannot say with assurance how the gold is produced, but it is said that one-eyed men called Arimaspoi (Arimaspians) steal it from Grypes (Griffins). The most outlying lands, though, as they enclose and wholly surround all the rest of the world, are likely to have those things which we think the finest and the rarest.”

The Ariminsapians were continually at war with Griffons over gold. They are the neighbors of the Griffons in Scythia. The Greeks used this word to refer to all the lands north-east of Western Europe and the northern coast of the Black Sea. Also known to later Peoples as Central Eurasia. And eventually the Ariminsapians would win and drive the Griffons out of the mountains all together. Along the way many stories were written about their battles.

For all of the tales and folklore surrounding these creatures all well as cyclops in general we lack the scientific evidence to back up their existence. One very likely theory is that ancients were finding skulls of animals, and with no immediate recognition of what they were, created myths to explain the strange shapes and sizes. For instance below is a skull of a dwarf elephant beside a cyclops drawing. While a little larger than a human it would explain a great deal. From the Ariminsapians being taller, stronger, and faster than humans to the fact they only had one eye.