Herodotus's Scythians and Ptolemy's Central Asia: Semasiological and Onomasiological Studies

The present book deals with semasiological and onomasiological questions in Herodotus's (5th century B.C.) famous portrayal of the Scythians and in Ptolemy's description of the Central Asiatic countries as presented in Book 6 of his 'Geography' (around 150 C.E.). The link is established by Ptolemy also mentioning Scythians. The main subject of the investigation is the philological examination, for the first time, of the numerous essentially geographical and ethnographical names, which allow a deeper insight into the religious rather than the political and cultural background of the time.