[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Foreign](https://indike.org/pramana/inf) › [Greek](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr) › [Hellenistic (323–31 BCE)](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.hellenistic) › [Ἰνδικά](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.hellenistic.megasthenes) › 30 # Ἰνδικά 30: Strabo XV, p. 711 Ἰνδικά 30 - **Language:** Ancient Greek ### [30](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.hellenistic.megasthenes.30) Ὑπερεκπίπτων δ’ ἐπὶ τὸ μυθῶδες πεντασπιθάμους ἀνθρώπους λέγει καὶ τρισπιθάμους, ὧν τινας ἀμύκτηρας, ἀναπνοὰς ἔχοντας μόνον δύο ὑπὲρ τοῦ στόματος· πρὸς δὲ τοὺς τρισπιθάμους πόλεμον εἶναι ταῖς γεράνοις (ὃν καὶ Ὅμηρον δηλοῦν) καὶ τοῖς πέρδιξιν, οὓς χηνομεγέθεις εἶναι· τούτους δ’ ἐκλέγειν αὐτῶν τὰ ᾠὰ καὶ φθείρειν· ἐκεῖ γὰρ ᾠοτοκεῖν τὰς γεράνους· διόπερ μηδαμοῦ μηδ’ ᾠὰ εὑρίσκεσθαι γεράνων, μήτ’ οὖν νεόττια· πλειστάκις δ’ ἐκπίπτειν γέρανον χαλκῆν ἔχουσαν ἀκίδα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐκεῖθεν πληγμάτων. Ὅμοια δὲ καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν Ἐνωτοκοιτῶν καὶ τῶν ἀγρίων ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἄλλων τερατωδῶν. Τοὺς μὲν οὖν ἀγρίους μὴ κομισθῆναι παρὰ Σανδρόκοττον· ἀποκαρτερεῖν γάρ (\*)· ἔχειν δὲ τὰς μὲν πτέρνας πρόσθεν, τοὺς δὲ ταρσοὺς ὄπισθεν καὶ τοὺς δακτύλους. Ἀστόμους δέ τινας ἀχθῆναι, ἀνθρώπους ἡμέρους· οἰκεῖν δὲ περὶ τὰς πηγὰς τοῦ Γάγγου· τρέφεσθαι δ’ ἀτμαῖς ὀπτῶν κρεῶν καὶ καρπῶν καὶ ἀνθέων ὀσμαῖς, ἀντὶ τῶν στομάτων ἔχοντας ἀναπνοάς· χαλεπαίνειν δὲ τοῖς δυσώδεσι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο περιγίνεσθαι μόλις καὶ μάλιστα ἐν στρατοπέδῳ. Περὶ δὲ τῶν ἄλλων διηγεῖσθαι τοὺς φιλοσόφους Ὠκύποδάς τε ἱστοροῦντας ἵππων μᾶλλον ἀπιόντας· Ἐνωτοκοίτας δὲ ποδήρη τὰ ὦτα ἔχοντας, ὡς ἐγκαθεύδειν, ἰσχυροὺς δ’ ὥστ’ ἀνασπᾶν δένδρα καὶ ῥήττειν νευράν· Μονομμάτους δὲ ἄλλους, ὦτα μὲν ἔχοντας κυνὸς, ἐν μέσῳ δὲ τῷ μετώπῳ τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν, ὀρθοχαίτας, λασίους τὰ στήθη· τοὺς δὲ Ἀμύκτηρας εἶναι παμφάγους, ὠμοφάγους, ὀλιγοχρονίους, πρὸ γήρως θνήσκοντας· τοῦ δὲ στόματος τὸ ἄνω προχειλότερον εἶναι πολύ. Περὶ δὲ τῶν χιλιετῶν Ὑπερβορέων τὰ αὐτὰ λέγειν Σιμωνίδῃ καὶ Πινδάρῳ καὶ ἄλλοις μυθολόγοις. \[Μῦθος δὲ καὶ τὸ ὑπὸ Τιμαγένους λεχθὲν, ὡς ὅτι χαλκὸς ὕοιτο σταλαγμοῖς χαλκοῖς καὶ σύροιτο. Ἐγγυτέρω δὲ πίστεώς φησιν ὁ Μεγασθένης, ὅτι οἱ ποταμοὶ καταφέροιεν ψῆγμα χρυσοῦ, καὶ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ φόρος ἀπάγοιτο τῷ βασιλεῖ· τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ ἐν Ἰβηρίᾳ συμβαίνει.\] > According to Megasthenes, on a mountain called Nulo there live men whose feet are turned backward, and who have eight toes on each foot; while on many of the mountains there lives a race of men having heads like those of dogs, who are clothed with the skins of wild beasts, whose speech is barking, and who, being armed with claws, live by hunting and fowling. \[Ktêsias asserts on his own authority that the number of these men was upwards of 120,000, and that there is a race in India whose females bear offspring but once in the course of their life, and that their children become at once grey-haired.\] > Megasthenes speaks of a race of men among the Nomadic Indians who instead of nostrils have merely orifices, whose legs are contorted like snakes, and who are called Scyritae. He speaks also of a race living on the very confines of India on the east, near the source of the Ganges, the Astomi, who have no mouth; who cover their body, which is all over hairy, with the soft down found upon the leaves of trees; and who live merely by breathing, and the perfume inhaled by the nostrils. They eat nothing, and they drink nothing. They require merely a variety of odours of roots and of flowers and of wild apples. The apples they carry with them when they go on a distant journey, that they may always have something to smell. Too strong an odour would readily kill them. > Beyond the Astomi, in the remotest part of the mountains, the Trispithami and the Pygmies are said to have their abode. They are each three spans in height — that is, not more than seven-and-twenty inches. Their climate is salubrious and they enjoy a perpetual spring, under shelter of a barrier of mountains which rise on the north. They are the same whom Homer mentions as being harassed by the attacks of the cranes. The story about them is — that mounted on the backs of rams and goats, and equipped with arrows, they march down in spring-time all in a body to the sea, and destroy the eggs and the young of these birds. It takes them always three months to finish this yearly campaign, and were it not undertaken they could not defend themselves against the vast flocks of subsequent years. Their huts are made of clay and feathers and egg-shells. \[Aristotle says that they live in caves, but otherwise he gives the same account of them as others.\] . . . . > \[From Ktesias we learn that there is a people belonging to this race, which is called Pandore and settled in the valleys, who live two hundred years, having in youth hoary hair, which in old age turns black. On the other hand, others do not live beyond the age of forty, — nearly related to the Macrobii, whose women bear offspring but once. Agatharchides says the same of them, adding that they subsist on locusts, and are swift of foot.\] Clitarchus and Megasthenes calls them Mandi, and reckons the number of their villages at three hundred. The females bear children at the age of seven, and are old women at forty. > — John Watson McCrindle 1877, Ancient India as Described by Megasthenês and Arrian - [Previous: 29](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.hellenistic.megasthenes.29) - [Next: 31](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.hellenistic.megasthenes.31) ## Translations (2) - [Ancient India as Described by Megasthenês and Arrian](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.hellenistic.megasthenes~en-mccrindle.30) — John Watson McCrindle 1877, English - [Latin translation (Müller)](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.hellenistic.megasthenes*fhg~la-muller.30) — Karl Müller, Latin --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.hellenistic.megasthenes.30](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.hellenistic.megasthenes.30) · Pramāṇa