CONFLICT OF INTERPRETATIONS OF THE LETTER FROM SKIFFS TO DARIUS THE FIRST

In: Ukrai͏̈noznavčyj alʹmanach, Heft 24, S. 52-57

Abstract

Sum of the things as a short letter of the Scythians to Persian King Darius the First, which were collection of a bird, a frog, a mouse and arrows, contains no intonations, because the Scythians themselves refrained to explain its contents. Pure articulation is silent. That's why the addressee has to become co-author the Scythian message to intonate it in his way. Actually Darius was forced to intone, on the one hand, his imperious desires, and, on the other hand, the plausible Scythians intentions. Such self-split causes internal conflict and pushes Darius to an impasse. His desire to read the Scythian message as their own recognition of their surrender contradicts with their obviously disobedient behavior. It works as a trap. Darius himself inclines to surrender, because his intonations work as detonations - the secret psychological weapon of the Scythians in the field of symbols. That's the case when the interpretation demoralizes its own interpreter. The composition of the letter reflects the Scythians cosmological representations and reveals their outlook. When Herodotus, Clement d'Alexandrie, J.-J.Rousseau and others retell and interpret the letter, both their retelling and interpretation reflect their cultural differences and their different worldviews. Only Darius dealt with pure things, while the rest of interpreters dealt with different languages words denoting those things. But in any case this message requires live intonations. The Scythian letter allows you to subtract from it some jokes or mock the same as a demand of surrender or as an open threat etc. Conflict of interpretations can be caused by both linguistic untranslatability either worldview untranslatability of different cultures and political involvement of interpreters. Therefore, the interpretation of the message through things, the same as through words, also depends on its intonation content.