Caspians

"Caspians" (Greek "kaspioi", Aramaic "kspy",Persian "کاسپین") is a Greek ethnonym applied by Strabo [Strabo (11.2.15) gives a lost work of Eratosthenes as his source.] to ancient people dwelling along the south and southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea, the region which was called Caspiane after them. [For a Greek ethnonym of the Aegean Sea, however, see the mythic Aegeus.] The name is not attested in Old Iranian, [http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v5f1/v5f1a019.html Rüdiger Schmitt in "Encyclopedia Iranica", "s.v." "Caspians"] ] nor can it be identified with material culture at any archaeological site in that region.

The Caspians have generally been regarded as a pre-Indo-European people; they have been identified by Ernst Herzfeld with the Kassites, [ Herzfeld, "The Persian Empire", (Wiesbaden) 1968:195-99, noted by Rüdiger.] who spoke a language without an identified relationship to any other known tongue and whose origins have long been the subject of debate.

However onomastic evidence bearing on this point has been newly discovered. Aramaic papyri from Egypt have been published by P. Grelot, [Grelot, “Notes d'onomastique sur les textes araméens d'Egypte,” "Semitica" 21, 1971, esp. pp. 101-17, noted by Rüdiger.] in which several of the Caspian names that are mentioned— and identified under the gentilic כספי "kaspai"— are in part, etymologically Iranian. The Caspians of the Egyptian papyri must therefore be considered either an Iranian people or strongly under Iranian cultural influence.

In Persian mythology, the Caspian area is the realm of the "Devas"(ديو), intelligent but evil creatures who are killed by Persian heroes such as "Rustam"(رستم). The "Shahnameh"(شاهنامه), or Persian book of kings, states that these Devas from the Caspian area were the ones who taught the early Persians the arts of agriculture, mathematics, writing, and astronomy. Iranian artists show the Devas as hairy with sharp teeth and horns, but wearing colourful, beautifully designed kilts.

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