I. Name
Skythes (‘Skythian’) is the eponymous hero of the Skythians, an Indo-European people to the north of the Greek world. Skythians themselves have a mythic quality, occurring in 2-3-4 Macc. and Col. 3.11 as a byword for barbarism. Otherwise the name only occurs in the placename Skythopolis (1-2 Macc.).
II. Identity
For the standard Greek use of eponymous heroes to account for the beginnings of a tribe, see Thessalos. The Skythians are a rather different case, as they are a non-Greek tri…