Enareis

In the Skythian (Scythian) homeland, an Enareis is a hermaphrodite.

When the Skythians invaded what we call the Middle East, they marched through Syria; most of the soldiers did not plunder or harm the Syrians but some of them looted the ancient temple of Aphrodite Orania in the city of Askalon (Ascalon).

The looters and their descendants were afflicted by the goddess of Love with a disease which is generally called the “female sickness” and caused loss of virility; the Skythians call the victims of this illness, Enareis, which is equated to a hermaphrodite.

These stricken Skythian men-women assumed the role of soothsayers in their native land; they would split the bark of a lime tree and foretell the future as they braid the strips of bark.

• Histories, book 1, chapter 105; book 4, chapter 67