In “Asterix and the Griffin”, the Sarmatians are not just a fictional people – The HuffPost

HISTORY – But who is this people in which takes place the new adventure of Asterix and Obelix, which comes out this Thursday, October 21? Living on the steppes of southern Russia, the Sarmatians are a people of warriors and hunters, and excellent horsemen. Long before Asterix and the Griffin, Herodotus is the first to mention them in the 5th century BC (JC), in his Stories (116-117), reports Claude Mosse, professor at the Vincennes university center, in the encyclopedia Universalis.

As in comics, the territory of the Sarmatians was between the Urals and the Danube, where are currently Poland, Romania, Ukraine and the south-east of Russia. In the press kit for this new album, we learn that the Poles and Russians also claim to be descendants of the Sarmatians. According to Herodotus, to dominate the eastern steppes, the Sarmatians first fought the Persians, with their cousins ​​the Scythians around -500. Then they themselves defeated them, until they reached the shores of the Black Sea in the second century BC, where their territory thus faced that of the Greeks. It was in the 1st century BC that the Sarmatians settled on the banks of the Danude and reigned over Eastern Europe, writes Claude Mossé.

Fearsome warriors, the Sarmatians played an essential military and political role in Central and Eastern Europe. Bernard-Pierre Molin explains, in his book Asterix, ancient peoples explained, that the Roman Empire grants some of them the status of federates. This statute, granted by treaty, authorized those who had it, to reside in the Empire against military service. The Sarmatians will then enrich Roman warrior techniques with their military knowledge. But Roman rule ended in the third century AD, when the Sarmatians submitted to the Goths, says the author.

Warriors, and legendary warriors

The Sarmatians are also known to be the people who inspired the Myth of the Amazons. Bernard-Pierre Molin reveals that, like their cousins ​​the Scythians, the Sarmatians paid particular attention to parity. The women accompanied the men in hunting and in war, on horseback. Adrienne Mayor tells, in an article published in National Geographic, that, in Greek mythology, the Amazons are formidable warriors whose territory extends from the Black Sea to eastern Europe. Theseus fights the Amazon Antiope, and Hercules, for the ninth of his twelve labors, brings back the golden belt of the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyte. For the Greeks they were the equal of men and died like heroines. They are often represented on pottery or sculptures, dressed in trousers, riding on horseback and wielding bow, ax and spear, the article reports.

A fiction inspired by reality

If the Sarmatian people really existed, Jean-Yves Ferri, the screenwriter, recalls that “the idea was not to do the work of a historian”. “A bit like an imaginary Syldavia, it was fun to invent a territory, with its folklore and its beliefs”, we can read in the press kit of the new comic strip.

In Asterix and the Griffin, Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad took their ease with the History thus leaving the place to “an atmosphere of tale which suits well to the supposed presence of a fantastic animal”, declares the scenario writer in the press release. Usually, the brave Gallic ventures into real countries with known traditions. This adventure in the steppes of Russia allowed its authors to break with the tradition of Asterix.

Jean-Yves Ferri told journalists: “We left Didier and I, on the winter atmosphere in the Altai, made of steppes, small snow-capped mountains covered with larch forests, hollowed out by torrents and small lakes”.

The heirs of Goscinny and Uderzo wanted to anchor this adventure of Asterix and his companions in a cold setting. A real challenge for Didier Conrad: “How not to be monotonous by offering all-white landscapes! A real headache and long… sleepless nights! ”Admits the designer in his interview communicated to the media.

The first fantastic character of the saga

In this journey, Asterix goes to the Griffin’s rescue. This mysterious creature, with the body of a lion and the beak of a raptor, the griffin, which also sports talons and wings, has never ceased to nourish the fantastic imagination. We can find representations of the griffin on the arms and furniture of nomadic peoples of Eastern Europe, such as the Scythians, but also in Egypt or on the royal thrones in Cyprus. For the Greeks, the griffin is the guardian of the treasures of Apollo and Dionysus, indicates Hélène Bouillon,
curator at the Louvre-Lens.

This is the first time that a fantastic character has been featured in the Asterix saga. If in the album The sky is falling on her head, the Gauls receive a visit from the extraterrestrial Toune and his army of super-clones, no character in the universe of mythology had, before Asterix and the Griffin, been drawn. One more way for Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad to appropriate the history of France’s favorite Gaul, since the death of his father, Albert Uderzo in March 2020.

Symbol of strength, vigilance and ferocity, the griffin is nevertheless in danger in Asterix’s new adventure. Accompanied by his faithful acolytes, and the Romans, the mustachioed Gaul will try to help the Sarmatians and this mysterious friend.

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