In antiquity, Scythian or Scyths are terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwell on the Pontic-Caspian steppe.

However, the name "Scythian", and the related word Saka (in Persian), is also used to refer to various peoples seen as similar to the Scythians, or who live anywhere in a vast area covering present-day Central Asia, Russia, Romania and Ukraine—known until medieval times as Scythia.

The historic European Scythians speak an ancient Iranic language, and throughout Classical Antiquity dominate the Pontic-Caspian steppe, known at the time as Scythia.By Late Antiquity, the closely related Sarmatians come to dominate the Scythians in the west.

Much of the surviving information about the Scythians comes from the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 440 BCE) in his Histories and Ovid in his poem of exile Epistulae ex Ponto, and archaeologically from the depictions of Scythian life shown in relief on exquisite goldwork found in Scythian burial mounds in Ukraine and Southern Russia.The ultimate origins of both Scythian culture and historic groups remains a focus of academic debate.

The classical histories and archeological evidence give only a partial understanding of the origins of Scythian culture.

What is certain is that, during the Iron Age, a broadly similar Scythian culture flowered in a vast zone from the eastern European steppe to the Altai Mountains.