ASHKENAZ in Genesis 10:3 ( 1 Chronicles 1:6 ) appears as a son of Gomer (wh. see), which means apparently that the name represents a people akin to the Cimmerians, an Indo-European people who made trouble for the Assyrians in and about Armenia in the later days of their empire, in the 7th cent. b.c. In Jeremiah 51:27 Ashkenaz is coupled with Ararat and Minni. The view now generally accepted by scholars is that Ashkenaz in the Hebrew text is a slight misreading for Ashkûz , an important tribe akin to the Cimmerians who had to do with Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, the last great kings of Assyria, the name appearing in the inscriptions as Ashgûz . Further, it is probable that the Skythoi , ‘Scythians,’ represent the same people and word.
J. F. McCurdy.