The Arimaspi of northern Scythia, perhaps in the foothills of the Carpathians, were so utterly legendary to Greek writers that it was said they had a single eye in the center of their foreheads. They were said to steal gold from the griffins, causing battles between the two groups. All tales of their struggles with the gold-guarding griffins in the Hyperborean lands near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind (Geskleithron), had their origin in Arimaspea, the lost archaic poem of Aristeas of Proconnesus.