The other day, I got to thinking about how Conan/Hyborian Age/REH fans picture the Stygians. Part of that was the result of speculating on the plotline of the upcoming S.M. Stirling Conan pastiche, Blood of the Serpent. Also, I’ve had numerous encounters on social media with haphazard and midwit Conan fans who simply haven’t read or understood the material. Let’s take a look at the physical stature of the Stygians in comparison to Conan and various races of the Hyborian Age world—according to Robert E. Howard.

First, let's do away with the notion that 'Stygians are absolutely/exactly like historical Ancient Egyptians'. I ran into this from some Poindexter online several years ago. He said something to the effect that:

"Wellll...actually...I have been doing a lot of research on Ancient Egypt here lately and the Egyptians were, like, really short. So, the Stygians were short, too."

I was like, "Bruh, do you even 'Hyborian Age'?"

Robert E. Howard--who liked to go into detail regarding such topics--left zero doubt when it came to the lineal descent of Ancient Egyptians from the Stygians. To wit:

"Meanwhile, also, a tribe of Vanir adventurers had passed along the Pictish coast southward, ravaged ancient Zingara, and come into Stygia, which, oppressed by a cruel aristocratic ruling class, was staggering under the thrusts of the black kingdoms to the south. The red-haired Vanir led the slaves in a general revolt, overthrew the reigning class, and set themselves up as a caste of conquerors."

Let's be clear: My definition of 'Stygian' pertains to the "aristocratic ruling class" referred to by REH that had ruled Stygia for well over three thousand years. That is, the actual, genetic descendants of the former slave-lords of the East who fled west after the Lemurian Insurrection.

Does anyone doubt that the lower castes of Stygian society vented their millennial hatred of the Stygian 'aristocrats' to an extreme degree? Just imagine the sans-culottes of the French Revolution...on steroids. Sure, fine Stygian noblewomen might've been raped and impregnated...but the women among the rioters never would have allowed them to come to term. All of the Stygian men would have been liquidated. How not? There might have been an embattled contingent of Stygians who managed to make it out--much like the White Russian Diaspora--to lick their wounds and with the hope of returning to majesty, someday. Their forefathers, long ago in the East, certainly had done so. Richard L. Tierney even theorized such a thing in his 'Simon of Gitta' tales.

The fact remains that REH describes a minimal chance of actual Stygian DNA being passed down to Ancient Egyptians. There's a better chance of Vanir blood being passed down to Egyptian pharaohs than some ludicrous 'Stygian hypothesis'. The Stygians obviously left a cultural legacy carried on by the Egyptians--just as they did with cultures in the Far East--but their genetic legacy was minimal. Thus, any physical parallels drawn between the two are dubious, at best.

However, there is an earlier passage in "The Hyborian Age" that plainly states the stature of high-caste Stygians.

"The Stygians are tall and well-made, dusky, straight-featured—at least the ruling classes are of that type. The lower classes are a down-trodden, mongrel horde, a mixture of negroid, Stygian, Shemitish, even Hyborian bloods."

The commenter referenced above tried to use that as some excuse for why Conan-era Stygians were 'taller', by saying that they had 'intermarried' with Hyborians. Taller than...what? Earlier Stygians? Judging from their (distant) Khemuri cousins across the pond--as depicted in "Marchers of Valhalla"--Stygians have always had a tendency toward tallness, archery and the worship of dark gods. All of which is beside my point that there is about zero Stygian DNA in Ancient Egyptians. Stygians could've been ten feet tall, but you couldn't tell it from Ancient Egyptians.

Back to what Howard said--which is what counts, in case anyone forgot--Stygians "are tall and well-made". Tall.

However, as I've pointed out, "The Hyborian Age" is not the be-all-end-all when it comes to REH canonicity. Ol' Bob never intended to publish it. It was simply a guideline. What did Howard say when it came to yarns he wanted published? Most importantly, what did the Conan tales that were published--during REH's lifetime--actually say about Stygians?

Howard addressed 'Stygian tallness' right out of the gate with "The Phoenix on the Sword". Here is how he describes Thoth-amon:

"He was a somber giant..."

This is seven sentences into the story. Frikkin' Conan has yet to be described for the first time ever, but it's already established that the (Stygian) Thoth-meister is a "giant". Oh, but wait! Here is the description of Prince Kutamun from "Black Colossus", written just a few months later:

"Conan saw the mighty form of prince Kutamun across the sea of swords... (...) Conan sprang clear as the horse fell, and with a roar Kutamun was on him. In that mad nightmare of battle, the barbarian never exactly knew how he killed his man. He only knew that a stone in the Stygian’s hand crashed again and again on his basinet, filling his sight with flashing sparks, as Conan drove his dagger again and again into his foe’s body, without apparent effect on the prince’s terrible vitality."

Does Kutamun sound like he's shorter than Conan? Thugra Khotan is also implied to be pretty tall. Certainly not the barely-above five foot height established for historical Ancient Egyptians.

However, my first impression of Stygian tallness wasn't formed by either of those yarns. My first Conan tale was Conan the Conqueror (The Hour of the Dragon) from Gnome Press. One passage always stuck in my mind, from that night—when I was eight years old—until now. Conan has captured a Stygian fisherman--thus, a man of the actual Stygian 'free' classes, despite his low status--off the coast of Khemi, the primary Stygian port:

“Silencing the clamor of protests, [Conan] doffed his own garments and donned the prisoner’s silk breeches and sandals, and the band from the man’s hair, but scorned the short fisherman’s knife. The common men of Stygia were not allowed to wear swords, and the mantle was not voluminous enough to hide the Cimmerian’s long blade, but Conan buckled to his hip a Ghanata knife... (...)

He seemed but an ordinary, empty-handed fisherman, returning after a fruitless day along the coast. (...) In build he was not unlike the warrior castes of the Stygians, who were a tall, muscular race. Bronzed by the sun, he was nearly as dark as many of them. His black hair, square-cut and confined by a copper band, increased the resemblance. The characteristics which set him apart from them were the subtle difference in his walk, and his alien features and blue eyes. (...)

Khemi was not like the sea-ports of the Hyborians, where types of every race swarmed. The only aliens here were negro and Shemite slaves; and he resembled neither even as much as he resembled the Stygians themselves."

Did you catch that? Conan was able to impersonate a Stygian fisherman on the streets of Khemi. Howard specifically points out that Khemi was not cosmopolitan. The Stygians were tall. Even their commoner fishermen--'of the blood'--were tall. Stygians of the warrior and priestly castes had to have averaged at least as tall--which we see in Thoth-Amon and Kutamun. There were only “subtle differences” between Conan and the average Stygian male.

The takeaway? Stygian males, on average, were as tall as Conan.

I know this plays hell with those who think that Baal-Pteor was the only guy (maybe) who was possibly taller than Conan. Those people just might have daddy issues.

I don't write the book. I just enforce it.