Definition of "Cimmerian"

The city, there, of the Cimmerians standsWith clouds and darkness veil’d, on whom the sunDeigns not to look with his beam-darting eye,

1791, Homer, translated by William Cowper, The Odyssey of Homer

On their mysterious shores were the improbable homes of impossible peoples. The Great Sea, the Broad Sea, the Boundless Sea; the Ethiopians, "dwelling far away, the most distant of men," and the Cimmerians, "covered with darkness and cloud," where "baleful night is spread over timid mortals."

1900, Jack London, The Shrinkage of the Planet

Believe me, queen, your swarth CimmerianDoth make your honour of his body's hue,Spotted, detested, and abominable.

c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

The Phrygian power was broken in the 9th or 8th century B.C. by the Cimmerians, who entered Asia Minor through Armenia

1902, Encyclopedia Britannica

In his reign the Cimmerians, driven from their homes by the nomads of Scythia, entered Asia and captured Sardis

1910, Herodotus (484 B.C.E.–425 B.C.E.), History of Herodotus, translated by George Rawlinson

Varro relates that there were ten Sibyls,—the first of the Persians, the second the Libyan, the third the Delphian, the fourth the Cimmerian...

1867 to 1885, Lactantius (240–320 C.E.), Ante-Nicene Fathers, translated by William Fletcher

there it sleepeth, here it slumbreth: more or lesse they are ever darknesses, yea Cimmerian darknesses.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]