The Scythian religion refers to the mythology, ritual practices and beliefs of the

Scythian cultures The Scytho-Siberian world was an archaeological horizon which flourished across the entire Eurasian Steppe during the Iron Age from approximately the 9th century BC to the 2nd century AD. It included the Scythian, Sauromati ...

, a collection of closely related ancient

Iranian peoples The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities. The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separat ...

who inhabited

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

and the

Pontic–Caspian steppe The Pontic–Caspian steppe, formed by the Caspian steppe and the Pontic steppe, is the steppeland stretching from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the Pontus Euxinus of antiquity) to the northern area around the Caspian Sea. It extends ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

throughout

Classical Antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

, spoke the Scythian language (itself a member of the

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

language family), and which included the Scythians proper, the

Cimmerians The Cimmerians (Akkadian: , romanized: ; Hebrew: , romanized: ; Ancient Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people originating in the Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into West A ...

, the

Sarmatians The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples of classical ant ...

, the

Alans The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Al ...

, the

Sindi Sindi may refer to: *Sindi people, an ancient people of the Taman Peninsula, nowadays Russia * Sindi, Estonia, a town in Pärnu County, Estonia * Sindi, Maharashtra, a town and municipal council in Wardha District, Maharashtra, India Persons with ...

, the

Massagetae The Massagetae or Massageteans (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Sakā tigraxaudā (Old Persian: , "wearer of pointed caps") or Orthocorybantians (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ),: As for the term “Orthocorybantii”, this is a translati ...

and the

Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who hist ...

. The Scythian religion is assumed to have been related to the earlier

Proto-Indo-Iranian religion Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Indo-Iranic peoples by scholars, and sometimes as Arya or Aryans from their self-designation, were a group of Indo-European peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European ...

as well as to contemporary

Eastern Iranian The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times (from c. the 4th century BC). The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian. As opposed to the Middle Western Iranian dial ...

and Ossetian traditions, and to have influenced later Slavic, Hungarian and Turkic mythologies.

Development

The Scythian religion was of Iranian origin. The religion was influenced by that of the populations whom the Scythians had conquered, such as the sedentary

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

populations of the western Pontic steppe. Due to this, many of the Scythian male deities had equivalents in the pantheon of the Thracian peoples, including those living in Anatolia, and some of the names of these deities were of Thracian origin; the Scythian female deities, and especially their links with special cults and their rites and symbols, were also connected to Thracian and

Anatolian Anatolian or anatolica may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the region Anatolia * Anatolians, ancient Indo-European peoples who spoke the Anatolian languages * Anatolian High School, a type of Turkish educational institution * Anatol ...

culture. During the Scythians' stay in Western Asia, their religion had also been influenced by ancient Mesopotamian and Canaanite religions.

Pantheon

According to of , the Scythians worshipped a pantheon of seven gods and goddesses (heptad), which he equates with Greek divinities of Classical Antiquity following the . He mentioned eight deities divided into three ranks, with this structure of the Scythian pantheon being typically Indo-Iranian: # In the first rank was the head of the pantheon: #* , the Flaming One, who was the goddess of heat, fire and the hearth, and was equated by with the Greek goddess of the Hearth, # In the second rank were the binary opposites and the father and mother of the universe: #* , the Earth and Water Mother, equated by with the Greek goddess of the Earth, #* , the Sky Father, equated by with the Greek god # The third and final rank was composed of four deities with specific characteristics: #* , the Scythian " ," who was the forefather of the Scythian kings #* The Scythian " ," the god of war #* , who might have been associated with the Sun, and was equated by with the Greek solar deity #* , a more complex goddess who was a patron of fertility and had power over sovereignty and the priestly force, and was equated by with :*An eighth Scythian deity mentioned by was , whom he equated with the Greek god , and who was worshipped only by the tribe of the Royal Scythians. This list of the Scythian deities by was a translation of a Scythian hymn to the gods which was chanted during sacrifices and rituals. With the omission of who was worshipped only by the Royal Scythians, the Scythian pantheon was composed of seven gods, with the Sarmatian tribe of the also being attested as worshipping seven deities, and traces of a similar tradition being recorded among

Ossetians The Ossetians or Ossetes (, ; os, ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ, translit= ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ, label=Ossetic) are an Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the no ...

. This heptatheism was a typical feature of Indo-Iranian religions: seven s led by are worshipped in the

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...

religion of the more southern Iranian peoples, which had significantly transformed the concepts of the Indo-Iranian religion while also inheriting several features of it; the leading deities of the Indo-Aryan

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

pantheon, the s, were also seven in number. This pantheon was a reflection of the Scythian cosmology, headed by the primeval fire which was the basic essence and the source of all creation, following which came the Earth-Mother and Sky-Father who created the gods, the latter of whom were the four custodians of the four sides of the world regulating the universe. The world inhabited by humans existed between this celestial realm and the chthonic realm below the earth.

The first rank

The Scythian goddess (Hellenised as ; Latinised as ) and was equated by him with the Greek goddess of the Hearth, , was the most venerated of all Scythian deities. The name of meant "the Burning One" or "the Flaming One," and was related to the

Avestan Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...

term () meaning "to warm,"

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and several other Indo-European terms for heat, as well as to the similar name of the

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

goddess () and to the verb related to the latter's name, (), meaning "burns" and "is hot." and to the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

term (), which denoted the cosmic warmth and the original nature, that is the cosmic principle out of which originated the multiple elements of the Universe and the order in the world. Thus, was the primordial fire which alone existed before the creation of the universe, and from her were born (the Earth) and (Heaven). Due to being a deity representing an abstract notion of fire and divine bliss, was rarely depicted in Scythian art, but was instead represented by the fireplace, which constituted the sacral centre of any community, from the family to the tribe. The connections of her name to fire and warmth, as well as her role as the primordial fire attest of the role of as a primordial sovereign deity of fire derived from the common fire-deity of the Indo-Europeans, whose iterations included the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, and the

() among the Indo-Aryans and () among the more southern Iranian peoples. was thus similar to the Vedic and the Greek , therefore being connected to the common Iranian cult and concept of fire, although she belonged to an older period in the development of Indo-Iranian religion compared to the other Iranian peoples and the Indo-Aryans, among whom she had been respectively replaced by the male fire-gods and , making her the only attested female Indo-Iranian fire-deity. of 's listing of at the head of the Scythian pantheon was a reflection of the role of the fire-deity among the Indo-European peoples, and parallels the Greek tradition of beginning and ending every sacrificial rite with the sacrifice to , and every appeal to the gods starting by mentioning her name; another parallel is found in the Indo-Aryan , which begins and ends with a hymn addressed to ; thus, the supreme position of in the list of Scythian gods reflected her position in hymns to the gods pronounced during Scythian sacrifices and rituals. Also attesting of the paramount role of the fire-deity in the Iranian pantheon as an omnipresent element, was the primeval fire which was the basic essence and the source of all creation, a concept which was also present among the Indo-Aryan pantheon, where was the fire which could be found throughout the Cosmos and which permeated the whole Universe, including the worlds of the humans and of the gods. The status of as the incarnation of the primordial fire is also confirmed by the story recounted by of the dispute which arose between the Scythians and the

Egyptians Egyptians ( arz, المَصرِيُون, translit=al-Maṣriyyūn, ; arz, المَصرِيِين, translit=al-Maṣriyyīn, ; cop, ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, remenkhēmi) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian ...

for the right to the title of the most ancient people, and which consisted of an argument by each side about whether the world was initially fully flooded by water (referring to ) or covered with fire (referring to ). As a goddess of the Hearth, was the patron of society, the state and families who protected the family and the clan, and, as a symbol of supreme authority, she was assigned the superior position over the other gods through her role as the guardian of the king, due to which as well as her to link to the common Iranian cult of fire, she was connected to the importance of fire and of royal hearths in Iranian religions. The king's hearth was hence connected with , and was therefore an inviolable symbol of the prosperity of his people and a token of royal power, and herself was connected with royal power, as attested by the Scythian king calling her the "Queen of the Scythians" in 513 BC, with this characterisation of being possibly linked to the notion of the ( in

), the Iranian divine bliss, or even to that of the fire which protects the king, the (

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

: ). As the guardian of the royal hearth, therefore ensured the well-being of the tribe - an oath by the royal hearths was considered the most sacred and breaking it was believed to cause the king's illness and was punished by death. The (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: ) of were likely the flaming gold objects which fell from the sky in the Scythian genealogical myth and of which the king was the trustee while herself in turn was the protector of the king and the royal hearth, thus creating a strong bond between and the Scythian king, who might have been seen as an intermediary between the goddess and the people, and any offence to the royal was considered as affecting the whole tribe and had to be averted at any cost.

The second rank

The Scythian goddess of the birth-giving chthonic principle was (Hellenised as ; Latinised as ) or Apia (Hellenised as ; Latinised as ), which is reflected by her name, , which was a Scythian cognate of the Avestan word for water, (), and through her equation by of with the Greek goddess of the Earth, . These identifications rested upon the conceptualisation in ancient cosmologies of Earth and water as being two aspects of same the birth-giving chthonic principle, and, within Iranian tradition, the earth was a life-giving principle which was inextricably connected to water, which was held to have fertilising, nourishing, and healing properties. The name was also linked to a child-talk endearing word meaning "mommy," with these various connections of and her name painting the consistent picture of her as a primordial deity from whom was born the world's first inhabitants. was the consort of , with the two of them being the children of , the primordial fire. and initially existed together into an inseparable unity until their union, which reflected the Indo-Iranian tradition of the marriage between Heaven and Earth as the basis for the creation of the world (and parallels the union between and the Earth goddess in the ), gave birth to the "middle world," that is the air space, the part of the cosmos where humanity and all physical beings lived, and to the gods of the third rank of the Scythian pantheon, who were associated with the "middle world." The completion of this process of cosmogenesis created an ordered universe made up of three zones - a cosmic one, a central one, and a chthonic one - located each above the other. As a primordial goddess who gave birth to the first inhabitants of the world, remained aloof from worldly affairs and did not interfere with them after the creation of the world and the establishment of the proper order. The worship of by Scythian peoples is attested in 's mention that the worshipped "Mother Earth."

(

: ;

as ), whose original Scythian name is still uncertain, was the personification of Heaven, the Scythian equivalent of the

great god , the consort of the Earth goddess , and was therefore equated by of with the Greek god . The original Scythian form of the name of is uncertain, and has variously been interpreted as meaning either "father," or "guardian," or "protector." was the consort of , with the two of them being the children of , the primordial fire. and initially existed together into an inseparable unity until their union, which reflected the Indo-Iranian tradition of the marriage between Heaven and Earth as the basis for the creation of the world (and parallels the union between and the Earth goddess in the ), gave birth to the "middle world," that is the part of the cosmos where humanity and all physical beings lived, and to the gods of the third rank of the Scythian pantheon, who were associated with the "middle world." The completion of this process of cosmogenesis created an ordered universe made up of three zones - a cosmic one, a central one, and a chthonic one - located each above the other. According to of , the Scythians considered to be a supreme god. I's statement in the Behistun Inscription that the Scythians did not worship thus had no basis and this declaration of his was a political one resulting from the hostilities between the Persian Empire and the Scythians.

The third rank

The deities of the third rank of the Scythian pantheon were associated to the "middle world" inhabited by humans and physical living beings, and which the Scythian cosmology, like all ancient cosmologies, conceptualised as a square plane with four sides each corresponding to one of the radical coordinates as a structural aspect of space. Each side of this quadrangular earthly plane had a symbol, and was thus associated to one of the four deities of the third rank, who were the collective personification of the four-sided "middle world," with a similar concept being found in Indic mythology in the form of the s, the four guardian-gods of the directions, who each also had their own "sphere of action," such as , the guardian of the South, being the ruler over the world of the deceased ancestors, and , the guardian of the East, being the king of the gods and the personification of the "middle world."

The Scythian god (meaning "whose might is far-reaching";

: ) or (

: ;

: ), appears in the Greek recollections of Scythian genealogical myth where he was called the "Scythian " by of , although he was not the same as the Greek hero . - was born from the union of and a daughter of the river , and he was the divine ancestor of the Scythians.

The Scythian ""

The Scythian "Arēs," that is the Scythian war god equated by of with the Greek god , corresponded to the Iranian deity , and might possibly have been an offspring of . The Scythian and Sarmatian "" was represented by an sword planted upwards at the top of a tall square altar made of brushwood of which three sides were vertical and the fourth was inclined to allow access to it. The Scythian "" was given blood sacrifices and his representation in the form of a sword are evidence of his military function. The Scythian "" was also a god of kingship, and the use of horses and of the blood and right arms of prisoners in his cult was a symbolic devotion of the swiftness of horses and the strength of men to this god who had similar powers. The square shape of the altar of the Scythian "" represented the four-sided "middle world," that is the air space, and the sword placed at its top represented the world axis which represented the vertical structure of the universe and connected its cosmic, central, and chthonic zones; the altar to the Scythian "" was thus a model of the universe as conceptualised within Scythian cosmology, most and represented especially its central zone, the air space. The tallness of the mound which acted as the altar to the Scythian "," as well as the practice of throwing the right arms of prisoners sacrificed to him in the sky, are evidence of the celestial nature of the Scythian "" as a god of the air space, that is the practice of throwing these sacrificed arms in the air indicate that the Scythian "" was associated to the gods of the sky and wind ( and ), and more especially the wind, since the wind-god was the first incarnation of and a special carrier of /. This is also recorded in the works of the Greek author of , who recorded that the Scythians worshipped the Wind and the Sword as gods, referring to the dual nature of the Scythian "" as a god of both the Wind, which brings gives life, and the Sword, which brings death; the dual nature of this god is also visible in the used to represent him being shaped like a

phallus A phallus is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic. Any object that symbolically—or, more precisel ...

, thus being a deadly weapon which was also shaped in the form of a life-giving organ. According to

Tadeusz Sulimirski Tadeusz Joseph Sulimirski (1 April 1898 – 20 June 1983) was a Polish-born British historian and archaeologist, who emigrated to the United Kingdom soon after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Sulimirski was a pioneer and leading expert in th ...

, this form of worship continued among the descendants of the Scythians, the , through to the 4th century AD; this tradition may be reflected in 's assertion that was able to assert his authority over the Scythians through his possession of a particular blade, referred to as the " Sword of ."

=Legacy

= The hero from the Ossetian might have originated from the Scythian "." In the sagas, appears as a brave but uncontrolled warrior living in the air space and sometimes took the form of a whirlwind, who often protected his peoples from multiple enemies, and who was made of steel and connected to his sword, which provided him with immortality so long as it remained unbroken, thus being the incarnation of himself.

The Scythian god (Hellenised as ; Latinised as ), might have been a solar deity, due to which of equated him with the Greek god . The

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

name is comparable to

() and

Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit was an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid- 2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It was orally preser ...

(), with the Avestan form being an epithet of as the "Lord of Cattle-Land," that is a deity of cattle culture widely worshipped by the common people in Scythian society. The first term composing this name, , meaning "herd" and "possessions," is a cognate of

(), meaning "cow pasture," and reflects the nature of " " as a Hellenization of the Iranian deity (); the second element , meaning "strong" and "mighty," is the same as the Avestan element "mighty" from the name of the goddess (), and is connected to the Scythians' association of with the goddess , who had absorbed many of the traits of . Due to the connections of 's and his identification with the Greek god , he has been identified with , although this identification is largely tentative, with the multiple functions of contributing to this uncertainty. Depictions of a solar god with a radiate head and riding a carriage pulled by two or four horses on numerous pieces of art found in Scythian burials from the 3rd century BC and later might have been representations of .

Artimpasa

(

: ;

: ), often erroneously called (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) due to a scribal corruption, was a complex androgynous Scythian goddess of fertility who possessed power over sovereignty and the priestly force. was a goddess of warfare, sovereignty, priestly force, fecundity, vegetation and fertility, and was the Scythian variant of the Iranian goddess ()/ (), who was a patron of fertility and marriage and a guardian of laws who represented material wealth in its various forms, including domestic animals, previous objects, and a plentiful descendance. had also been influenced by the Iranian goddess , the Assyro-

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...

n -, and by the

Great Mother goddess , thus making her an altogether complex deity. was thus equated by of with the Greek goddess , who herself presided over productivity in the material world.

Thagimasidas

(Hellenised as ; Latinised as ) or Thamimasidas (Hellenised as ; Latinised as ) was a god worshipped only by the tribe of the Royal Scythians. Thagimasadas was thus not a member of the pan-Scythian heptatheistic pantheon and was likely the tribal- and ancestor- deity of the Royal Scythians. The name of this deity is uncertain, and element of the god's name might be derived from the Iranian term , meaning "great"; the element might have been a cognate of the

word (, meaning "firmament"), and the

term () or (), meaning "to create by putting into motion." of identified with the Greek god because both and (in his form as , ) were horse-tamer deities, but also because, among the Athenians who were his audience, was identified with , whom the Athenians considered their mythical ancestor, similarly to how was believed to be the ancestor of the Royal Scythians. The equation of with might also be due to his possible role as a fashioner of the sky and hence was connected to sky-waters and thunderbolts just like the Greek was. The Scythian images of a winged horse inspired from that of the Greek might have been connected to .

Other deities

The Snake-Legged Goddess

The Scythian deity known in modern day as the "Snake-Legged Goddess," also referred to as the "Anguipede Goddess," so called because several representations of her depict her as a goddess with snakes or tendrils as legs, was associated to the life-giving principle. The Snake-Legged Goddess was a daughter of , likely through a river-god, and belonged to a younger generation of deities of "lower status" who were more actively involved in human life. She appears in all variations of the Scythian genealogical myth as the Scythian fore-mother who sires the ancestor and first king of the Scythians with .

The Divine Twins

The mytheme of the

Divine twins The Divine Twins are youthful horsemen, either gods or demigods, who serve as rescuers and healers in Proto-Indo-European mythology. Like other Proto-Indo-European divinities, the Divine Twins are not directly attested by archaeological or writte ...

, which appears across several Indo-European religions in the form of the

, the

s and the twins from the Dacian tablets - these divine twins had in earlier Indo-European mythology been horses before later evolving into horsemen such as the Aśvins and the English and , who had horse-names. In Indo-European mythology, the divine twins were companions of the Mother-Goddess who flanked her symbol of the Tree of Life, especially in depictions of them as two horses or horsemen who stand symmetrically near a goddess or a tree. In pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion, , the Iranian inflection of the divine twins, were connected with and were her companions. The cult of the divine twins existed among the Scythians, with of recording the veneration of two twin deities in a Scythian temple whom he identified with the Greek and . Their duality represented the contrast of death against fertility and resurrection, and were related to royalty and warrior society, which thus made them companions of , as depicted in the Karagodeuashkh plate. Depictions of the divine twins among Scythian peoples included some Sarmatian royal brands depicting the theme of the two horsemen standing symmetrically near a tree, a small figure from a Scythian burial at Krasny Mayak depicting two men embracing one another, as well as two Greek-made bronze figurines from depicting the Greek who were identified by the Scythians with the divine twins, together with a terracotta sculpture in the shape of a goddess's head were discovered in an ash altar near a wall of a temple where was worshipped a fertility goddess to whom was associated images of

rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Ossetian , are another reflection of the Indo-European mytheme of the divine twins as the progenitors of royal dynasties, also found in the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

myth of and , the English and , and the

as the originators of the dual-monarchy of .

The Solar Horseman

Among the Scythians and the Sindo-Maeotians was present the cult of a solar god depicted as a mounted deified ancestor. This deity was believed to be a fighter against evil, and was popular from the late first millennium BC to the first centuries of the Common Era on the Black Sea coast, Central Asia and Transcaucasia, and appeared in

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

following the migrations of the

there.

The Mounted God of the Bosporus

By the 1st centuries AD in the Bosporus, the chariot-riding Scythian solar god had been syncretised with the horse-riding Persian god , imported from the southern and eastern shores of the , to become the Most High God (

: ) of the

Bosporan Kingdom The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (, ''Vasíleio toú Kimmerikoú Vospórou''), was an ancient Greco-Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, ...

. This Most High God, who was depicted as a horseman, enjoyed wide popularity and was raised to the status of divine patron of the royal dynasty. The Most High God was known in as (

: ;

: ) derived from Old Iranian , which reflects his nature as a grace- and power-giving solar god. A stele from 104 AD which commemorates the celebration of the Day of depicts the Most High God as a mounted horseman dressed in Sarmatian costume and holding a in his right hand, with a blazing altar in front of him and a tree behind the altar. This scene is consistent with the depictions of the horsemen facing in Scythian art, and represents the communion of the Most High God with the Bosporan evolved from , and is represented by the tree (similarly to , the Bosporan was sometimes represented with tree-shaped limbs or head, with her palm shaped like large leaves on stele, and her head shaped like a tree top and her hands shaped like branches on a stamp), while the altar sanctifies the ceremony.

Mythology

The Genealogical Myth

Five variants of the Scythian genealogical myth have been retold by Greco-Roman authors: # of 's recorded two variants of the myth, and according to his first version, the first man born in hitherto desert was named and was the son of and a daughter of the river . Targitaos in turn had three sons, who each ruled a different part of the kingdom, named: #* (

: ;

: ) #* (

: ;

: ) #* (

: ;

: ) #:One day four gold objects - a plough, a yoke, a battle-axe, a drinking cup - fell from the sky, and each brother in turn tried to pick the gold, but when and tried, it burst in flames, while the flames were extinguished when tried. thus became the guardian of this sacred gold (the of ), and the other brothers decided that he should become the high king and king of the Royal Scythians while they would rule different branches of the Scythians. # According to the second version of the myth recorded by , arrived in deserted with 's cattle. After his mares disappeared during his sleep, he searched for them until he arrived at a land called (

: ;

: ), that is the Woodland, and in a cave found a half-maiden, half-viper being who later revealed to him that she was the mistress of this country, and that she had kept 's horses which she agreed to return only if he had sexual intercourse with her. She returned his freedom to after three sons were born of their union: #* (

: ;

: ) #* (

: ;

: ) #* (

: ;

: ) #:Before left , the serpent maiden asked him what should be done once the boys had reached adulthood, and he told her that they should be each tasked with stringing a bow and putting on a girdle in the correct way, with whoever succeeded being the one who would rule his mother's land while those who would fail the test would be banished. When the time for the test had arrived, only the youngest of the sons, , was able to correctly complete it, and he thus became the ancestor of the Scythians and their first king, with all subsequent Scythian kings claiming descent from him. and , who were exiled, became the ancestors of the and . # A third variant of the myth, recorded by , described the Scythians as descendants of (

: ), who was himself a son of the god with a half-serpent nymph named Hora. # The fourth variant of the myth, recorded by of Sicily, calls the first Scythian and the first king, and describes him as a son of and an earth-born viper-limbed maiden # The fifth version of the myth, recorded in the , recorded that after had defeated the river-god , he fathered two sons with his daughter , who were named and , who became the ancestors of the Scythians. The "" of 's second version and from the 's version of the genealogical myth is not the Greek hero , but the Scythian god , who appears in the other recorded variants of the genealogical myth under the name of (

: ) or as a son of , and was likely assimilated by the Greeks from the northern shores of the Black Sea with the Greek . The mother's traits are consistent across the multiple versions of the genealogical myth and include her being the daughter of either a river-god or of the Earth and dwelling in a cave, as well as her being half-woman and half-snake The Scythian genealogical myth has been tentatively connected to the legend of and the Giants as recorded by , according to which she had been attacked by Giants and called on for help. After concealing , the goddess, under guise of introducing the Giants one by one, treacherously handed them to , who killed them. According to this hypothesis, was the same goddess as the Snake-Legged Goddess of the Scythian genealogical myth, and her reward to "" for defeating the Giants was her love. The Scythian genealogical myth exhibits clear textual and narrative parallels with the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

story of and his three sons - , , and - from the , and thus ascribes the origin of the Scythians to the Sky Father , either directly or through his son, and to the Snake-Legged Goddess affiliated to , and represented the threefold division of the universe into the Heavens, the Earth, and the Underworld, as well as the division of Scythian society into the warrior, priest, and agriculturalist classes. The names of 's sons in the first version of the genealogical myth - , , and - end with the suffix "," which is a Hellenisation of the Old Iranian term meaning ruler: *, from Scythian , from an earlier form , "king of radiance," in the sense of "king of the sun." ::The first element, , is derived from the

Indo-European root The roots of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) are basic parts of words that carry a lexical meaning, so-called morphemes. PIE roots usually have verbal meaning like "to eat" or "to run". Roots never occurred alone in the lang ...

', meaning "to be bright" a well as "sky" and "heaven," and can also give the name the meaning of "king of heaven," thus possibly linking Lipoxais to sun-deities or to gods of the heavens such as and . *, from Scythian , "king of the airspace." ::The element might have been a cognate of the

term (), which is the name of a group of Indo-Aryan deities of the

airspace Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. It is not the same as aerospace, which is the ...

. *, from Scythian , "blacksmith king," in the sense of "ruling king of the lower world." Each of the sons of were forebearers of tribes constituting the Scythian people: *Lipoxais was the ancestor of the *Arpoxais was the ancestor of the and the *Kolaxais was the ancestor of the , also known as the Royal Scythians. The first version of the genealogical myth recounted by therefore also explains the division of into three kingdoms of which the king of the Royal Scythians was the High King, which is a structure also recorded in 's account of the Scythian campaign of the Persian king I, where was the Scythian high king while and were sub-kings. The sons of according to the second version of the genealogical myth were each also ancestors of tribes belonging to the

: * was the ancestor of the * was the ancestor of the * was the ancestor of the Scythians proper The myth of the golden objects which fell from the sky was also present among the

of Central Asia, and therefore must have been an ancient Iranian tradition. A similar myth was present among the more southern Iranian peoples in the form of the god offering a (, either a pick or a shepherd's flute) and an (, a cattle goad), both made of gold, which used on the earth to increase the size of its part which was inhabitable.

Cult

Social role

The worship of many of the Scythian deities were characteristic of the sedentary Thracian populations of , although the sword-cult of the god of war was a properly Iranian nomadic one.

Sanctuaries

Scythian religion was largely aniconic, and the Scythians did not make statues of their deities for worship, with the one notable exception being the war-god, the Scythian "." Nevertheless, the Scythians did make smaller scale images of certain of their deities for use as decorations, although , Papaios and Api seem to have never been represented in any anthropomorphised form. The only god to which Scythians built sanctuaries was the war-god, the Scythian "," to whom a high place was made out of a pile of brushwood, of which the three sides were upright and vertical and the fourth side formed a slope on which worshippers could walk to the top of the high place, which was itself a square-shaped platform on which the god himself was ritually represented in the form of a sword placed pointing upward. The square shape of the platform might have formed a representation of Scythian religion's conceptualisation of the universe as being four-sided while the sword-idol might have been a cosmic axis which united the human and divine worlds. This tall brushwood high place was a representation of the world mountain. These brushwood high places could be found throughout all regions inhabited by the Scythians, and every year more brushwood was added to the high place to maintain its structure. The Sarmatians similarly represented their "" in the form of a sword planted upright. A holy site of the Scythians was Exampaeus ( ), that is the Holy Ways, located between the

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

and the

Southern Buh , ''Pivdennyi Buh'' , name_etymology = , image = Sunset S Bug Vinnitsa 2007 G1.jpg , image_size = 270 , image_caption = Southern Bug River in the vicinity of Vinnytsia, Ukraine , map = PietinisBu ...

rivers, where was located a large bronze cauldron which of described as "six fingers breadth in thickness" and which could contain the volume of six hundred . According to Scythian legend, this cauldron was made when the king Ariantas ordered every one of his subjects to bring him a single arrowhead so he could know the exact number of his subjects. The great bronze cauldron at Exampaeus was made out of the heap of arrowheads which accumulated from this census. This cauldron located at the Holy Ways was believed to be the centre of the world, and the legend of the arrowheads reflected that all Scythians had collective ownership of it.

Practices

Sun worship

of mentioned that the worshipped only the Sun-god, to whom they sacrificed horses, which referred to the cult of the supreme Sun-god , who was associated with the worship of fire and horses. When the Persian king II attacked the , their queen swore by the Sun to kill him if he did not return back to his kingdom.

Use of hemp

The Scythians would ritually use the vapours of the hemp plant as an intoxicant.

Clergy

The priest-king

The king of the Royal Scythians performed the duties of a priest during the pan-Scythian

rituals A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, ...

which involved the of . Among Indo-Iranian peoples, the king had a charisma which took the physical form of gold, held to be a royal metal, and therefore the king displayed his visible extraordinary powers by controlling the gold of Tapatī́.

The

The (meaning "unmanly," and rendered by Greek writers as and ,) were a section of the Scythian clergy composed of tranvestite priests. The were affiliated to an orgiastic cult of in her form strongly influenced by Near Eastern fertility goddesses, and the rites of the thus combined both indigenous Scythians religious practices of a

shamanistic Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

nature, as well as ones imported from Levantine religions. The also acted as seers and performed a particular form of divination which, unlike the methods of traditional Scythian soothsayers, used linden bark. The were transvestites who belonged to the most powerful Scythian aristocracy and wore women's clothing as well performed women's jobs and spoke like women; according to indigenous Scythian shamanic traditions the were considered "transformed" shamans who changed their sex, which signaled them as being the most powerful shamans, due to which they inspired fear and were thus accordingly given special respect in Scythian society, and the Scythians ascribed their androgyny to a "female disease" causing sexual impotency. The Scythians believed that the androgyny of the resulted from a curse by the goddess to the perpetrators of the sack of the temple of the goddess (whom the Scythians identified with ) in and their descendants during the Scythian presence in Western Asia in the 7th century BC; the transvestite androgyny of the was thus also typical of the cult of the Levantine celestial . Given the hereditary nature of the and the belief that the curse of ʿAštart affected the looters of her shrine at as well as their descendants, their transvestite transformation likely happened late in their lives. Like all ancient priesthoods, the differentiated themselves from ordinary mortals through their dress, behaviour, and secred rituals. Therefore, in addition to their transvestism, the might also have worn additional regalia, such as

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

used in shamanic rituals and antlered headdresses similar to those found in Saka horse burials and those worn in more recent times by

Siberian Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

shamans. Sceptres capped with ornate pole tops, which have been discovered throughout the steppe from

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

to the

Great Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, hu, Alföld or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain. (However, the Great Hungarian plain ...

were also used by the as symbols of authority: these pole tops often included rattles, and the oldest of these date from the 8th century BC, are from

Tuva Tuva (; russian: Тува́) or Tyva ( tyv, Тыва), officially the Republic of Tuva (russian: Респу́блика Тыва́, r=Respublika Tyva, p=rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə tɨˈva; tyv, Тыва Республика, translit=Tyva Respublika ...

and the Minusinsk Basin, and are topped by a

stag Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

ibex An ibex (plural ibex, ibexes or ibices) is any of several species of wild goat (genus ''Capra''), distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa and East Africa. ...

standing with its feet together as if perched on a rocky eminence. The more recent pole tops are more elaborate in design, such as one found in the , which is in the shape of a goddess with her hands on her hips, and another one from the same kurgan in the shape of a griffin in a frame from which two bells hang, and a third from that same kurgan which splits into three branches each topped by a bird of prey holding a bell in its beak. The rattling and tinkling of the sceptres' bells invited the audience to the impending rites. The were especially consulted when the king of the Scythians was ill, which was itself believed by the Scythians to be caused by a false oath being sworn upon the king's hearth. Once the had identified the suspect who had sworn the false oath, the said suspect would claim to be innocent. If the maintained the accusation, six more soothsayers were consulted, and if they upheld the original accusation, the suspect was executed by being beheaded. If the additional soothsayers declared the suspect was innocent, the process of consulting more soothsayers was repeated, and if the larger number of soothsayers still declared the suspect to be innocent, the initial accusers were executed by being put into a wagon filled with brushwood which was set on fire, and their sons were all killed.

The Bosporan

The cult of the Most High God in was performed by (

: ), which were state-recognised all-male of which all the free men of the city were members, including both the rank-and-file citizens and the aristocracy of . These worshippers' associations belonged to the same institution and organised the whole citizenry of into distinct groups which each had a very strict hierarchy, and around half of their memberships was ethnically Greek while the other half was ethnically Iranian. These originated in the Iranian institution of , that is male societies of young warriors, which were present among both the Persians and the Scythians. These male societies had been Hellenised when they were incorporated into the social structure of the

. The typical functions of these Iranian male societies, such as the worship of , the performing of ecstatic cults involving the consumption of , and fire worship were reflected in the syncretised Bosporan cult of the Most High God, such as the depiction of the deity holding of a and facing a blazing altar on the Day of commemoration stele; fire worship was also present among the Bosporan in the form of the fire cult's presence among the funerary rituals of the inhabitants of . The cult of the dead of the male societies was visible in the numerous the Bosporan built in commemoration of their dead members. Iranian male societies also maintained justice and punished law-breakers - reflected in the officials being among the Bosporan synods' leading magistrates -, and were closely connected to royal power, hence the close connection of the and their Most High God with the Bosporan royal family and its cults. And, like the Iranian male societies, the Bosporan were divided into age classes, and required initiations so members could join an ideal community of alive and deceased warriors.

Festivals

Renewal of the high place

The Scythians would annually bring more brushwood to the high place of the Scythian "" to maintain its structure. This ceremony also symbolised a recommitment and created a consciousness of the continuity of worship at the high place, and was also a reaffirmation of tribal identity.

Sacrifices to the war-god

Every year, the Scythians held a ceremony to honour their "" during which they sacrificed cattle, horses and every hundredth prisoner of war to him.

Libation A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid, or grains such as rice, as an offering to a deity or spirit, or in memory of the dead. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in cultures today. Various substa ...

s of wine were poured over the prisoners who were to be sacrificed, following which their throats were cut over a vessel to catch their blood. This vessel was carried to the top of the brushwood high place of the god and the prisoners' blood was poured as libations on the sword functioning as the god's idol, and their right arms were severed and thrown into the sky and left wherever they fell. The use of horses and of the blood and right arms of prisoners in the cult of the Scythian "" was a symbolic devotion of the swiftness of horses and the strength of men to this god of kingship who had similar powers, and the tall brushwood altar on which the blood was offered to the god was a representation of the world mountain. No priests were required for the sacrifices to the Scythian "."

Communal drinking

The Scythians held an annual ceremony where everyone who had killed at least one enemy was acknowledged by being allowed to drink from a communal bowl of wine in front of the assembled company, although it is unknown whether or not this festivity was performed at the same time as the yearly sacrifices to the Scythian "."

Animal sacrifice

According to of , animal sacrifices among the Scythians to all gods except to the Scythian "" were carried out by tying a rope around the front legs of the sacrificial animal, then the offerer of the sacrifice standing behind the animal and pulling the rope to throw the animal forward, and strangling it to death using a rope tied around the animal's neck and tightened using a stick. The sacrificed animal was then cut up, its flesh was boiled in a cauldron, or, for those who did not have a cauldron, in the animal's own skin, while the bones were added to the fire on which the animal's flesh was cooked so they could be consumed following the approved ritual. Once the meat was cooked, the person who initiated the sacrifice would throw some of cooked meat and entrails into the ground as an offering for the god. This method of sacrifice was typical of the more nomadic Scythians. The cult to might have involved horse sacrifice. Animals sacrificed to the Scythian "" were horses, sheep, and goats.

Human sacrifice

The Scythian "" was also propitiated using human sacrifice, which involved cutting the throat of one man out of every hundred prisoners and pouring his blood on the sword-idol of the god, and then cutting the sacrificed man's right arm and throwing it into the air and leaving it wherever it fell.

Customs

Royal customs

The royal divine marriage

The signet ring of the Scythian king , whose bezel was decorated with the image of a woman seated on a throne and holding a mirror in her right hand and a sceptre in her left hand, with () engraved near the figure of the goddess, and on whose band was inscribed in Greek (, "Tell to be with Argotas!"), represented communion with as guaranteeing sovereignty in Scythian religion. The image of the on the ring was therefore a representation of her as a granter of sovereignty, with the ring having been inherited from generation to generation of the Scythian royal dynasty as a token of royal power, and being a former Scythian king from whom his descendant Skula inherited this ring. The ring did not feature any image of the male partner of the goddess because the kings were themselves considered to be these partners, with the Scythian royal investiture having been considered both a communion between man and the goddess as well as a marital union which elevated the king to the status of spouse of the goddess and granted him power through sexual intercourse with the goddess. This was also a reflection of Levantine influence on , since Mesopotamian equivalents of were sometimes represented together with the king in scenes represented sacred marriages, and the stability of royal power in was believed to be derived from intimate relations between , with whom the queen of was identified, and the king, who claimed descent from 's lover . A similar rite of the marriage between the king and the great goddess existed among the Scythians'

neighbours.

The ritual sleep

The ritual sleep was a ceremony during which a substitute ritual king would ceremonially sleep in an open air field along with the gold for a single night, possibly as a symbolical ritual impregnation of the earth. This substitute king would receive as much land as he could ride around in one day: this land belonged to the real king and was given to the substitute king to complete his symbolic identification with the real king, following which he would be allowed to live for one year until he would be sacrificed when the time for the next ritual sleep festival would arrive and a successor of the ritual king was chosen. This ceremony also represented the death and rebirth of the Scythian king and was conducted at the Holy Ways, where the great bronze cauldron representing the centre of the world was located.

Divination

Willow stick divination

Traditional Scythian soothsayers used

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

withies A withy or withe (also willow and osier) is a strong flexible willow stem, typically used in thatching, basketmaking, gardening and for constructing woven wattle hurdles.

for divination. This method of divination involved placing a bundle of willow sticks on the ground, untying it, and laying out the individual sticks.

Linden bark divination

A particular form of divination which was performed by the used linden bark; the performed this form of divination by splitting the linden bark and twining the strands among open fingers.

Art

The motifs of Scythian cultures'

Animal style Animal style art is an approach to decoration found from China to Northern Europe in the early Iron Age, and the barbarian art of the Migration Period, characterized by its emphasis on animal motifs. The zoomorphic style of decoration was used ...

art reflected the cosmological notion of the ever-present struggle of life which was held to be the essence of being. These motifs consisted of stags (sometimes substituted by

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

, and

rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)snow leopard The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia''), also known as the ounce, is a Felidae, felid in the genus ''Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia, Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red ...

-like felines and

birds of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predators ...

, which were represented competing with each other for the herbivores, thus creating an interlocking style of tension. These compositions featuring predator and prey were present throughout the Scythian cultures, from the Pontic Steppe to the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...

In the western regions, under Greek influence, the art of the Pontic Scythians underwent an evolution, with the majestic stags being replaced by docile deer or

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

s or rams, the felines' designs changing from snow leopard-like into images of

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

s, and the birds of prey becoming winged

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...

s, although the central theme of the struggle between predator and prey remained the same. This Greek-influenced Scythian animal art is visible in the lower frieze of the

Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla The Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla is an ancient Scythian treasure discovered in a burial kurgan at a site called Tovsta Mohyla in 1971 by the Ukrainian archaeologist Borys Mozolevskyi. The Tovsta Mohyla burial mound, meaning fat barrow, is ...

, where two griffins attack a horse in its centre, while the rest of the frieze depicts lions and

cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

s attacking stags and

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

s. The upper frieze instead represents humans interacting with their domesticated animals to counterpose the harmony of the human world with the conflict of the supernatural realm, as well as to equate the humans with the predators with respect to their relationship with the productive power of the earth. In the eastern regions, the predator-prey motif could be found depicted on the Saka saddle covers from the Pazyryk kurgans and leather flasks, as well as

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...

ed on the bodies of the deceased buried in the kurgans.

Funerary customs

The Scythians of Ciscaucasia buried their royalty with

human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...

s and burnt horse

hecatomb In ancient Greece, a hecatomb (; ; grc, ἑκατόμβη ''hekatómbē'') was a sacrifice of 100 cattle (''hekaton'' = one hundred, ''bous'' = bull) to the Greek gods. In practice, as few as 12 could make up a hecatomb. Although originally the ...

s, which were practices adopted by the Scythians from the native West Asian peoples of Transcaucasia and

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

, and which the Scythians in turn introduced into the Steppe. These customs were however not adopted by the other Scythians of the Pontic steppe. The kurgans where were buried Scythian aristocrats were decorated on their surface with stelae consisting of large slabs of rocks whose surfaces had been carved into crude human figures in relief and which represented armed men whose dress, swords and weapons had been sculpted in detail. This tradition had already existed in the region of the Pontic Steppe since the 3rd millennium BC, and had later been adopted by the Scythians. The rich furnishings of Scythian tombs demonstrate that Scythians devoted significant resources to ensuring the proper burial of their members, especially of nobles. This attested that the afterlife was extremely important in Scythian religion.

buried their priestesses with mirrors, which were symbols of feminine principle, eroticism and fertility that played an important role in the wedding rites of Iranian peoples, and were believed to be magical objects used for prophecy and shamanic rites. The Sarmatian citizens of the city of were buried along with weapons as well as with pieces of

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...

and

realgar Realgar ( ), also known as "ruby sulphur" or "ruby of arsenic", is an arsenic sulfide mineral with the chemical formula α-. It is a soft, sectile mineral occurring in monoclinic crystals, or in granular, compact, or powdery form, often in asso ...

which functioned as symbols of fire, while their graves were accompanied by burial constructions shaped as circular stone fences. These, along with horse harnesses being present in pit graves, as well as the burial of horses in , attested of the importance of the solar and fire cults in Sarmatian funerary rites. Due to increasing Scythian and Sarmatian cultural influence in , the deceased were often depicted as mounted horsemen on murals in their funerary vaults and tombstones at the same time as the horseman became a recurring motif in Late Scythian and Sarmatian art in the first centuries of the Common Era.

Cannibalism

The custom of eating the men of their tribe who had grown old might have reflected among Scythian peoples the presence of age classes, which were a distinguishing aspect of Iranian male societies.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Scythia

Religion and mythology Religion and mythology differ in scope but have overlapping aspects. Both terms refer to systems of concepts that are of high importance to a certain community, making statements concerning the supernatural or sacred. Generally, mythology is consi ...

European mythology Scythian religion Ethnic religion Polytheism Cannabis and religion

Development

Pantheon

The first rank

The second rank

The third rank

The Scythian ""

=Legacy

Artimpasa

Thagimasidas

Other deities

The Snake-Legged Goddess

The Divine Twins

The Solar Horseman

The Mounted God of the Bosporus

Mythology

The Genealogical Myth

Cult

Social role

Sanctuaries

Practices

Sun worship

Use of hemp

Clergy

The priest-king

The

The Bosporan

Festivals

Renewal of the high place

Sacrifices to the war-god

Communal drinking

Animal sacrifice

Human sacrifice

Customs

Royal customs

The royal divine marriage

The ritual sleep

Divination

Willow stick divination

Linden bark divination

Art

Funerary customs

Cannibalism

See also

Notes

References