Scythian religion

The Scythian religion refers to the mythology, ritual practices and beliefs of the Scythian cultures, a collection of closely related ancient Iranian peoples who inhabited Central Asia and the Pontic–Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe throughout Classical Antiquity, spoke the Scythian language (itself a member of the Eastern Iranian language family), and which included the Scythians proper, the Cimmerians, the Sarmatians, the Alans, the Sindi, the Massagetae and the Saka.

The Scythian religion is assumed to have been related to the earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian religion as well as to contemporary Eastern Iranian 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 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 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. This heptatheism was a typical feature of Indo-Iranian religions: seven s led by are worshipped in the Zoroastrian 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 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 term () meaning "to warm," Latin and several other Indo-European terms for heat, as well as to the similar name of the Hindu goddess () and to the verb related to the latter's name, (), meaning "burns" and "is hot." and to the Sanskrit 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 , and the Vedic () 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 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 Avestan), the Iranian divine bliss, or even to that of the fire which protects the king, the (Middle Persian: ). 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: ) 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."

(Ancient Greek: ; Latin as ), whose original Scythian name is still uncertain, was the personification of Heaven, the Scythian equivalent of the Zoroastrian 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"; Ancient Greek: ) or (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), 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, thus being a deadly weapon which was also shaped in the form of a life-giving organ.

According to Tadeusz Sulimirski, 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 name is comparable to Avestan () and Vedic Sanskrit (), 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 Avestan (), 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

(Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), 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- Babylonian -, and by the Thracian 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 Avestan word (, meaning "firmament"), and the Vedic Sanskrit 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, which appears across several Indo-European religions in the form of the Ancient Greek , the Vedic 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.

The divine twins' position in Scythian religion was inferior to that of the gods, likely belonging to the rank of heroes, and might possibly have been the same as the two brothers and first Scythian kings born of and the Snake-Legged Goddess in the genealogical myth. The Scythian divine twins, who were most likely the origin of the twin heroes who appear in the Ossetian , are another reflection of the Indo-European mytheme of the divine twins as the progenitors of royal dynasties, also found in the Roman myth of and , the English and , and the Greek 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 following the migrations of the Saka 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 (Ancient Greek: ) of the Bosporan Kingdom. 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 (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) 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:
#* (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: )
#* (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: )
#* (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: )
#: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 (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), 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:
#* (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: )
#* (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: )
#* (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: )
#: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 (Latin: ), 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 (Scythian: ) 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 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 ', 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 Sanskrit term (), which is the name of a group of Indo-Aryan deities of the airspace.
*, 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 Scythian cultures:
* 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 Saka 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 and the Southern Buh 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 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 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 used in shamanic rituals and antlered headdresses similar to those found in Saka horse burials and those worn in more recent times by Siberian shamans. Sceptres capped with ornate pole tops, which have been discovered throughout the steppe from Mongolia to 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 and the Minusinsk Basin, and are topped by a stag or ibex 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 (Ancient Greek: ), 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 Bosporan Kingdom.

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. Libations 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' Thracian 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 withies 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 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 elks, moose, and rams), depicted as noble beasts in repose whose legs are tucked underneath their bodies, and which represented Tree of Life which sustained the world which was always in tension. The other components of these motifs were snow leopard-like felines and birds of prey, 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.

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 horses or rams, the felines' designs changing from snow leopard-like into images of lions, and the birds of prey becoming winged griffins, 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, where two griffins attack a horse in its centre, while the rest of the frieze depicts lions and cheetahs attacking stags and pigs. 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 tattooed on the bodies of the deceased buried in the kurgans.

Funerary customs

The Scythians of Ciscaucasia buried their royalty with human sacrifices and burnt horse hecatombs, which were practices adopted by the Scythians from the native West Asian peoples of Transcaucasia and Mesopotamia, 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.

Sarmatians 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 and realgar 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.

See also

* Ancient Iranian religion
* Abaris the Hyperborean
* Horse sacrifice
* Issyk kurgan
* Kurgan stelae
* Ossetian religion
* Paleo-Balkanic mythology
* Scythian art

Notes

References

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