Donbettyr () is the god of all waters, and the protector of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

and

fishermen A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishermen may be professional or recr ...

Ossetian mythology Ossetian mythology or Alan mythology () is the collective term for the beliefs and practices of the Ossetian people of the Caucasus region, which contains several gods and supernatural beings. The religion itself is believed to be of Scythian ori ...

. He is related to a

Scythian The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...

deity of the same name. His name is possibly derived from ''don'', meaning 'river', derived from ''danu'', meaning 'to flow', as a prefix for the name Peter ("Bettyr"), possibly in reference to

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

. He is the Ossetian equivalent of the

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

Poseidon Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...

Relations

His beautiful daughters are the Ossetian equivalent of sea nymphs. Through them, he is the ancestor of many of the heroes of the epic

Nart saga The Nart sagas (; ; ) are a series of tales originating from the North Caucasus. They form much of the basic mythology of the ethnic groups in the area, including Abazin, Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian, Karachay- Balkar, and to some extent C ...

of the north Caucasus, including

Uryzmaeg Uryzmaeg is the hero of the Nart saga of the peoples of the Caucasus, son of Akhshar and Akhsartag, Akhsartag and Dzerassae. In the Nart saga Birth of Uryzmaeg and Haemyts Akhshar and Akhsartag, Akhsartag descended to the bottom of the sea ...

Satanaya Satanaya ( ; ; Ubykh ; ''Satana'') is a mythological figure who appears in many cycles of the Nart sagas of the North Caucasus. Satanaya is the mother of the Narts, a fertility figure who is also an authority over her children. Satanaya is o ...

, Xaemyts, and

Batraz Batraz, Batradz, Batyradz, or Pataraz ( Ossetian: ) is a central character in the North Caucasian myths known as the Nart sagas. The Narts were the central figures of the folklore of peoples of the North Caucasus. Myth Batraz in the Ossetian N ...

. Donbettyr's golden-haired daughter

Dzerassae Dzerassæ () is a figure in Ossetian mythology best known as the daughter of the List of water deities, water deity Donbettyr and the mother of several Nart saga heroes. She was the wife of Akhshar and Akhsartag, Akhsartag. With him, she was the mo ...

was the mother of Uryzmaeg, Satanaya, and Xaemyts. Donbettyr is also the maternal grandfather of the Nart hero

, through the marriage of the hunter Xaemyts to an unnamed daughter of Donbettyr. In the story of their marriage, Xaemyts is chasing a white rabbit and shooting at it. It dies, but returns to life three times, before escaping to the coast where it dives into the sea. Donbettyr rises from the water and declares that the hare was actually his daughter and that Xaemyts must marry her. Xaemyts agrees, only to be told that his wife will appear on earth during the day in the form of a

tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

. Only at night will she take the form of the beautiful woman he married. When Uryzmaeg had a son, Donbettyr took it upon himself to raise the boy, deep beneath the sea. While sometimes this boy is nameless, in some versions he is the

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Common meanings *Anything from the Caucasus region or related to it ** Ethnic groups in the Caucasus ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus re ...

culture hero

Amirani Amirani or Amiran ( ka, ამირანი) is the name of a culture hero of a Georgian epic who resembles the Classical Prometheus. Various versions of the myth reveal a process through which the myth was transformed over time, but the legend ...

. Generally raised on land, in this Ossetic variation, Amirani is thrown into the sea and raised by Donbettyr and his daughters, eventually rising from the sea on the back of a bull.

References

{{reflist Sea and river gods Water gods Ossetian mythology Supernatural beings identified with Christian saints