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 origin, but contains many later elements from Christianity, with Ossetian gods often being identified with Christian saints. The gods play a role in the famous stories about a race of semi-divine heroes called the Narts.

Deities

*Hutsau or Xucau (). The chief of the gods.
* Uastyrdzhi or Wasgergi (), also known as Lagtydzuar or Lagdzuar, more rarely as Uastylag. Named after Saint George, he is the patron of males and travellers, and the guarantor of oaths. Main patron of North Ossetia–Alania.
* Uacilla (). Named after Saint Elijah, also spelled ''Watsilla''. God of rain, thunder and lightning. As protector of the harvest he is known as ''Хоры Уацилла'' (''Hory Uacilla'', "Uacilla of the wheat"). Anyone struck by lightning was considered chosen by the god and, if they survived, a sheep was sacrificed in their honour. His festival was celebrated in the summer with the sacrifice of a lamb and a bull and the drinking of specially brewed beer. On that day women baked bread in silence as a mark of reverence.
* Safa (). God of the hearth chain. The most important domestic deity for Ossetians.
* Donbettyr (). Lord of the waters. He is named after Saint Peter, and is a fusion of the Ossetian ''don'' (meaning water) and Peter. He uses his chain to drag down those who unwarily go swimming too late to his realm at the bottom of the sea. He has many beautiful daughters, comparable to the Rusalki of Slavic mythology. Up to the 19th century, his day was celebrated on the Saturday following Easter by young girls.
* Dzerassae (), one of Donbettyr's daughters, the mother of many Nart heroes.
* Tutyr (). Named after Saint Theodore of Tyre. Lord of the wolves.
* Fælværa (). Possibly named after Florus and Laurus. Fælværa was the protector of sheep and his festival was celebrated before sheep-shearing in September. He only has one eye. He is often the enemy of Tutyr.
* Æfsati (). Possibly named after Saint Eustace, he is a male hunting god.
* Kurdalægon (). The heavenly smith. A close friend of the Narts.
* Satana (Сатана). Mother goddess, mother of the Narts.
*Saubarag (), the god of darkness and thieves.
*Huyændon Ældar (Хуыæндон Æлдар). Lord of the fish. A great magician and a spirit who behaves like an earthly chief ("ældar"). His name means "lord of the strait" according to Abaev; this is most probably the Cimmerian Bosphorus, the modern Strait of Kerch.
*Barastyr () Ossetian psychopomp. The ruler of the underworld who assigns arriving dead souls to either paradise or his own realm.
* Aminon (). Gatekeeper of the underworld.
* Alardy or Alaurdi (). Lord of smallpox, who had to be placated.

The ''uac-'' prefix in Uastyrdzhi and Uacilla has no synchronic meaning in Ossetic, and is usually understood to mean "saint" (also applied to Tutyr, ''Uac Tutyr'', perhaps Saint Theodore, and to Saint Nicholas, ''Uac Nikkola''). The synchronic term for "saint", however, is ''syhdaeg'' (cognate to Avestan Yazata). Gershevitch (1955) connects ''uac'' with a word for "word" (Sanskrit ''vāc'', cf. Latin ''vox''), in the sense of Logos.

Dream journey to the land of the dead

Among them there are also some old men and women who, on the eve of Saint Sylvester, fall into a sort of ecstasy, remaining motionless on the ground as though asleep. When they awaken, they say they've seen the souls of the dead, sometimes in a great swamp, alternatively, astride pigs, dogs or rams. If they see a soul gathering wheat in the fields and bringing it to the village, they detect the omen of an abundant harvest.
Julius Klaproth 1823

Kurys (Digor ''Burku'') is a dream land, a meadow belonging to the dead, which can be visited by certain individuals (the shaman-like Kurysdzauta/Burkudzauta) in their sleep. Visitors may bring back miraculous seeds of luck and good fortune, sometimes pursued by the dead. Inexperienced souls may bring back fever and sickness instead. Gershevitch (with V.I. Abaev) compares the name ''Kurys'' to the mountain ''Kaoiris'' in Yasht 19.6 (Avestan ''*Karwisa''), which might indicate that the name is a spurious remnant of origin legends of Airyanem Vaejah of the Alans.

Folklore

Ossetian folklore also includes several mythological figures, including those in the Nart sagas, such as the warrior heroes Batraz, Akhshar and Akhsartag.

See also

* Nart saga

* Ætsæg Din
* Scythian mythology

References

Sources

*
*
*
* .

Further reading

* , published in 3 volumes
** , folklore texts
** , phonetics and grammar of Ossetian; religious beliefs
** , history and ethnography, proverbs
* , based on Miller's 1881 work
*
*

External links

* , e-text based on the :ru:Мифологический словарь (1990) with articles on various figures from Ossetian myth

{{List of mythological figures by region

European mythology
Caucasian Neopaganism
Supernatural beings identified with Christian saints