Today’s offering comes to us from SianLuc Asha Merlyn Heart, an amateur scholar in anthropology and history, interested in the history of religion and studying to become a scholar in religious history and theology at the University of New England, Australia.
Paganism can be described as an endlessly expansive and complex branch of religion. Many faiths that would otherwise be considered unrelated are grouped together because in the end the Pagan movement does not care for one individual philosophy or theology, but rather that our faiths are inspired by ancient heritage. Because of this, one could easily find Paganisms from all across Europe, and perhaps the world, grouped together in a single Pagan gathering. This has allowed for Pagans to also explore more ancient and obscure cultures from across the world and worship gods that have never taken the world’s imagination in the way that Zeus or Odin have. We are discussing one of those paths today.
Out of sight of everyone else, one new branch of Paganism is beginning its own slow revival. This is Scythian Paganism, with its own ancient forms of philosophy, theology, and an impressive cosmology and sacred history.
Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla, 4th century BCE [Wikimedia Commons]
To begin with: the Scythians were an Indo-Aryan people, meaning that their language and culture shared kinship with Sanskrit and Avestan and that their religion shared features of Zoroastrianism and Vedic-era Hinduism. They dwelled on the steppe north of the Black Sea in what is today the nation of Ukraine and its neighbouring countries. They are well-known for their fierce raiding culture and independence, fighting against the Achaemenid Empire and killing their founder Cyrus the great along with raiding and destroying Greek settlers.
Our best source on the Scythians, the Greeks, were not friendly in their accounts. Seeing them as brutal savages, that remarked heavily upon the supposed custom of the Taurians who lived on the peninsula of Crimea, that custom being that they would attack any sailor that ended up in their territory, including those that were washed up or forced to shore, and after killing them, eat the body.
The Scythians were considered to have been extremely conservative in their beliefs and culture, inheriting the land of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Herodotus remarks upon this in the life of King Scyles of Scythia, reporting that when his people found out that the king was practising the mysteries of Dionysus, they chased him out of the country to Thrace before hunting him down, bringing him back to Scythia and executing their king.
This characteristic hostility towards the Greeks did not seem to last, however; there were multiple philosophical dialogues between the Scythians and the Greeks about friendship, honour, and loyalty. Further, a Scythian sage, Ancharis, not only migrated to Athens, but was widely held as a wise sage, so much so that he was counted amongst the Seven Sages of Greece, next to the likes Thales and Chilon in some records.
Further, the relationship between the Greek colonists of the Black Sea and the Scythians seemed to have been amicable. Many of the great Scythian artworks, such as their golden comb, were originally made by the Greeks, and syncretic cults, such as that of Apollo Iapetus and the Bosporan cult of the Most High God, were born out of a mixture of Greek and Scythian beliefs.
The Scythians disappear from the historical record with the arrival of the Huns and the Goths. Their homeland around Ukraine was conquered by the Hunnic Empire and settled by the Crimean Goths. After this, the region would be open to nomadic settlement and invasion until the time of the Russian Empire.
As for sources concerning their religion, it is unfortunate that we do not have any direct record from the Scythians themselves, but rather we must rely upon the biased Greek and Persian accounts. However the accounts from the Greeks themselves prove to be fruitful concerning the religious beliefs and practises of the Scythians, in particular the heptad of Scythian worship.
Our greatest source concerning the gods of the Scythians comes from Herodotus. He lists the seven main gods of the Scythians and the patron god of the Royal Scythians:
“They worship only the following gods, namely Vesta, whom they reverence beyond all the rest, Jupiter, and Tellus, whom they consider to be the wife of Jupiter; and after these Apollo, Celestial Venus, Hercules and Mars. These gods are worshipped by the whole nation: the Royal Scythians offer sacrifice likewise to Neptune. In the Scythic tongue Vesta is called Tabiti, Jupiter (very properly in my judgment) Papaeus, Tellus Apia, Apollo Oetosyrus, Celestial Venus Artimpasa, and Neptune Thamimasdas. They use no image, altars or temples, except in the worship of Mars; but in his worship they do use them.”
(Herodotus, Histories Book 4)
This description and in particular the way he lists each of the gods is more revealing than one may first assume, as it may denote the origins of the creation myth according to the Scythians and their famous genealogical myth as it was uncovered. But this will be covered later – let us first examine the gods that are listed here.
Kul-Oba treasure. Cabinet des Medailles, Paris. The figure at the top is the Snake-Legged Goddess identified in Scythian Paganism as Artimpasa. [Wikimedia Commons]
The first thing to note is that while Herodotus gives us the name of most of the gods in the original tongue, they are Greek corruptions of the Indo-Iranian names. As such it is necessary to first correct the names to their original form before exploring the nature of the gods and the role they played.
Tabiti, the proper form being Tapati, meaning “the flaming or the burning one,” who holds a special place in the genealogical myth and Scythian cosmology, is the head of the Scythian pantheon, both in age but also in supremacy. She was named by the Scythian king Idanthyros as the “Queen of the Scythians.” She was the goddess of the hearth, particularly of the royal hearth, and the kingship of the Scythians and the Scythian reflection of Kharvenah. It was thought that breaking an oath sworn on the hearth caused sickness and disaster for the king and was punishable by death.
Historically she was the first of the fire deities, being later replaced by figures such as Zoroastrian Atar and Agni, and is remarked as being the only known female fire deity amongst the Indo-Aryans, keeping her place of prominence while the other cults dwindled.
Api, whose name is recorded correctly, was the goddess of the primeval waters and the earth in Scythian religion. She may also hold a significant role in the genealogical myth, though she may have been overshadowed by one of her children in terms of role and cult.
Papaeus, the proper form being Papaios, which means “protector, guardian or father,” is the consort of Api and the god of the sky. He is possibly remarked as being the king of the Scythians by Idanthyros but this may again refer to one of his children. He is associated with birdlife and in particular griffins which plays a role in the genealogical myth.
Scythian Hercules, in accounts of the genealogical myth, is often recorded as Targitaos, which is a Hellenised corruption of Dargatavah. He was considered the god of the middle world and the god whom the Scythians descended from in the genealogical myth. Otherwise, he held the role of the thunder god of the Scythians and the founder of their kingship and royal line.
Oetosyrus, the original name being Gaithasura, was the god associated with Apollo and therefore he was likely considered to be associated with the sun. His name has been compared to an epithet of Mithra, pointing toward a connection between the two, though this has been contested.
Artimpasa, also known as Argimpasa, is perhaps one of the most complex goddesses in the Scythian pantheon. She was associated with the Heavenly Aphrodite (Aphrodite Ourania) and was likely the snake-legged goddess that was widely depicted in Scythian artworks and iconography. She was the goddess that was associated with fertility and kingship but also to a large degree shamanism, and was served by a special priesthood called the Anarya.
The Anarya were special priests who wore women’s clothing and in many ways acted as women. They were reported to have originated from Artimpasa herself after she cursed the Scythians who raided the temple of Astarte in the Levant, as Artimpasa was compared to Astarte. They held massive religious and shamanistic power in the Scythian world. They were called upon when the king was sick or the nation of suffering, and they served as well as soothsayers and diviners.
Scythian Ares is the only god whose name is not known for sure, though he is theorised to perhaps be related to Vayu in other Indo-Aryan traditions. He is also the only god worshipped by an idol, though this will be discussed in more detail later. He was considered a god of the wind and associated with kingship. He was also the feature of the bloody sacrifices of prisoners amongst the Scythians where it is recorded by Herodotus that their right arms were cut off and thrown in the air.
Thagimasdas, also known as Thamimasidas, was the god of the royal Scythians and compared to Poseidon. However, his exact role is not well known. It is theorised that he perhaps takes up the role of the royal ancestor or that his connection to horses and may have something to do with his worship. This remains speculation.
Scythian golden comb, made by Greeks probably to Scythian taste, from Solokha, early 4th century BCE, Hermitage Museum [Wikimedia Commons]
However more important than just the names given by Herodotus is the way he lists them out. From this description, three different grades of deities can be found, concerning not only the stages of creation but also relating to the world as the Scythians saw it in their time and how Scythian Pagans would see it today.
The first grade belongs only to Tapati. She is held to have been the first deity in the world and the goddess of creation. In the cosmology of the Scythians it is theorised that Tapati was considered to be at the sacred centre of creation, along with mountains of some kind, a sacred world tree, and a special lake connected to the Milky Way. This was perhaps identified with the royal hearth of the Scythians where men swore oaths on the king’s own health.
The second grade belonged to Api and Papaios. These gods represented the Heavens and the Waters/The Earth. They were created by Tapati in some fashion, but the exact manner of their creation is not wholly known.
The final grade of deities belongs to Artimpasa, Dargatavah, Gaithasura and the Scythian Ares, the children of Api and Papaios, who represented the Earth and the four cardinal directions.
It is here that the idol and hearth of Scythian Ares requires larger discussion. The idol of Ares is described by Herodotus as a sword in the middle of a brushwood platform, supposedly a mountain by his measurements, though this is refuted, that was shaped in a square. This is theorised to represent the sacred centre and the four-direction world of the Scythian pagans, a cognate of the Devaloka in Hindu traditions. Ironically, the last sign of Scythian religion was the sword of Mars wielded by Attila, the last cry of the Scythians giving legitimacy to what could have been their conquerors.
To summarise, the Scythians thought that their world began with Tapati, who then moved to the sacred centre. Tapati then either gave birth to or created Api and Papaios, who were the heaven and the waters, then this second grade gave birth to the world and the four directions represented by Artimpasa, Dargatavah, Gaithasura and the Scythian Ares. Other deities such as Thagimasdas do not feature in this three-grade scheme, at least not in a function that is understood.
This factors into the genealogical myth, recorded by Dmitry Raevskiy in his Scythian Mythology, who ingeniously reconstructs the original narrative of the Scythians from Greek accounts – not just Herodotus’s account of their gods, but from parts of the Argonautica and even drawing upon the Hellenic myth of the origins of the Scythian nature that feature Heracles as their founder.
The myth begins with the scheme laid above until the birth of Dargatavah. Here the narrative truly begins, with the daughter of a river monster who carries several names depending on the river chosen to represent the narrative. The preferred name of the demon to modern Scythian Pagans is that of Araxes. The daughter of Araxes, that being the snake-legged goddess who Raevskiy connects to either Api or Artimpasa, seduces him and sends him off to fight the river demon and possibly an army of giants.
This Dargatavah does, possibly with his brother. It is important to note here that this myth is likely connected to the Indo-European myth of the thunder god and the dragon. In the Herculean narrative it is stated that the snake goddess steals the cattle of Hercules; this may represent Araxes taking sacred cattle.
On his way to battle, Dargatavah and his brother capture either Api or Artimpasa in the form of a rabbit, ensuring victory and providing the origin of the narrative of the Scythians stopping battle with the Persians to chase after a rabbit. The rabbit goddess helps them in the Herculean narrative by leading the giants through a narrow passageway in the mountains, allowing Dargatavah to kill them one by one, possibly with the help of griffins lent to him by Papaios. In a Scythian mural, Dargatavah’s brother may be shown to have been killed by Araxes.
After this, Dargatavah mates with the goddess and produces three children: Lipoaxais, Arpoaxais, and Colaxais. The goddess Tapati then sends down to earth four golden items wreathed in flame: a plough, a yoke, a drinking cup, and a battle axe. In a sequence thought to represent the three caste system of the Indo-Europeans proposed by George Dumezil, when Arpoaxais and Lipoaxais try to pick up the items they are burnt, but when Colaxais tries he is able to hold the items. These four golden items still existed in Herodotus’s time and were connected in royal inauguration rites amongst the Scythians that involved human sacrifice.
This narrative is additionally paired with a narrative of Dargatavah having a special bow on him. He asks his sons to string it: Arpoaxais and Lipoaxais fail, Lipoaxais suffering damage to his tooth and Arpoaxais suffering injury to his knee. Colaxais however was able to string it.
It was through these tests that Dargatavah was able to prove that Colaxais was going to be the future king of the Scythians. However, a jealous Lipoaxais and Arpoaxais go after Colaxais and kill him. During his last stand Colaxais stands over his dead horse as one of his brothers runs him down on horseback and the other on the ground. This scene is represented in the famous golden comb of the Scythians.
From here things get even more muddled. It is likely some kind of war continues from the possible children of Colaxais and the children of Arpoaxais and Lipoaxais. By the end of it, the children of Colaxais take the kingship of the Scythians.
In the modern day, though there are very few of them, Scythian Pagans take inspiration from these origin myths and Greek accounts to not only bring back the worship and rites of these gods but also the unique ethos presented in Greek narratives around the Scythians. Truly such a vibrant mythological and religious backdrop can inspire many stories and beliefs, and there is no shortage to the wonder that the study of Scythian religion may bring. Even this article, though lengthy, fails to even scratch the surface to the true depth of Scythian belief.
It is at the very least my hope to see the Scythian Pagan community, though in their infancy, grow and evolve further to bring the unique beliefs of the Scythians into the modern day and to experience this unique faith and ethos with others in the future.
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