The Scythian religion refers to the mythology, ritual practices and beliefs of the Scythian cultures, a collection of closely related ancient Iranic 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 Iranic 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 Iranic and Ossetian traditions, and to have influenced later Slavic, Hungarian and Turkic mythologies.
Development The Scythian religion was of Iranic origin, and 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.
Cosmology The Scythian cosmology corresponded to the typically Indo-Iranic tripartite structure of the universe , which is also present in the Vedic and Avestan traditions, and according to which the universe was composed of: the celestial realm the air space earthly realm and the underworld
Pantheon According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, 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-Iranic:Macaulay (1904:314). Cf. also Rolle (1980:128–129); Hort (1827:188–190).
In the first rank was the head of the pantheon: Tabiti, the Flaming One, who was the goddess of heat, fire and the hearth In the second rank were the binary opposites and the father and mother of the universe: Api, the Earth and Water Mother Papaios, the Sky Father The third and final rank was composed of four deities with specific characteristics: Targitaos, the forefather of the Scythian kings The Scythian "Ares," the god of war Goitosyros, who might have been associated with the Sun Artimpasa, a more complex goddess who was a patron of fertility and had power over sovereignty and the priestly force An eighth Scythian deity mentioned by Herodotus was Thagimasadas, who was worshipped only by the tribe of the Royal Scythians.
This list of the Scythian deities by Herodotus might have been a translation of a Scythian hymn to the gods which was chanted during sacrifices and rituals.
With the omission of Thagimasadas who was worshipped only by the Royal Scythians, the Scythian pantheon was composed of seven gods, with the Sarmatian tribe of the Alans 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-Iranic religions: seven led by Ahura Mazdā are worshipped in the Zoroastrian religion of the more southern Iranic peoples, which had significantly transformed the concepts of the Indo-Iranic religion while also inheriting several features of it; the leading deities of the Indic Vedic pantheon, the , 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 Tabiti
The Scythian name of the goddess () was , which meant "the Burning One" or "the Flaming One," was the goddess of the primordial fire which alone existed before the creation of the universe and was the basic essence and the source of all creation, and from her were born Api (the Earth) and Papaeus (Heaven).
Tabiti the most venerated of all Scythian deities, is associated with Indo-Iranic concept of fire. She was not, however, depicted in Scythian art, and was instead represented by the fireplace, which constituted the sacral centre of any community, from the family to the tribe.
As a goddess of the hearth, Tabiti was the patron of society, the state, and families, and she thus protected the family and the clan, and was a symbol of supreme authority. The king's hearth was hence connected with Tabiti, and Tabiti herself was connected with royal power.
The "hearths" () of Tabiti 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 Tabiti herself in turn was the protector of the king and the royal hearth.
The second rank Api The Scythian goddess of the birth-giving chthonic principle was Api (; ) or Apia (Hellenised as ; ). This goddess's role is reflected by her name, , which was a Scythian cognate of the Avestan word for water, (), and through her equation by Herodotus of Halicarnassus with the Greek goddess of the Earth, Gaia. Api was the daughter of the god Borysthenēs, due to which she was also called ().
The identification of Api as a goddess of both Earth and water rested upon the conceptualisation in ancient cosmologies of Earth and water as being two aspects of the same birth-giving chthonic principle; and, within Iranic tradition, the earth was a life-giving principle which was inextricably connected to water, which was itself held to have fertilising, nourishing, and healing properties. The name Api was also linked to a child-talk endearing word meaning "mommy," with these various connections of Api and her name painting the consistent picture of her as a primordial deity from whom was born the world's first inhabitants.
Api was connected to the Avestan water goddess Arəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā, one of whose epithets was (); the name of Api's father, the aquatic god Borysthenēs, might have meant "place of beavers," thus possibly connecting him to the mantle of beaver skins worn by the latter goddess in Avestan scripture, and in turn establishing another connection between Api and Arəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā. and The union of zeus and Api in scythian cosmology has also been compared to the primordial coupling of Ahura Mazdā, representing the sky, and the Zoroastrian divine entity Armaiti, representing the earth.
Api was the consort of Papaios, with the two of them initially existing together into an inseparable unity and their union representing the joining of opposite principles such as above and below, male and female, warmth and moisture, and therefore reflecting the Indo-Iranic tradition of the marriage between Heaven and Earth as the basis for the creation of the world, - and paralleling the union between Ahurā Mazdā and the Ameshaspand Armaiti (who takes care of Earth) in the .
The union of Api and Papaios gave birth to the "middle world," that is the air space, which is the part of the cosmos where humanity and all physical beings lived. From the union of Api and Papaios were also born 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, Api 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 Api by Scythian peoples is attested in Strabo's mention that the Derbices worshipped "Mother Earth."
Papaeus The Scythian personification of Heaven and equivalent of the Zoroastrian great god Ahura Mazdā () was the god Papaeus (), who, like Ahura Mazdā, was also a divine father. This is reflected in the original Scythian name of this god, which was , meaning "father." Papaios was the consort of the Earth goddess Api, hence why he was equated by Herodotus of Halicarnassus with the Greek god Zeus.
Papaios was the son of Tabiti, the primordial fire. Papaios and Api initially existed together into an inseparable unity, with their union representing the joining of opposite principles such as above and below, male and female, warmth and moisture, and therefore reflecting the Indo-Iranic tradition of the marriage between Heaven and Earth as the basis for the creation of the world, - and paralleling the union between Ahurā Mazdā and the Earth goddess Armaiti in the .
The union of Papaios and Api gave birth to the "middle world," that is the air space, which is the part of the cosmos where humanity and all physical beings lived. From the union of Api and Papaios were also born 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 Origen of Alexandria, the Scythians considered Papaeus to be a supreme god, hence why the ancient Greeks were able to identify him with their own god Zeus, who was conceptualised as a cosmic force who ruled over and was the father of all peoples and gods throughout the world, including in Scythia.
The scholar Yazdan Safaee argues that Darius the Great's statement in the Behistun Inscription that the Scythians did not worship Ahura Mazdā thus had no basis and was a political statement 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 , the four guardian-gods of the directions, who each also had their own "sphere of action," such as Yama, the guardian of the South, being the ruler over the world of the deceased ancestors, and Indra, the guardian of the East, being the king of the gods and the personification of the "middle world."
Targitaos
The Scythian god (meaning "possessing the strength of the goddess Tarkā"; ) or (; ), appears in the Greek recollections of Scythian genealogical myth where he was called the "Scythian Hēraklēs" by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, although he was not the same as the Greek hero Heracles. Targī̆tavah-Skuδa was born from the union of Papaeus and Api, and he was the divine ancestor of the Scythians.
Targī̆tavah might also have been identified by the Greeks in southern Scythia with Achilles Pontarkhēs (), in which role he was associated with the Snake-Legged Goddess and was the father of her three sons.
The Scythian "Ares"