The Scythian genealogical myth was an epic cycle of the Scythian religion detailing the origin of the Scythians. This myth held an important position in the worldview of Scythian society, and was popular among both the Scythians of the northern Pontic region and the Greeks who had colonised the northern shores of the Pontus Euxinus.
Narrative
Five variants of the Scythian genealogical myth have been retold by Greco-Roman authors, which all traced the origin of the Scythians to the god Targī̆tavah and to the Scythian Snake-Legged Goddess: Herodotus of Halicarnassus's recorded two variants of the myth, and according to his first version, one thousand years before the Scythians were invaded by the Persians in 513 BC, the first man born in hitherto desert Scythia was named Targitaos and was the son of "Zeus" (that is the Scythian Sky-god Pāpaya) and a daughter (that is the Scythian Earth-goddess Api) of the river Borysthenēs. Targitaos in turn had three sons, who each ruled a different part of the kingdom, named: Lipoxais (; ) Arpoxais (; ) Kolaxais (; ) One day three gold objects – a battle-axe, a plough with a yoke, and a drinking cup – fell from the sky, and each brother in turn tried to pick the gold, but when Lipoxais and Arpoxais tried, it burst in flames, while the flames were extinguished when Kolaxais tried. Kolaxais thus became the guardian of this sacred gold (the of Tabiti), 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. Kolaxais in turn had three sons who each ruled a part of the Scythian kingdom. According to the second version of the myth recorded by Herodotus, Hēraklēs arrived in deserted Scythia with Gēryōn's cattle. Because of the extremely cold weather of Scythia, Hēraklēs covered himself with his lion skin and went to sleep. When Hēraklēs woke up, he found that his mares had disappeared, and he searched for them until he arrived at a land called the Woodland (; ), where in a cave he 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 Hēraklēs's horses, which she agreed to return them only if he had sexual intercourse with her. She returned his freedom to Hēraklēs after three sons were born of their union: Agathyrsos (; ) Gelōnos (; ) Skythēs (; ) Before Hēraklēs left Scythia, the serpent maiden asked him what should be done once the boys had reached adulthood, and he gave her his girdle and one of his two bows, and told her that they should be each tasked with stringing the bow and putting on the 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, Skythēs, 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. Agathyrsos and Gelōnos, who were exiled, became the ancestors of the Agathyrsoi and Gelōnoi. A third variant of the myth, recorded by Gaius Valerius Flaccus, described the Scythians as descendants of Colaxes (), who was himself a son of the god Iūpiter with a half-serpent nymph named Hora. The version of the myth recorded by Gaius Valerius Flaccus suggests that Herodotus's first version of the Scythian genealogical myth might have ended with Lipoxais and Arpoxais murdering Kolaxais. The fourth variant of the myth, recorded by Diodorus of Sicily, calls Skythēs the first Scythian and the first king, and describes him as a son of "Zeus" and an earth-born viper-limbed maiden. The fifth version of the myth, recorded in the , recorded that after Hēraklēs had defeated the river-god Araxēs, he fathered two sons with his daughter Echidna, who were named Agathyrsos and Skythēs, who became the ancestors of the Scythians.
Among the two versions of the genealogical myth recorded by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the first one was the closest to the original Scythian form, while the second one was a more Hellenised version which had been adapted to fit Greek mythological canons.
Some regional variations of the genealogical myth might have existed in Scythia, including possibly one which placed the setting of the myth near the mouth of the Tyras river, at the location of the city of Tyras, which was initially called "the snake-filled" () by the Greeks, possibly because the local inhabitants claimed that the home of the serpent-legged Scythian ancestral goddess was located there rather than at Hylaea.
The myth of the golden objects which fell from the sky was also present among other Scythic peoples such as the Saka of Central Asia, and therefore must have been an ancient Iranian tradition.
Interpretation The Snake-Legged Goddess
The serpent-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 foremother was also an androgynous goddess who was often represented in art as being bearded.
The Snake-Legged Goddess was thus a primordial ancestress of humanity, which made her a liminal figure who founded a dynasty, and was therefore only half-human in appearance while still looking like a snake, itself being a creature capable of passing between the worlds of the living and of the dead with no hindrance.
The snake aspect of the goddess is linked to the complex symbology of snakes in various religions due to their ability to disappear into the ground, their venom, the shedding of their skin, their fertility, and their coiling movements, which are associated with the underworld, death, renewal, and fertility: being able to pass from the worlds above and below the earth, as well as of bringing both death and prosperity, snakes were symbols of fertility and revival. The legs of the goddess were sometimes instead depicted as tendrils, which also had a similar function by representing fertility, prosperity, renewal, and the afterlife because they grow from the Earth within which the dead were placed and blossom again each year.
The Snake-Legged Goddess was also a feminine deity who appeared in an androgynous form in ritual and cult, as well as in iconography and ritual. This androgyny represented the full inclusiveness of the Snake-Legged Goddess in her role as the primordial ancestress of humanity. The androgyny of the Snake-Legged Goddess also enhanced her inherent duality represented by her snake and tendril limbs.
The role of the Snake-Legged Goddess in the genealogical myth is not unlike those of sirens and similar non-human beings in Greek mythology, who existed as transgressive women living outside of society and refusing to submit to the yoke of marriage, but instead chose their partners and forced them to join her. Nevertheless, unlike the creatures of Greek myth, the Scythian serpent-maiden did not kill Hēraklēs, who tries to win his freedom from her.
The identification of the father of the Snake-Legged Goddess with the river-god Araxes corresponds to the non-mythological origin of the Scythians as recorded by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, according to which the Scythians initially lived along the Araxes river until the Massagetae expelled them from their homeland, after which they crossed the Araxes river and migrated westwards.
The myth of Aphroditē Apatouros The Scythian genealogical myth was a continuation of the legend of () and the Giants as recorded by Strabo, according to which the goddess Aphroditē Apatouros had been attacked by Giants and called on Hēraklēs for help. After concealing Hēraklēs, the goddess, under guise of introducing the Giants one by one, treacherously handed them to Hēraklēs, who killed them. Aphroditē Apatouros and "Hēraklēs" then buried the Giants under the earth, due to which volcanic activity remained a constant in the region of Apatouron.
Aphroditē Apatouros was the same goddess as the Snake-Legged Goddess of the Scythian genealogical myth, while "Hēraklēs" was in fact Targī̆tavah, and her reward to him for defeating the Giants was her love.
The Greek poet Hesiod might have mentioned this legend in the , where he assimilated the Snake-Legged Goddess to the monstrous figure of Echidna from Greek mythology. In Hesiod's narrative, "Echidna" was a serpent-nymph living in a cave far from any inhabited lands, and the god Targī̆tavah, assimilated to the Greek hero Hēraklēs, killed two of her children, namely the Hydra of Lerna and the lion of Nemea. Thus, in this story, "Hēraklēs" functioned as a destroyer of evils and a patron of human dwellings located in place where destruction had previously prevailed.
"Hēraklēs"
The "Hēraklēs" of Herodotus of Halicarnassus's second version and from the 's version of the genealogical myth is not the Greek hero Hēraklēs, but the Scythian god Targī̆tavah, who appears in the other recorded variants of the genealogical myth under the name of Targitaos or Skythēs as a son of "Zeus" (that is, the Scythian Sky Father Papaios), and was likely assimilated by the Greeks from the northern shores of the Black Sea with the Greek Hēraklēs because of his important role in the foundational myths of the Greek colonists throughout the Mediterranean basin.
The arrival of "Hēraklēs" in the deserted Scythia corresponds to the mythical motif of the conquest of the empty land by the brave invader, while the stealing of his mares by the serpent maiden corresponds to the cattle-raid motif of Indo-Iranic mythology.
The reference to "Hēraklēs" driving the cattle of Gēryōn also reflects the motif of the cattle-stealing god widely present among Indo-Iranic peoples, and the reference to him stealing Gēryōn's cattle after defeating him in Herodotus of Halicarnassus's second version of the genealogical myth and of his victory against the river-god Araxēs in the 's version were Hellenised versions of an original Scythian myth depicting the typical mythological theme of the fight of the mythical ancestor-hero, that is of Targī̆tavah, against the chthonic forces, through which he slays the incarnations of the primordial chaos to create the Cosmic order.
The Hellenised myth of Targī̆tavah staying in Scythia might have been recorded in the , which mentions a bull-riding cattle-thief Titan, who, in this Hellenised narrative, might have been "Hēraklēs," to whom Targī̆tavah was identified, and who created the Cimmerian Bosporus by cutting a passage from the Maeotian swamp.
The stolen horses and the bow of Targī̆tavah in the second variant of the genealogical myth connected him to the equestrianism and archery of the Scythians.
The peoples of Scythia believed that Targī̆tavah had left a two-cubit long footprint in the territory of the Tyragetae, in the region of the middle Tyras river, which the local peoples of this area displayed proudly. Since only gods were able to leave footprints on the hard rock, this footprint was held as a sign of divine protection, and, being the ancestor of the Scythians, he became their protector and laid claim to their country and all of its inhabitants for eternity by pressing his footprint into the Scythian rock.
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.
Cosmogenesis This myth explained the origin of the world, and therefore begun with the Heaven father Pāpaya and the Earth-and-Water Mother Api being already established in their respective places, following the Iranic cosmogenic tradition. This was followed by the process of creation proper through the birth of the first man, Targī̆tavah.
Ethnogenesis