Scythian religion

The Scythian name of the goddess Tabiti (Ancient Greek: Ταβιτι, romanized: Tabiti) was *Tāpayantī,[9] which meant "the Burning One" or "the Flaming One,"[10][11], 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).[8][12]

Tabiti was the most venerated of all Scythian deities, but she was not 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.[12]

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.[13][14]

The "hearths" (εστιαι) 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.[7][12][8]

The Scythian goddess of the birth-giving chthonic principle was Api (Ancient Greek: Απι, romanized: Api; Latin: Api) or Apia (Hellenised as Ancient Greek: Απια, romanized: Apia; Latin: Apia). This goddess's role is reflected by her name, *Api, which was a Scythian cognate of the Avestan word for water, api (𐬀𐬞𐬌), and through her equation by Herodotus of Halicarnassus with the Greek goddess of the Earth, Γαια (Gaia). These identifications rested upon the conceptualisation in ancient cosmologies of Earth and water as being two aspects of same the birth-giving chthonic principle, and, within Iranic tradition, the earth was a life-giving principle which was inextricably connected to water, which was 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.[8][12]

Api was the daughter of the river Baurastāna,[15] and, being a goddess of water and earth, Api was thus similar to the Zoroastrian Earth goddess Ārmaⁱti, who, like Api, was also a goddess of the terrestrial waters.[16]

Api was also the consort of Papaios, with the two of them initially existing together into an inseparable unity, with their union representing the joining together of opposite principles such as above and below, male and female, warmth and moisture,[16] 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 Ārmaⁱti in the Avesta.[17]

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.[17]

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.[12]

The worship of Api by Scythian peoples is attested in Strabo's mention that the Derbices worshipped "Mother Earth."[13]

The Scythian personification of Heaven[8] and equivalent of the Zoroastrian great god Ahura Mazdā (𐬨𐬀𐬰𐬛𐬁 𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬭𐬀)[13] was the god Papaeus (Ancient Greek: Παπαιος, romanized: Papaios), who, like Ahura Mazdā, was also a divine father.[16] This is reflected in the original Scythian name of this god, which was *Pāpaya,[18] meaning "father."[19] Papaios was the consort of the Earth goddess Api, hence why he was equated by Herodotus of Halicarnassus with the Greek god Zeus.[20]

Papaios was the son of Tāpayantī, the primordial fire. Papaios and Api initially existed together into an inseparable unity, with their union representing the joining together of opposite principles such as above and below, male and female, warmth and moisture,[16] 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 Ārmaⁱti in the Avesta.[17]

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.[17]

According to Origen, the Scythians considered Papaeus to be a supreme god.[20] 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.[13]

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 Lokapāla, 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."[8]

The Scythian god Targī̆tavah (meaning "possessing the strength of Targā," with Targā being for now of unknown meaning;[21] Ancient Greek: Ταργιταος, romanized: Targitaos) or Skuδa (Ancient Greek: Σκυθης, romanized: Skuthēs; Latin: Scythes),[22] 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 a daughter of the river Baurastāna, and he was the divine ancestor of the Scythians.[13][12]

The Scythian "Ares," that is the Scythian war god equated by Herodotus with the Greek god Ares (Αρης), corresponded to the Iranic deity Vərᵊθraγna, and might possibly have been an offspring of Tāpayantī.[13] The Scythian and Sarmatian "Ares" was represented by an akīnakēs sword planted upwards at the top of a tall square altar made of brushwood of which three sides were vertical and the fourth was inclined to allow access to it. The Scythian "Ares" was given blood sacrifices and his representation in the form of a sword are evidence of his military function.[8] The Scythian "Ares" was also a god of kingship, and the use of horses and of the blood and right arms of prisoners in his cult was a symbolic devotion of the swiftness of horses and the strength of men to this god who had similar powers.[23]

The square shape of the altar of the Scythian "Ares" represented the four-sided "middle world," that is the air space, and the sword placed at its top represented the world axis which represented the vertical structure of the universe and connected its cosmic, central, and chthonic zones; the altar to the Scythian "Ares" was thus a model of the universe as conceptualised within Scythian cosmology, most and represented especially its central zone, the air space.[8] The tallness of the mound which acted as the altar to the Scythian "Ares," as well as the practice of throwing the right arms of prisoners sacrificed to him in the sky, are evidence of the celestial nature of the Scythian "Ares" as a god of the air space,[24] that is the practice of throwing these sacrificed arms in the air indicate that the Scythian "Ares" was associated to the gods of the sky and wind, Vāta (𐬬𐬁𐬙𐬀‎) and Vaiiu (𐬬𐬀𐬌𐬌), and more especially the wind, since the wind-god Vaiiu was the first incarnation of Vərᵊθraγna and a special carrier of fārnā/xᵛarᵊnah. This is also recorded in the works of the Greek author Lucian of Samosata, who recorded that the Scythians worshipped the Wind and the Sword as gods, referring to the dual nature of the Scythian "Ares" as a god of both the Wind, which brings gives life, and the Sword, which brings death; the dual nature of this god is also visible in the akīnakēs used to represent him being shaped like a phallus, thus being a deadly weapon which was also shaped in the form of a life-giving organ.[23][8]

According to Tadeusz Sulimirski, this form of worship continued among the descendants of the Scythians, the Alans, through to the 4th century AD;[3] this tradition may be reflected in Jordanes's assertion that Attila had obtained the sacred Scythian sword which had fallen from the sky that he called the "Sword of Mars," and which he believed made him powerful in war and made of him the "prince of the entire world."[25]

The hero Batyraʒ from the Ossetian Narty kadǵytæ might have originated from the Scythian "Ares." In the sagas, Batyraʒ appears as a brave but uncontrolled warrior living in the air space and sometimes took the form of a whirlwind, who often protected his peoples from multiple enemies, and who was made of steel and connected to his sword, which provided him with immortality so long as it remained unbroken, thus being the incarnation of Batyraʒ himself.[8]

The Scythian god Gaiθāsūra (Ancient Greek: Γοιτοσυρος, romanized: Goitosuros; Latin: Goetosyrus), might have been a solar deity, due to which Herodotus equated him with the Greek god Apollo).[7]

The Scythian name Gaiθāsūra is comparable to Avestan Gaoiiaoⁱtiš.sūrō (𐬔𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬙𐬌𐬱⸱𐬯𐬏𐬭𐬋) and Vedic Sanskrit Gavyutiśūra (गव्युतिशूर), with the Avestan form being an epithet of Miθra as the "Lord of Cattle-Land," that is a deity of cattle culture widely worshipped by the common people in Scythian society.[26] The first term composing this name, gaiθā, meaning "herd" and "possessions," is a cognate of Avestan gaoiiaoⁱtiš (𐬔𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬙𐬌𐬱), meaning "cow pasture," and reflects the nature of "Apollo Goetosyrus" as a Hellenization of the Iranic deity Mithra Voᵘru.gaoiiaoⁱtiš (𐬬𐬊𐬎𐬭𐬎⸱𐬔𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬊𐬌𐬙𐬌𐬱); the second element sūra, meaning "strong" and "mighty," is the same as the Avestan element sūra, meaning "mighty," from the name of the goddess Arəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā (𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬛𐬎𐬎𐬍 𐬯𐬏𐬭𐬁 𐬀𐬥𐬁𐬵𐬌𐬙𐬀‎‎), and is connected to the Scythians' association of Gaiθāsūra with the goddess Artimpasa, who had absorbed many of the traits of Arəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā.[27][28]

Due to the connections of Gaiθāsūra's and his identification with the Greek god Apollo, he has been identified with Mithra, although this identification is largely tentative, with the multiple functions of Apollo contributing to this uncertainty. [8]

Depictions of a solar god with a radiate head and riding a carriage pulled by two or four horses on numerous pieces of art found in Scythian burials from the 3rd century BC and later might have been representations of Gaiθāsūra.[12]

Decorated tapestry with a seated goddess (Artimpasa[12]) and Scythian rider, Pazyryk Kurgan 5, Altai, Southern Russia c. 241 BC.[29]

Artimpasa (Ancient Greek: Αρτιμπασα, romanized: Artimpasa; Latin: Artimpasa), often erroneously called Argimpasa (Ancient Greek: Ancient Greek: Αργιμπασα, romanized: Argimpasa) due to a scribal corruption, was a complex androgynous Scythian goddess of fertility who possessed power over sovereignty and the priestly force.[12]

Artimpasa was a goddess of warfare, sovereignty, priestly force, fecundity, vegetation and fertility,[12] and was the Scythian variant of the Iranic goddess Arti (𐬀𐬭𐬙𐬌‎)/Aṣ̌i (𐬀𐬴𐬌‎‎), who was a patron of fertility and marriage and a guardian of laws who represented material wealth in its various forms, including[12] domestic animals, precious objects, and a plentiful descendance. Artimpasa had also been influenced by the Iranic goddess Anāhitā, the Assyro-Babylonian Ištar-ʿAštart, and by the Thracian Great Mother goddess Bendis, thus making her an altogether complex deity.[12]

Artimpasa was thus equated by Herodotus with the Greek goddess Aphrodite Urania, who herself presided over productivity in the material world.[8]

Thagimasadas (Ancient Greek: Θαγιμασαδας, romanized: Thagimasadas) or Thamimasidas (Ancient Greek: Θαμιμασαδας, romanized: Thamimasadas) was a god worshipped only by the tribe of the Royal Scythians.[7] Thagimasadas was thus not a member of the pan-Scythian heptatheistic pantheon and was likely the tribal- and ancestor- deity of the Royal Scythians.[8]

The etymology of the name of this deity is uncertain,[8] and element -μασαδας of the god's name might be derived from the Iranic term mazatā, meaning "great";[22] the element Θαγι- might have been a cognate of the Avestan word θβāṣ̌a (𐬚𐬡𐬁𐬴𐬀, meaning "firmament"), and the Vedic Sanskrit term tvakṣ- (त्वक्ष्) or takṣ- (तक्ष्), meaning "to create by putting into motion."[30]

Herodotus identified Thagimasadas with the Greek god Poseidon because both Thagimasadas and Poseidon (in his form as Poseidon Hippius, lit. 'the equine Poseidōn') were horse-tamer deities, but also because, among the Athenians who were his audience, Poseidon was identified with Erichthonius of Athens, whom the Athenians considered their mythical ancestor, similarly to how Thagimasadas was believed to be the ancestor of the Royal Scythians.[7][8]

The equation of Thagimasadas with Poseidon might also be due to his possible role as a fashioner of the sky and hence was connected to sky-waters and thunderbolts just like the Greek Poseidon was.[30]

The Scythian images of a winged horse inspired from that of the Greek Pegasus might have been connected to Thagimasadas.[8]

The Snake-Legged Goddess (top)

The Scythian deity known in modern day as the "Snake-Legged Goddess," also referred to as the "Anguipede Goddess," so called because several representations of her depict her as a goddess with snakes or tendrils as legs, was associated to the life-giving principle. The Snake-Legged Goddess was a daughter of Api, likely through a river-god, and belonged to a younger generation of deities of "lower status" who were more actively involved in human life. She appears in all variations of the Scythian genealogical myth as the Scythian fore-mother who sires the ancestor and first king of the Scythians with Targī̆tavah.[12]

The mytheme of the Divine twins, which appears across several Indo-European religions in the form of the Ancient Greek Dioskouroi), the Vedic Aśvins and the twins from the Dacian tablets - these divine twins had in earlier Indo-European mythology been horses before later evolving into horsemen such as the Aśvins and the English Hengist and Horsa, who had horse-names. In Indo-European mythology, the divine twins were companions of the Mother-Goddess who flanked her symbol of the Tree of Life, especially in depictions of them as two horses or horsemen who stand symmetrically near a goddess or a tree.[12]

In pre-Zoroastrian Iranic religion, Nåŋhaⁱθiia (𐬥𐬂𐬢𐬵𐬀𐬌𐬚𐬌𐬌𐬀), the Iranic inflection of the divine twins, were connected with Anāhitā and were her companions. The cult of the divine twins existed among the Scythians, with Loukianos of Samosata recording the veneration of two twin deities in a Scythian temple whom he identified with the Greek Orestes and Pylades. Their duality represented the contrast of death against fertility and resurrection, and were related to royalty and warrior society, which thus made them companions of Artimpasa, as depicted in the Karagodeuashkh plate.[12]

Depictions of the divine twins among Scythian peoples included some Sarmatian royal brands depicting the theme of the two horsemen standing symmetrically near a tree, a small figure from a Scythian burial at Krasny Mayak depicting two men embracing one another, as well as two Greek-made bronze figurines from Scythian Neapolis depicting the Greek Dioscuri who were identified by the Scythians with the divine twins, together with a terracotta sculpture in the shape of a goddess's head were discovered in an ash altar near a wall of a temple where was worshipped a fertility goddess to whom was associated images of rams.[12]

The divine twins' position in Scythian religion was inferior to that of the gods, likely belonging to the rank of heroes, and might possibly have been the same as the two brothers and first Scythian kings born of Targī̆tavah and the Snake-Legged Goddess in the genealogical myth. The Scythian divine twins, who were most likely the origin of the twin heroes who appear in the Ossetian Narty kadǵytæ, are another reflection of the Indo-European mytheme of the divine twins as the progenitors of royal dynasties, also found in the Roman myth of Romulus and Remus, the English Hengist and Horsa, and the Greek Dioskouroi as the originators of the dual-monarchy of Sparta.[12]

Among the Scythians and the Sindo-Maeotians was present the cult of a solar god depicted as a mounted deified ancestor. This deity was believed to be a fighter against evil, and was popular from the late first millennium BC to the first centuries of the Common Era on the Black Sea coast, Central Asia and Transcaucasia, and appeared in South Asia following the migrations of the Saka there.[20]

By the 1st centuries AD in the Bosporus, the chariot-riding Scythian solar god Gaiθāsūra had been syncretised with the horse-riding Persian god Mithra, imported from the southern and eastern shores of the Pontus Euxinus, to become the Most High God (Ancient Greek: Θεος Υψιστος, romanized: Theos Hypsistos) of the Bosporan Kingdom. This Most High God, who was depicted as a horseman, enjoyed wide popularity and was raised to the status of divine patron of the royal dynasty.[20]

The Most High God was known in Tanais as Pharnoukhos (Ancient Greek: Φαρνουχος‎; Latin: Pharnuchus) derived from Old Iranic fārnā-, which reflects his nature as a grace- and power-giving solar god.[20]

A stele from 104 AD which commemorates the celebration of the Day of Tanais depicts the Most High God as a mounted horseman dressed in Sarmatian costume and holding a rhyton in his right hand, with a blazing altar in front of him and a tree behind the altar. This scene is consistent with the depictions of the horsemen facing Artimpasa in Scythian art, and represents the communion of the Most High God with the Bosporan Aphrodite Urania evolved from Artimpasa, and is represented by the tree (similarly to Artimpasa, the Bosporan Aphrodite Urania was sometimes represented with tree-shaped limbs or head, with her palm shaped like large leaves on stele, and her head shaped like a tree top and her hands shaped like branches on a stamp), while the altar sanctifies the ceremony.[20]

The Scythian genealogical myth was a myth 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.[31]

Five variants of the Scythian genealogical myth have been retold by Greco-Roman authors,[7][12][31][32] which traced the origin of the Scythians to the god Targī̆tavah and to the Snake-Legged Goddess affiliated to Artimpasa,[12] and represented the threefold division of the universe into the Heavens, the Earth, and the Underworld, as well as the division of Scythian society into the warrior, priest, and agriculturalist classes.[13]

The worship of many of the Scythian deities were characteristic of the sedentary Thracian populations of Scythia, although the sword-cult of the god of war was a properly Iranic nomadic one.[3]

Scythian religion was largely aniconic, and the Scythians did not make statues of their deities for worship, with the one notable exception being the war-god, the Scythian "Ares." Nevertheless, the Scythians did make smaller scale images of certain of their deities for use as decorations, although Tāpayantī, Pāpaya and Api seem to have never been represented in any anthropomorphised form.[7]

The only god to which Scythians built sanctuaries was the war-god, the Scythian "Ares," to whom a high place was made out of a pile of brushwood, of which the three sides were upright and vertical and the fourth side formed a slope on which worshippers could walk to the top of the high place, which was itself a square-shaped platform on which the god himself was ritually represented in the form of a sword placed pointing upward. The square shape of the platform might have formed a representation of Scythian religion's conceptualisation of the universe as being four-sided while the sword-idol might have been a cosmic axis which united the human and divine worlds.[33][24][7] This tall brushwood high place was a representation of the world mountain.[23] These brushwood high places could be found throughout all regions inhabited by the Scythians, and every year more brushwood was added to the high place to maintain its structure.[7]

The Sarmatians similarly represented their "Ares" in the form of a sword planted upright.[33][24]

A holy site of the Scythians was Hexampaeus (Ancient Greek: Εξαμπαιος, romanized: Hexampaios), that is the Holy Ways, located between the Dnipro and the Southern Buh rivers, where was located a large bronze cauldron which Herodotus described as "six fingers breadth in thickness" and which could contain the volume of six hundred amphorae. According to Scythian legend, this cauldron was made when the king Ariantas ordered every one of his subjects to bring him a single arrowhead so he could know the exact number of his subjects. The great bronze cauldron at Hexampaeus was made out of the heap of arrowheads which accumulated from this census. This cauldron located at the Holy Ways was believed to be the centre of the world, and the legend of the arrowheads reflected that all Scythians had collective ownership of it.

Herodotus mentioned that the Massagetai worshipped only the Sun-god, to whom they sacrificed horses, which referred to the cult of the Iranic supreme Sun-god Miθra, who was associated with the worship of fire and horses.[34][35] When the Persian king Cyrus the Great attacked the Massagetai, their queen Tomyris swore by the Sun to kill him if he did not return back to his kingdom.[36]

The Massagetaean practice of sacrificing horses to the Sun-god was also linked to the Iranic concept of the farna, that is the royal splendour, which was believed to transform the king into a sacred figure and a kind of deity who was sometimes believed to be the brother of the Sun and the Moon.[37]

The Scythians would ritually use the vapours of the hemp plant as an intoxicant.[3][38][39]

The king of the Royal Scythians performed the duties of a priest during the pan-Scythian rituals which involved the hestiai of Tabiti. Among Indo-Iranic peoples, the king had a charisma which took the physical form of gold, held to be a royal metal, and therefore the king displayed his visible extraordinary powers by controlling the gold hestiai of Tāpayantī.[7]

The Anarya (meaning "unmanly";[40] rendered by Greek writers as Ancient Greek: Εναρεες, romanized: Enarees[41][42] and Ancient Greek: Αναριεις, romanized: Anarieis[43]) were a section of the Scythian clergy composed of female-identified priests assigned male at birth.[44]

The Anarya belonged to the most powerful Scythian aristocracy and wore women's clothing as well performed women's jobs and spoke like women, and were affiliated to an orgiastic cult of the goddess Artimpasa in her form strongly influenced by Near Eastern fertility goddesses.[12]

The Anarya also acted as seers and performed a particular form of divination which, unlike the methods of traditional Scythian soothsayers, used linden bark.[12]

The cult of the Most High God in Tanais was performed by thiasoi (Ancient Greek: θιασοι, romanized: thiasoi), which were state-recognised all-male collegia of which all the free men of the city were members, including both the rank-and-file citizens and the aristocracy of Tanais. These worshippers' associations belonged to the same institution and organised the whole citizenry of Tanais into distinct groups which each had a very strict hierarchy, and around half of their memberships was ethnically Greek while the other half was ethnically Iranic.[20]

These thiasoi originated in the Iranic institution of male societies, that is male societies of young warriors, which were present among both the Persians and the Scythians. These male societies had been Hellenised when they were incorporated into the social structure of the Bosporan Kingdom.[20]

The typical functions of these Iranic male societies, such as the worship of Miθra, the performing of ecstatic cults involving the consumption of haoma, and fire worship were reflected in the syncretised Bosporan cult of the Most High God, such as the depiction of the deity holding of a rhyton and facing a blazing altar on the Day of Tanais commemoration stele; fire worship was also present among the Bosporan thiasotes in the form of the fire cult's presence among the funerary rituals of the inhabitants of Tanais. The cult of the dead of the male societies was visible in the numerous stelae the Bosporan thiasotes built in commemoration of their dead members.[20]

Iranic male societies also maintained justice and punished law-breakers - reflected in the thiasoi officials being among the Bosporan synods' leading magistrates -, and were closely connected to royal power, hence the close connection of the thiasoi and their Most High God with the Bosporan royal family and its cults. And, like the Iranic male societies, the Bosporan thiasoi were divided into age classes, and required initiations so members could join an ideal community of alive and deceased warriors.[20]

The Scythians would annually bring more brushwood to the high place of the Scythian "Ares" to maintain its structure. This ceremony also symbolised a recommitment and created a consciousness of the continuity of worship at the high place, and was also a reaffirmation of tribal identity.[7]

Every year, the Scythians held a ceremony to honour their "Ares" during which they sacrificed cattle, horses and every hundredth prisoner of war to him. Libations of wine were poured over the prisoners who were to be sacrificed, following which their throats were cut over a vessel to catch their blood. This vessel was carried to the top of the brushwood high place of the god and the prisoners' blood was poured as libations on the sword functioning as the god's idol, and their right arms were severed and thrown into the sky and left wherever they fell.[33][24]

The use of horses and of the blood and right arms of prisoners in the cult of the Scythian "Ares" was a symbolic devotion of the swiftness of horses and the strength of men to this god of kingship who had similar powers, and the tall brushwood altar on which the blood was offered to the god was a representation of the world mountain.[23]

No priests were required for the sacrifices to the Scythian "Ares."[7]

The Scythians held an annual ceremony where everyone who had killed at least one enemy was acknowledged by being allowed to drink from a communal bowl of wine in front of the assembled company, although it is unknown whether or not this festivity was performed at the same time as the yearly sacrifices to the Scythian "Ares."[7]

According to Herodotus, animal sacrifices among the Scythians to all gods except to the Scythian "Ares" were carried out by tying a rope around the front legs of the sacrificial animal, then the offerer of the sacrifice standing behind the animal and pulling the rope to throw the animal forward, and strangling it to death using a rope tied around the animal's neck and tightened using a stick. The sacrificed animal was then cut up, its flesh was boiled in a cauldron, or, for those who did not have a cauldron, in the animal's own skin, while the bones were added to the fire on which the animal's flesh was cooked so they could be consumed following the approved ritual. Once the meat was cooked, the person who initiated the sacrifice would throw some of cooked meat and entrails into the ground as an offering for the god.[33] This method of sacrifice was typical of the more nomadic Scythians.[3]

The cult to Thagimasadas might have involved horse sacrifice.[33]

Animals sacrificed to the Scythian "Ares" were horses, sheep, and goats.[33]

The Scythian "Arēs" was also propitiated using human sacrifice, which involved cutting the throat of one man out of every hundred prisoners and pouring his blood on the sword-idol of the god, and then cutting the sacrificed man's right arm and throwing it into the air and leaving it wherever it fell.[33][33][24]

The signet ring of the Scythian king Scyles, whose bezel was decorated with the image of a woman seated on a throne and holding a mirror in her right hand and a sceptre in her left hand, with ΣΚΥΛΕΩ (Skuleō) engraved near the figure of the goddess, and on whose band was inscribed in Greek ΚΕΛΕΟΕ ΑΡΓΟΤΑΝ ΠΑΡ ΕΝΑΙ (Keleoe Argotan par enai, lit. 'Tell to be with Argotas!'), represented communion with Artimpasa as guaranteeing sovereignty in Scythian religion.[12]

The image of the Artimpasa on the ring was therefore a representation of her as a granter of sovereignty, with the ring having been inherited from generation to generation of the Scythian royal dynasty as a token of royal power, and Argotas being a former Scythian king from whom his descendant Skula inherited this ring. The ring did not feature any image of the male partner of the goddess because the kings were themselves considered to be these partners, with the Scythian royal investiture having been considered both a communion between man and the goddess as well as a marital union which elevated the king to the status of spouse of the goddess and granted him power through sexual intercourse with the goddess.[12]

This was also a reflection of Levantine influence on Artimpasa, since Mesopotamian equivalents of Aphrodite Urania were sometimes represented together with the king in scenes represented sacred marriages, and the stability of royal power in Paphos was believed to be derived from intimate relations between Aphrodite, with whom the queen of Paphos was identified, and the king, who claimed descent from Aphroditē's lover Cinyras.[12]

A similar rite of the marriage between the king and the great goddess existed among the Scythians' Thracian neighbours.[12]

The ritual sleep was a ceremony during which a substitute ritual king would ceremonially sleep in an open air field along with the gold hestiai for a single night, possibly as a symbolical ritual impregnation of the earth. This substitute king would receive as much land as he could ride around in one day: this land belonged to the real king and was given to the substitute king to complete his symbolic identification with the real king, following which he would be allowed to live for one year until he would be sacrificed when the time for the next ritual sleep festival would arrive[12] and a successor of the ritual king was chosen. This ceremony also represented the death and rebirth of the Scythian king and was conducted at the Holy Ways, where the great bronze cauldron representing the centre of the world was located.[7]

The ceremony of the ritual sleep was the main event of the Scythian calendar, during which the Scythian kings would worship the gold hestiai with rich sacrifices. The ceremony might have been held at the moment of the Scythian calendar corresponding to the fall of the gold objects from the heavens.[45]

Traditional Scythian soothsayers used willow withies for divination.[12] This method of divination involved placing a bundle of willow sticks on the ground, untying it, and laying out the individual sticks.[7]

A particular form of divination which was performed by the Anarya used linden bark;[12] the Anarya performed this form of divination by splitting the linden bark and twining the strands among open fingers.[46]

The motifs of Scythian cultures' Animal style art represented the threefold division of the universe into the heavens, in which were depicted birds of prey; the airspace, within which were represented hoofed animals; and finally the earthly realm, where were images of snakes, fish, and predatory animals. This division of the universe is also attested in a passage of the Avesta, where Vərᵊθraγna shows to Zaraθuštra the vision of a vulture in the sky, a stallion on the earth, and the Kara fish in the water.[5]

The motifs of the Scythian cultures' animal style art also reflected the cosmological notion of the ever-present struggle of life which was held to be the essence of being. These motifs consisted of stags (sometimes substituted by elks, moose, and rams), depicted as noble beasts in repose whose legs are tucked underneath their bodies, and which represented Tree of Life which sustained the world which was always in tension. The other components of these motifs were snow leopard-like felines and birds of prey, which were represented competing with each other for the herbivores, thus creating an interlocking style of tension. These compositions featuring predator and prey were present throughout the Scythian cultures, from the Pontic Steppe to the Altai Mountains.[7]

The Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla.
In the upper frieze: Scythians tending to their domesticated animals
In the lower frieze: griffins, lions, and cheetahs attacking horses, deer, and pigs

Griffins attacking a horse from the Tovsta Mohyla gold pectoral

A lion and a cheetah attacking a pig from the Tovsta Mohyla gold pectoral

In the western regions, under Greek influence, the art of the Pontic Scythians underwent an evolution, with the majestic stags being replaced by docile deer or horses or rams, the felines' designs changing from snow leopard-like into images of lions, and the birds of prey becoming winged griffins, although the central theme of the struggle between predator and prey remained the same. This Greek-influenced Scythian animal art is visible in the lower frieze of the Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla, where two griffins attack a horse in its centre, while the rest of the frieze depicts lions and cheetahs attacking stags and pigs. The upper frieze instead represents humans interacting with their domesticated animals to counterpose the harmony of the human world with the conflict of the supernatural realm, as well as to equate the humans with the predators with respect to their relationship with the productive power of the earth.[7]

In the eastern regions, the predator-prey motif could be found depicted on the Saka saddle covers from the Pazyryk kurgans and leather flasks, as well as tattooed on the bodies of the deceased buried in the kurgans.[7]

The Scythians of Ciscaucasia buried their royalty with human sacrifices and burnt horse hecatombs, which were practices adopted by the Scythians from the native West Asian peoples of Transcaucasia and Mesopotamia, and which the Scythians in turn introduced into the Steppe. These customs were however not adopted by the other Scythians of the Pontic steppe.[47][3]

The kurgans where were buried Scythian aristocrats were decorated on their surface with stelae consisting of large slabs of rocks whose surfaces had been carved into crude human figures in relief and which represented armed men whose dress, swords and weapons had been sculpted in detail. This tradition had already existed in the region of the Pontic Steppe since the 3rd millennium BC, and had later been adopted by the Scythians.[3]

The rich furnishings of Scythian tombs demonstrate that Scythians devoted significant resources to ensuring the proper burial of their members, especially of nobles. This attested that the afterlife was extremely important in Scythian religion.[12]

Sarmatians buried their priestesses with mirrors, which were symbols of feminine principle, eroticism and fertility that played an important role in the wedding rites of Iranic peoples, and were believed to be magical objects used for prophecy and shamanic rites.[12] The Sarmatian citizens of the city of Tanais were buried along with weapons as well as with pieces of chalk and realgar which functioned as symbols of fire, while their graves were accompanied by burial constructions shaped as circular stone fences. These, along with horse harnesses being present in pit graves, as well as the burial of horses in tumuli, attested of the importance of the solar and fire cults in Sarmatian funerary rites.[20]

Due to increasing Scythian and Sarmatian cultural influence in Pantikapaion, the deceased were often depicted as mounted horsemen on murals in their funerary vaults and tombstones at the same time as the horseman became a recurring motif in Late Scythian and Sarmatian art in the first centuries of the Common Era.[20]

The Massagetai custom of eating the men of their tribe who had grown old might have reflected among Scythian peoples the presence of age classes, which were a distinguishing aspect of Iranic male societies.[20]