Scythian Religion(s)
Pontic Steppe
Pantheon of natural elements/entities: Sun, Sky, Water, Earth
Borysthenes (god/personification of the Dnieper river)
Creation Myths
Snake-legged Goddess from one of the Scythian creation tales (mother of Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and Kolaxais)
Targitaos (Hercules/Herakles)
Pantheon according to Herodotus
In Histories 4.59, Herodotus identifies several gods worshipped by the Pontic Scythians and attempts to connect them to Greek gods more identifiable to his Greek audience:
- Tabiti (Hestia)
- Papaeus (Zeus)
- Api/Apia (Earth)
- Argimpasa/Artimpasa (Aphrodite Urania/Ourania: “heavenly” Aphrodite)
- Ares (no equivalent Scythian name provided); also noted as the only god to whom the Scythians make altars/shrines
- Thagimasadas (Poseidon)
- Goetosyrus/Oetosyrus (Apollo)
Ritual sacrifices
Herodotus mentions (Histories 4.60) a common sacrifice ritual among the Pontic Scythians:
In all their sacred rites they follow the same method of sacrifice; this is how it is offered. The victim stands with its forefeet shackled together; the sacrificer stands behind the beast, and throws it down by pulling the end of the rope; as the victim falls, he invokes whatever god it is to whom he sacrifices. Then, throwing a noose around the beast’s neck, he thrusts in a stick and twists it and so strangles the victim, lighting no fire nor offering the first-fruits, nor pouring any libation; and having strangled and skinned the beast, he sets about cooking it.
Sacrifices to Ares
Herodotus notes a distinct form of sacrifice to Ares compared to other gods (as described above) in Histories 4.62:
Every district in each of the governments has a structure sacred to Ares; namely, a pile of bundles of sticks three eighths of a mile wide and long, but of a lesser height, on the top of which there is a flattened four-sided surface; three of its sides are sheer, but the fourth can be ascended. Every year a hundred and fifty wagon-loads of sticks are heaped upon this; for the storms of winter always make it sink down. On this sacred pile an ancient scimitar of iron is set for each people: their image of Ares. They bring yearly sacrifice of sheep and goats and horses to this scimitar, offering to these symbols even more than they do to the other gods. Of enemies that they take alive, they sacrifice one man in every hundred, not as they sacrifice sheep and goats, but differently. They pour wine on the men’s heads and cut their throats over a bowl; then they carry the blood up on to the pile of sticks and pour it on the scimitar. They carry the blood up above, but down below by the sacred pile they cut off all the slain men’s right arms and hands and throw these into the air, and depart when they have sacrificed the rest of the victims; the arm lies where it has fallen, and the body apart from it.
Prisoners, slaves, horses, cattle
One tribe may have engaged in communal cannibalism of the dead
Prophets/Diviners/Priestesses
Enarees/anarieis, non-binary linden-bark diviners
Soothsayers–sometimes with several rounds of “verification”
Diviners scattering & reading willow reeds
Altai
Some Saka and Altai burials may or may not potentially have been priestesses
Indo-Scythians
It appears that the Indo-Scythians tolerated or embraced Buddhism as a religion/ideology.
There has been significant discussion about the role, if any, that the Indo-Scythians had in spreading Buddhism across/beyond India.