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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
- Tabiti (Hestia)
- Papaeus (Zeus)
- Api/Apia (Earth)
- Argimpasa/Artimpasa (Aphrodite Urania/Ourania: “heavenly” Aphrodite)
- Ares (no equivalent Scythian name provided)
- Thagimasadas (Poseidon)
- Goetosyrus/Oetosyrus (Apollo)
Ritual sacrifices
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
Some Saka and Altai burials may or may not potentially have been priestesses