The next stage in Scythian cosmogony is the struggle waged by Targitaos against various chthonic monsters. Then, according to Scythian mythology, Tar-gitaos marries his mother (the motif of initial incest, typical of Iranian mythology) and produces an offspring – three sons: Kolaxais, Arpoxais and Lipoxais, incarnations of the three zones of the material world – the sun (sky), the depth of water (earth) and the mountain as an equivalent of the world tree. This fact is reflected in their names. The birth of these brothers completes the process of the formation of the well-organised Cosmos. In this myth is reflected the model of the world typical of Scythian mythology, which is realised in the various spheres of the social and political organisation of Scythian society. The division of the Scythians into three estates (castes): the paralats (military aristocracy, including the kings) who were put by the will of God at the head of society, the auchats (priests), and the catiars and traspies (plain land tillers and cattle-breeders), originating from the three sons of Targitaos, should be regarded as related to the idea of a three-tier structure of the Universe. Other realisations of this model are the institution of triregnum and a ternary organisation of the corporation of fortunetellers.
Two parallel trends can be traced in Scythian mythology, which are very close to each other in their cosmological parts, but different in those which are connected with the subject of social stratification. The distinction is manifested in the use of two systems of social terminology (one was preserved by Herodotus, the other by Diodorus) and in a description of the sacral trial which the three brothers had to pass and which was to decide who of them deserved to rule the Scythians. The author connects one of these traditions with the nomadic tribes of the so-called Royal Scythians, who came from the East, beyond the Volga, while the second is related to the tribes that lived in the areas north of the Black Sea and were the remnants of the pre-Scythian Cimmerian tribes conquered by the Royal Scythians. These mythological traditions were close to each other, which means that both these groups were ethnically close too, and corroborates the opinion of a number of scholars that the Cimmerians belonged to the Iranian-language group. In the author’s view, the Scythians known to the ancient world in historical time should be regarded as a uniform ethnos that took shape as a result of the merging of these two components.
The book devotes much attention to an analysis of the cult of Tabiti who, according to Herodotus (IV, 59), was the supreme goddess of the Scythians. The author says she was the goddess of the fire in all its manifestations, and not only the goddess of the hearth. Fire in Scythian mythology, in accordance with an Indo-Iranian tradition, was identical with each part of the Universe, separately and together. An incarnation of Goddes Tabiti as this triunity was three golden inflammable objects that had fallen from the skies, according to a Scythian myth, and got into the hands of Kolaxais. The fact that the Scythian king Idanthyrsus, in a message to Darius, called Tabiti «the Queen of the Scythians» (Herod., IV, 127) testifies, in the author’s view, to the existence in Scythia of the «wedding» of the king to that goddess.
This ritual was widely depicted on different Scythian objects and is interpreted as the initiation of the king to the supreme god of the Scythians. It was this ritual that was the main part of an annual Scythian religious festival (Herod., IV, 7). The festival was connected with the solar nature of the Scythian king which originated from the mythical first king of the Scythians – Kolaxais (cosmologi-cally, it was the personification of the Sun) and with calendar rituals. Certain customs connected with that festival and the data supplied by Valerius Flaccus (Arg., VI, 638) make it possible to assume that among the subjects of Scythian mythology there was one of the assassination of Targitaos’ younger son by his two brothers, which was depicted on Scythian artifacts. The venue of the Scythian annual festival was, most probably, Exampaios, the cult centre for all Scythians (Herod., IV, 52, and 81), regarded also as the centre of the Universe, a place having a maximum of sacral features.
The book contains a special section analysing the elements which bring the reconstructed Scythian mythology closer to myths and rituals of the ancient peoples of Central Asia, and first and foremost, the Saka tribes. This affinity can be seen in the Saka tribes having similar social terminology as that contained in Scythian myths, in the similarity of sacred attributes of the estates (castes) and in the institution of triregnum existing among these tribes. The motif contained in one of the versions of the Scythian legend is most probably depicted on Parthian coins. All these coincidences testify to a considerable cultural and, what is quite possible, ethnic affinity of the Pontic Scythians to the Central Asian Saka tribes.
A system of three estates (castes) reflected in the Scythian myth existed throughout the entire history of Scythia, and the Scythians accepted the evolution of their society through that system. Thus, the structure of the necropolis in the capital of the late Scythian kingdom in the Crimea accords with that system. Its burial sites can be divided into three groups. The king and representatives of military aristocracy were buried in the mausoleum. Plain people were buried in the ground sepulchres. Burial vaults hewn in the rocks, judging by pictures on religious and mythological themes, belonged to priests.
A section in the book is devoted to an analysis of the interpretations of king’s power in Scythia as an institution of divine repime. This interpretation is reflected in the myths about kings as descendants of gods, in the ritual of the king’s deification through a sacral wedding, in pictures of investiture scenes on cult vessels and coins. In the course of the transformation of the political organisation in Scythia, which was going on in the 4th century В. С. scythian kings turned for support in establishing a new order to the same myths which previously sanctified traditional ancient institutions.
The reconstruction of the Scythian mythological system attempted by the book is, of course, incomplete and tentative in many respects. But already now it permits to explain many data of ancient authors about the beliefs and customs of the Scythians and interpret many pictures on religious themes. This reconstruction gives an idea about the Scythian model of the world and makes it possible to interpret the phenomena and facts of the material and spiritual culture of the Scythians and partly of some other peoples of the Eurasian steppe-belt.
Список сокращений для периодических изданий
АО – Археологические открытия (Москва)
АСГЭ – Археологический сборник Государственного Эрмитажа (Ленинград)
ВДИ – Вестник древней истории (Москва)
ВИ – Вопросы истории (Москва)
ВИИ – Всеобщая история искусств
ВФ – Вопросы философии (Москва)
ГИМ – Государственный исторический музей
ГМИИ – Государственный музей изобразительных искусств
ДФ – Древнеиндийская философия
ЖМНП – Журнал Министерства народного просвещения (Санкт-Петербург)
ЗОАО – Записки Одесского археологического общества (Одесса) ИА АН СССР – Институт археологии Академии наук СССР
ИАДК – История и археология древнего Крыма (Киев)
ИАК – Известия Археологической комиссии (Санкт-Петербург)
ИГАИМК – Известия Государственной академии истории материальной культуры (Ленинград) Изв. АН ТаджССР,
ООН – Известия АН ТаджССР. Отделение общественных наук (Душанбе)
ИТУАК – Известия Таврической ученой архивной комиссии (Симферополь)
КСИА – Краткие сообщения Института археологии (Москва)
КСИИМК – Краткие сообщения Института истории материальной культуры (Москва, Ленинград)
КСИНА – Краткие сообщения Института народов Азии (Москва)
КСИС – Краткие сообщения Института славяноведения (Москва)
КСИЭ – Краткие сообщения Института этнографии (Москва)
MAP – Материалы по археологии России
МИА – Материалы и исследования по археологии СССР (Москва, Ленинград)
МКАЭН – Международный конгресс антропологических и этнографических наук МКВ – Международный конгресс востоковедов
МКИН – Международный конгресс исторических наук НАА – Народы Азии и Африки (Москва) НС – Нумизматика и сфрагистика (Киев)
OAK – Отчеты Археологической комиссии (Санкт-Петербург)
ПИДО – Проблемы истории докапиталистических обществ (Москва) СА – Советская археология (Москва)
Сб. МАЭ – Сборник Музея антропологии и этнографии (Ленинград)
САИ – Свод археологических источников (Москва) СЭ – Советская этнография (Москва)
ТЗС (УЗТГУ) – Труды по знаковым системам (Ученые записки Тартуского государственного университета, Тарту)
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УЗ ТувНИИЯЛИ – Ученые записки Тувинского НИИ языка, литературы и истории.
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JA – Journal Asiatique (Paris).
JAOS – Journal of American Oriental Society (New Haven)
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