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94-561: The Snake-Legged Goddess , also referred to as the Anguipede Goddess , was the ancestor-goddess of the Scythians according to the Scythian religion . The "Snake-Legged Goddess" or "Anguiped Goddess" is the modern-day name of this goddess, who is so called because several representations of her depict her as a goddess with snakes or tendrils as legs. The Snake-Legged Goddess and her role as

188-520: A potnia thērōn in addition to being a vegetation goddess of the Tree of Life. Like Artimpasa, the Snake-Legged Goddess was also a feminine deity who nevertheless 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

282-417: A chthonic and vegetal symbolism to the goddess, which follows the motif of vegetal deities possessing chthonic features. The connection of the Snake-Legged Goddess to the life-giving principle is attested by her posture where her hands and legs were spread wide, which constituted a "birth-giving attitude". This complex imagery thus reflected the combination of human motherhood, vegetation and animal life within

376-564: A client state. Such a re-orientation is also evidenced by the presence of Byzantine coins in the Crimea, including coinage of emperors Justin I ( r.  518–527 ) and Justinian I ( r.  527–565 ). By Justinian's time, the Bosporus was under a barbarian ruler once more: the Hunnic ruler Gordas . Though Gordas maintained good relations with Justinian, he was killed in a revolt in 527, which led

470-2102: A common design on sarcophagi, as well as in graves in Chersonesus . Scythians West Asia (7th–6th centuries BC) Akkadian (in West Asia) Median (in West Asia) Phrygian (in West Asia) Urartian (in West Asia) Thracian (in Pontic Steppe) Ancient Greek (in Pontic Steppe) Proto-Slavic language (in Pontic Steppe) Ancient Mesopotamian religion (in West Asia) Urartian religion (in West Asia) Phrygian religion (in West Asia) Ancient Iranic religion (in West Asia) Thracian religion (in Pontic Steppe) Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Scythians ( / ˈ s ɪ θ i ə n / or / ˈ s ɪ ð i ə n / ) or Scyths ( / ˈ s ɪ θ / , but note Scytho- ( / ˈ s aɪ θ ʊ / ) in composition) and sometimes also referred to as

564-634: A damaged rhyton from the Kelermes kurgan depicting her as a winged running deity with small wings on non-serpentiform legs and flanked by griffins on both sides, and a gold plate from the Shakhan kurgan being decorated with the image of a winged deity holding two animals. The Snake-Legged Goddess is represented with wings on pendants from the Bolshaya Bliznitza kurgan and the Ust-Labinskaya site , and

658-551: A god. A similar image was found at Olynthos , in which a bearded winged deity with an ornament that emphasises her breasts is depicted with two panthers emerging from beneath her waist between which are a dove. The style of the panthers emerging from the goddess's waist was similar to her image from the horse plate from the Tsymbalova Mohyla. The Snake-Legged Goddess was also represented in her androgynous form on two 4th century BCE marble thrones from Athens, each decorated with

752-456: A large demand for grain, and the strain on their empire meant they could do little about Spartocids attacking the city of Nymphaeum, on which they relied on for Black Sea trade. The Spartocids were willing to trade their grain with Athens in exchange for mainland goods and silver, which presumably furthered Athenian decline. The Bosporan kingdom under the Spartocid kings was heavily influenced by

846-787: A member of the Delian League in the 5th century. The Bosporan Kingdom was located between the Crimean and Taman peninsulas centered around the Kerch Strait , known in antiquity as the Cimmerian Bosporus, from which the kingdom's name is derived. To south sat the Black Sea , a crossroads connecting Southeast Europe to the west, the Eurasian steppes to the north, the Caucasus and Central Asia to

940-564: A new calendar (the " Pontic era ") introduced by Mithridates VI, starting with 297 BC to date their coins. Bosporan kings struck coinage throughout its period as a client state, which included gold staters bearing portraits of both the Roman emperor and Bosporan king. Like Roman coinage, Bosporan coinage became increasingly debased during the 3rd century. The coinage makes their lineages fairly clear to historians, though scarcely any events from their reigns are recorded. The Bosporan Kingdom covered

1034-531: A result, the Kingdom became the economic center of the Black Sea and is often dubbed the ancient Jewel of the Black Sea. The profit of the trade supported a class whose conspicuous wealth is still visible from newly discovered archaeological finds, excavated, often illegally, from numerous burial barrows known as kurgans . The once-thriving cities of the Bosporus left extensive architectural and sculptural remains, while

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1128-572: A similar pendant was found in a vault from Hellenistic Chersonesus along with pendants representing severed heads. A fore-piece from a set of horse head plates from the Tsymbalova mohyla is decorated with an image of the Snake-Legged Goddess with snake-legs, below which are griffin heads and vegetal tendrils, as well as tendrils above the kalathos hat she wears; this fore-piece was accompanied with phalerae representing Medusa and seilēnoi heads, as well as fish-shaped side pieces due to

1222-545: A solar or celestial deity. The depiction of this goddess from the Tovsta Mohyla kurgan shows her half-nude, with uncovered breasts and wearing only a cross-belt above the skirt. The nudity of the Goddess with Raised Hands connect hers with the Snake-Legged Goddess, who is often depicted in topless dress, and with Artimpasa. A later Bosporan goddess in the same praying gesture is depicted with leaf-shaped or branch-shaped hands. Like

1316-664: A vassal of the Hunnic Empire , regaining its independence after the empire's collapse in the 450s and 460s. The Byzantine historian Procopius describes the Goths of Crimea fighting against and then allying with the Utigurs , indicating that Gothic control of the region lasted for some time after the departure of the Huns. Despite the waves of barbarian domination, the late Bosporus remained an ancient Hellenistic state in language, culture and traditions;

1410-583: A vegetation goddess was discovered in the Sarmatian town of Ilutarum. The Scythian practice of severing the heads of all enemies they killed in battle and bringing them to their kings in exchange of war booty, the depictions of warriors near or holding severed heads in Scythian art, as well as the pendants shaped like satyr heads found in the same structures as the representations of the Snake-Legged Goddess and of Artimpasa might have been connected with this aspect of

1504-460: A woman who was turned into a goddess after throwing herself into the sea due to a curse from Hēra connects her to ʿAtarʿatah, and whose sanctuary at Vani had columns crowned with female protomē s emerging from akanthos leaves similar to those of the Snake-Legged Goddess. The Greek poet Hesiod might have mentioned the Snake-Legged Goddess in the Theogony , where he assimilated her to

1598-485: A younger generation of deities of "lower status" who were more actively involved in human life. Several representations are known of the Snake-Legged Goddess, often crafted by Greek artisans for the Scythian market, most of them depicting her as a goddess with snake-shaped legs or tendrils as legs, and some depicting her as winged, with griffin heads growing below her waist or holding a severed head, with many of them having been found discovered in burials, thus assigning both

1692-458: Is ample evidence of cultural and economic exchange as well as hostility between Greek and local populations, such as the Thracians , Dacians , and later Scythians . Scythian expansion and unification in the fifth century BC led to many of these settlements being wiped out or turned into Scythian protectorates, as was the case in the city of Olbia . It has been suggested that this pressure allowed

1786-651: Is derived from the Scythian endonym [Skuδa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) , meaning lit.   ' archers ' which was derived from the Proto-Indo-European root skewd- , itself meaning lit.   ' shooter, archer ' . This name was semantically similar to the endonym of the Sauromatians, *Saᵘrumata , meaning "armed with throwing darts and arrows." From this earlier term [Skuδa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help )

1880-518: Is however most famously known from the various Graeco-Roman retellings of the Scythian genealogical myth , in which she unites with the god Targī̆tavah to become the mother of the first ancestors of the Scythians and their kings. The Scythian Snake-Legged Goddess was a primordial ancestress of humanity who was associated to the life-giving principle but also possessed a chthonic nature, due to which her depictions were placed in Scythian tombs. The status of

1974-535: Is more clear in how Artimpasa was assigned the role of the king's sexual partner and the divine power of the kings who granted royal power, but was not considered the foremother of the people, and in how neither the Bosporan kings of Sarmatian ancestry nor the Graeco-Roman authors' records assigned Aphroditē or Artimpasa as the Scythians' ancestor. The Snake-Legged Goddess might have been associated with Targī̆tavah in

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2068-692: Is visible on the earrings from the Butor kurgan, a plate from the Haymanova mohyla  [ uk ] kurgan, a silver cup from Mariynskaya , and a silver vessel from a burial near Melitopol , the Melitopol kurgan . The depictions of the Snake-Legged Goddess holding a severed head which represented the sacrificial offering of a man hanging on the Tree of Life, were another example of Levantine influence, since severed human heads appeared in Levantine goddess cults in which

2162-597: The Archeanactid dynasty to create the first Bosporan state, lasting from 480-438 BC, at which point it was overthrown by the Spartocid Dynasty , beginning a period of economic expansion. The Black Sea Greeks before this period had dealt largely in goods like animals, slaves, furs, and fish, with grain playing a minor role. Stemming from conditions caused by the Peloponnesian War , the city of Athens had acquired

2256-627: The Pontic Scythians , were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia , where they remained established from the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC. Skilled in mounted warfare , the Scythians replaced the Agathyrsi and the Cimmerians as

2350-522: The Sindi (from central Crimea) and other branches of the Maeotae . Surviving material (texts, inscriptions and coins) do not supply enough information to reconstruct a complete chronology of kings of the region. Satyrus (431–387 BC), successor to Spartocus, established his rule over the whole region, adding Nymphaeum to his kingdom and besieging Theodosia , which was wealthy because, unlike other cities in

2444-496: The Sirace king Aripharnes , brought twenty thousand Scythian cavalry and even more infantry. The northern Black Sea underwent what some historians refer to as a "long Hellenistic Age" due to the institutions typically associated with the era occurring independently from the greater Greek world. Their relatively isolated position, and constant contact/conflict with barbarians along their borders, allowed monarchs with traditions rooted in

2538-512: The Zoroastrian chthonic monster Aži Dahāka , of whom a variant appears in later Persian literature as the villainous figure Zahhak , who had snakes growing from each shoulder. During the 7th century BCE, the Scythians expanded into West Asia, during which time the Scythian religion was influenced by the religions of the peoples of the Fertile Crescent. Consequently, the Snake-Legged Goddess

2632-478: The "Animal Style" art, which had until then been considered to be markers of the Scythians proper. This broad use of the term "Scythian" has however been criticised for lumping together various heterogeneous populations belonging to different cultures, and therefore leading to several errors in the coverage of the various warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe. Therefore,

2726-469: The 10th and 11th centuries, which in turn gave way to Tatar domination. From time to time Byzantine Greek officers built fortresses and exercised authority at Bosporus, which constituted an archbishopric . A relevant Byzantine usage of the term is found in a newly discovered seal of a general of the early 11th century as of " Πο ⟨σ⟩ φορ(ου) ", i.e., of the Cimmerian Bosporos. Also, in

2820-529: The 3rd century AD, last remnants of the Scythians were overwhelmed by the Goths , and by the early Middle Ages , the Scythians were assimilated and absorbed by the various successive populations who had moved into the Pontic Steppe. After the Scythians' disappearance, authors of the ancient, mediaeval, and early modern periods used their name to refer to various populations of the steppes unrelated to them. The name

2914-595: The Bosporan Kingdom was restored to Asander and Dynamis by Caesar's great nephew and heir Octavian . Asander ruled as an archon and later as king until his death in 17 BC. After the death of Asander, Dynamis was compelled to marry a Roman usurper called Scribonius, but the Romans under Agrippa intervened and established Polemon I of Pontus (16–8 BC) in his place. Polemon married Dynamis in 16 BC and she died in 14 BC. Polemon ruled as king until his death in 8 BC. After

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3008-516: The Bosporan grain exports: Leucon I of Bosporus created privileges for Athenian ships at Bosporan ports. The Attic orators make numerous references to this. In return the Athenians granted Leucon Athenian citizenship and made decrees in honour of him and his sons. After his defeat by Roman General Pompey in 66 BC, King Mithridates VI of Pontus fled with a small army from Colchis (modern Georgia) over

3102-536: The Bosporan king Cotys I . It is possible that Nero wanted to minimize the power of local client rulers and wanted the Bosporans to be subsumed into the Roman empire. The Bosporan Kingdom was incorporated as part of the Roman province of Moesia Inferior from 63 to 68. In 68, the new Roman emperor Galba restored the Bosporan Kingdom to Rhescuporis I , the son of Cotys I. Following the Jewish diaspora , Judaism emerged in

3196-569: The Bronze and Iron Ages, and was present in early La Tène art , after which they appeared in the art of late Bronze Age Germania and Scandinavia. The imagery of the Tsymbalova fore-piece formed an intermediary with representations of the goddess depicted with tendrils as legs. Among these depictions are images found in burials of the goddess with tendril-legs, wearing a kalathos hat, and surrounded by vegetal ornamentation; these tendril-legged images of

3290-514: The Caucasus Mountains to Crimea and made plans to raise yet another army to take on the Romans. His eldest living son, Machares , regent of Cimmerian Bosporus, was unwilling to aid his father, so Mithridates had Machares killed, acquiring the throne for himself. Mithridates then ordered the conscriptions and preparations for war. In 63 BC, Pharnaces , the youngest son of Mithridates, led a rebellion against his father, joined by Roman exiles in

3384-425: The Crimea, it is possible that Rhescuporis was overthrown by a Sarmatian or Alan tribal leader, who established his own dynasty on the Bosporan throne. It is known that the Goths later held power in the Crimea, from c. 380 onwards, since a 404 letter to John Chrysostom , archbishop of Constantinople , refers to the local ruler as a rex Gothiorum ("king of the Goths"). The Gothic Bosporan realm likely became

3478-456: The Earth and dwelling in a cave, as well as her being half-woman and half-snake. Diodorus of Sicily 's description of this goddess in his retelling of the genealogical myth as an "anguiped earth-born maiden" implies that she was a daughter of Api , likely through a river-god, and therefore was both chthonic and connected to water, but was however not identical with Api herself and instead belonged to

3572-711: The Eurasian steppe and forest steppe extending from Central Europe to the limits of the Chinese Zhou Empire, and of which the Pontic Scythians proper were only one section. These various peoples shared the use of the "Scythian triad," that is of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses and the "Animal Style" art. The term "Scytho-Siberian" has itself in turn also been criticised since it is sometimes used broadly to include all Iron Age equestrian nomads, including those who were not part of any Scythian or Saka. The scholars Nicola Di Cosmo and Andrzej Rozwadowski instead prefer

3666-613: The Greek plural-forming suffix -τοι was added to the name. The name of the 5th century BC king Scyles ( Ancient Greek : Σκυλης , romanized :  Skulēs ) represented this later form, Skula . The name "Scythians" was initially used by ancient authors to designate specifically the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic Steppe between the Danube and the Don rivers. In modern archaeology,

3760-530: The Greeks had assimilated the Scythian Snake-Legged Goddess. The Snake-Legged 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 . The Snake-Legged appears in all variations of the Scythian genealogical myth with consistent traits, including her being the daughter of either a river-god or of

3854-471: The Iranic pastoralist nomads who lived in the steppes of Central Asia and East Turkestan in the 1st millennium BC. The Late Babylonian scribes of the Achaemenid Empire used the name "Cimmerians" to designate all the nomad peoples of the steppe, including the Scythians and Saka. Bosporan Kingdom The prosperity of the Bosporan Kingdom was based on the export of wheat, fish and slaves . As

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3948-556: The Saka of Central Asia. Early modern scholars tended to follow the lead of the Hellenistic authors in extending the name "Scythians" into a general catch-all term for the various equestrian warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe following the discovery in the 1930s in the eastern parts of the Eurasian steppe of items forming the "Scythian triad," consisting of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses, and objects decorated in

4042-412: The Scythians; the deities to whom the altars of the shrine were dedicated to were all present in the Scythian genealogical myth. The altars at the shrine of Hylaea were located in open air, and were not placed within any larger structure or building. The Anarya , who were a transvestite priesthood of Artimpasa, were also connected to the cult of the Snake-Legged Goddess. The Snake-Legged Goddess's image

4136-495: The Snake-Legged Goddess also enhanced her inherent duality represented by her snake and tendril limbs. In the Scythian genealogical myth, the snake legs of the mother goddess and her dwelling place within the earth marked her as a native of Scythia. The ambiguous features of the mother goddess, such as her being both human and animal, high-ranking and base, monstrous and seductive, at the same time, corresponded to Greek perceptions of Scythian natives. Therefore, although she ruled over

4230-728: The Snake-Legged Goddess are similar to that of the Tree of Life connecting the upper and lower spheres of the Universe as well as symbolising supreme life-giving power, and therefore merging with the image of the fertility goddess, and was additionally linked to the Iranian creation myth of the Simorğ bird resting on the Saēna Tree. The snakes and griffins as well as representations of the Snake-Legged Goddess alongside predatory feline animals also characterised her as

4324-441: The Snake-Legged Goddess as the fore-mother of the Scythians associated her with the cult of the ancestors , and, being the controller of the life cycle, was also a granter of eternal life for the deceased. Some images of Snake-Legged Goddess were discovered in burials, thus assigning both a chthonic and vegetal symbolism to this goddess, which follows the motif of vegetal deities possessing chthonic features. The Snake-Legged Goddess

4418-401: The Snake-Legged Goddess with Demeter. A Greek language inscription from the later 6th century BCE recorded the existence of a shrine at which were located altars to: The inscription located this shrine in the wooded region of Hylaea, where, according to the Scythian genealogical myth , was located the residence of the Snake-Legged Goddess, and where she and Targī̆tavah became the ancestors of

4512-689: The Snake-Legged Goddess, and the Scythian prince Anacharsis was killed by his brother, the king Saulius , for having offered sacrifices to the Snake-Legged Goddess at this shrine. Depictions of the Snake-Legged Goddess were also found in the Sindo - Maeotian areas on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus , and her representations in her tendril-legged form became more predominant in the first centuries CE and appeared in Bosporan Greek cities, where they became

4606-456: The Snake-Legged Goddess. Multiple headgear pendants from three kurgans respectively found in Mastyuginskiy , Tovsta Mohyla , and Lyubimovskiy have been discovered which represent a goddess with large hands raised in a praying gestures and sitting on the protomē s of two lions in profile. The posture of this goddess depicts an imagery which originated in either Luristan or the Caucasus , and has been interpreted as an act of prayer towards

4700-434: The Snake-Legged Goddess. The snakes also connected the Snake-Legged Goddess to the Greek Medusa , and Greek-manufactured representations of Medousa, especially in the form of pendants found in the tombs of Scythian nobles, were very popular in Scythia due to her association with the Snake-Legged Goddess. Possible depictions of the goddess as a potnia thērōn in the form of Medousa have also been found in Scythian art, with

4794-406: The after life because they grow from the Earth within which the dead were placed and blossom again each year. The Snake-Legged Goddess was thus a liminal figure who founded a dynasty, and was only half-human in appearance while still looking like snake, itself being a creature capable of passing between the worlds of the living and of the dead with no hindrance. The shapes of the representations of

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4888-470: The area, called in the help of Diophantus , general of King Mithridates VI of Pontus , leaving him his kingdom. Paerisades was killed by a Scythian named Saumacus who led a rebellion against him. The Spartocids were well known as a line of enlightened and wise princes; although Greek opinion could not deny that they were, strictly speaking, tyrants , they are always described as dynasts. They maintained close relations with Athens , their best customer for

4982-425: The core of Mithridates's Pontic army. Mithridates VI withdrew to the citadel in Panticapaeum , where he committed suicide. Pompey buried Mithridates VI in a rock-cut tomb in either Sinope or Amasia , the capital of the Kingdom of Pontus . After the death of Mithridates VI (63 BC), Pharnaces II (63–47 BC) supplicated to Pompey, and then tried to regain his dominion during Julius Caesar's Civil War , but

5076-479: The creatures of Greek myth, the Scythian serpent-maiden did not kill Hēraklēs, who tries to win his freedom from her. The Greeks of Pontic Olbia , who held the shrine of Hylaea as common to both the Scythians and themselves, often identified the Snake-Legged Goddess with their own goddesses Demeter and Hecate . Representations of Demeter and her daughter Persephone on Greek-manufactured Scythian decorative plates might have been connected to this identification of

5170-407: The death of Polemon, Aspurgus , the son of Dynamis and Asander, succeeded Polemon. The Bosporan Kingdom of Aspurgus was a client state of the Roman Empire , protected by Roman garrisons. Aspurgus (8 BC – AD 38) founded a dynasty of kings which endured with a couple of interruptions until AD 341. Aspurgus adopted the Roman name "Tiberius Julius" when he received Roman citizenship and enjoyed

5264-412: The dominant power on the western Eurasian Steppe in the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, the Scythians crossed the Caucasus Mountains and frequently raided West Asia along with the Cimmerians. After being expelled from West Asia by the Medes , the Scythians retreated back into the Pontic Steppe in the 6th century BC, and were later conquered by the Sarmatians in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. By

5358-552: The earlier goddess with raised hands, this goddess sits on two lions or on a throne flanked by lions. The leaf-shaped hands of this goddess as well as the wild animals on her sides connect her with the tendril-legged form of the Snake-Legged Goddess, and therefore to Artimpasa. The Snake-Legged Goddess was represented on a diadem from the Kul-Oba kurgan as bearded and winged while wearing a kalathos hat and having tendril-shaped legs ending in sea-monsters from which sprouted pomegrenates being eaten by birds. The Snake-Legged Goddess

5452-402: The early 12th century reference is made of the Byzantine Empire's reassertion of control over the Cimmerian Bosporos ( Κιμμέριον Βόσπορον) . Although considered rare among collectors prior to the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Bosporan coins are now well known on the international coin markets, hinting at the quantities produced. Several large series were produced by Bosporan cities from

5546-422: The east, Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to the south, and Greece to the southwest. To the north is the Sea of Azov , sometimes considered part of the Black Sea, with shallow waters and abundant rivers flowing toward it. Most of the kingdom fell in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe , a temperate grassland ideal for nomadic pastoralism . The south-eastern Crimean coastline is flanked by the Crimean mountains , with

5640-497: The eastern half of Crimea and the Taman peninsula , and extended along the east coast of the Maeotian marshes to Tanais at the mouth of the Don in the north-east, a great market for trade with the interior. Throughout the period there was perpetual war with the native tribes of Scythians and Sarmatians , and in this the Bosporan Kingdom was supported by its Roman suzerains, who lent the assistance of garrisons and fleets. In AD 62 for reasons unknown, Roman emperor Nero deposed

5734-440: The emperor to send armies to the Bosporus, conquering the lands of the kingdom and establishing imperial control there. The Bosporan cities enjoyed a revival, under Byzantine and Bulgarian protection. The ancient Greek city of Phanagoria became the capital of Old Great Bulgaria between 632 and 665. The town of Tmutarakan , on the eastern side of the strait, became the seat of the Kievan Rus principality of Tmutarakan in

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5828-501: The end of his reign by the Goths and the Huns , there is no concrete evidence for this. There is an inscription by a Bosporan ruler named Douptounos from c. 483, nearly a century and a half after Rhescuporis VI, which makes it unlikely that the kingdom and its line of kings came to an end in the mid-4th century. Additionally, archaeological data from the time indicate a period with a growing economy rather than societal collapse. Because of evidence of their increasing prominence in

5922-426: The family name, more recent historians have posited he was likely of Greco-Scythian descent, as was typical of the region. Spartocus founded a dynasty which seems to have endured until c. 110 BC, known as the Spartocids . The Spartocids left many inscriptions, indicating that the earliest members of the house ruled under the titles of archons of the Greek cities and kings of various minor native tribes, notably

6016-412: The foremother of the Scythians had early origins and pre-dated the contacts of the Scythians with Mediterranean religions that influenced the cult of the Great Goddess Artimpasa to whom the Snake-Legged Goddess was affiliated. This goddess appears to have originated from an ancient Iranic tradition. The snakes which formed the limbs and grew out of the shoulders of Snake-Legged Goddess also linked her to

6110-487: The genealogical myth. Reflecting influence from Levantine cults in which the Great Goddess was often accompanied by a minor semi-bestial goddess, the Snake-Legged Goddess, who was also the Scythian foremother, was affiliated to Artimpasa . The Snake-Legged Goddess was so closely affiliated to Artimpasa that it bordered on identification to the point that the images of the two goddesses would almost merge, but nevertheless remained distinct from each other. This distinctiveness

6204-415: The goddess became more numerous during the first centuries CE, and became a common motif in the design of sarcophagi in the Bosporan kingdom. Among the Scythians, one of the vaults in Scythian Neapolis was decorated with images of small tendril-legged figures along with figures with radiate heads. From the imagery of the tendril-legged goddess arose a less human and more monstrous type of iconography, which

6298-450: 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 tendril limbs of the goddess also had a similar function, and they represented fertility, prosperity, renewal, and

6392-409: The highest peak being Roman-Kosh at 1,545 meters (5,069 ft.). Towards the west, the mountains drop steeply to the Black Sea, while to the east, they slowly develop into a steppe landscape. The southwestern coast of the Taman peninsula is bound by the Greater Caucasus half of the Caucasus Mountains . Greek colonization in the Black sea region dates back into the Greek Dark Ages , from which there

6486-423: The image of a winged and bearded deity with a kalathos hat on the head and wearing women's clothes while holding the ends of vegetal tendrils. The kalathos was itself an attribute of feminine rather than masculine deities, as were the felines flanking her which are characteristic of potnia thērōn goddesses Another 4th century BC representation of the Snake-Legged in her androgynous form found at Athens

6580-414: The kurgans continue to yield spectacular Greco-Sarmatian objects, the best examples of which are now preserved in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg . These include gold work, vases imported from Athens , coarse terracottas , textile fragments, and specimens of carpentry and marquetry . The whole area was dotted with Greek cities: in the west, Panticapaeum ( Kerch )—the most significant city in

6674-425: The land, her kingdom was empty, cold, uninhabited, and without any signs of civilisation. 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

6768-478: The latter's role as the father of her three sons and his tentatively suggested role of a snake-god identified by the Greeks of Pontic Olbia with Achilles Pontarkhēs ( lit.   ' Achilles, Lord of the Pontic Sea ' ). Sailors had to pass through this cult site of Targī̆tavah-Achilles at the island of Borysthenes to reach Cape Hippolaus, where was located a sacred grove to the Greek goddess Hecate, with whom

6862-410: The life-granting goddess demanded death, and re-enacted the death of her partner, whom she loved, emasculated, and killed. The Snake-Legged Goddess therefore also had a blood-thirsty aspect, and there is attestation of human sacrifices to local goddesses accompanied by the exposure of the victims' severed heads on the northern Black Sea coast; one such head placed on an altar close to a representation of

6956-477: The local material culture from the third to sixth centuries is distinguished both by its great complexity and by syncretism , intertwining both ancient and new barbarian elements. Through some means, the Goths appear to have left or been driven away, leading to the resumption of local self-rule in the late 5th century under rulers such as Douptounos, who re-oriented the kingdom towards the Byzantine Empire as

7050-447: The mixing of local Scythian and Greeks at all levels of society, particularly in the nobility. In an internal conflict between Satyrus II and his brother Eumelus , the royal Bosporan army was said to contain no more than two thousand Greeks, and an equal number of Thracians fighting as mercenaries. The vast majority of the army was Scythian, with ten thousand cavalry and more than twenty thousand infantry reported. Eumelus, allied with

7144-473: 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 Heracles , killed two of her children, namely the hydra of Lerna and the lion of Nemea. Thus, in this story, "Heracles" functioned as a destroyer of evils and a patron of human dwellings located in place where destruction had previously prevailed. The Snake-Legged Goddess

7238-537: The narrow use of the term "Scythian" as denoting specifically the people who dominated the Pontic Steppe between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC is preferred by Scythologists such as Askold Ivantchik . Within this broad use, the Scythians proper who lived in the Pontic Steppes are sometimes referred to as Pontic Scythians . Modern-day anthropologists instead prefer using the term "Scytho-Siberians" to denote this larger cultural grouping of nomadic peoples living in

7332-496: The patronage of the first two Roman Emperors , Augustus and Tiberius . All of the following kings adopted these two Roman names followed by a third name, of Thracian (Kotys, Rhescuporis or Rhoemetalces) or local origin (such as Sauromates, Eupator, Ininthimeus, Pharsanzes, Synges, Terianes, Theothorses or Rhadamsades). The Roman client kings of the dynasty had descended from King Mithridates VI of Pontus and his first wife, his sister Laodice , through Aspurgus. The kings adopted

7426-538: The possible influence of the Levantine aquatic goddess ʿAtarʿatah on the Snake-Legged Goddess. Anguipede iconography forerunning that of the Snake-Legged Goddess appears to have originated in ancient Iranic traditions, with a goblet, dated to the early 1st millennium BCE, found in Luristan and being decorated with a two-headed figure with women's breasts, hands, and hips, and reptilian legs, holding gazelles in both of her hands. This imagery then appeared in northern Europe in

7520-458: The region to establish independent kingdoms from those of the successor states.   According to Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (xii. 31) the region was governed between 480 and 438 BC by a line of kings called the Archaeanactidae , probably a ruling family, usurped by a tyrant called Spartocus (438–431 BC). While Spartocus was traditionally considered to be a Thracian due to

7614-410: The region, Nymphaeum and Myrmekion ; on the east Phanagoria (the second city of the region), Kepoi , Hermonassa , Portus Sindicus and Gorgippia. These Greek colonies were originally settled by Milesians in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Phanagoria (c. 540 BC) was a colony of Teos , and the foundation of Nymphaeum may have had a connection with Athens ; at least it appears to have been

7708-403: The region, and Jewish communities developed in some of the cities of the region (especially Tanais ). The Jewish or Thracian influence on the region may have inspired the foundation of a cult to the "Most High God", a distinct regional cult which emerged in the 1st century AD, which professed monotheism without being distinctively Jewish or Christian. The balance of power among the local tribes

7802-443: The region, it had a port which was free of ice throughout the year, allowing it to trade grain with the rest of the Greek world, even in winter. Satyrus' son Leucon (387–347 BC) eventually took the city. He was succeeded jointly by his two sons, Spartocus II, and Paerisades; Spartocus died in 342 BC, allowing Paerisades to reign alone until 310 BC. After Paerisades' death, a war of succession between his sons Satyrus and Eumelus

7896-559: The term "Scythians" is used in its original narrow sense as a name strictly for the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic and Crimean Steppes, between the Danube and Don rivers, from the 7th to 3rd centuries BC. By the Hellenistic period, authors such as Hecataeus of Miletus however sometimes extended the designation "Scythians" indiscriminately to all steppe nomads and forest steppe populations living in Europe and Asia, and used it to also designate

7990-485: The use of the term "Early Nomadic" for the broad designation of the Iron Age horse-riding nomads. While the ancient Persians used the name Saka to designate all the steppe nomads and specifically referred to the Pontic Scythians as Sakā tayaiy paradraya ( 𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹 ; lit.   ' the Saka who dwell beyond the (Black) Sea ' ), the name "Saka" is used in modern scholarship to designate

8084-465: Was a beareded figure decorating a column base wearing women's clothing and a kalathos hat, alongside whom were winged unicorn-panthers. Here too, the kalathos was itself an attribute of feminine rather than masculine deities, as were the felines flanking her which are characteristic of potnia thērōn goddesses The snake aspect of the goddess is linked to the complex symbology of snakes in various religions due to their ability to disappear into

8178-432: Was also a vegetation goddess of the Tree of Life, and as well as a potnia thērōn as attested by the presence of felines near her in Scythian art and the Luristan bronzes. The depictions of the Snake-Legged Goddess on Scythian horse harness decorations imply that she was also a patroness of horses, which might be connected with the love affair between Targī̆tavah and the goddess beginning after she had kept his mares in

8272-509: Was defeated by Caesar at Zela and was later killed by his former governor and son-in-law Asander . Before the death of Pharnaces II, Asander had married Pharnaces II's daughter Dynamis . Asander and Dynamis were the ruling monarchs until Caesar commanded a paternal uncle of Dynamis, Mithridates II to declare war on the Bosporan Kingdom and claimed the kingship for himself. Asander and Dynamis were defeated by Caesar's ally and went into political exile. However, after Caesar's death in 44 BC,

8366-471: Was depicted in an androgynous form on a 4th century BCE akrōtērion from the Pontic Steppe region, with her image represented her as bearded and her tendril-limbed form, while she wears a kalathos headdress topped with a palmette and holds unicorn panthers or lions by their horns. The breasts of the nude torso of this sculpture, as well as the felines flanking her, which are characteristic of potnia thērōn goddesses, mark her as goddess rather than

8460-487: Was derived: The Urartian name for the Scythians might have been Išqigulu ( 𒆳𒅖𒆥𒄖𒇻 ). Due to a sound change from /δ/ ( / ð / ) to / l / commonly attested in East Iranic language family to which Scythian belonged, the name [Skuδa] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) evolved into Skula , which was recorded in ancient Greek as Skōlotoi ( Σκωλοτοι ), in which

8554-573: Was fought. Satyrus defeated his younger brother Eumelus at the Battle of the River Thatis in 310 BC but was then killed in battle, giving Eumelus the throne. Eumelus' successor was Spartocus III (303–283 BC) and after him Paerisades II. Succeeding princes repeated the family names, so it is impossible to assign them a definite order. The last of them, however, Paerisades V, unable to make headway against increasingly violent attacks from nomadic tribes in

8648-488: Was influenced by the Levantine goddess ʿAtarʿatah in several aspects, resulting in a strong resemblance between the two goddesses, such as their monstrous bodies, fertility and vegetation symbolism, legends about their love affairs, and their respective affiliations and near-identification to Artimpasa and Aphroditē Ourania . Another influence might have been the Graeco- Colchian goddess Leukothea , whose mythology as

8742-422: Was severely disturbed by westward migration in the 3rd–4th centuries. In the 250s AD, the Goths and Borani were able to seize Bosporan shipping and even raid the shores of Anatolia . There are no known coins from the Bosporan Kingdom after the last ones minted by Rhescuporis VI in 341, which makes constructing a chronology very difficult. Though the kingdom is traditionally believed to have been destroyed at

8836-459: Was used in shamanic rites due to her affiliation with Artimpasa, with one of the sceptres from the Oleksandropilskiy kurhan  [ uk ] having been found decorated with a depiction of her, and the other sceptre heads being furnished with bells or decorated with schematic trees with birds sitting on them. Women performed rituals at the shrine of Hylaea where was located an altar to

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