Trails of the Scythians

Depiction of the Kartvelian(Georgian) god Mamber by Elene Davitashvili / davelion_

My first time covering an Ossetian deity! I've always been deeply fascinated by the Scythians and their culture, which has led to a further fascination with their only living descendant culture, the Ossetians. A large amount of the population still practices their polytheistic faith, today called Uatsdin (sometimes referred to as Assianism in English and Russian), albeit often syncretized with christian beliefs, making it difficult to compare it to other Indo-European faiths, or to determine exactly how many actually practice the religion. According to a 2012 survey by Sreda Arena Atlas, 29.4% identified as primarily practicing Uatsdin, and several sources have identified many who identify as Christians as practicing indigenous rituals as well. As a polytheist myself, the idea of a large section of a nation still practicing their native Indo-European faith in a, more-or-less, unbroken chain is extremely engrossing and fascinating.

Details of Uatsdin, those as in depth as I desire at least, are scarce. Between that, and most of their deities taking on the names of Christian saints, they are fundamentally hard to analyze. I have decided to start with the deity, Uatstutyr/Tutyr, The Lord of Wolves.

His name is taken from St. Theodore Tiron of Amasea, with his earlier name being lost to time (if he is indeed originally Ossetian).

An excerpt from Wikipedia's(sadly, one of the more complete and detailed sources on the subject, that I can read anyway) article on Tutyr

Tutyr is regarded as the Lord of Wolves, and often quarrels with the patron of sheep, Fælværa. The Ossetians believed that wolves, without the will of Tutyr, could not attack livestock, and that calling on Tutyr at the time when wolves attack livestock would result in the wolves running away. To save cattle from the attack of wolves people also tried to propitiate Tutyr with the annual "Tutyrta" holiday during the first three days of Great Lent. On the first day of the holiday, shepherds kept a very strict fast. On the eve of the holiday, a sacrifice was made to Tutyr in the form of a goat or a ram, and Tutyr was asked not to send wolves. If this custom was ignored, it was believed that Tutyr would become angry and would certainly order the wolves to exterminate the cattle, and even the man himself, who had forgotten to sacrifice to Tutyr.

In the Nart sagas, Tutyr is portrayed as a friend of the Narts, whom he helps repeatedly, such as when he feeds the Nart Sauaya. Most notably, the character of Sosruko/Soslan was hardened(in the context of "made stronger", perhaps in a similar manner to Batraz being hardened in Kurdalægon's fire) in wolf's milk with his blessing. I'll be honest, as of my writing this I have not yet read the Nart Sagas. I recently ordered a copy of the Ossetian tales to analyze, although something tells me this isn't gonna get much clearer. I will update this then.

An excerpt from Wikipedia's article on Assianism, on the subject of holy days:

Uatsdin's holidays are linked to the days of the week, the phases of the moon, and the solstices; for example, the Ossetian New Years is celebrated on the second Thursday of January. The Day of Uastyrdzhi, together with those of Uatstutyr and Uatsilla, form the complex of the solar holidays, with the three deities representing the three interconnected phases of the Sun and the corresponding manifestations in nature and in the economic activities of mankind; Uastyrdzhi is the Winter Sun which dies and then rises again, Uatstutyr is the Spring Sun which becomes more and more powerful towards Summer, while Uatsilla is the Summer Sun in its full splendor, whose power then fades in Autumn towards the new Uastyrdzhi.

Tutyr's association the rising, growing, new sun is interesting to me. It gives a dimension of youth, virility, and growing power. The limited resources I have access to present Tutyr only in the light of a simple wolf-god of singular function, to be placated for safety and little more, somewhat reminiscent to me of deities like Dea Febris, roman goddess of fever. But his importance implied by the sun connection in tandem with Uastyrdzhi and Uatsilla(The most important deity and a weather deity who could very well be a reflex of Perkwunos, respectively) gives him a station befitting a much more powerful and commonly worshiped god, one central to the religious beliefs of the Ossetians. Not only is he part of a trinity with two of the most important and powerful deities, but chronologically, he goes first in the aforementioned sun cycle. This implies to me he possesses a complex and powerful character not showcased in the limited sources I have access to. If indeed he doesn't possess such a character now, I'd bet he once did, hence his place in the cycle.

I also wish to note that these three deities all have the prefix uac-/uas-. It has no synchronic meaning in the Ossetic language, and is usually understood to mean "saint" (also applied to Saint Nicholas, Uac Nikkola). The synchronic term for "saint", however, is syhdaeg (cognate to Avestan Yazata, a term meaning "worthy of worship", and used to describe to deities consider aspects of Ahura Mazda, and therefore not idolatrous in Zoroastrianism). Gershevitch (1955) connects uac with a word for "word" (Sanskrit vāc, c.f. Latin vox), in the sense of Logos. While the origin and original meaning of the term in uncertain, I consider it may have taken on the meaning and implications of Yazata, though it's proper origins are unclear.

Given that Ossetians are descended of the Alans, who where themselves descended from the Sarmatians, relatives of the Scythians, I am deeply interested in using the modern Uatsdin pantheon to theorize further about the nature of the Scythian pantheon, and pre-Zoroastrian Iranic religion at large. Unfortunately for me, aside from the traditional primary pantheon of 7/8 deities common to the Iranic branch, it differs SIGNIFICANTLY. This to be expected of course, but a man can dream. There is quite a bit of obvious influence from the neighboring Caucasian peoples, but it is also thought that they were influenced by both Zoroastrian and Tengrist religions prior to christianization attempts. And let us clarify here that these people have been "converted" several times over the course of the last 1000 years, and that has undeniably influenced the culture and religion, the most obvious aspect of christianization being that most Ossetian deities take the names of saints, a phenomenon found throughout the christianization of Europe.

In the neighboring mountains of Svaneti, a Georgian god by the name of Mamber/Mamberi seems to share his role and function, although I can find even less about him. He is technically the deity pictured above. It seems to me to potentially be a case of a neighboring god being adopted by the Ossetians, before having his Ossetianized-Kartvelian name replace with an Ossetianized form of St.Theodore's. But before we close the case of Tutyr's origin as being foreign influence, I suggest we look at his body of myth. Specifically, his rivalry with Fælværa.

Fælværa is the patron and protector of sheep and cattle (at least one myth connects him with goats and horses as well), he is identified with the hunting deity Æfsati, who himself is likely from neighboring Caucasian religions. He is depicted as a younger individual among the gods, possibly the youngest of the primary deities. In his earliest depiction(local newspaper article written in 1870) he is depicted as a ram and called "Fyrydzuar" or "Fyryzaed", meaning "Holy Ram". He is asked to increase the number of livestock and in addition, women asked him to give them children. Fælværa‘s good-heartedness became proverbial: when an Ossetian wanted to praise someone for their humility and meekness he would say: “He looks like Fælværa", indicating his extremely friendly and kind relationship with humanity. His attempt to seduce Satana, the symbolic mother of the Narts, may further indicate a prominent sexual fertility role.

He may also be associated with beer, as traditional Ossetian beer vessels depict well-carved rams. I've have seen more simplistic but similar looking drinking vessels used by Rodnovers, so maybe it's just a more general Russian thing, rather than a specifically Ossetian, or even Caucasian design. I haven't been able to find any specific information on them in a Russian or Ossetian context, although they greatly resemble Norwegian Kjenge in both design and function, although the Ossetian examples I have seen are incredibly well detailed compared to most Norwegian Kjenge, and depict rams, not horses.

Fælværa is also depicted as a man without a left eye, which was knocked out by Tutyr to enable his wolves to quietly sneak up on the left to the sheep. This may be my personal, Rudlos-loving bias coming up, but this reminds me a bit of Rudra knocking out Pushan's teeth when he attempted to eat a sacrifice Rudra was excluded from, and Rudlos's cognates possess a notable motif of a missing eye. The connection is pretty tenuous, I admit, but we're not exactly working with much given the lack of resources and the amount of alteration caused by repeated christianization, among other influences. Æfsati, with whom Fælværa is associated, is also depicted as one-eyed(or sometimes blind) but this detail only seems prevalent in Ossetian tradition, possibly suggested the origin of the trait comes from older, predominantly IE traditions. This reads to me as Ossetian influence on an adopted Kartvelian deity rather than the other way around.

It is most probable that Tutyr is a Kartvelian god adopted by the Ossetians. However, it is "Very Out There Theory Time": Tutyr and Fælværa may have at one point been two aspects of the same ambivalent tutelary deity, one concerned with the protection of livestock from the wild predators and natural dangers with which he is associated. They may have split apart in a manner similar to the split of Paxuson into Pan and Hermes in Greece. The wild, dangerous, aggressive aspects were given to Tutyr, and the protective, livestock, and fertility aspects given to Fælværa. This deity may have at least been influenced by Rudlos, given the missing eye motif, and alcohol connections. He was likely depicted as being youthful and associated with adolescents and young adults. He may have been related to the Sarmatian/Scythian "Ares".