#tabiti

Enthroned Scythian woman or deity (possibly Tabiti) with a vial and a horseman holding a drinking horn 3rd-2nd C. BCE. The woman/deity sits between an impaled animal skull (on her left) and what appears to be a tree of life (on her right). Fragment of a gold rhyton from a burial mound near the village of Merdzhany, Krasnodar region. H. 13.2cm. State Hermitage Museum.

“…we do not lend the hearth quite the importance that our ancestors did, Greek or otherwise. …The word ‘hearth’ shares its ancestry with ‘heart,’ just as the modern Greek for ‘hearth’ is kardia, which also means ‘heart.’ In Ancient Greece, the broader concept of hearth and home was expressed by the Oikos, which lives on for us today in economics and ecology. The Latin for hearth is focus – which speaks for itself. It is a strange and wonderful thing that out of the words for the fireplace, we have spun “cardiologist’, ‘deep focus’ and ‘eco-warrior.’ The essential meaning of centrality that connects them also reveals the great significance of the hearth to the Greeks and Romans, and consequently, the importance of Hestia, its presiding deity.”

Scythian gold diadem of Tabiti 4th C. BCE

Personal opinion: I assume that since all the men, except the attendant, are kneeling in front of the seated woman that she might be the Queen of the Scythians. The image correlates with other female divinity images in Scythian art that I've often seen described as Tabiti or 'possibly Tabiti'. I've also developed a theory that the mirror in her hand is a further sign that she is Tabiti (Scythian Hestia). When I was reading Plutarch's 'Life of Numa', he states that the Greeks would only rely on mirrors to create Hestia's fire as this was seen as a pure and unpolluted cosmic fire. It is possible that the Scythians believed in a similar concept and held the mirror as more than just a personal utensil, but also as a symbol of Tabiti's fire.

"FIG. 120 Gold sheet diadem with relief decoration from Sakhnovka Kurgan 2, Cherkasy region, Ukraine. 350-300 BC. Length 36.5, height 9.8 cm, 64.58 gr. Kiev, Museum of Historical Treasures.

FIG. 121 Outline drawing of the gold diadem with relief decoration from Sakhnovka. The relief scene shows ten figures, all kneeling except that of the woman seated in a chair in the centre, with her face turned towards the viewer. She holds a mirror and a round-bottomed drinking-vessel, while a male figure is approaching her from her right with a drinking-horn in his raised right hand. All male figures wear conventional Scythian dress, two of them with a gorytos. At the left edge a bearded man is about to stab a dagger into the back of a bare-chested figure with his hands tied behind his back. The next two figures to the right drink from one drinking-horn, as in the appliqué shown in Figure 98b. To the right of the seated woman kneels a figure with a drinking-horn in his left hand and a rod in his right. Behind him a bard is playing a lyre and a beardless Scythian is pouring wine from a ribbed amphora into the drinking-cups held by the beardless figure in front of him. Source: Greco-Scythian Art and the Birth of Eurasia: From Classical Antiquity to Russian Modernity by Caspar Meyer."

Goddess Tabiti with mirror, consecration of Scythian man (king/warrior?) 4th C. BCE. Gold plate. From Chertomlyk Tumulus Kurgan archaeological site.

"Gold plate from the Chertomlyk kurgan, possibly depicting Tabiti, the queen of the Scythian pantheon. Each embossed with a scene of a Scythian man drinking from a horn, standing before a seated female deity with a mirror, framed by a border of tongues, the corners perforated for attachment. For related plaques see no. 166 in Aruz, et al., The Golden Deer of Eurasia, Scythian and Sarmatian Treasures from the Russian Steppes, where the scene has been interpreted as either "the soul of a king imbibing the elixir of immortality before a female deity, the investiture of a king, the initiation of a youth into the mysteries of a God, or the ritual marriage of a king to the female deity Tabiti, the so-called queen of the Scythians."

Goddess Tabiti and Scythian rider, tapestry from the Fifth Pazyryk Kurgan 3rd C. BCE. She holds a plant in her hands, possibly representing a tree of life.

"The large felt rug was neatly rolled up with long thin poles inside. The base of the rug (a cloth of thin white felt, 3mm thick and about 30 sq.m. in area) was covered with colored felt appliqués. The figures, painted with vegetable dyes, are sewn to the rug with twisted sinewy thread.

In two wide friezes, the same scene is repeated many times: a female character in luxurious attire sits on a throne, holding a branch of a mythical plant; a mounted warrior—also in decorated attire, with a compound bow in a harness suspended from his belt—approaches her. In all the scenes the figures are similar, but not identical, demonstrating that they were not made from a single template.

This plot has a pre-Asiatic origin; judging by analogical artifacts, it was also known to the Black Sea Scythians and Sarmatians. It is usually interpreted as an investiture scene where a certain Goddess “hands over” power to a leader.

Fragments of a second, not preserved rug with images of two mythical creatures were sewn on the side of a large rug in ancient times. One was a hind-footed creature with a lion’s body, wings, and a human head with stylized horns (a sphinx). The tail and wing feathers, as well as the clawed feet with spurs, are preserved from the other character. The original composition of the second rug can be read by correlating the fragments sewn into the large rug with the scraps of drapery that survived in the burial chamber; only the sphinx has been fully restored. The second character is a bird with a large hooked beak (conventionally called a phoenix).

The phoenix clutches at the head of the sphinx, which in turn grabs his opponent by the beak. This composition, like the “investiture scene” from the large rug, has early analogues in Western Asia and the Middle East, and was repeated exactly the same way many times. Indeed, the image on the fragmented rug probably originally had the same frieze composition as the large one.

Apparently, the large rug was stretched over the poles that were found wrapped in it, creating a funeral “tent” where the body of the deceased may have been displayed for some farewell ceremonies. It is also possible that the “tent” was placed over the burial chamber and served as a temporary ground structure until the mound was erected over the burial. The fact that the rug had to be repaired and remade using fragments of the second rug proves that these rugs were not made specifically for the funeral but earlier. It follows that the subjects of the images on them should not be interpreted as necessarily related to the burial.

It is interesting to compare the riders depicted on the pile rug with the mounted warrior on the repeated scene of the felt rug.

The carpet-makers of Trans-Asia depicted riders on the felt carpet who were not yet using saddles (on the backs of their horses were archaic large saddlecloth with breastplates), while the saddles depicted on the felt carpet are specially made objects that look similar to those among the Pazyryk finds. The nomads were always somewhat ahead of their sedentary neighbors in terms of horseback riding (and often also weaponry) but borrowed from them for luxury items. For example, in the fifth kurgan were found five cheprak (saddlecloths), two of which are decorated with imported fabrics. Nomads typically did not use cheprak; their presence here is most likely evidence of a temporary strengthening of Pazyryk relations with the Iranian world in the mid-third century BC."

Scythian gold belt buckle of figures resting under a tree 4th-3rd C. BCE. H. 12.3, L. 16.1 cm, Wt. 465.04g. Southern Siberia. & Wooden headdress with pigtail. Pazyryk barrow no. 5. 252-238 BCE. Wood, leather, hair, wool, felt, silk. H. c. 40, diam. 17.8 cm. See 'Scythian mummy tomb (fifth Pazyryk kurgan), Pazyryk culture 4th-3rd C. BCE' post on my blog for more info on this burial.

On the Scythian gold belt buckle: "This outstanding and very famous object has been published many many times, as its imagery contains much that is synonymous with what we know about the Scythians. This scene is often referred to in literature as 'resting under the tree', and parallels may be drawn to surviving costume, hairstyles and weaponry of the Scythians. However, it should also be examined within a mythological context, as the presence of anthropomorphic characters in the art of the ancient nomads had a high degree of semantic significance, as did the special status of their owners. This is why the female deity, associated with the earth and flora - the tree in this scene is an allusion to the 'Tree of Life' - may represent the 'Great Mother', who was a giver of life but was also associated with underworld powers. Wedding rituals went hand in hand with ideas of death and funerary rites in archaic communities. The central quiver hanging from the branches of the tree recalls Herodotus' account of the important role the quiver played in the wedding symbolism of the nomads: 'There, when a man desires a woman, he hangs his quiver before her wagon, and has intercourse with her. none hindering' []. It appears that this entire scene may refer to a mythical story where the death of the protagonist parallels his marriage to the 'Great Mother'. This sacred union was seen as a requisite for the renewal of life and the completion of the full cycle of birth, death, and rebirth of all living creatures."

...

On the Scythian wooden headdress: "The base of this female headdress is a flat-topped wooden cap. Rectangular grooves on either side originally held thin ear-like plates with a smooth edge along the bottom, of which only the right one survives. The flat top of the cap was covered with leather. Two circular holes measuring 1.5-2cm across were made in the nape and four more in the crown (one in the centre and three around the edges). On either side of these are two short hollow cylinders covered in silk and attached to the wooden base by sinew passed through small holes. A row of small holes was drilled through the back, and three of these still contain scraps of sinew. It appears that the headdress originally had a nape cover made of soft material, either cloth, felt or leather, and the entire headdress may have been covered in cloth. This headdress was attached directly to the dark blonde hair of the woman who wore it. Her hair was largely shaved off but left intact on the crown. This portion was then divided into two braids looped through circular holes in the centre of the wooden cap, and wrapped around a black horsehair cord. Wool thread with thick, light-colored felt strips secured the entire headdress to the top of her head. Another braid, about 37cm long and made from the hair of the same woman with two woolen cords, was tied to the top of the headdress with twine and knotted at the top and the bottom.

Despite some similar features, the wooden base of this mid-third-century BCE headdress-wig from burial mound 5 at Pazyryk is different from earlier wigs. It most closely resembles the female headdress depicted on the belt plaques with the 'under the tree scene' from the Siberian Collection of Peter the Great. It is possible that the woman who wore this was a foreign consort of the chieftain buried in the fifth burial mound at Pazyryk, and this is supported by the fact that her tattoos include designs which are uncommon in Pazyryk imagery, but instead resemble those found to the west."

Scythian plaque of man and a deity, possibly Goddess Tabiti, 7th-3rd C. BCE. It's hard to tell, but it looks like both the man and the deity have cups in their hands. The object on the right looks like it might be an altar with a fire.

"The Scythian Goddess Tapatī́ (Hellenised as Ταβιτι Tabiti; Latinised as Tabiti) and was equated by him with the Greek Goddess of the Hearth, Hestia, was the most venerated of all Scythian deities. The name of Tapatī́ meant "the Burning One" or "the Flaming One," and was related to the Avestan term tāpaiieⁱti meaning "to warm," Latin tepeo and several other Indo-European terms for heat, as well as to the similar name of the Hindu Goddess Tapatī (तपती) and to the verb related to the latter's name, tapayati (तापयति), meaning "burns" and "is hot." and to the Sanskrit term the Sanskrit term tápas (तपस्), which denoted the cosmic warmth and the original nature, that is the cosmic principle out of which originated the multiple elements of the Universe and the order in the world. Thus, Tapatī́ was the primordial fire which alone existed before the creation of the universe, and from her were born Api (the Earth) and Papaios (Heaven).

Due to being a deity representing an abstract notion of fire and divine bliss, Tapatī́ was rarely depicted in Scythian art, but was instead represented by the fireplace, which constituted the sacral centre of any community, from the family to the tribe.

The connections of her name to fire and warmth, as well as her role as the primordial fire attest of the role of Tapatī́ as a primordial sovereign deity of fire derived from the common fire-deity of the Indo-Europeans, whose iterations included the Greek Hestia, and the Vedic Agni (अग्नि) among the Indo-Aryans and Ātar among the more southern Iranian peoples. Tapatī́ was thus similar to the Vedic Agni and the Greek Hestia, therefore being connected to the common Iranian cult and concept of fire, although she belonged to an older period in the development of Indo-Iranian religion compared to the other Iranian peoples and the Indo-Aryans, among whom she had been respectively replaced by the male fire-Gods Ātar and Agni, making her the only attested female Indo-Iranian fire-deity. Hērodotos of Halikarnāssos's listing of Tapatī́ at the head of the Scythian pantheon was a reflection of the role of the fire-deity among the Indo-European peoples, and parallels the Greek tradition of beginning and ending every sacrificial rite with the sacrifice to Hestia, and every appeal to the Gods starting by mentioning her name; another parallel is found in the Indo-Aryan Ṛgveda, which begins and ends with a hymn addressed to Agni; thus, the supreme position of Tapatī́ in the list of Scythian Gods reflected her position in hymns to the Gods pronounced during Scythian sacrifices and rituals.

Also attesting of the paramount role of the fire-deity in the Iranian pantheon as an omnipresent element, Tapatī́ was the primeval fire which was the basic essence and the source of all creation, a concept which was also present among the Indo-Aryan pantheon, where Agni was the fire which could be found throughout the Cosmos and which permeated the whole Universe, including the worlds of the humans and of the Gods. The status of Tapatī́ as the incarnation of the primordial fire is also confirmed by the story recounted by Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus of the dispute which arose between the Scythians and the Egyptians for the right to the title of the most ancient people, and which consisted of an argument by each side about whether the world was initially fully flooded by water (referring to Nānaw) or covered with fire (referring to Tapatī́).

As a Goddess of the Hearth, Tapatī́ was the patron of society, the state and families who protected the family and the clan, and, as a symbol of supreme authority, she was assigned the superior position over the other Gods through her role as the guardian of the king, due to which as well as her to link to the common Iranian cult of fire, she was connected to the importance of fire and of royal hearths in Iranian religions. The king's hearth was hence connected with Tapatī́, and was therefore an inviolable symbol of the prosperity of his people and a token of royal power, and Tapatī́ herself was connected with royal power, as attested by the Scythian king Idanthyrsos calling her the "Queen of the Scythians" in 513 BC, with this characterisation of Tapatī́ being possibly linked to the notion of the fārnā, the Iranian divine bliss, or even to that of the fire which protects the king, the warahrān (Middle Persian: 𐭥𐭫𐭧𐭫𐭠𐭭‎). As the guardian of the royal hearth, Tapatī́ therefore ensured the well-being of the tribe - an oath by the royal hearths was considered the most sacred and breaking it was believed to cause the king's illness and was punished by death. The hestiai (Ancient Greek: εστιαι hestiai) of Tapatī́ were likely the flaming gold objects which fell from the sky in the Scythian genealogical myth and of which the king was the trustee while Tapatī́ herself in turn was the protector of the king and the royal hearth, thus creating a strong bond between Tapatī́ and the Scythian king, who might have been seen as an intermediary between the Goddess and the people, and any offence to the royal hestiai was considered as affecting the whole tribe and had to be averted at any cost."