Scythian plaque of man and a deity, possibly Goddess Tabiti, 7th-3rd C. BCE
"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."
-taken from wikipedia
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| 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. |
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| Drawing of various Scythian artifacts. |
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