Functions 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 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 was also a vegetation goddess of the Tree of Life, and as well as a Potnia Theron| 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 the genealogical myth.
Affiliation to Artimpasa 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 where the images of the two goddesses would almost merge, but nevertheless remained distinct from each other. This distinctiveness 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.
Association to Targī̆tavah The Snake-Legged Goddess might have been associated with Targī̆tavah in 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 (). 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 the Greeks had assimilated the Scythian Snake-Legged Goddess.
Mythology 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 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 a younger generation of deities of "lower status" who were more actively involved in human life.
Iconography The Goddess with Snake Legs 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 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 the Snake-Legged Goddess. . 6th century BCE Greek pottery. 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 in the form of Medousa have also been found in Scythian art, with a damaged 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 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 hat she wears; this fore-piece was accompanied with representing
Medusa and Silenus| heads, as well as fish-shaped side pieces due to 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 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 Tendril-Legged Goddess 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 hat, and surrounded by vegetal ornamentation; these tendril-legged images of 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 is visible on the earrings from the
Butor kurgan, a plate from the kurgan, a silver cup from
Mariynskaya, and a silver vessel from a burial near
Melitopol, the
Melitopol kurgan.
The Goddess holding a Severed Head 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 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 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 the Snake-Legged Goddess.
The Goddess with Raised Hands 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 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 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 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 Bearded Goddess The Snake-Legged Goddess was represented on a diadem from the
Kul-Oba kurgan as bearded and winged while wearing a hat and having tendril-shaped legs ending in sea-monsters from which sprouted pomegranates being eaten by birds. The Snake-Legged Goddess was depicted in an androgynous form on a 4th century BCE acroterion| from the Pontic Steppe region, with her image represented her as bearded and her tendril-limbed form, while she wears a 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 goddesses, mark her as goddess rather than 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 the image of a winged and bearded deity with a hat on the head and wearing women's clothes while holding the ends of vegetal tendrils. The was itself an attribute of feminine rather than masculine deities, as were the felines flanking her which are characteristic of goddesses Another 4th century BC representation of the Snake-Legged in her androgynous form found at Athens was a bearded figure decorating a column base wearing women's clothing and a hat, alongside whom were winged unicorn-panthers. Here too, the was itself an attribute of feminine rather than masculine deities, as were the felines flanking her which are characteristic of goddesses
Interpretation The snake aspect of the goddess is linked to the complex symbology of snakes in various religions due to their ability to disappear into 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 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 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 Simurgh| 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 a Potnia Theron| 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 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 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 the creatures of Greek myth, the Scythian serpent-maiden did not kill Hēraklēs, who tries to win his freedom from her.
Greek identifications 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 the Snake-Legged Goddess with Demeter.
Shrines A Greek language inscription from the later 6th century BCE recorded the existence of a shrine at which were located altars to: • the god of the Borysthenēs river; • Targī̆tavah, referred to in the inscription as Herakles; • the Snake-Legged Goddess, referred to in the inscription as the "Mother of the Gods", likely because the Greeks identified with their own mother of the gods,
Cybele, due to her chthonic nature. 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 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.
Clergy The
Anarya, who were a transvestite priesthood of Artimpasa, were also connected to the cult of the Snake-Legged Goddess.
Rites The Snake-Legged Goddess's image was used in
shamanic rites due to her affiliation with Artimpasa, with one of the sceptres from the 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 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. ==Outside of Scythia==