Showing posts with label Scythian mythology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scythian mythology. Show all posts
Scythian mythology and Yazdanism
Yazdanism is a conventional name for the pre-Islamic religion of the Kurds, before it developed into three branches of Ezidism, Yarsanism and Alevism, now practiced by small communities in central, southern and northern Kurdistan, respectively. A peculiarity of these religions which they share together and basically originates from Yazdanism is belief in a heptad of divine beings. In Ezidism for instance, the world is in the care of a Heptad of seven Holy Beings, often known as Angels or heft sirr (the Seven Mysteries). Preeminent among these is Tawûse Melek or Melek Tawus, literally meaning ''The peacock angel''.
In Scythian mythology, which is sporadically known through Greek sources, a heptad of seven deities are worshiped, greatest of all being ''Tabithi'' or ''Tabiti'' who was ''queen of animals'' and ''godess of fire''.
Besides the resemblance of the name which fully corresponds with Kurdish historical phonology (b> w, θ>s, hence: Tabithi > Tawus), both divinities have smiliar characters: being the greatest of the heptad and queen of animals (peacock has been often described as such).
One more amazing similarity is that in the Scythian mythology, the heptad divinities each represent a planet, as in Ezidism in which each divinity has been created in a week-day, (week-day names basically represent planets).
Another Scythian goddess, "Api", depicted as having snakes instead of legs (image), precisely corresponds with the famous Kurdish mythological character, "Shameran".
Shameran

It's name literally means ''king of the snakes''. Shameran is thought to have an anthropomorphic figure with a female head on a snake body, the way she is often depicted and her pictures are traditionally hung on bedroom walls of Kurdish girls.
Shameran which can be compared with the Greek ''Mermeid'', exactly corresponds with the snake-legged goddess of earth, Api (see here), in the Scythian (ancient Kurds) mythology.
Other spellings of the name include: Shamaran, Shahmeran, Shahmaran and alike.
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