Today we want to offer you the opportunity to read the paper of Fedar Takazov that for decades works in Digor language and Digor folk studies written by him for that congress.
THE SURVIVALS OF SCYTHIAN FUNERAL RITUALS IN THE OSSETIAN NART EPIC
Fedar Takazov.
The funeral cult is an aggregate of the religious and magical rituals associated with the notion of life after death.
Little has been known about the funeral ritual of the Scythians. These are mainly the records by Herodotus and the archaeological data. But the latter, due to their specifics, can serve only as auxiliary material.
The problem consideration wouldn’t be comprehensive without reference to the Narts Epos of the Ossetians.
Many of the religious and mythological notions which were the basis of the whole social and political system of the Scythian life, were to a greater or lesser extent reflected in the Narts Epos. Although many peoples of the Caucasus have the Narts Epos, it was well-proved by V. Miller, Georges Dumezil and V. Abaev that many of the religious-mythological elements, that can be found in the epos of other peoples of the Caucasus, were borrowed from the Ossetians and cannot make any significant contribution to the existing Scythian-Narts materials. Due to this fact only the Ossetian legends will be analysed. Moreover, some of the survivals of the Scythian rituals in the Narts Epos can be explained only in the terms of ethnographic, religious and mythological notions of the Ossetians.
The Narts Epos, as well as Herodotus’s notifications, is not that rich in the illustrative material. As the narrators associated themselves and their people with the Narts, the ceremonies, especially the rituals, were not interpreted by them, as they were supposed to be well-known traditions that are practiced according to the Ossetian traditions. The same ceremonies, customs and rituals, which were not typical of the Ossetian ones, were commented by the narrators as “the Narts did it so”.
For example, the well-known Herodotus’s notification of sword worshiping has survived in the Narts Epos. The legend “The Nameless Son of Uruzmag” [7:234] says that Uruzmag kills his son at the Donbettrs’s place. Uruzmag is seated at the head of the table to conduct the table ceremony. He pronounces the prayer-toast, strings meat on the sword and hands it to the boy to have some. The boy slips down and the sword thrusts into his heart. This episode implies a sacrifice to the sword in a transformed way. Here the legend specifies that “at that time people prayed by tip of the sword”. (This detail, as it will be shown later, explains the real role of the sword in the prayer). Till the 19th century the Ossetians strung a piece of meat on a dagger after the prayer and handed it to the younger one and the latter would taste it. But at the time when the legend was recorded, this tradition was even more transformed, and three pieces of meat were strung on a skewer: one of them was handed to the younger one; the second piece was left near the oldest while the third was left on the skewer. After the meal the skewer with the third piece of meat was hung up high.
The Herodotus’s description of the tradition to collect brushwood and to set up a sword on the top of the pile doesn’t throw light upon the meaning of this ritual. What’s the use of collecting firewood if there is no wood nearby and the erection of the cult barrow is problematic? Wouldn’t it have been easier to erect an earth burial tumulus, which could have served longer? But, evidently, the brushwood barrow wasn’t designed only for the ritual worshipping of the sword.
The brightest description of the erection of the brushwood barrow in the Narts Epos can be found in the legend “How Batraz Took Revenge for His Father” [9:389].
In the beginning Batraz claims that the Narts should fill the crypt with the ashes of the burnt silk fabrics for the blood of his father. Then he demands that they should make a hill of prickles. He sits on its top and demands to burn him.
Taking into consideration the fact that Batraz and his sword are perceived as a single whole, this episode can serve the best illustration of how the Scythians set the sword on the brushwood hill.
Other interpretation substitutes Batraz for a Narts orphan-youth and shows in the symbolic form the scene of making a barrow/hill of brushwood and sacrifice to the sword which was well described by Herodotus.
When the youth took revenge for his father’s death, he bound in the Borafarnug Boriaty’s seven sons by pairs and rode a horse urging them through thorn-bushes. Then he cuts their heads off. He also cuts Borafarnug’s head off and pricks it on the pole and sets the latter at the top of the mountain [9:387].
Georges Dumezil noticed the identity between the Scythian and Narts ritual of making a barrow of brushwood [4:24].
He sees the difference between the Scythian and the Narts barrows of brushwood in the fact that he finds the Scythian barrow “cult made with an allowance for climatic conditions, while the Narts barrow “a free figurative description”. Nonetheless, such an explanation cannot clarify the sense of making a barrow. In this case the key lies in the ethnography of the Ossetians.
The Ossetians’ religious-mythological outlook, especially in their funeral rituals, fire takes an important place. With the help of the fire, which was made in the grave, the Ossetians cleaned the perspective “home” of the dead person from the evil spirits. The traces of the fire cleansing are found in the archaeological excavations of the Scythian barrows. Today the Ossetians make fire on the graves on the second day after the burial so as to give the dead person his share of the warmth in life after death.
But a common bonfire was also made for all dead. As a rule, a week before New Year hay and dry maize stems were piled and put on fire wishing, “Be light with you, our dead; may your share of the fire never burn out”[5:32].
In this context it is interesting to consider the ritual, which was common among the Ossetians before the 19th century and done during the pilgrimage to the sanctuary “Rekom” through the so-called “hill (mount) of the staff”. According to the ritual the pilgrims put their staffs on a certain place in one big pile (mount/hill) which reminded the Herodotus brushwood hill. When there were many of them, they were burnt. Before doing so, a symbolic strike by a sword (or a dagger) was made upon the hill, which is identical to the setting of the Scythian sword on the top of the hill/barrow. It is likely that collecting the pilgrims’ staffs is a symbolic cleaning. Perhaps the Scythians erected barrows of brushwood for both symbolic cleaning and funeral rituals, during which they got fire and dedicated it to those who perished, especially that Batraz’s task is associated with the death of his father, Khamits.
The Alans also had the sword worshipping ritual. It was described by Ammianus Marcellin (333-301 A.D. Book XXXI). But neither Narts Epos, nor the Ossetian ethnography have signs of sword worshipping. Both the Narts and the Ossetians prayed in the open, as a rule, before stones and trees. To be exact, not just before stones and trees, but sanctified places. Stones and trees served landmarks of a sacred place. The modern Ossetians have the same practice.[1] Besides that the Ossetians apply the blade of knife as a cleaning tool during sanctification of meal and drinks on certain week-days or on the days of commemoration of the dead. The set up Scythian sword should also be looked at in this context. The Scythians and the Ossetians worshiped not the sword itself, but they prayed at the place, which was sanctified by the sword. Setting the sword on a brushwood hill should be looked upon as a ritual of cleaning brushwood designated, as we have already noted, for making fire of it dedicated to the dead kinsmen. Besides that, the hill/barrow of brushwood symbolising the world tree; the square place on its top is a sacral symbolism that expresses cosmogony ideas of the Scythians (and the Ossetians too). A sword in the middle of the square is the symbol of the centre, the axis of the world that connects the upper, middle and the lower worlds.
Herodotus noted that “a year later they (Scythians) practiced such funeral rituals: of all the rest of the dead king’s servants they chose the most laborious. They suffocated 50 of them (and also 50 of the most beautiful horses), took out the internal organs from the dead bodies, filled the empty bowels with bran and sewed the cuts. Then on two wooden stands they fixed the half of the wheel rim with the protruding part down, the other half on two other stands”[3:30-31].
In one legend about Soslan, though, too fragmentary it is, there is a curious detail.
Soslan appeals Oynon Wheel, “Today is Friday; next Friday you will have to cut the knees of twelve members of your family and bring them to the Narts commemorative barrow”.
There are several symbols in this episode:
- the Scythians Wheels - Oynon Wheel;
- Scythian sacrifice – legs cutting;
- The Scythian funeral ritual, practiced in a year – twelve Oynon’s kinsmen (Oynon, the symbol of the sun; twelve refers to the twelve months);
One version of the plot “Soslan’s Death by Oynon Wheel” describes how “Nart Arakhtsau” kills Oynon in grave/crypt, chops him and says, “Be, you, dedicated to Soslan!” [6:344]. The other version says, “Soslan died and he was buried in Matsuta: his seat and his dog’s tub are still there. Later the Oynon Wheel was killed and its remnants are still there near Soslan’s grave” [8:710].
The traces of the ritual of burial and horse sanctification to the dead [12:396-471] can be found in the Narts Epos in the plot about Soslan, who travelled to the Kingdom of the Dead. The custom of horse sanctification “Bækhfældesun” as well as cutting widow’s plait off can be a vivid illustration to this custom.
Though there are no direct indications to horsemen round a grave [3:31] and Georges Dumezil notes in the Ossetian epos “only horses stuffed by hay and put in a pose of moving horses” [4:194], but may be that custom is indirectly reflected in one versions of Soslan’s death.
After Soslan/Sosyryko died, Syrdon lead Soslan’s horse out, saddled him and put a thorn bush prickle on the horse’s back. “Syrdon was leaving the village of the Narts every day sobbing and beating himself with a stick on his head. He was coming to the cemetery riding Soslan’s white horse with blood streaming from under the saddle while he was prancing and saying, “ So, what, Sosyryko, Could I see a better joy than your death!”
Doing so Syrdon bored Sosyryko. One day when Syrdon began to do what he was doing every day, Sosyryko shot an arrow upward. The arrow went right into the top of Syrdon’s head and he fell dead onto the ground.” [8:783-784]
Though fragmentary the above episode is, it has all the elements of the Scythian ritual, described by Herodotus:
- bewailing ritual;
- spiny shorn bush/brushwood;
- blood;
- prancing round the grave;
- sacrificed horseman (Syrdon).
Herodotus wrote about the Scythian bewailing ritual:
“They (Scythians) cut a piece of their ear, cut their hair in a shape of a circle on their heads, make a round cut on their hand, scratch forehead and nose and prickle their left hand with arrows”.
Syrdon is also doing something similar. Bewailing ritual can be often found in the allegorical form in the Narts Epos.
Satana doesn’t believe that Batradz managed to kill his father’s murderer. She climbs a tall tower and sees that “bloody streams were downpouring; tufts were falling down like clouds because his (Sainag’s) relatives were tearing them off their heads” [9:335].
Such a description of bewailing is quite frequent in the Epos. In one of the legends about Soslan pretended dead after unsuccessful attempts to siege the Gory Fortress, Agunda came out to him. She comes up to Soslan according to the bewailing tradition “she (Agunda) flings her arms aback to begin the ritual from afar and lamenting approached him”:
- Oh, you, poor Soslan! In sufferings you died! If I had known it, I would have plunged into water with you! You didn’t deserve such miserable death!
And doing so she approached him, beating herself, and put her hand on him” [8:116].
Though this text doesn’t imply the essence of the bewailing ritual, but taking into account the fact that “according to the tradition” implies the ritual of the Ossetians that existed at the time when the epic text was recorded. This detail can fill in the gap.
There is a common word for the term that implies the whole circle of the bewailing ritual – “Ironvændag” [1:345], which literally means “the Ossetian way”. According to “Ironvændag” women began to lament from afar. Flinging their arms aback, stopping and moving, they began to sob and lament. Making a stop, women began to tear their hair off, beat themselves on their knees and heads, scratched their faces. Men expressed their grief starting to sob from afar and beating themselves by lashes.
The Scythians, in general, like Narts and Ossetians, believed that the other world is kind of a repetition of reality. Moreover, both, he Scythians and the Narts, as well as Ossetians, perceived life on Earth as false world of “mængæ duine” while the other life perceived after death as the true world of “ætsæg duine”. And subsequently, all rituals of the Scythians, the Narts and the Ossetians are connected with this belief.
According to the burial ritual the Scythians had a family type of the burial – in one grave and under one mound. The Narts-Ossetians do the same. Here the burial type is almost identical with the Scythians and the Ossetians. The typical underground Scythian crypts, shaped as a nomad tent, can be still found in the mountains in Ossetia. The overground crypts, that are as frequent, remind of the Scythian barrows. The Digorians still call crypts as barrows – “wobay”. The Narts also bury their heroes either in crypts (“zæppadz”) or in barrows (“wobay”).
In the system of religious-mythological beliefs of the Indo-European peoples a barrow is perceived as semantically identical with the world mount/tree [11:53]. The Ossetians in the XIX century passed from crypt burials to individual ones, thus reflecting the world tree with all accompanying symbolism on the tomb stele.
The fact, that the Scythian barrow embodied the world tree and was the symbol of creation of the world, can be easily demonstrated by Dzerassa’s funeral.
The very legend about Dzerassa, Akhsar and Akhsartag is the symbol of the world tree. The Narts had an apple-tree that gave only one fruit. But a bird flew up and ate the fruit. Akhsar and Akhsartag were guarding the tree and wounded the bird. The trace brought them to the sea coast. Akhsartag goes underwater.
Here appears the symbol of the world tree: a bird – the symbol of the upper world, Akhsar and Akhsartag – the representatives of the middle world, water (sea) – the symbol of the lower world.
After Dzerassa’s death, she is buried in the “zæppadz” (which can mean both, a crypt and a barrow). Ossetians believe that death is the beginning of chaos. Besides symbolising world tree a crypt, a barrow or a grave, was shaped as dwelling and served as the place to restore the cosmic order. Furthermore, a crypt or a barrow was a place for a new birth. And the episode when Uastyrdgi comes down to Dzerassa, letting in later his horse and dog and the birth of Satana from the dead Dzerassa, the first horse and the fist dog, cannot be but creation of the world. A horse in the Scythian and Ossetian cosmogony embodies the upper world, Satana (human/man) – middle, a dog – the lower world.
The researchers cannot come to a single conclusion about the ritual of cutting off the enemy’s right hand.
“They (the Scythians) carry blood higher while at the foot of the sanctuary the following ritual is being practiced: they cut off the arms and hands of the slaughtered victims and throw them into the air; then after sacrificing other animals, finish the ritual and go away. The arm would lie where it dropped, while the victim’s body would lie separately” as Herodotus wrote [3:27-28].
Ph. Legrand and Georges Dumezil wrote in regard to this ritual, “May be its aim was, for example, to prevent the person to return to Earth after death, being able to revenge for his death”. In the Ossetian legends mothers talk their sons into “restoring” dead bodies and it enables us to consider the matter from the other angle: separating an arm from the body – is an additional insult for the dead, equal to depriving him of his grave, scalping and general abuse of the enemy’s dead body” [4:192]. S.S. Bessonova supposes, that the Scythian arm/hand cutting ritual is, first of all, sacrifice to god and sign of shameful death for captive-enemies” [2:48].
The Narts Epos also tells about the same ritual. Georges Dumezil refers to one of the versions of cutting off enemy’s arm/hand. But the motif of cutting off the right hand is represented wider in the Narts Epos.
One giant decided to test his strength on the Narts. He began to come to the great Lawn of the Narts, where they usually danced “simd” in a ring. Dancing with the Narts the giant tears off a hand from one Nart or another. Here Batraz appears. He begins to dance with the giant. Having torn off the giant’s hand, he gives it to the giant’s other hand. The latter puts the torn –off hand on his shoulder and goes home [How Batraz Tore the Giant’s Hand off. 9:132].
In one of the tales Sozyryko and Syrdon went to the Kingdom of the Dead. In the Kingdom of the Dead Sosyryko sees different inexplicable wonders. One of these wonders is the Door that locked by a hand. Sozyryko tied his horse outside and wanted to open the Door, but it wouldn’t. He takes out his sword, but the Door opens. Sozyryko peeped in and saw that Door was closed by a man’s hand. When Sozyryko began to ask his dead wife Pytukha about it, she explained it so, “This is my father, the sinful judge who hasn’t kept his word in the Earth life and in the Kingdom of the Dead; and you know that he had his hand cut off; now it guards the Door.” [The Narts beauty Pitukha 8:633].
The meaning of these two scenes is in the fact that cutting off a hand is an act of disgrace and punishment. In the first case the hand is cut off in the Kingdom of the Alive; in the second case it is done in the Kingdom of the Dead and is associated with the Kingdom of the Dead; but in both cases they are not devoted to the dead.
Cutting of the right hand has quite a different meaning in the legends, in which the character revenges for his father’s death. The closest in meaning to the Herodotus’s story is “The Legend about Bald Cheregiko” [6:405-410].
Bald Cheregiko collides with his father’s murderer Black Albag, Saynag’s son. “Bald Cheregiko takes out his father’s sword and cuts his head off with it; he fills in the vessel, made of Black Albag’s urinary bladder and then cuts his right hand off. Thus, he leaves the corpse of his blood offender there and returns home with his hand and the bladder full of blood and says to his mother. “Mother, you have been mourning for the father. Now I have killed my father’s murderer; you can wash yourself with his blood, take off your mournful clothes and treat yourself to the meat of his hand!” [6:409-410].
As Georges Dumezil asserts neither here nor in any other versions of revenge for his father there is a sign of the fact that the offender’s hand should be cut off for “additional insult” or “adequate deprivation of his grave”. In all versions the hand returns to his owner so that he is decently buried. There are no signs of sacrifice to god, as S.S. Bessonova asserts.
Of course, these rituals reflect, first of all, the religious and mythological beliefs, or in other words, the symbolic description of the Scythian model of the world with the cyclic change of death and resurrection in the centre of it. The existence of two worlds of the dead in Scythia - the upper and lower - was noted by D. S. Raevsky [10:122, 232]. What belonged to the lower world of the dead, was buried with the dead man. What belonged to the upper world of the dead, was dedicated /devoted to the dead man, but it was not buried in the grave.
Both the Scythians and Ossetians refer the right side to the upper world. The right hand is also the bearer of strength, power and “farn”[2]. When the Scythians throw up the right hand/arm, this means that they devote strength, power, good luck, blessing and abundance for the dead man, but not in the lower world of the dead, but in the upper world of the dead.
Georges Dumezil paid attention to “the arguments of mothers who were trying to talk their sons into “to restoring the dead body” [4:23]. But these “arguments” refer to other faiths. According to these beliefs the dead shouldn’t be buried without some parts of their bodies. It is likely that this ritual is of later origin than the Herodotus’s story.
The Narts Epos often mentions the appearance of these or those customs. As a rule, they say that “The Narts have begun doing so since that time”. For example, the custom of commemorating the dead is associated with Uruzmag who organised the first commemorative event for his nameless dead son [7:254]. In the Narts Epos we can also find the custom of burying a dead man with arms [8:593], as well as the Epos reflects the transformation of the custom of sending enemy to the other world without a part of his body.
The legend “Sozyryko’s Play” tells how Sozyryko never spared anyone in the games. He either cut off the loser’s ear, or he pricked out his eye or he tore off three stripes of skin from his back. Once it was an old man’s turn to play. The latter was afraid of dying mutilated and he sent for his son to the Kingdom of the Dead. The son responded. He wins over Sozyryko, but he refuses to mutilate him and advises Sozyryko never to do so again [8:444-450].
Most likely, the motif of cutting the arm/hand off has preserved the “tradition” and “reform” of the Scythian custom. The modern Ossetians have transformed it even more, preserving it in the symbolic form. Thus, the Ossetians always touch a dead man or a tomb by their right hand, saying “Rokhsag wo” (Be full of light), then go counter-clockwise.
On the whole, the burial rituals of the Scythians, Narts and the Ossetians are identical and there are the same beliefs at the heart of them.
The quoted literature
- Ailarty Izmail. Iron Farn. Vladikavkaz, 1996.
- Bessonova S.S. The Religious Beliefs of the Scythians. Kiev, 1983.
- Herodotus. History in Nine Books. Book 4. Vladikavkaz, 1991.
- Dumezil Georges. The Scythians and the Narts. Moscow, 1990/Georges Dumezil. Romans de Scytie et d’Alentour. Payot, Paris, 1978.
- Dzattiaty R. Traditional Burial Rituals of the Ossetians. Vladikavkaz, 2005.
- The Narts. Mythology and Epos in the Digorian Language. Authors A. Kibirov and E. Skodtaev. Vladikavkaz, 2005.
- Narty Kadzhytæ. Book 1. Author T. Khamitsaeva. Vladikavkaz, 2003.
- Narty Kadzhytæ. The Epos of the Ossetian People. Book 2. Author T. Khamitsaeva, Vladikavkaz, 2004.
- Narty Kadzhytæ. Book 3. Author Khamitsaeva T., Vladikavkaz, 2005.
- Raevsky D. The Model of the World of the Scythian Culture. M., 1985.
- Tuallagov A. The Scythian – Sarmatian World and the Narts Epos of the Ossetians. Vladikavkaz, 2001.
- Iron Adamon Sfældyshtad (The Ossetian Folk Art). In two books. V. 2. Author Z. Sagalaeva. Ordzhonokidze, 1961.
[1] During the wedding ceremony when a bride is brought to her new home, the ritual of familiarising with the new hearth, which symbolised home and family. The bride was lead up to the chain over the hearth, which was considered sacred, then she was lead round the hearth pronouncing prayers. A man was holding the bride’s hand by his left hand hitting the chain with his dagger after each prayer. Only after the sanctification by the dagger, the right hand of the bride was applied on the chain.
[2] Farn – the comprehensive notion of blessing, well-being, abundance, both in spiritual and material spheres.
