Job: Temple Descriptions

[LucretiusTC]

If there are any plans to change the current Scythian Faction to the new Sarmatian Faction, here is a slightly updated version for that purpose. Basically all the gods and the temples are the same, but there are some changes and additions in the temple descriptions that should make them more suitable for the Sarmatians.

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THE SARMATIAN PANTHEON

1.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_battle
Name: Agin
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Agin, the ancient Indo-Iranian god of war who is corresponding the Greek god Ares. This god was incarnated in a short iron sword “akinakes” placed on the top of a big heap of brushwood. The victims to this ruthless god were cattle, horses, and even captives. Besides it was said that a young Scythian warrior ought to drink the blood of the first man he slays. The high amount of offensive weapons found in Sarmatian graves also indicates a military-oriented nomadic life.

2.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_battleforge
Name: Khursun
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Khursun, an Iranian solar god revered by the Scythians and Sarmatians. A Greek historian Herodotus describes Sarmatians as descendants of Scythian fathers and Amazon mothers who lived on the plains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, north of the Caucasus. Actually Sarmatians were a coalition of Iranian nomadic tribes who were closely related to the Scythians, and they both were known as fierce warriors. On the other hand the unusual freedoms of Sarmatian women including their participation in warfare gave some credibility to the idea of their Amazon ancestors.

3.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_farming
Name: Argimpasa
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Argimpasa, the celestial goddess of fertility and springtime. Even though the Royal Scythians led a nomad and warlike life there were also the agrarian Scythians who farmed fertile black soil plains for their masters. Because of this flourishing agriculture in the steppe their main exports were grain, wax, honey, furs, and slaves. However it was typical to describe the important Sarmatian nations like Roxolani as “wagon-dwellers”.

4.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_fertily
Name: Ditagoia
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Ditagoia, a Scythian fertility goddess who shared similarities with Greek goddesses Artemis and Hekate. She was particularly important deity of the Bosporan aristocracy in Neapolis Scythica which was the Barbarian main fortress in the centre of the Taurica (Crimea) where the steppe meets the mountains. Otherwise the westernmost of the powerful Sarmatian nations was the Iazyges who later had most contacts with the Roman world.

5.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_ forge
Name: Hephaestus (Sarmatian version)
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Hephaestus, the great Olympian god of fire, metalworking, stonemasonry and the art of sculpture, the patron of the craftsmen. The Scythians also worked in a wide variety of materials such as gold, wood, leather, bone, bronze, iron, silver and electrum. As nomads, the Scythians and Sarmatians worked in decorative materials for use on their horses, tents and wagons and many of the pieces are small so as to be portable. The Greek craftsmen were sometimes commissioned to decorate many of daily use articles including their weapons.

6.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_fun
Name: Dionysus
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Dionysus, the great Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure and festivity. He was depicted as either an older bearded god or a pretty effeminate, long-haired youth. His attributes included the thyrsos (a pine-cone tipped staff), drinking cup, leopard and fruiting vine. He was also called both by Greeks and Romans Bacchus, that is, the noisy or riotous god, which was originally a mere epithet or surname of Dionysus. Otherwise the Scythians were known about their particular habit to drink wine without thinning with water.

7.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_governors
Name: Targitaus
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Targitaus, the forefather of the Scythians, the son of Papaios and the river Borysthenes. His mythological birth may be interpreted as the formation of the middle zone of the cosmos—"the world of people," between the heavenly and chthonic worlds. Targitaus was described as a horseman who holds a horn of plenty and he was celebrated especially during the summer solstice.

8.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_healing
Name: Goetosyrus
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Goetosyrus, whom Herodotus identified with the Greek Apollo, the sun god. He was celebrated especially during the winter solstice, the darkest time of the year. Generally speaking the religious practices of Sarmatian nomads were typical of the clan-tribal cults of pre-Zoroastrian Iran.

9.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_horse
Name: Kolaxais
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to the demigod Kolaxais, the mythical founder of the Scythian nation and its royal dynasties. One day a plough and a yoke, a battle-axe and a cup fell from the sky, but two elder brothers could not touch the objects. Then Kolaxais succeeded in grabbing those golden gifts from the heaven and this youngest son of Targitaus became the warrior and the ruler of the others.

10.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_hunt
Name: Leipoxais
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to the demigod Leipoxais, the eldest son of divine Targitaus and the patron of Scythian hunters. The military power of the Scythians based on a large, well-armed, and well-disciplined army of horse archers, and the hunting gave them good skills for the real war. As an example Strabo of Amasia estimated that the easternmost of Sarmatian nations, the Aorsi could assemble two hundred thousand mounted archers, but those numbers shouldn’t take too literally.

11.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_justice
Name: Anacharsis
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Anacharsis, a legendary Scythian prince who was well-known for his wisdom and travels. Sometimes this true philosopher was presented as an admirer of Greeks ways, but later he became to exemplify the wise Barbarian who criticised the Western customs. He compared laws to spiders' webs, which catch small flies and allow bigger ones to escape.

12.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_law
Name: Papaios
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Papaios, the Scythian All-Father, and the Eldest of the Gods. The marriage of Papaios (Heaven) and Api (Earth) was seen as cosmogonical act, a common concept among the Indo-Iranians. To mortals he was the ultimate patriarch, protector and law-giver to whom the Greeks identified to Zeus himself. The actual laws of Sarmatian society favoured aristocratic warrior elite, the Argaragantes who was served by the slaves. The typical tribe was still nomadic, roaming over the steppes on horseback or in covered wagons, the kibitkas.

13.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_leadership
Name: Tabiti
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Tabiti, whom Herodotus identified with the Greek Hestia. The unity of all the Scythian tribes is embodied in the image of this goddess, and she was connected with the royal house and the royal hearth. Therefore, the highest oath was that to the “royal Hestias”, goddess of the fire and the hearth”. The evidence of fire cult practices is also exemplified by charcoal and ashes found in the burials.

14.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_love
Name: Api
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Api, the Scythian Earth Mother and the mother of the Gods. She was celebrated as a sexual being as much as a fertility goddess. To the Greeks she was an equivalent to Gaia, the primeval divinity of earth, one of the primal elements who first emerged at the dawn of creation, along with air, sea and sky. Otherwise the ancient observers often noted that Sarmatian women did not behave as they expected: their position was clearly better than in the classical Mediterranean world. The Greeks explained this strange phenomenon with the hypothesis that the Sarmatians descended from the Amazons.

15.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_naval
Name: Thamigasados
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Thamigasados, who was the Scythian sea god according to the Greek historian Herodotus. Besides the Black Sea, the big rivers like Borysthenes (Dnieper), Tanais (Don) and Ister (Danube) were important traffic routes at the time when the proper roads were nearly non-existent and even the rivers had their own gods.

16.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_trade
Name: Arpoxais
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to the demigod Arpoxais, the middle son of divine Targitaus, and the patron of cattle-breeders and traders. In addition to war booty, trade with the Greek colonies on the Black Sea provided the Scythians most of their wealth. The first Sarmatians who had contacts with the Hellenic groups on the coast was the Siraces. They were the most Hellenized of the Sarmatians, and maintained good relations with the Bosporans.

17.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_violence
Name: Scythes
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Scythes, the first king of the Scythians and the son of Heracles as the Greeks who settled round the Black Sea have told. According to legend Heracles had three sons with a serpent-maiden who had hidden the hero’s horses and required him to as the father of her children. Before he left she wanted to know what was to be done about her three sons once they grew up. Two of those sons, Agathyrsus and Gelonus proved not able to be enough in pursuit of the proposed prize and were gone out of the country expelled by their mother, but the youngest of them, Scythes, having brought it to completion, stayed behind in the country. So, Scythes, the son of Heracles became the first king in Scythia, even though according to another strong tradition the true forefather of Scythians was Targitaus.

18.
Culture: Sarmatia
Temple: temple_of_victory
Name: Simurgh
Description: This Shrine is dedicated to Simurgh, the divine gryphon of Persian mythology that was worshipped by the Scythians and Sarmatians. The gryphon (griffin) was a gigantic, winged monster in the shape of a bird; a kind of peacock with the head of a dog and the claws of a lion. This benevolent creature was considered to purify the land and waters and hence bestow fertility. According to legend, the gryphon was so old that it has seen the world destroyed three times over. In all that time, Simurgh has learned so much that it is thought to possess the knowledge of all ages.

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Luc.