Artimpasa
Artimpasa was a complex androgynous Scythian goddess of fertility who possessed power over sovereignty and the priestly force. Artimpasa was the Scythian variant of the Iranian goddess Arti/Aṣ̌i.
Name
The first element of Artimpasa's name was derived from that of the Iranian Goddess , while the second element was related to the terms, meaning "pasture", and, meaning "lord", both derived from a common root.Artimpasa is often erroneously called Argimpasa due to a scribal corruption.
History
Origins
Artimpasa was the Scythian variant of the Iranian goddess Arti /Aṣ̌i, who was a patron of fertility and marriage and a guardian of laws who represented material wealth in its various forms, including domestic animals, precious objects, and a plentiful descendance.Thracian influences
There were outside influences on Artimpasa, such as from the Moon and Hunting goddess Bendis of the Thracian neighbours of the Scythians, who like Artimpasa was a mistress of animals and a power-giver. The presence of these similarities between Artimpasa and however suggests that these aspects of Artimpasa had an indigenously Scythian/Balkan element and were not fully results of the undermentioned influence of ancient West Asian cults.Western Asian influences
The ancient West Asian cults who influenced Artimpasa were those of ʿAštart-Ištar-Aphroditē during the long-period of Scythian presence in Western Asia in the 7th century BCE, especially in the latter's form worshipped at Ascalon of an androgynous vegetation-fertility goddess who had the ability to change men into women and women into men.Artimpasa henceforth preserved many traits inherited from ʿAštart, and, reflecting influence from Levantine cults in which the Great Goddess was often accompanied by a minor semi-bestial goddess, it was from the ʿAštart-Aphroditē of Ascalon, to whom was affiliated a semi-human goddess subordinate to her in the form of ʿAtarʿatah, that was derived the affiliation of the Snake-Legged Goddess, who was also the Scythian equivalent of the semi-human goddess subordinate to the Great Goddess as well as the Scythian foremother and therefore the equivalent of ʿAtarʿatah, to Artimpasa.
This affiliation was so close that the images of the two goddesses would almost merge, but nevertheless remained distinct from each other, and this distinction 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.
Persian influences
Other influences on Artimpasa include that of the fellow Iranian goddess Anāhitā, whose closeness to Arti enabled the merging of her traits into Artimpasa. Anāhitā's triple name, , meaning "The Humid, Strong, and Immaculate" respectively represented the three functions of fecundity, sovereignty, and priestly force, which were also functions present in Artimpasa, as were also Anāhitā's functions as an ancient fertility goddess influenced by the Assyro-Babylonian Ištar-ʿAštart, her later orgiastic rites, and her roles as a warrior and victory-granting goddess. The cult of Artimpasa had transformed into one of the divine patron of the royal dynasty by the 4th century BCE, reflecting the absorption of Anāhitā's role as a divine patroness of the king and a giver of royal power by Artimpasa, as well as the influence on Artimpasa of the role of the Levantine Great Goddesses as grantors of divine power to the king.Cult
Functions
Artimpasa was a goddess of warfare, sovereignty, priestly force, fecundity, vegetation and fertility.Regional variants
Artimpasa was known under the name of Ασταρα by the Sindo-Maeotians, a name which was derived from that of ʿAštart. Like Artimpasa, Astara's was a male deity who was a local form of Targī̆tavah named Targitaos#Sanerges| who was identified with the Greek Hēraklēs,.Greek identifications
Due to the assimilation by Artimpasa of the traits of Ištar-ʿAštart, the Greeks on the northern shores of the Black Sea identified Artimpasa with their own goddess Aphroditē Ourania and the Scythians themselves in turn assimilated Aphroditē Ourania with Artimpasa. Due to this association, multiple depictions of Greek-style and Greek-made Aphroditē and Erōs have been found in the tombs of Scythian nobles. The Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus would later also equate Artimpasa with the Greek goddess Aphroditē Ourania, who herself presided over productivity in the material world.Artimpasa was also identified with the Greek goddess Athēna in the Bosporan Kingdom due to her warrior aspects.
Iconography
The winged Artimpasa
Artimpasa was a Potnia Theron|, and was depicted as such on a mirror from the, whose circle was divided into eight equal segments portraying demons, animals, and semi-bestial men, and was dominated by the goddess, winged, and holding two panthers in her spread hands. This imagery might have been influenced directly and indirectly by the Levantine depictions of Inanna-Ištar, who was portrayed as winged as symbol of her being a celestial and warrior goddess, and was also represented as a holding animals in both her hands or surrounded by animals, and whose warrior nature was shown in her representations as a Mistress of Animals holding weapons.A Sarmatian Phalera | decorated with an image of a winged Aphroditē with her head decorated with leaves, and holding a small round object in one hand and a rosette in the other hand was found in the Yanchorak treasure from the 2nd to 1st centuries BCE. This was part of a horse harness and the Sarmatians who copied a Greek representation of Aphroditē associated her image with their own goddess. These representations also characterise Artimpasa as a alongside her status as a.
Another winged depiction of Artimpasa shows her as a winged goddess flanked by deer from a plate found in the alongside a sceptre head shaped like the Snake-Legged Goddess affiliated to her. A possibly winged representation of Artimpasa was on a damaged bronze cart beam decoration from Krasnoye Znamya. That this portrayal of the goddess showed her within a radiate circle, implying she was also a solar goddess. Artimpasa role's as a and the nature of the horse as both solar and chthonic furthermore implied that Artimpasa, although a celestial goddess, was also a killer and earth deity.
The seated Artimpasa
Another Scythian art motif depicting Artimpasa portrays her as a seated goddess who wears a with a veil above it and holds a mirror while a young man wearing Scythian clothing and drinking from a stands in front of her. Although this composition has sometimes been identified as a representation of Tāpayantī, the mirror the goddess holds is more fitting of Artimpasa's role as a goddess of fertility and sexuality and a patroness of the soothsayers due to the mirror being a symbol of feminine principle, eroticism and fertility which played an important role in the wedding rites of Iranian peoples, as well as a magical object used for prophecy and shamanic rites. One pendant from the Kul-Oba kurgan depicts Artimpasa in the centre, with a spherical vessel to her right and an altar or incense burner to her left, representing the consecration by fire of the communion between the goddess and humanity.A more complex form of the seated Artimpasa motif is found on a 4th-century BCE headgear gold band from Sakhnova, where the seated Artimpasa holds a mirror and a round vessel, with a bearded Scythian with a gorytos| hanging on his belt and holding a in one hand and a sceptre in the other hand kneels in front of her. To their right are a musician and two "cup-bearers", and to their left is a youth with a fan and two Scythians drinking from the same , and two sacrificers of a ram. This scene is a representation of a sacred feast where the kneeling man, a worshipper or young god, is uniting with the goddess by drinking a holy beverage. This feast is comparable to the orgiastic festival of which was celebrated in Pontos in honour of Anāhitā and was defined as a "Scythian feast" by Hesychius of Alexandria.
A similar artistic motif is that of a horseman facing Artimpasa. One depiction of this scene is from a famous Saka carpet from one of the Pazyryk kurgans in Siberia representing the seated Artimpasa with her right hand raised to her head and her left hand holding a blossoming branch, with a horseman facing her. Another representation of this scene is found on a 1st-century BCE to 1st-century CE relief from the in which a horseman holding a bow approaches a standing woman who holds a round object, with an altar between them.
Another possible Siberian representation of Artimpasa can be found on two belt buckles depicting two dismounted horsemen, one of whom is holding the horses while the other lays in the lap of a goddess whose torso emerges from the earth and whose hair is interwoven with the branches of a tree above her head. This scene might depict the Scythian ritual sleep on the Earth and could be related to the relation between [|Artimpasa and the divine twins].
The bezel of the signet ring of the Scythian king Scyles was decorated with the image of Artimpasa seated on a throne and holding a mirror in her right hand and a sceptre in her left hand, with engraved near the figure of the goddess, and on whose band was inscribed in Greek , with Argotas being a former Scythian king from whom his descendant Scyles inherited this ring.Depictions of Astara with a horseman facing her have also been found in the Kuban region inhabited by these peoples:
- a 4th century BCE Rhyton| from the Merdzhany kurgan was decorated with a representation of the seated goddess holding a spherical vessel, with a seven-branched leafless tree on one side of her throne, and a pole with a horse skull on it on the other side, while mounted god with a approaches her – the scene represents this Sindo-Maeotian goddess and a local male deity in communion, possibly of marital nature. This scene is also parallel to the scenes of Artimpasa with a male partner, and the presence of the Tree of Life as well as the goddess's link to horses reflect her similarity with Artimpasa, and thus indicate close links between the Scythian and Sindo-Maeotian worship of the fertility and vegetation goddess.
- a relief from the 4th century BCE Trekhbratniy kurgan depicted a small charioteer drawing the horses of a carriage with a naiskos|-shaped coach in which is seated a woman who stretches her hand towards a young beardless horseman who has a gorytos| hanging on his left hip while another hands from a pole near the. The hanging on the pole might be linked to the custom of the Massagetai described by Hērodotos of Halikarnāssos whereby a man desiring to have sexual intercourse with a woman would hang his in front of her wagon before proceeding to the act; the hanging in the Trekhbratniy kurgan relief might thus have been a symbol of sexual union or marriage, and its location near the carriage as well as the handclasp of the woman and the horseman might therefore hint that the scene showed a sacred marriage ceremony. This scene represented the apotheosis of a deceased noblewoman who participated in the worship of the Sindo-Maeotian goddess before her death, with her receiving the status of the goddess depicted in similar scenes alongside the hero after her death. The scene might alternatively have represented the Sindo-Maeotian equivalent of Artimpasa with the hero.