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Vainakh mythology

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The Vainakh people of the North Caucasus (Chechens and Ingush) were Islamised comparatively late, during the early modern period, and Amjad Jaimoukha (2005) proposes to reconstruct some elements of their pre-Islamic religion and mythology, including traces of ancestor worship and funerary cults. The Nakh peoples, like many other peoples of the Caucasus such as especially Circassians and Ossetians, had been practising tree worship, and believed that trees were the abodes of spirits. Vainakh peoples developed many rituals to serve particular kinds of trees. The pear tree held a special place in the faith of Vainakhs.

Contents

Comparative mythology

K. Sikhuralidze proposed that the people of the Caucasus region shared a single, regional culture in ancient times. Careful study of the Nakh and Kartvelian mythologies reveals many similarities.

Jaimoukha (2005) adduces comparison with the Circassians, but also more generally with Iron Age mythology western Indo-European cultures, especially emphasizing parallels to Celtic polytheism. such as the worship of certain trees (including, notably, a pine tree on the winter solstice, supposedly related to the modern Christmas tree, reconstructed calendar festivals such as Halloween and Beltane, veneration of fire, and certain ghost related superstitions.

Pantheon

Jaimoukha (2005) on page 252 gives a list of reconstructed "Waynakh deities".

  • Deela or Dela - The supreme god
  • Hela - God of darkness
  • Seela or Sela - God of stars, thunder and lightning. Sela is often told as an evil and cruel god. His skein (a loose bag made of animal skin) held the "night" (stars, lightning and thunder). He lives on the top of Mount Kazbek with his fire chariot. He was the one who chained Pkharmat to a mountain for stealing fire, and for this reason, on the Wednesday of his month in the old Vainakh calendar, it was forbidden to carry embers or ashes. During the era of Christianization in Chechnya and Ingushetia, he was identified with Elijah, thus keeping his status. He is also, like the Greek Zeus, unable to control his desires for human women (much to the dismay of his wife, Furki), and one episode with mortal maiden resulted in the birth of a daughter goddess, Sela Sata.
  • Sata or Sela Sata - either wife or daughter of Seela, according to different versions; a goddess of artisanship and especially female crafts, corresponding to Northwest Caucasian Satanaya. Her face is described as shining like the sun with beauty. She helps Pkharmat steal Sela's fire for the Earth's inhabitants by guiding him on the peak of Mount Kazbek.
  • Maetsill - God of agriculture and the harvest and protector of the weak.
  • Ishtar-Deela - Lord of life and death and ruler of the underworld ("Deeli-Malkhi"), responsible for punishing the wicked.
  • Molyz-Yerdi - The war god who brought the Waynakh victory.
  • Elta - God of the hunt and animals and - before Maetsill took over his role - the harvest. He was blinded in one eye for disobedience by his father, Deela.
  • Amgali(-Yerdi) - A minor deity.
  • Taamash(-Yerdi) - ("lord of wonder") Lord of fate. Usually tiny in size but becomes gigantic when angered.
  • Tusholi - Goddess of fertility, protector of the people in front of his father Deela. She lives in sacred Lake Galain-Am. According to scholars, in earlier beliefs Tusholi was the dominant deity. People asked from her for a healthy offspring of a rich harvest and growth of cattle. Later Tusholi was mainly the object of worship of childless women. She had a day of the year, Tusholi's Day, where women would bring horns of red deer, bullets and candles to her sanctuary on Mount Deela T'e, where non-priests could enter only with explicit permission and where trees could not be cut down. Nowadays her day is considered "Children and Women's day". The hoopoe, known as "Tusholi's hen" was considered "her" bird and could not be hunted except with permission from the high priest and for strictly medicinal purposes.
  • Dartsa-Naana ("Blizzard mother") - Goddess of blizzards and avalanches. She lives on the top of Mount Kazbek. Dartsa-Naana inscribed on a snow cone a Kazbek magic circle, through which no mortal dares to cross. The ones who stepped this circle Dartsa-Naana drops into the abyss or floods the ice mountain.
  • Mokh-Naana - Goddess of the winds.
  • Seelasat ("Oriole"). Protectress of virgins (possibly identical to Sata / Sela Sata, see above).
  • Meler Yerdi - God of plants and cereal beverages.
  • Gal-Yerdi - Patron of cattle breeders. Worshipped on the Nakh New Year's Day, and offered metal orbs and candles, as well as animal sacrifices at times.
  • Aira - Patron of eternal timeline.
  • Mozh - Evil sister of the sun and moon. Mozh ate all their relatives in the sky, and now constantly chases the sun and the moon. When she catches up with them and obscured, the eclipse occurs. Mozh releases the sun and the moon only after it has been so requested by the innocent first-born girl.
  • Bolam-Deela - Not much is known about him/her. He/she may or may not have been equivalent to Deela-Malkh.
  • Khagya-Yerdi or Maetskhali - Lord of the rocks.
  • Mattir-Deela - Another little known deity.
  • P'eerska - (Friday) The keeper of time.
  • Supernatural creatures and heroes

  • Pkharmat, demi-god Nart who stole fire from the cruel god Sela. Equivalent of Greek Prometheus, and Georgian Amirani. He is also equivalent to the Circassian Pataraz.
  • Pkhagalberi tribe. Mythological dwarf race, Pkhagalberi translated as Haareriders. They were invulnerable to any kind of weapons their enemies the Narts had.
  • Turpal, a free-roaming horse who came to help Pkharmat in his journey when he called him. "Turpal always roamed free, grazing among seven mountains, and drinking sea-water."
  • Uja. A cyclops, faithful servant of Sela. He chained Pkharmat to the summit of Mount Kazbek.
  • Ida. King of birds, - a falcon who comes every morning to tear Pkharmat's liver.
  • Spirit of Galain-Am Lake- a mythologic bull protecting sacred Galain-Am Lake from pollution and from unfaithful acts.
  • Melhun, the fallen angel.
  • Nart, a mythical race of giants. Separately from the mythology of other peoples of the Caucasus, in Waynakh mythology Narts could be both good and evil.
  • Almas, evil forest spirits. They can be both male and female almases. Almas-men covered with hair, a terrible kind, fierce and insidious; on the chest of them is a sharp axe. Female almases have an extraordinary beauty, but also evil, insidious and dangerous. Sometimes they seem terrifying creatures of enormous growth with huge breasts, thrown over his shoulders behind his back. Favorite theirs occupation - dance: throwing his chest behind his back, raising his hands up, they dance in the moonlight. Almases live in the woods, on the highlands. They are patronized by wild animals and sometimes come with a hunter in a love affair. Luck on hunting, according to legends, depends on the benevolence of an almas.
  • Ghamsilg (or Gham-stag) was a witch who could leave her body and enter into an animal. If in her absence to turn the body, then, on his return from travels, it will not be able to return to his body and dies.
  • Djinim (Genie). In perceptions of Chechens and Ingush good and evil spirits are between angels and devils. Good and evil djinim together are in the same hostility as angels with devils. Through deceit or eavesdropping, they steal the innermost secrets of the future of man and tell their friends of the earth. Falling star - a star angels cast during eavesdropping. Contact with a djinim leads to insanity.
  • Taram, invisible guardian spirits that protect his master from all sorts of disasters. On representations of the Nakhs, every person, every household (family), all natural objects had a Taram.
  • Uburs, the evil, bloodthirsty spirits, entered into any animal. Close to the vampire in Slavic mythology (cf. Polish: upiĆ³r, Ukrainian: upir).
  • Hunsag (or Hunstag), the patron spirit of the forest and forest animals. Hunsag seek to destroy every hunter, who met with him in the woods. From his breast sticks out the bone axe. The forest animals, birds, trees, grass rise to defend Hunsag.
  • Batiga-Shertko a special figure with the ability to cross over to the underworld to inform a client of how deceased loved ones were doing there, often with an animal sacrifice as payment. The animal was believed to come into the possession of the deceased loved one.
  • References

    Vainakh mythology Wikipedia