102 CHAPTER 1
common mythology and from subsequent folkloric notions. Regarding the
notion of power in Khazaria such an approach is necessitated by several
factors. Firstly, this is sacral kingship: it implies duality and “male-female” char-
acteristics that are determined by the mythological notions of the population,
subject to the Khazar khagans. Secondly, as we shall see later, there is signifi-
cant circumstantial data (from archaeology and folklore), which makes it pos-
sible to determine some links between kingship and the cult of the supreme
female deity. The problem here lies in the fact that the interpretation of this
information is secondary and often a result of the use of other examples that
are “external” for a given community. Such an approach could even be called
structuralist, but I have to say that I am far from the idea of “layering” ready-
made schemes and solutions regarding the relation between the khagan cult
and the vague as yet outlines of the cult of a supreme female deity in Khazaria.
It seems to me that a suitable basis here would be Frazer’s tale of the King
of the Wood and Diana Nemorensis—a plot that represents “a single funda-
mental myth of the end and rebeginning of an eon”.388 To determine what the
khagan or the king each represent, it is necessary to be well acquainted with
Khazar mythology. For the moment, however, it can only be examined with
regard to the mythology of the Bulgars and Alans. Up till now, no monuments
or settlements that can be linked with certainty only with the Khazars have
been found. An additional problem is that unlike the Bulgars and Alans who
each have their own descendants, which makes the research of their mytho-
logical beliefs an achievable though time-consuming task, the Khazars have
disappeared completely and left no ethnic group or nation which could be
identified with them. And it is precisely the details and intricacies in the con-
cepts of the world of the gods and that of the humans that are of importance
and define the specificity in the notion of power. With regard to Khazaria these
nuances remain unclear. So far, only certain directions for exploration can be
388 Campbell 2004, 405–406. A similarity with this topic can be found even today in the
folk beliefs of Middle Asia. In the mazar of Khodzha Baror (“Mr. Luck”) in the Ferghana
Valley is preserved one of the most archaic cults. Of particular interest is the notion that
Khodzha Baror has not died, but has simply disappeared and should return once more.
However, the main cult there is of a group of trees (the main one of which is “pregnant”)
that on certain days and certain hours seep sap, believed to cure infertility. Gorshunova
2008, 71–82 associates this with the legend of how Zarathustra was conceived from a drink
that was made from the sacred plant Haoma, mixed with milk. There is no lake on the site
of the shrine, but according to a legend there once was. The shrine inherited the cult of
the supreme female deity, probably Anahita. On similar shrines in Middle Asia, as well
as on the legacy of the Anahita cult, see Snesarev 1973, 98–117; Snesarev 1983, 80–100 and
159–168; Sukhareva 1975.