The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 109
kingdom of the dead”.419 In a song from the Ruse region, “he is Dan with Danitsa
(Dennitsa, the Morning Star), accompanied by lads and maidens. Apparently,
in his role as the leader in initiation rites, he leads their souls to the realm of
the dead”.420 The presence of Danitsa in this song is hardly coincidental.
The cult of the Celestial Maiden Goddess has survived for a long time in the
Northern Black Sea region and especially in the Crimea. Already Herodotus
used the name Maiden for the supreme deity of the Tauri.421 Her images in
Chersonesus can be related to the type of the Serpent-Legged Goddess. On a
terracotta plate from the city, dated from the first to second century AD, she is
depicted with a bull’s head. The etymology of the name (Tauri) connects their
origins with the bull. For this reason the Maiden is depicted on the obverse
side of some Chersonesus coins, with the bull depicted on the reverse. This
is a reflection of the belief that the Tauri stemmed from the marriage of the
goddess and the bull. The Maiden of Chersonesus saved the city several times
from military danger, and two sanctuaries claimed to have her sword. Thus, she
resembled the warrior-maiden goddess Athena, and Tabiti probably also had
a similar role.422
Strabo calls the supreme goddess of the Bosporan Kingdom, the lands of
which were later inhabited by Bulgars and Khazars, Aphrodite Apatura.423 The
Celestial Aphrodite is mentioned by the name of Artimpasa by Herodotus as
one of the three goddesses, worshipped by the Scythians.424 Her name indi-
cates a connection to the Iranian goddess of fertility and patron of newlyweds
Arti. The cult of the goddess was also widespread among the population of
Sogd where she was called Artivah (the ancient Iranian Arti Vahvi, mean-
ing “the Good Arti”).425 According to Strabo, when some giants attacked the
Bosporan Aphrodite, she called upon Heracles and hid in a cave, while the
hero killed her foes. This legend bears a resemblance to the Serpent-Legged
Goddess of Herodotus and her name Apatura (“quick water”) resembles that
of the Scythian Api (“water”).426
In ancient times, the cult of Aphrodite (Astarte—the Semitic Aphrodite)
was associated with the cult of Adonis. The mother of Adonis was the Assyrian
419 Kaloianov 1995, 49.
420 Kaloianov 1995, 49–50.
421 Herodotus. Histories 4.103, in Dimitrov 1990, 38.
422 Marazov 1976, 47.
423 Strabo. Geografiia 9.2,10, in Rusinov 2008.
424 Herodotus. Histories 4.59, in Dimitrov 1990, 25.
425 Abaev 1962, 449–450.
426 Raevskii 1977, 57; Marazov 1976, 51; See Strabo. Geografiia11.2,10, in Rusinov 2008.