116 CHAPTER 1
(the fifth to sixth centuries) contains an extremely similar image.458 In the
opinion of T. Teofilov, the images on the ewers depict the myth of the Garuda
bird that carries the divine daughter Anahita up in the sky. The scholar believes
that “the legend, depicted on the ewers from Nagy-Szent-Miklós, still retains
its primary mythological distinctness and has no Hellenistic adaptation [.. .]
the presentation of the legend has adhered to the main thematic version that
has been preserved in the best, most accurate and most complete way on the
territory of Middle Asia”.459
In connection with the mission of bishop Israel to the Kingdom of the
Huns in Dagestan in 682, M. Kalankatvatsi mentions that priests who opposed
the felling of the sacred oak (!) of the supreme deity, the baghatur Aspandiat
(Tengri Khan), were servants of Aphrodite.460
Many aspects of the image of Aspandiat, identified as the supreme deity
of the Caucasian Huns, remain unclear. Firstly, it is noteworthy that there is
no meaningful link between the cult of this Tengri Khan (Aspandiat) and the
traditional Turkic Tengri (god of the Sky and the celestial sphere). The connec-
tion between Aspandiat and the culture hero as the precursor of rulers seems
more logical, and on a semantic level and with regard to the cult of the Great
Goddess he is the god-son of the goddess.461 Also of importance is the presen-
tation of Aspandiat as a baghatur. The cultural center of the Caucasian Huns
is described as an oak forest. There, the oak of Aspandiat is the chief one, with
the rest dedicated to other deities. His oak, however, is the “head and mother”
of all the others, “a giver of life and all blessings”. It is then quite natural that
the special group of priests who tended the sacred trees were interpreted as
servants of Aphrodite by M. Kalankatvatsi.462 According to S. Kliashtornyi,
458 Belenitskii and Marshak 1976, 78.
459 Teofilov 2003, 375.
460 Movses Kalakantvatsi. Istoriia strany Aluank 2.51, in Smbatian 1984.
461 The root of the name Aspandiat (aspa) means “horse” and thus depicts the hero as a
horseman (see Stepanov 1999a, 154); cf. the interpretation of the Madara Horseman as a
culture hero, a generalized image of the ruler or as an image of Mithra (Stepanov 1999a,
150–155 and 2007, 44–52; cf. Ovcharov 1989, 437–438). See also the analysis of Neikova
2006, 153, in which Aspandiat (Tengri Khan) as a giant is compared with Chuvashian
and Bulgarian concepts of the first man. According to Kaloianov 2003, 281, “Madara” was
regarded as a “female mountain”.
462 See also Gmyria 2008, 13 and 23. Trying to protect the sacred tree of Aspandiat, the priests
specify (in the words of M. Kalankatvatsi) that through prayers and gifts to the tree the
people were healed of diseases, the poor received aid, and with the help of the tree the
people asked for rain and fertility during droughts, stopped heavy rains and restrained