The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 77
of the pagan (pre-Muslim) notions of the local population and were part of
the mystery plays at times of harvests, droughts or excessive rains. The worship
of a sword and a cave points toward the influence of the cult of the Sun-god
Mithra, practiced in caves.262
The difficulty in clarifying the idea of khaganship also comes from the
notion that the cult of the sacral king is a reflection not only of the Supreme
God cult, but also of that of the Great Goddess who displays earthly, chthonic
and fertility traits, as well as solar traits, present in her image as the Maiden.
The relation between the cult of Mithra and the cave and rock (the sky), and
with the notion of kingship as well, determines its correlation with the Great
Goddess cult both in Iran and during the spread of Mithraism in the West.263 It
should be borne in mind that the ancient Iranians regarded Mithra and Varuna
as the sons of the Great Goddess, with the first one representing the sun and
fire, the earthly world and the priestly functions, and the latter one embody-
ing water, the night, the other world and the warrior functions.264 If we swap
the places of the priestly and the warrior functions, we would achieve a more
or less accurate analogy of the Khazar dual kingship, in view of the theories of
V. Flerova and Ts. Stepanov.
Not much clearer is the division of the supreme deities’ functions in the
Satapatha Brahmana: “Mitra is the Counsel, Varuna the Power; Mitra the
Priesthood, Varuna Royal Rule; Mitra the Knower, Varuna the Executive”.265
The Hyperborean myth of Apollo brings us back to ancient beliefs, but to
some extent also to the Turkic genealogical legend of the wolfish origin of
Ashina (a khagan clan). Apollo was born by Leto transformed as a she-wolf,
suggesting his identification with the night sun “in its black wolfish image”.266
“In order to be reborn in his wolfish reincarnation”, Apollo the Wolf “must
die as the Bull Zagreus”.267 If the Turks are directly connected to the wolf and
the she-wolf (probably symbolizing the Mother Goddess), it is permissible to
argue that the Oghuz are connected to the bull (Oghuz means “bull”).268 In a
mythological description Oghuz Khagan is depicted as both bull, wolf, bear
262 Karpov 2001, 63–64.
263 Otran 1998, 50–53 and 107–108; Kiumon 1999, 27, 76–77, and 147–148. See also Stepanov
2007, 44–52.
264 Dudko 2004, 40; Indra is also the son of the Great Goddess (Campbell 2004, 73).
265 Campbell 2005, 274.
266 Fol 1998, 119.
267 Fol 1998, 203.
268 Korogly 1976, 45. The name can also be interpreted in other ways. It can be translated as
“the ten arrows” and initially it could have denoted some sort of political organization.
For more details, see Golden 2003, no. 5, 45–48.