Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

of gods, beliefs, and art
10.10 Detail from a felt wall hanging from kurgan 5 at Pazyryk. The scene is comparable to that shown
in fig. 10.9. Here the seated goddess grasps the Tree of Life on her left-hand side. Her elegant suitor, wearing
his gorytos, approaches from the front. The horse is carefully groomed with a cropped mane and a
plaited tail.
Another particularly vivid depiction of the seated goddess and approaching
rider motif is to be found on the felt wall hanging from kurgan 5 at Pazyryk. Here
the seated goddess—a stern-looking lady with a substantial headdress adding to her
grandeur—holds the tree of life at her left side and faces the rider. The horseman who
approaches her, though smaller, has a trim elegance matched by that of his horse.
In most of the representations of the seated goddess and the approaching male
suitor, the goddess is the dominant figure with the male her subordinate. She is probably
a manifestation of Argimpasa, the foremother of the Scythians, while he is not
a mythological figure but a mortal who through communion with her becomes a
hero-god.
A seated goddess is also depicted in the lower register of a gold plate found in
the Karagodeuashkh kurgan dating from the fourth–third century. The plate once
adorned the headgear of a female buried in the tomb. In this instance the goddess is
flanked by two young men, one offering a rhyton, the other a globular vessel, while
two female figures, their hair covered, stand in the background. The most likely
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