“On the S. side of the river, in the district of Melitopol, government of Taurida, is the barrow Tsymbalka near Bélozérka. As usual, the main tomb had been violated by a mine from the north, but in the side tomb were six horses, four with bronze trappings and silver frontlets, two with very interesting gold frontlets.” (E. Minns)
Excavations of Scythian tumuli have revealed on many occasions female images with completely anthropomorphic upper part of the body, whose lower part is rendered as an elaborate palmette. The end boughs of that palmette often resemble snakes or dragon-like creatures, the middle part being of a more floral nature. Scholars are remarkably unanimous in their interpretation of these images as representing the same Snake-legged Goddess – the progenitress of the Scythians – about whom the analysed myth narrates. The combination of snake-like and floral ornamentation in the palmette reflects simultaneously the link of that figure with the chthonic principle, representing the Earth’s life-giving forces. The image found in the Kul-Oba tumulus is of particular interest: in addition to the snake-like palmette described, there were two snakes that seem to grow out of the shoulders of the goddess. This detail is directly relevant to the description given by Valerius Flaccus, who mentions not only the nymph’s “half-animal body”, but some “two snakes” as well. Images of snakes growing out of their shoulders are well-known in Iranian mythical and epic tradition. Such is, for example, the villain Zohak in Shahname – a late hypostasis of the mythological chthonic monster Aidahak. The iconographic basis of all images of the Scythian “Snake-legged Goddess” was the image of some chthonic creature that took shape in Greek art. However, along the Northern Pontic [Black Sea] coasts that image was adapted to personify an exclusively indigenous mythical character, and it was as such that it became extremely popular in Scythia. This marriage between Heaven and Earth gave birth to a character that was essentially the principal figure in the Scythian genealogical myth. In Herodotus’ first version, he was called Targitaos. The information about him contained in that source is reduced to his being the first man, the progenitor of the Scythians and of their kings. Basically, the same can be said about Skythes in the version of the myth given by Diodorus: although this person seemed to appear “in the middle” of Scythian history, and not at all in its beginning, he was the direct descendant of the gods and had no genealogical links with the earlier generations; these generations seem to have been ignored with such a composition of the myth, they prove to be unconnected with the contemporary Scuhia, with its people and kings.” (D. Raevsky, Scythian Mythology)
“Royal Scythia, Greece, Kyiv Rus’ book has more insights into the Scythian mythology.
