Based on the study of pictorial monuments and plots of Scythian folklore preserved by ancient authors, the work examines the ideas about the universe inherent in the Scythian tribes of the Northern Black Sea region of the 1st millennium BC. e. As a result, the worldview of the Scythians is reconstructed as a living and integral system. The volume presents the author’s two main monographs - “Essays on the Ideology of the Scythian-Saka Tribes” (1977) and “Model of the World of Scythian Culture” (1985) - with the author’s editorial amendments. The book is intended both for specialists in the field of Scythian and ancient culture, archeology and mythology, and for the general reader interested in the past of Russia and scientific methods of its reconstruction.

Contents: V. Y. Petrukhin, M. N. Pogrebova The Scythian world and the Scythian myth 7 Essays on the ideology of the Scythian-Saka tribes Experience in the reconstruction of Scythian mythology Introduction 17 Chapter I. Scythian genealogical legend 35 Appendix I. Targitai and Traetaona 106 Chapter II. “Hestia, Queen of the Scythians” 113Addition II. Scythian religious holiday and the fate of Kolaksai 138Chapter III. Toward the reconstruction of the Scythian-Saka religious-mythological system 1481. On the Scythian model of the world 1482. Scythian mythology and the Sakas of Central Asia 153Chapter IV. Some questions of the history of the Scythians in the light of the study of Scythian mythology 1641. Scythians, Sakas and Cimmerians 1652. On the class-caste stratification of Scythian society 1783. Royal power in Scythia - tradition and practice 196Conclusion 208Notes 216Summary 242List of abbreviations of periodicals 246Bibliography 248Model the world of Scythian cultureProblems of the worldview of Iranian-speaking Eurasian peoples steppes of the 1st millennium BC e.Preface 265Introduction 267Chapter I. Languages and texts of Scythian culture 278Chapter II. To the study of Scythian narrative folklore 300Chapter III. Scythian fine art as a dynamic semiotic system 352Chapter IV. Greco-Scythian cosmogram 472Conclusion 499Notes 501Summary 547List of abbreviations of periodicals 550Bibliography 553List of printed works by D. S. Raevsky 575Index of names 587Index of archaeological sites 596