Herodotus says that:
"...whenever the king of the Scythians falls sick...this is because such and such a man...has forsworn himself by the king's hearth..."
Pic: Pontic Scythian coin from "The coins of the Scythian kings"
Herodotus then says that:
"...for when the Scythians will swear their mightiest oath, it is by the king's hearth that their custom is to swear most solemnly..."
Herodotus says:
"Scythians regard Hestia, goddess of the hearth, to be their Mother Goddess their Queen."
So oath made before the hearth was oath made before Hestia
In "The mirror of Herodotus" François Hartog asks how is it possible that nomadic Scythians worship Hestia, the goddess of the central, immovable, eternal hearth whose fire should never be extinguished?
Interestingly Ossetians, who are regarded as descendants of Scythians, "hold hearth to be the holiest place: the most solemn oath is sworn by the hearth, while holding onto the iron chain hanging above it which holds the cauldron".
This chain actually had its own deity: Safa (Сафа), God of the hearth chain. He was the most important domestic deity of Ossetians.
Interestingly, among Serbs, who also regard the hearth as the holiest place in the house, the hearth chain which holds the cauldron is also considered to be one of the holiest things...
There is a Serbian legend that says that once "verige" (Serbian name for hearth chain) hang from the sky, and that people made oaths holding onto this holy chain...
There is a Serbian legend that says that once "verige" (Serbian name for hearth chain) hang from the sky, and that people made oaths holding onto this holy chain...
This legend also says that if the person holding onto holy verige (hearth chain) swore a false oath, it would pull the perpetrator towards the sky and expose him and his lie...
One other "coincidence" is that while Ossetians have Safa (Сафа), God of the hearth chain, in Serbian tradition verige (hearth chain) is directly linked to St Sava, Patron saint of Serbia...
St Sava inherited most of the prerogatives of the old Serbian supreme (Sky) god Dabog. Hearth chain which symbolically connects the house hearth, the centre of the house, the centre of the family's world, with the sky, could then be personification of Dabog...
That verige (hearth chain) was by Serbs originally seen as the personification of the sky god, can be seen from the fact that verige was taken out into the fields to magically protect them from hailstorms...
Hearth chain has its own "red letter" day, Časne verige (Holy chains), which is in some parts of Serbia the main holy day. If you wear clothes made on that day "you will be killed by lightning" (because you disrespect the Sky god on his holy day by working)...
One other thing shows that verige (hearth chain) was seen as an object directly linked to Sky God. In Serbian folklore, Thunder God Perun was the one who punished "perjurers (people who swear false oaths), as well as all people who were evil..."
So were Scythians, who were as Herodotus says, swearing oaths before "tas basileias histias" (Royal hearths), swearing oaths before Hestia or Zeus? Judging by Osetian and Serbian tradition most likely Zeus...
One other proof that Serbs linked verige (hearth chain) with sky god is the fact that in spring they decorated verige with nettles to protect house from being struck by lightning. Nettles was believed to ward off lightning...
But this is not the end of the story about holy verige (hearth chains)
In Serbia, when shepherds lost their sheep in the mountain, they ritually tied "verige" (chain on which cauldron is hang over the hearth).
This was done to "close wolf's jaws" and protect the sheep...
The day of St Mrata, 24th of November, marks the end of 9 days known in Serbia as "Mratinci", Mrata's days of "wolf days". St Mrata was by Serbs considered to be "protector of wolves".
Serbs believed that on his day, St Mrata decides which sinners should be punished by sending wolves to attack their flocks during the winter.
On his day in Serbia people performed a very interesting ritual involving "verige" (hearth chain) which was according to people performed "so that wolves wouldn't kill sheep"...
A black cockerel was slaughtered on the house doorstep. After the cockerel is slaughtered, a hair from every animal in the household is placed in its beak. The beak is then tied with a red thread and is hanged over the door or is buried under the doorstep to protect the house and its animals from the evil spirits. The wings are hanged on the chain hanging from the ceiling and on which the cauldron hangs. Or the head with the hairs was hang on the chain. Both the door and particularly the doorstep and the fire place are in Serbian tradition closely linked with the cult of the dead and are places believed to be inhabited by the spirits of the dead ancestors.
This is clearly a panspermia (mixed sacrifice), a type of sacrifice which was in Serbia offered to family ancestors and to the ancestor of all Serbs, Giving God, Dabog
Serbians saw Dabog as "lame wolf shepherd", the protector of wolves and the ruler of the underworld. But they also saw him as the Sun god...I wrote about this in my post "Day Star".
Serbs also believed that wolf was their totem animal, into which the spirits of their dead ancestors reincarnated...Serbs organised the same sacrificial feasts for wolves and the dead.
In some parts of Serbia, on Christmas Eve people used to take a table laid with food on the doorstep of the house and would then ask wolves to come to the feast. In other parts of Serbia they would invite the dead to the feast in the same way.
In some parts of Montenegro Serbs used to place verige (hearth chain) on the dead before burial. Originally verige could have been tied around the dead just like in Serbian wolf rituals...
So it seems that verige (hearth chain) was personification of Dabog the wolf shepherd and that this is why the sacrifices were made to the chain on the day of St Mrata, the saint protector of wolves
As I already said I believe that verige were personification of Perun.
Rooster is Perun's bird and was in Serbia sacrificed on Perun's day. So is sacrificing cockerel to verige a sign that verige were symbol of Perun?
I wrote about this link between Perun and Cockerel in my posts "Alidjun" and "Cockerel and lion".
But, it is possible that verge have even more complex symbolic meaning.
Dabog, Serbian supreme deity was also known as Triglav (Tree headed). His heads were: Perun (Thunder), Svetovid (Sun), Svarog (Fire).
Verige (hearth chain) connects sun with fire. Sun creates Fire through Lightning. This is the meaning of Triglav, Dabog...
I talked about this in my posts "Triglav", "Thundering sun god" and "Sun thunder fire".
Verige (hearth chain) is the lightning (Perun) from the above picture, but with sun and fire that it connects, verige is also Dabog (Triglav). Which is why sacrifices to verige are both made to Dabog and Perun..
In the end, having one Saint protector of wolves, who tells wolves whom to attack is crazy. But Serbs actually have two such saints: St Mrata and St Sava🙂
St Sava, Celebrated on the 27th of January, is the Patron Saint of Serbia. He has in Serbian folklore "inherited" most of the prerogatives of old Serbian ancestral deity Dabog, including being the wolf shepherd
And he also inherited verige (hearth chain), the symbol of Dabog. As I said in my original thread about verige, it has it's own red date called "Savine verige" (Sava's verige) or "časne verige" (holy verige)
Interestingly St Mrata is celebrated just after the beginning of winter and St Sava is celebrated just before the end of winter. So the two "wolf shepherd" saints mark the beginning and the end of winter, the season of the wolf...
The winter, the time of wolves and wolf shepherds, is also the time of darkness, when sun is in the underworld...When Sun God Dabog becomes Dabog, God of the Underworld...
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