Apsati

Apsati is the lord of the wild animals and divine patron of the hunt, shared across the central Caucasus with the Ossetian AEfsati and the Svan Apsat. He is pictured as a venerable grey-bearded man dwelling among the high cliffs, owner of the herds of deer, ibex, aurochs and chamois, which he pastures and slaughters at will. A hunter's success is a gift from Apsati, earned by hymns and by reverent conduct; the beasts taken are his own livestock, and because he can revive them from their bones the hunters were bound by strict taboos not to waste or scatter the remains. Boastful or greedy men are shown game and then destroyed by him.

Domains

• hunting
• wild animals

Powers

• grants or withholds the wild game
• revives slain quarry from its bones

Epithets

• Апсатыны акъ сакъалы — grey-bearded ApsatiМалкондуев Х.Х. «Древняя песенная культура балкарцев и карачаевцев». Нальчик: Эльбрус, 1990. (secondary)

Sources

• Apsati is the master of wild animals and patron of hunters, owner of deer, ibex, aurochs and chamois, imagined as a grey-bearded old man of the high crags.: «Мифы народов мира: Энциклопедия», гл. ред. С.А. Токарев. Москва, 1980–1982 (статья «Апсати»). (secondary); Джуртубаев М.Ч. «Древние верования балкарцев и карачаевцев». Нальчик: Эльбрус, 1991. (secondary)
• Hunters sang special songs to Apsati and observed taboos over the bones of the kill, which he could restore to life.: Малкондуев Х.Х. «Древняя песенная культура балкарцев и карачаевцев». Нальчик: Эльбрус, 1990. (secondary)