Safa

THE MOST IMPORTANT DOMESTIC DEITY OF THE OSSETIANS, and the corpus held none of the household layer at all: its ten Ossetian records are nine epic heroes and a water-lord. He is identified with Kurdalægon in the sources, and the two are carried as separate records with an equated-with link rather than merged, because the hearth chain and the forge are distinct cults.

Domains

• the hearth
• oaths sworn on the chain
• reconciliation of blood enemies
• protection of children
• marriage rite

Relations

• equated with: Kurdalægon

Sources

• Reference treatment of Safa: the god of the hearth chain and the most important domestic deity of the Ossetians, the name deriving from Sabbas the Sanctified; Safa gave people the hearth chain (Ossetian рæхыс), which played a large part in social and family life — people pronouncing solemn oaths, and blood-enemies reconciling and forgiving each other, held on to this chain; a mother laying her child down for the night entrusted him to Safa's protection with one hand on the chain; at her farewell the bride went three times around the hearth chain and touched it in parting from her father's house, and did the same on first entering her husband's; Safa is identified with the smith-deity Kurdalægon, and in the Nart saga he is called 'heavenly', a friend of the Narts and the teacher of Uryzmæg's son Crym-Sultan.