Xucau
Ossetian · deity · cosmogonic · deity
THE CORPUS HELD TEN OSSETIAN RECORDS AND NOT THE SUPREME GOD. Nine of the ten are Nart heroes and one is the water-lord Donbettyr; the god who rules the whole pantheon was absent. He is also the figure the whole Ossetian system hangs from: every other dzuar in this batch is one of the zædtæ he rules.
Domains
- supreme god
- creation
- rule over the heavenly spirits
Sources
- Reference treatment of Ossetian (Alan) mythology: the collective term for the beliefs and practices of the Ossetian people of the Caucasus; the religion is held to be of Scythian and Sarmatian origin but carries many later Christian elements, and Ossetian gods are often identified with Christian saints; Xucau (Ossetian Хуыцау) is the supreme god, who rules over all the heavenly spirits and deities called zædtæ and dawdžytæ, and bears nicknames such as Great God, Creator of the Universe and God of Gods; his name is often taken as a cognate of Iranian Khuda (Sogdian Xutāw, Khwarezmian Xudāw), though some scholars claim Caucasian roots; the uac- prefix borne by several of these figures is usually understood to mean 'saint'.