Earth-and-Water Mother Api

Earth/water mother and consort of Papaios. The mismatch between Herodotos' gloss (Earth) and the name's water-etymology is itself a noted scholarly point. Aniconic: no cult image attested.

Children

• Serpent-Legged Ancestress

Domains

• earth
• water
• motherhood

Epithets

• Api

Relations

• spouse: Sky-Father Papaios
• interpretatio: Gaia

Sources

• Herodotos, Histories 4.59 (Godley)
• V.I. Abaev (1949); R. Schmitt et al., Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Scythians'; S.S. Bessonova, Religioznye predstavleniya skifov (1983)