Sword-God of War (Scythian Ares)

War-god worshipped as a sword (akinakes). The only Scythian deity with attested image, altar and rich sacrificial rite, making the materialCulture entry central. Native theonym genuinely unrecorded (term left as Greek Ἄρης; the reconstructed-Iranian slot states 'unrecorded' only in the transliterations field, not in a term).

Domains

• war
• kingship and victory

Powers

• receives blood poured over the planted sword

Epithets

• ἀκινάκης

Relations

• equated with: Bared-Sword War-God (Sarmatian Ares)
• interpretatio: Ares

Sources

• Herodotos, Histories 4.59 and 4.62 (Godley)
• D.S. Raevskiy (1977); R. Schmitt et al., Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Scythians'