Sun-King Kolaxais

First-king tier (rendered 'demigod', grandson of the sky-god through Targitaos). The sacred gold was guarded most jealously by the kings, who offered it great yearly sacrifices and held a festival where its custodian who fell asleep in the open was believed not to outlive the year (Hdt 4.7). Foregrounded with Targitaos as the core of the dynastic charter myth.

Parentage

• parent: First Man Targitaos

Domains

• sacral kingship
• solar sovereignty

Powers

• took up the unburning sky-gold

Epithets

• Κολάξαϊς greek · Koláxaisyoungest son who alone could take up the burning golden regalia; first sacral sun-kingHerodotus 4.5-7 (primary)

Relations

• sibling: Middle Heir ArpoxaisReciprocal of scythian_arpoxais.sibling — Middle brother of Kolaxais in the three-sons myth of Targitaos.Herodotus, Histories 4.5-7 (primary)
• sibling: Eldest Heir LipoxaisReciprocal of scythian_lipoxais.sibling — Eldest brother of the youngest, Kolaxais, who alone could take up the burning gold and so received the kingship.Herodotus, Histories 4.5-7 (primary)

Sources

• Youngest son of Targitaos; only he could take the four golden objects that fell blazing from heaven (plough-with-yoke, battle-axe, cup), so the brothers gave him sole kingship; ancestor of the royal tribe, the Paralatae.: Herodotos, Histories 4.5-7 (Godley) (primary)
• The name's second element is Old Iranian *xšaya 'ruling'; the first element is widely connected to a sun-word (*huar-/*hvarya-), giving 'Sun-King', the divinely solar sovereign of the royal Scythians.: Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Scythians' (R. Schmitt et al.); B. Lincoln, Nordlit 33 (2014) (secondary)