TsӀob
Tsob is the supreme sky-and-thunder god of the Dido, the largest of the Tsezic peoples, and stood at the head of the pre-Islamic pantheon shared by the Avar–Andi–Tsez and Nakh highlanders. Thunder and lightning were his weapon, wielded to strike down the guilty, while the same power over the sky made him the giver of rain and of the harvest. His cult crystallised around a fetish: a square white stone at the village of Asakh near Tsunta, venerated by the whole community as 'Tsob-God' (ЦӀоб-Аллах). No crop could be eaten and no animal slaughtered until a share had been laid before the stone with the words 'This is for you, Tsob-God', and in drought the stone was addressed in rites to bring rain. Sources note that the name was proper to the Avar–Andi–Dido and Nakh peoples and was later supplanted among the Avars proper by the god Beched, even as it persisted among the Dido.
Domains
- thunder lightning
- rain weather
- harvest fertility
Powers
- hurls thunder and lightning to punish the sinful
- claims the first-fruits of harvest and the first cut of slaughtered stock
- sends and withholds rain over the high pastures
Epithets
- ЦӀоб-Аллах — Tsob the GodS. A. Luguev & D. M. Magomedov, 'Дидойцы (цезы)' (Makhachkala, 2000) (secondary)
Sources
- Tsob is the supreme thunder-god of the Dido/Tsez, whose worship survived into the modern period with a 'white stone' as his fetish.: R. I. Seferbekov, 'Верховные боги (громовержцы) народов Дагестана' (Makhachkala, 2009) (secondary); 'Кавказско-иберийских народов мифология' (Avar–Andi–Tsez section), in Мифы народов мира: энциклопедия, ed. S. A. Tokarev (Moscow, 1980–1982) (secondary)
- At Asakh a square white stone was revered as the fetish of Tsob (ЦӀоб-Аллах); first-fruits of harvest and slaughter were offered to it.: S. A. Luguev & D. M. Magomedov, 'Дидойцы (цезы)' (Makhachkala, 2000) (secondary)
- Tsob belonged to the Avar–Andi–Dido and Nakh peoples and was unknown to the other Daghestani groups, being displaced among the Avars proper by Beched.: R. I. Seferbekov, 'Верховные боги (громовержцы) народов Дагестана' (Makhachkala, 2009) (secondary)