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Very little is known about pre-Christian and pre-Islamic mythology in Eastern Transcaucasia; sources are mostly Hellenic historians like Strabo and based on archaeological evidence.
Barhail was one of two major gods. [1] He keeps sun on his right hand and moon on left hand. His right hand shows East and left hand shows West. If he drops his right hand for a while, world will fall under darkness forever. He decides if days should be longer or shorter.
Sabail was one of two major gods. He was protector of sea and wind. He stands perpendicular to Barhail. His left hand keeps ocean apart from continents, prevents floods. His right hand keeps weather calm, if he drops that hand, typhoons and storms can occur.
Strabo names the gods of the sun, the sky, and above of all, the moon, and equates them to the Greek gods Helios, Zeus, and Selene respectively: [2]
According to Strabo, human sacrifice was widely used in pre-Christian Albania:
And any one of those who, becoming violently possessed, wanders alone in the forests, is by the priest arrested, bound with sacred fetters, and sumptuously maintained during that year, and then led forth to the sacrifice that is performed in honour of the goddess, and, being anointed, is sacrificed along with other victims. The sacrifice is performed as follows: Some person holding a sacred lance, with which it is the custom to sacrifice human victims, comes forward out of the crowd and strikes the victim through the side into the heart, he being not without experience in such a task; and when the victim falls, they draw auguries from his fall and declare them before the public; and when the body is carried to a certain place, they all trample upon it, thus using it as a means of purification.
Unlike many pagan nations, Caucasian Albanians did not practice worship of ancestors. As Strabo states:
The Albanians are surpassingly respectful to old age, not merely to their parents, but to all other old people. And when people die it is impious to be concerned about them or even to mention them. Indeed, they bury their money with them, and therefore live in poverty, having no patrimony.
In East Albania, sacred lands existed in islands of Caspian Sea. Pomponius Mela wrote:
Talge [Cheleken], on the Caspian Sea, is fertile without being cultivated and is abundant in every root crop and fruit, but the local peoples consider it an abomination and a sacrilege to touch what grows there. They think that these things have been prepared by the gods and must be saved for the gods. Alongside those coasts that we have called deserted lie a number of equally deserted islands, which, being without names of their own, are called the Scythian Islands [3]
Like Greek, Chinese and Tengrist practices, local inhabitants considered several mountains as sacred. List of sacred mountains according to local legends: [4]
Almost every pagan temple was replaced by churches. Notable temples:
Huns migrated to Caucasus in 6th century AD. They established a polity here. Bishop Israel wrote about the customs of the Huns and their deities:
According to a legend, Bartholomeus came to a place which is on the shore of Caspian Sea which is likely to be Baku, cured the daughter of the local king, Polymius, of her madness, and was subsequently granted by the king the right to preach freely in his territory. The Apostolic Acts of Abdias tell that locals worshipped a goddess by the name of Astaroth. In a competition with the local priesthood, Bartholomew assembled a large crowd in front of an image of the goddess and challenged the deity to show itself. Instead, the statue shattered and an angel appeared. The angel revealed the exorcised demon-deity to the crowd. The goddess, totally black, "sharp faced", and breathing fire and brimstone, was bound in chains by the angel and sent away. The king, amazed at what he had just seen, was immediately baptised along with many of his subjects. The king's brother, Astyages, heard of the baptisms and declared war on the Christian community. Bartolomew was beaten with clubs, skinned alive and then finally beheaded in front of Maiden Tower.
According to Movses Kaghanvatsi, Vachagan III the Pious of Albania persecuted pagan priests, tortured and forcibly converted them to Christianism. He established a Church School in a city called Rustak and raised children of pagan couples as Christian.
Not much information exists about pagans living during Islamization process of Azerbaijan, because they were converted or executed before arrival of Islam. According to Azerbaijani historian Sara Ashurbeyli several Shahs of Shirvan fought against infidels and even killed by infidels. But it's likely to be country of Sarir. [8] Estakhri states that pagans still existed during the 10th century. [9] Andalusian traveller Abu Hamid al-Qarnati states that pagans were living in mountainous villages near city of Derbent in the 12th century.
The Mongol invasion can be considered a second wave of paganism in Azerbaijan, but after Ghazan's adoption of Islam as state religion, paganism and shamanism dissolved quickly.
Enormous idols found in archeological sites of Khinisly (near village of Böyük Xınıslı), Chiraghly, Daghkolany. Idols made with local stones. Most of them have no heads or hands. They are mostly tall as height of human. They belong to last centuries of BC. Idol-making technique is not advanced in comparison to Greco-Roman idols. [10]
Paganism mostly influenced folklore. Supernatural beings (giants, div, fairies, dwarves) in fairy tales, religious rituals, sacred shrines (pir) plays important role nowadays in Azerbaijan. Azeri metal bands like Vozmezdie and Üör usually refer to paganism in their works.
Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia included indigenous Arabian polytheism, ancient Semitic religions, Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism, and Iranian religions such as Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism.
Paganism is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. In the time of the Roman empire, individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population, or because they were not milites Christi. Alternative terms used in Christian texts were hellene, gentile, and heathen. Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Graeco-Roman religion and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry".
Slavic paganism or Slavic religion is the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The South Slavs, who likely settled in the Balkan Peninsula during the 6th–7th centuries AD, bordering with the Byzantine Empire to the south, came under the sphere of influence of Eastern Christianity, beginning with the creation of writing systems for Slavic languages in 855 by the brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius and the adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria in 863. The East Slavs followed with the official adoption in 988 by Vladimir the Great of Kievan Rus'.
Romuva is a neo-pagan movement derived from the traditional mythology of the Lithuanians, attempting to reconstruct the religious rituals of the Lithuanians before their forced Christianization in 1387. Practitioners of Romuva claim to continue Baltic pagan traditions which survived in folklore, customs and superstition. Romuva is a polytheistic pagan faith which asserts the sanctity of nature and ancestor worship. Practicing the Romuva faith is seen by many adherents as a form of cultural pride, along with celebrating traditional forms of art, retelling Baltic folklore, practising traditional holidays, playing traditional Baltic music, singing traditional dainos (songs), as well as ecological activism and stewarding sacred places.
Euhemerism is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exaggerated in the retelling, accumulating elaborations and alterations that reflect cultural mores. It was named for the Greek mythographer Euhemerus, who lived in the late 4th century BC. In the more recent literature of myth, such as Bulfinch's Mythology, euhemerism is termed the "historical theory" of mythology.
Germanic paganism included various religious practices of the Germanic peoples from the Iron Age until Christianisation during the Middle Ages. Religious practices represented an essential element of early Germanic culture. From both archaeological remains and literary sources, it is possible to trace a number of common or closely related beliefs among the Germanic peoples into the Middle Ages, when the last areas in Scandinavia were Christianized. Rooted in Proto-Indo-European religion, Proto-Germanic religion expanded during the Migration Period, yielding extensions such as Old Norse religion among the North Germanic peoples, the continental Germanic paganism, and Anglo-Saxon paganism among the Old English-speaking peoples. Germanic paganism is best documented in 10th- and 11th-century texts from Scandinavia and Iceland.
Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe. Because the ancient Celts did not have writing, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco-Roman accounts, and literature from the early Christian period. Celtic paganism was one of a larger group of Iron Age polytheistic religions of Europe. It varied by region and over time, but underlying this were "broad structural similarities" and "a basic religious homogeneity" among the Celtic peoples.
Anglo-Saxon paganism, sometimes termed Anglo-Saxon heathenism, Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian religion, or Anglo-Saxon traditional religion, refers to the religious beliefs and practices followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and 8th centuries AD, during the initial period of Early Medieval England. A variant of Germanic paganism found across much of north-western Europe, it encompassed a heterogeneous variety of beliefs and cultic practices, with much regional variation.
The majority religion in Azerbaijan is Islam, though Azerbaijan is the most secular country in the Muslim world. Estimates include 96.9% and 99.2% of the population identifying as Muslim. Most are adherents of Shia Islam, with a minority (15%) being Sunni, differences traditionally have not been defined sharply. Most Shi'a are adherents of orthodox Ithna Ashari school of Shi'a Islam. Following many decades of Soviet atheist policy, religious affiliation is nominal in Azerbaijan and Muslim identity tends to be based more on culture and ethnicity than religion. Traditionally villages around Baku and Lenkoran region are considered stronghold of Shi'ism. In some northern regions, populated by Dagestani (Lezgian) people, Sunni Islam is dominant.
The Ateshgah of Baku, often called the "Fire Temple of Baku", is a castle-like religious temple in Surakhany town, a suburb in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Zoroastrianism in Azerbaijan goes back to the first millennium BC or earlier and was the predominant religion of Greater Iran before the conversion to Islam.
Paganism is commonly used to refer to various religions that existed during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, such as the Greco-Roman religions of the Roman Empire, including the Roman imperial cult, the various mystery religions, religions such as Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and more localized ethnic religions practiced both inside and outside the Empire. During the Middle Ages, the term was also adapted to refer to religions practiced outside the former Roman Empire, such as Germanic paganism, Egyptian paganism and Baltic paganism.
Anahita is the Old Persian form of the name of an Iranian goddess and appears in complete and earlier form as Aredvi Sura Anahita, the Avestan name of an Indo-Iranian cosmological figure venerated as the divinity of "the Waters" (Aban) and hence associated with fertility, healing and wisdom. There is also a temple named Anahita in Iran. Aredvi Sura Anahita is Ardwisur Anahid or Nahid (ناهید) in Middle and Modern Persian, and Anahit in Armenian. An iconic shrine cult of Aredvi Sura Anahita was – together with other shrine cults – "introduced apparently in the 4th century BCE and lasted until it was suppressed in the wake of an iconoclastic movement under the Sassanids." The symbol of goddess Anahita is the Lotus flower. Lotus Festival is an Iranian festival that is held on the sixth day of July. Holding this festival at this time was probably based on the blooming of lotus flowers at the beginning of summer.
The Mari religion, also known as Mari paganism, is the ethnic religion of the Mari people, a Volga Finnic ethnic group based in the republic of Mari El, in Russia. The religion has undergone changes over time, particularly under the influence of neighbouring monotheisms. In the last few decades, while keeping its traditional features in the countryside, an organised Neopagan-kind revival has taken place.
The Church of Albania or the Albanian Apostolic Church was an ancient, briefly autocephalous church established in the 5th century. In 705, It fell under the religious jurisdiction of the Armenian Apostolic Church as the Catholicosate of Aghvank centered in Caucasian Albania, a region spanning present-day northern Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan.
Jwala Ji is a Hindu Goddess. Alternative spellings and names for Jwala Ji include Jawala Ji, Jwala Devi and Jwalamukhi Ji. The physical manifestation of Jwala Ji is always a set of eternal flames, and the term Jwala means flame in Sanskrit and Ji is an honorific used in the Indian subcontinent.
Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire began during the reign of Constantine the Great in the military colony of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), when he destroyed a pagan temple for the purpose of constructing a Christian church. Christian historians alleged that Hadrian had constructed a temple to Aphrodite on the site of the crucifixion of Jesus on Golgotha hill in order to suppress Jewish Christian veneration there. Constantine used that to justify the temple's destruction, saying he was simply reclaiming the property.
Eastern Orthodoxy in Azerbaijan is the main Christian and the second largest religious group in the Republic of Azerbaijan. According to statistics, the Eastern Orthodox, or Byzantine tradition in Azerbaijan is 2.3%. The territory of Azerbaijan is in the jurisdiction of the Baku-Azerbaijan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Interpretatio Christiana is adaptation of non-Christian elements of culture or historical facts to the worldview of Christianity. The term is commonly applied to recasting of religious and cultural activities, beliefs and imageries of "pagan" peoples into a Christianized form as a strategy for Christianization. From a Christian perspective, "pagan" refers to the various religious beliefs and practices of those who adhered to non-Abrahamic faiths, including within the Greco-Roman world the traditional public and domestic religion of ancient Rome, imperial cult, Hellenistic religion, the ancient Egyptian religion, Celtic and Germanic polytheism, initiation religions such as the Eleusinian Mysteries and Mithraism, the religions of the ancient Near East, and the Punic religion.
Trees hold a particular role in Germanic paganism and Germanic mythology, both as individuals and in groups. The central role of trees in Germanic religion is noted in the earliest written reports about the Germanic peoples, with the Roman historian Tacitus stating that Germanic cult practices took place exclusively in groves rather than temples. Scholars consider that reverence for and rites performed at individual trees are derived from the mythological role of the world tree, Yggdrasil; onomastic and some historical evidence also connects individual deities to both groves and individual trees. After Christianization, trees continue to play a significant role in the folk beliefs of the Germanic peoples.