Tabiti

The name "Tabiti" (Ancient Greek: Ταβιτί) represents a Hellenisation of the Scythian name *Tapatī, which meant "the Burning One" or "the Flaming One,"[1][2] and was related to the Avestan term tāpaiieⁱti (𐬙𐬁𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬌𐬈𐬌𐬙𐬌‎) meaning "to warm", to the Latin tepeō and to several other Indo-European terms for heat, as well as to the similar name of the Hindu goddess Tapati (Sanskrit: तपती, romanized: Tapatī) and to the verb related to the latter's name, tapayati (तापयति), meaning "burns" and "is hot",[3] and to the Sanskrit term tápas (तपस्), which denotes the cosmic warmth and the original nature, that is the cosmic principle out of which originated the multiple elements of the Universe and the order in the world.

Tabiti was thus similar to the Vedic Agni and the Greek Hestia, therefore being connected to the common Iranian cult and concept of fire,[6][4] although she belonged to an older period in the development of Indo-Iranian religion compared to the other Iranian peoples and the Indo-Aryans, among whom she had been respectively replaced by the male fire-gods Ātar and Agni, making her the only attested female Indo-Iranian fire-deity.

[7] Herodotus of Halicarnassus equates Tabiti with the Greek goddess of the hearth, Hestia,[6] and lists Tabiti at the head of the Scythian pantheon, which might be a reflection of the role of the fire-deity among the Indo-European peoples, and parallels the Greek tradition of beginning and ending every sacrificial rite with the sacrifice to Hestia, and every appeal to the gods starting by mentioning her name; another parallel is found in the Indo-Aryan Rigveda, which begins and ends with a hymn addressed to Agni; thus, the supreme position of Tabiti in the list of Scythian gods reflected her position in hymns to the gods pronounced during Scythian sacrifices and rituals.

[4] According to the Scythologist Dmitry Raevsky [ru], the status of Tabiti as the incarnation of the primordial fire is confirmed by a story recounted by Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus, in which a dispute arose between the Scythians and the Egyptians over which of them was the most ancient people, and which consisted of an argument by each side about whether the world was initially fully flooded by water or covered with fire, which Raevsky considered to respectively be references to Nānaw and Tabiti.

[4] As a goddess of the Hearth, Tabiti was the patron of society, the state and families who protected the family and the clan, and, as a symbol of supreme authority, she was assigned the superior position over the other gods through her role as the guardian of the king, due to which as well as her to link to the common Iranian cult of fire, she was connected to the importance of fire and of royal hearths in Iranian religions.