The matriarch of the Narts in Circassian tradition (Satana in the Ossetian branch), a wise and foresighted woman of miraculous birth who keeps the Narts' storehouse, counsels their heroes and is mother or foster mother to many of them, including Sosruko in most tellings.
Facts
Cult
Attributes and IconographyNo cult image of Satanaya survives or is described; as an oral epic tradition rather than a temple cult, the Nart sagas carry her likeness only in narrative description, extraordinary beauty and wisdom, and in her role as keeper of the Narts' feasting hall and storehouse, rather than in any surviving visual art. 1 Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 1 The matriarch of the Narts, of miraculous birth, within the same pre-Christian Caucasus religious system in which Wastyrdzhi is an actively worshipped holy being. Attestation
Veneration TodayHistorically attested; no continuous cult 1 HistoricityLegendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record 1 Function
Domain / Function Attributions
Mythic AssociationSatanaya is a wise and foresighted woman of miraculous birth who keeps the Narts' storehouse, counsels their heroes, and is mother or foster mother to many of them, including Sosruko in most tellings. 1 Correspondences & Relations
Connections
Child Of
Ossetian tradition names the river-god Uastyrdzhi (Wastyrdzhi) as the father of Satanaya.
Source Nart Sagas from the Caucasus (Colarusso)John Colarusso
Children
Satanaya is named as the mother of the Nart heroes across the Ossetian and Circassian tellings, including Sosruko (Soslan), whom she raises as her own after his miraculous birth from stone.
Source Nart Sagas from the Caucasus (Colarusso)John Colarusso
Worshipped In
Source Nart Sagas from the Caucasus (Colarusso)John Colarusso
Sources
1. Nart Sagas from the Caucasus (Colarusso)
John Colarusso, Princeton University Press, 2002Colarusso's translation, on Satanaya as the Narts' matriarch
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