API •

Api was a Scythian god of horses and horse breeding. He was a particularly important deity among the Scythians, who were renowned for their horsemanship and cavalry tactics. Api was often depicted as a horse or with a horse's head, and he was associated with fertility, strength, and speed.
The Scythians believed that horses were a sacred animal and that Api was responsible for their well-being and prosperity. They also believed that horses were the key to their military success, and they bred and trained their horses to be some of the finest in the ancient world.
In addition to his association with horses, Api was also sometimes associated with the sun, and he may have been worshipped as a sun god in some regions. The worship of Api and other Scythian deities was often linked to shamanistic practices, and it is believed that Scythian shamans played an important role in communicating with the gods and interpreting their will.
Overall, Api played an important role in Scythian mythology and religion, and his influence can be seen in the importance placed on horsemanship and cavalry tactics in Scythian culture.

#Scythian #Asia

Yakut Mythology

When the world was simply mud, the creator god Ulgan made a man from the mud and named him Erlik. Both Erlik and Ulgan had the ability to shapeshift, and took the form of birds to fly around the endless mud looking for land. Once, Erlik crashed into the mud, and Ulgan ordered him to dive and bring mud up from the bottom so that he could form land. Erlik did so repeatedly, each time keeping some mud in his beak so that he could create a world. However, in order to create land, Ulgan ordered the mud to expand, causing the mud in Erlik's mouth to grow and nearly suffocate him, forcing him to spit it out.
After forming land and sea, Ulgan made humans out of mud, and set a dog to guard them. However, Erlik gave the dog a fur coat to make it look the other way, before breathing life into the humans and attempting to make them eat the forbidden fruit. Ulgan, infuriated that Erlik had attempted to become humanity's god in this way, banished him from the mortal plane. Erlik then became the god of the Underworld, and created evil spirits which fetch the souls of the dead and bring them to the Underworld to be tortured. This version of Erlik is the most like Satan from the Bible.

Turkic Mythology
Erlik was the first creation of Ulgan, before he made the world. He envied Ulgan and planned to make his own world, sinning against Ulgan and being disfigured and imprisoned on the 7th layer of Earth, the Underworld. He vowed to revenge himself on Ulgan, and created evil spirits to take humans down to the Underworld and tempt humans into worshipping him instead of Ulgan. Whenever a plague struck, the Turkic peoples would sacrifice animals to Erlik to make it go away.

Buryat Mythology
Erlik was created by Ulgan, and blew life into humanity. However, he incurred Ulgan's wrath by slaying the messenger god Maidere, and was banished to the Underworld. Seeking revenge against Ulgan for his banishment, he created evil spirits to teach humans sin, which would allow him to claim their souls when they died and torture them in his realm for all eternity.

Altai-Sayan Mythology
In the stories of the Siberian Altai-Sayan people, Erlik, as mentioned before, is more benevolent than in other mythologies. Erlik blew the soul into humanity when Ulgan created them. After the birth of humanity, Ulgan became the god of Heaven, and Erlik was appointed as the Judge of the Dead, sending those who lead good lives to paradise and those who sinned to the Underworld.

ABEGUWO•

Abeguwo is a goddess of Melanesian mythology in the area of Melanesia and New Guinea.She resides in the sky, and when she feels the urge to urinate, does so onto the Earth in the form of rain
#Melanesian #New_Guinea #Oceania