Sanctuary of Agin

Agin was a war god with roughly the same divine status and duties as the Greek god Ares. As might be expected, swords seem to have been part of a special area of responsibility. He was not the most important deity in the Scythian pantheon, but he was certainly the one that most interested Herodotus, the historian. As a Greek, Herodotus had a self-justifiable suspicion of, and air of disapproval towards, all things barbarous. He maintained that the Scythians sacrificed one in every hundred prisoners of war to Agin, by pouring wine over their heads and then cutting their throats. He also claimed that sacrificial prisoners had their right arms cut off, and that these were thrown into the air. The severed arms and corpses would then be left littering the ground around Agin’s shrine.