Circassian mythology centers on Thashkho (Тхьэшхо), the Great God, with a pantheon of deities under him: Tlepsh the divine smith, Shible of the lightning, Mezytha of the forests, Psykhe-Guasha of the waters and many more, alongside the demigod heroes of the Nart sagas. These are the old beliefs of the Circassians, recorded by travelers from the 15th century on; Circassians themselves have been predominantly Muslim since the 19th century.
Like the Greek gods, the old Circassian gods live on as mythology: in the Nart epic, in travelers’ accounts and in ethnographers’ records. Here is that world, by the sources.
The pantheon
At the head stood Thashkho, "the Great God": needed by all but needing no one, creating from nothing, keeping the cycle of the universe turning, as Wikipedia renders his traditional attributes. Scholars classify the old religion as polytheistic or henotheistic, a minority as monotheistic. The gods fell into two very different groups: cosmogonic gods who were never pictured (Thashkho, Uashkhue of the skies, Psetha of life and souls, Shible of the lightning) and human-shaped gods such as Mezytha, Tlepsh and Thagaledj. Spellings vary from source to source; here are the main figures.
The English traveler Edmund Spencer, who inquired closely, described the same picture: belief in one supreme God, never represented in any visible form, with "inferior beings" under him, each honored with an anniversary festival. Human sacrifice, Wikipedia notes, was strictly absent.
The world and the soul
According to the ethnographer Leonti Lyulye, who traveled through Circassia, souls were rewarded after death according to their deeds, so the purpose of earthly life was the perfection of the soul. The spirits of the ancestors were commemorated with funeral feasts and memorial meals distributed in their memory. Wikipedia also records striking Greek parallels: the forest god Mezytha and the Greek Pan are "roughly the same person", the bee goddess Merise carries a name Wikipedia ties to Greek, and Greek myth chained Prometheus to a mountain of the Caucasus (Wikipedia names Elbrus).
Tlepsh, the smith of the gods
Tlepsh, master of fire, iron and weapons, was the blacksmiths’ own god: by tradition he forged swords that could cut iron, his grave, covered with iron filings, was shown in the Guchishche-Govashkh forest, and oaths were sworn in his name. On feast days prayers and libations were offered over axes and ploughshares. Tlepsh was also the healer: beside a wounded person’s bed lay ploughshares and hammers, each visitor struck the iron three times and sprinkled the patient with water, and relatives, neighbors and visitors kept the patient awake with games, dances and gatherings night after night. In the Nart sagas he is the smith of the heroes; our Nart page tells how he forged the first sickle.
Shible and the lightning
Shible ruled thunder and lightning, and his cult ran deep. A tree struck by lightning became a holy place, and a person killed by lightning was considered blessed or chosen: as early as 1427 the German traveler Johannes Schiltberger described how such a person was placed in a coffin hung from a tall tree, while neighbors feasted, danced and distributed meat to the poor for three days. Lyulye, who witnessed a ceremony in 1862, described the shiblasha: a platform raised on four posts for goats killed by lightning, sacrifices, and dancing until the food was ready. Ceremonies for animals lasted three days; for people, seven.
Sacred groves and trees
From the 17th century on, Western writers kept describing the Circassians’ sacred groves. The missionary Giovanni Luca (1637) saw spaces called kudoshi where weapons and the heads of sacrificed rams hung from the branches. The French consul Xaverio Glavani (1724) described the great tree each district prayed before, the penekassan, to which the dying left a sabre, a gun and clothing. Peyssonnel (1787) found a tree "in the center of Circassia" revered almost to idolatry, and the English diplomat James Bell (1840) saw branches hung with fabric rags, offerings that were believed to carry away illness.
The Narts: heroes beside the gods
Beyond the gods, Circassians venerated the Narts, the demigod heroes of their great epic, with Satanaya as their mother and Sosruko the most celebrated of them. On one winter night, Wikipedia records, families laid out their finest food in the guest room in Sosruko’s honor, with fresh oats and hay in the stable for his magical horse, and any traveler who knocked that night was feasted in the hero’s stead. The tales themselves, from Sosruko’s birth from a stone to Tlepsh’s forge, are on our Nart sagas page.
What came after the gods
The old beliefs did not vanish overnight. Evliya Celebi, visiting in 1666, found village mosques and the profession of faith on people’s lips side by side with the old traditions. From the late 18th century Islam spread rapidly, and through the 19th century the vast majority of Circassians were Muslim, as they are today. One thing the old religion is not: the Habze. That is the Circassians’ secular code of conduct, and Wikipedia calls confusing the two "a common mistake". What the code actually covers is on our Habze page.
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Questions
Who was the chief god of Circassian mythology?
Thashkho (Тхьэшхо, the Adyghe spelling Wikipedia gives), "the Great God": the creator, with every other deity under his rule. Wikipedia notes the old religion is classified as polytheistic or henotheistic, and by a minority of scholars as monotheistic.
Is Habze a religion?
No. Habze is the Circassian code of conduct, and Wikipedia calls confusing it with the old religion "a common mistake". Our Habze page explains what the code actually covers.
Do Circassians still follow the old religion?
Very few. Islam spread rapidly among Circassians from the late 18th century, through the 19th century the vast majority were Muslim, and today Circassians are predominantly Sunni Muslims. This page is about mythology and history, like a page on the Greek gods.
Who is Tlepsh?
The god of fire, blacksmiths, steel and weapons, and one of the great figures of the Nart sagas. Oaths were sworn in his name, and he was petitioned to heal wounds in rituals where iron was struck beside the patient’s bed.
Is Circassian mythology connected to Greek mythology?
Wikipedia points at striking parallels: the forest god Mezytha and the Greek Pan, the bee goddess Merise whose name it ties to the Greek word for bee, and Prometheus, chained in Greek myth to a mountain of the Caucasus.
Where can I read the actual Circassian myths?
The richest surviving body is the Nart epic: heroic tales and songs about Sosruko, Satanaya, Tlepsh and the other Narts. Our Nart sagas page tells how they were recorded and where to read them.
Sources
- Wikipedia, article Circassian paganism (revision 1373768935, read October 16, 2026): Thashkho and the pantheon, the deity lists, Tlepsh, Shible, the sacred groves, the travelers’ accounts (Schiltberger 1427, Glavani 1724, Peyssonnel 1787, Spencer, Bell 1840, Lyulye 1862, Evliya Celebi 1666) and the spread of Islam.
- The Nart epic, its heroes and how it was recorded: this site’s page Nart Sagas and its sources.
- Circassians today (language, religion, where they live): this site’s page Who Are the Circassians and its sources.
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