Api

deity earth Scythian single tradition · 6

Api is likely the mother of the Snake-Legged through a river-god. Diodorus of Sicily's description of the Snake-Legged as an "anguiped earth-born maiden" implies that she was a daughter of Api, likely through a river-god, and therefore was both chthonic and connected to water.

↻ synthesized from 6 sources

When

First attested
2000 BCE
Attested period
-2000 – 2020
Historical notes
Named as one of the eight old gods in Hittite ritual texts from the second millennium BCE.

Relationships

parent of
Snake-Legged
aspect of
Anunnaki
consort of
Papaios, Papaeus
manifests as
Covinar, Satanaya
child of
Borysthenēs, Tabiti
has aspect
Covinar, Satanaya

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“implies that she was a daughter of Api, likely through a river-god, and therefore was both chthonic and connected to water, but was however not identical with Api herself and instead belonged to a younger generation of deities of "lower status" who were more actively involved in human life.”

#13099 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Papaios was the consort of the Earth goddess Api, hence why he was equated by Herodotus of Halicarnassus with the Greek god Zeus. Papaios and Api initially existed together into an inseparable unity, with their union representing the joining of opposite principles such as above and below, male and female, warmth and moisture”

#16625 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Papaios and Api to Zeus and Gaia respectively”

#25311 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“It is also been suggested that both characters are remnants of Scythian goddess Api, described as a mother goddess tied to water.”

#26853 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“from her were born Api (the Earth) and Papaios (Heaven)”

#34655 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5