Georgian mythology (ქართული მითოლოგია) refers to the mythology of pre-Christian Georgians (/kʌrtˈvɛliənz/; Georgian: ქართველები, romanized: kartvelebi, pronounced [ˈkʰaɾtʰvelebi]), an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. The mythology of the Kartvelian peoples is believed by many scholars to have formed part of the religions of the kingdoms of Diauehi, Colchis and Iberia. Later influences include the mythologies of the Ancient Greeks, the Vainakh peoples and Iranians – the last-named comprising both the belief systems of the Northern Iranian nomad Scythians and Sarmatians (still preserved to some extent in the mythology of their descendants the Ossetians) and that of the Zoroastrian religion of the Ancient Persian empire, which has left an enduring legacy among the nations of the Caucasus. (See also Iranian religions) Georgian myths and legends are preserved mainly as popular tales, many of them eventually fusing with Christian legends after the Christianization of Georgia seventeen centuries ago. The evangelizing of Georgia, however, was far from uniform. While the lowland populations embraced Christianity in the fifth century, the highlanders of the mountain valleys in the Greater Caucasus range were converted some ten centuries later – and only superficially. Survivals of pagan beliefs and practices in the Georgian plains are thus, understandably, heavily influenced by Christianity, lacking in mythological unity and essentially folkloric. "The mountain Georgians, on the other hand, preserved a rich and well-organized [pagan] religious system to the beginning of the twentieth century, with differentiated cults that continued to be productive [thanks largely to the persistence of] a priestly class with an orally-transmitted body of knowledge."

• Georges Charachidzé

Khevsur/Pshav creation myth (northeastern Georgia)

In the beginning, there existed only the head god (მორიგე ღმერთი) and his Sister. She made him unhappy, so he cursed her. The sister became a demon. For every good thing that the head god created, the Demon created an evil thing to mar/oppose it. Women too was a creation of the Demon, as were the lesser demons (დევი – see below), while men and the lesser gods were creations of Morige Ghmerti. The lesser gods grew weary in their unceasing fight with the demons and fled to the upper world of Zeskneli (ზესკნელი), leaving behind the men. The men however lacked the power to resist the demons, so the lesser gods (ღვთის შვილნი – see below) hunted down the demons and drove them underground to the netherworld of Kveskneli (ქვესკნელი). The demons left behind them the women who, like them, were part of the evil creation. Men and women are thus only emanations of, or substitutes for, the gods above and the demons below, respectively. The same principle holds true for all created things: the entities and substances of the universe are divided into two antagonistic series, one wild and demonic, the other social and divine. The only entities or substances that are truly real are those of the upper world of Zeskneli and the lower world of Kveskneli. The middle world inhabited by humans is thus only a place of passage and meeting, and the beings who people it have no essence in themselves, being only emanations of the divine or subterranean worlds, or else their unions.

Cosmology

In pre-Christian Georgian mythology, the universe is perceived as a sphere. It comprises three worlds or levels, known as skneli (სკნელი):

Practices of Shamanic Type

The mountain Georgian equivalent of the shaman is the Kadagi, a person (of either gender) who has become permanently possessed by one of the class of minor (i.e. local / specialised) divinities known most often by the name of Hat'i (= 'sign' ), but also by those of Dzhuar (= 'cross') and Saghmto (= 'divinity'). The Hat'i numbered several hundred at the turn of the nineteenth century and the word Hat'i could designate not only a divinity of this class but also its manifestation ( as image, object or real or imaginary animal ) and the place (temple / sanctuary) where it was worshipped. The Kadag would go into trance, both at religious rituals and at events important in individual or collective life, and his or her indwelling Hat'i would foretell the future in a special secret or sacred 'language of the Hat'i ' (see also Spirit possession). A second type of practitioner of shamanic type (exclusively female) was the Mesultane – the word deriving from Georgian suli 'soul'. A Mesultane – usually a woman, although sometimes as young as a girl of nine – was a female who possessed 'the faculty of visiting the beyond in spirit'. At certain times these females would plunge into 'a lethargy broken by mutterings', following which they would awaken and describe their 'journey', communicating the requests of the dead to particular individuals or to the community at large. From their ability to enter these trance states they would derive honours and prestige.

List of supernatural beings from Georgian myth

Gods

Demigods, heroes, and notable people

Spirits, creatures, and other beings