THE CULT OF WATER IN ANCIENT RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

Abstract

This article analyzes the formative factors, symbolic-semantic layers, and social functions of the cult of water in ancient religious beliefs in accordance with IMRAD requirements. In the study, water is interpreted not as an ordinary natural resource, but as a universal cultural sign that initiates life, ensures fertility, purifies the body and society, sacralizes authority, and regulates ideas about death and rebirth. Materials from Mesopotamia, Egypt, ancient Iran, the Indo-Vedic milieu, the Greco-Roman world, and Central Asia, particularly Khorezm and the Oxus-Amu Darya basin, were examined through comparative-historical, functional, and semiotic approaches. In the author’s content analysis, 54 mythological and ritual units related to water were coded according to seven functional criteria. The results show that fertility, purification, cosmogonic origin, and the preservation of social order were dominant functions within the cult of water. The scientific significance of the article lies in its interpretation of the cult of water as a complex historical-cultural model formed at the intersection of ecological experience, economic necessity, religious thought, and political legitimation.