Thracian horseman
The Thracian Horseman is both a Thracian deity and a Thracian hero known as the Heros or Thracian Horseman . The armed rider embodies a warlike god and is represented as a stylized figure of a rider. So far over 2500 consecrated monuments of this equestrian cult have been found. The Thracian horseman was venerated in many Thracian sanctuaries from the Roman era (1st – 3rd centuries AD).
The Thracian Horseman is an early testimony to the religious life of the Thracians. It is a local cult, even if it was subject to Greek and Roman influences. The local origin of the cult around the Thracian rider also results from the ethical origin of the Widmer ( dedicants ) of the consecrated monuments and the epithets of the divine rider.
presentation
The Thracian rider is depicted in hunting scenes or simply in motion. In more complex scenes, the rider can move towards an altar where there is a tree with a snake winding around its branches. At the altar there is sometimes a woman, sometimes several women and / or sacrificial animals . Sometimes the rider is accompanied by a dog or a helper. Spear and booty are often the iconographic sacred attributes of the Thracian horseman. The image of the Thracian horseman was found on various artifacts from the pre-Roman era. The image of the horse-Tsar or the divine rider decorated applications to bridle (eg treasure of Letnischki , Treasure of Lukovit -. 4th century BC.), To vessels or on rings. Most of these objects are made of precious metals and are related to the rule of the tsar or the Thracian cults (mysteries).
The equestrian images of the Thracians from the pre-Roman times, which represented a mounted deity of the Thracians, did not yet have a fixed type. Iconographically, a distinction is made between two types of Thracian rider, firstly the quietly seated rider who usually holds a patera (drinking bowl) in his right hand , secondly the mounted hunter.
The representation of the Thracian horseman evolved and also survived in Christian art, in which the Saints Demetrios , George and the Menas are depicted as mounted warriors. Nowadays the representations of Saint George and Saint Demetrios are particularly popular in the Orthodox world.
On some finds of votive tablets of the Thracian rider in the Dobruja there is also a female figure who was interpreted as the goddess Cybele , who is native to Asia Minor . Two in Tomoi (now Constanta found) votive reliefs sits right of the tab between two lions enthroned, Cybele. The Phrygians in Asia Minor were closely related to the Thracians, as they lived in the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. There had been migration movements from the Thracian-Macdonian area to Asia Minor. The Phrygian goddess Cybele from Asia Minor was known to the Thracians in the Balkans. The cult community between the Thracian equestrian god and the goddess, who lives in Asia Minor, was proven by a find on the island of Thasos in the Aegean Sea. On the island, which was settled by the Thracians, a Greek dedicatory inscription was found on a marble door support from the first half of the 2nd century AD. The dedication is directed to the Thracian hero, Cybele and Dea Syria . Dea Syria was also known in the interior of Thracia at the time of the Romans.
The Thracian Apollon-Kendrisos, a syncretic mixture of Apollon with the local Thracian god Kendrisos, was the main god of Philippopolis (today Plovdiv ) and was depicted as a Thracian horseman on stone relief reliefs .
distribution
In Thrace, which extends mainly to the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula , the equestrian image can be found several times on objects of toreutics (sculptures in metals) and glyptics (stone carving art ). But also in the region of old Macedonia (today Greece, Eastern Serbia, Republic of Macedonia , Bulgaria) the Thracian rider was proven. Its distribution in the Greek cities on the Black Sea coast such as Apollonia , Mesembria or Odessos is interesting .
To the west, the number of finds decreases rapidly. In the Dacian regions (today Romania) there are only relatively few finds of the Thracian rider. Sporadic finds of the Thracian rider in other areas are probably due to the stationing of Roman soldiers of Thracian origin.
The oldest votive and grave reliefs with depictions of the Thracian rider were made on the west coast of the Black Sea and in the northern Aegean region . They emerged no later than the pre-Hellenistic period. In contrast, the first stone consecration reliefs of the Thracian horseman in the interior did not appear until the middle of the 2nd century AD. With the increasing Graecization of the region, consecration reliefs, consecration altars and stone votive statuettes were made on a large scale; now these consecrations (dedication or dedication) also came from the middle and lower classes of the cities, and from farmers and soldiers. This came to an end in the middle of the 3rd century with the barbarian invasions on the Balkans .
In Karasura (east of Plovdiv ) a large number of relief representations of the Thracian rider were found. In the Iatrus fort (on the Danube , east of Swishtow ) there was a find of a relief of the Thracian rider, who was identified by the inscriptions as the bearer of a certain trait of the Roman god Apollo.
Iconography and epigraphy
The iconography is the motive interpretation that epigraphy is the Inscription. As scientific methods of art history, they help with understanding.
Little is known about the mythology of the prehistoric Balkans ( Iron Age ). Thracian deities were certainly worshiped at the Thracian cult sites as early as pre-Roman times and then later identified with functionally related Greek and sometimes Roman gods ( Interpretatio Graeca and Interpretatio Romana ).
During the Roman period, the cult of the Thracian horseman was spread over almost the entire ancient Balkans - provinces of Thracia (Thrace), Moesia ( Moesia ) and Scythia Minor . The Thracian rider is also known as the "Thracian hero". This was evidenced in Odessos (today Varna ) by the Thracian name of the hero "Karabazamos". Karabazamos is a god of the underworld , usually depicted on funeral statues as a rider killing a predator with a spear.
On votive reliefs the rider represents the Thracian god himself, on grave steles, on the other hand, the rider represents the heroized deceased who was assimilated to the deity.
The models of the Thracian rider were Greek hero reliefs. The Thracian Horseman is sometimes referred to as a hero on inscriptions. The hero veneration of the Greeks had direct links to the Thracian horseman.
The fact that this Thracian hero was really a god is proven in some finds by inscriptions with the addition "God" (deos) and "Lord". In addition to the word “hero”, there is often a Greek or Roman name for a god.
Despite the widespread use of the Thracian Rider in the Thracian area and the relatively uniform representation, it is not a Thracian all-god in the sense of monotheism . The Thracian horseman or hero emerged as a native deity on the soil of the Eastern Balkans. Influences from the east or from oriental cultures were not found.
The Thracian religious worldview also included Diana ( Artemis ) riding a doe , or the wine god Dionysus and Hermes riding a ram .
Based on the Thracian rider, the Danube rider (Danubian rider god) was created, which is mainly found in Dacia. Its most important attribute is a fish. Thracian riders and Danubian riders are an expression of the equestrian cult in Southeast Europe.
Madara rider
Main article: Riders of Madara
One of the most famous representations of the equestrian warrior in Bulgaria is the rider of Madara , who is emblazoned as a rock relief on a 100 m high rock face at a height of 23 m and is depicted almost life-size. He is accompanied by a dog and pierces a lion with his lance. In addition to the relief, Proto-Bulgarian inscriptions in Greek have been preserved. Some researchers attribute the rider of Madara to the Thracian performing arts tradition. Others are convinced that it is of Proto-Bulgarian origin, since a stirrup is depicted on the relief and the stirrup was not known in ancient times.
literature
- Manfred Oppermann : Thracian and Danubian equestrian gods and their relationship to oriental culture . In: MJ Vermaseren (ed.): The Oriental Religions in the Roman Empire . Brill, 1997, ISBN 978-90-04-06356-3 (from the series: Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance).
- Manfred Oppermann: The Thracian rider of the Eastern Balkans in the field of tension between Graecitas, Romanitas and local traditions . Beier & Beran, 2006, ISBN 978-3-937517-18-6 .
- Margarita Tacheva-Hitova: Eastern Cults in Moesia Inferior and Thracia: 5th Century Bc-4Th Ad . In: Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance . Brill Academic Pub, 1984, ISBN 978-90-04-06884-1 .
- Lyubomir Zonew: About the Thracian rider, Saint George and the rider of Madara . ( Bulgarian (PDF; 1.0 MB) - from the Bulgarian За тракийския конник, Св.Георги и Мадарския конник).
Web links
- Irina Nemeti, Sorin Nemeti, Heros Equitans in the Funeray Iconography of Dacia Porolissensis. Models and workshops. In: Dacia LVIII, 2014, p. 241-255, http://www.daciajournal.ro/pdf/dacia_2014/art_10_nemeti_nemeti.pdf
Individual evidence
- ^ Benjamin Isaac: The Greek Settlements in Thrace Until the Macedonian Conquest (Studies of the Dutch Archeological and Historical Society) Brill Academic Pub., 1997, ISBN 978-9004069213 .