HESPERIA 7I (2002) INSCRIPTIONSAND Pages209-229 ICONOGRAPHYIN THE MONUMENTSOF TH E TH RACIAN Rl DER ABSTRACT The Thracianrider monuments are either funerary or dedicatedto various deities.The inscriptionsprovide the onlycertain way to identiljrthe deities or the monument'stype. After examining the relationshipbetween inscriptions andiconography, I suggest in the presentstudythat the horseman is anicono- graphicalconvention for a god/hero,and that his iconographyis borrowed fromGreek art. Interpreting the horsemanas a conventionalimage obviates thecurrent view that he representsa multifunctionalgod conflated with nearly everyGreek, Roman, Thracian, or Easterndivinity, and producesa better understandingof boththe monumenttype and cult. The monumentsof the so-calledThracian rider present an extremecase of therelationship between epigraphy and art: the inscriptions are the only certainway to clarifythe iconography,identity, and cult of theThracian horseman.lMoreover, the inscriptions frequently provide the only reliable evidenceto determinethe type of monument(votive or funerary), since in manyinstances the findspotis of littlehelp mostreliefs are found in a secondarycontext, and their function is unclear.2 The term"Thracian rider" relief is usedto describemonuments of varyingsize, most typically stone slabs 30-40 cmwide and 20-30 cmhigh, whichdepict a rider,turned to the right(seldom to the left),his horse 1. The presentstudy originated as a CarolLawton of LawrenceUniversity zaraGoceva and Dimitar Popov, seminarpaper for CarolLawton's andKevin Clinton of CornellUniver- despiteour disagreement regarding the courseon votives,given at the Ameri- sityfor encouraging me to pursuemy so-calledinterpretatio graeca. I am also can Schoolof ClassicalStudies at researchon this fascinatingsubject gratefulto the anonymousHesperia Athensin the springof 2000.An andfor providing extremely helpful reviewersfor their corrections, all of abridgedversion was delivered in San anddetailed comments on numerous whichsubstantially enhanced the Diego on 6 January2001 at the Annual occasions.I wouldalso like to thank clarityof my argument. Meetingof the ArchaeologicalInstitute DimitarBoyadzhiev and Nikola All translationsare my own. of America,as partof thejoint APA Theodossievof SofiaUniversity and 2. See the discussionof specific andAIA panelaEpigraphy and the JeffreyRusten of CornellUniversity for monumentsand their findspots below, Arts." theirvaluable suggestions. I greatly pp.211-220. I owe immensegratitude to both appreciatethe expertcriticism of Zlato- American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Hesperia ® www.jstor.org NORADIMITROVA 2IO walking,galloping, or standing still. The rider is called"Thracian" because heappears on morethan 2,000 reliefs3 from at least 350 locations in Thrace, itsneighboring territories, and other places characterized byThracian pres- ence.4The earliestsurviving monuments are Hellenistic, but the majority dateto Romantimes. The mostpopular scenes have been classified as A)the horseman facing a woman,an altar, and a snake-entwinedtree, his horsewalking or standing still; B) thehorseman galloping and attacking a boar;and C) the horsemanreturning from hunting, carrying a deer.5In addition,there are many variants, and type C canbe viewed as a subtypeof typeB. There is no strictgeographical or temporal pattern in thedistribu- tionof thesetypes. The identityof the depictedhorseman is unknown.Fortunately, ap- proximatelya third of the monumentshave inscriptions. They are typi- callybelow the relief, in Greekor Latin, and are generally straightforward inmeaning and form: the name of thedeity in thedative, usually followed bythe nameof the dedicant(s)in the nominative;or the nameof the de- ceased,sometimes preceded by Dis Manibusor @£Ox5KaxaxOovtots, and followedby typical epitaphial information. The inscriptionsare either vo- tive(about two-thirds of the sample)or funerary.The votiveexamples exhibitan unparalleledvariety of namesand epithets, all referringto the rider.He is called0£O5, Yipx5 xvptog 0£0g, xvptog rlpx5, Apollo, Hades, Asklepios,Hephaistos, Sabazius, Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, Silvanus, andthe Dioskouroi,in additionto numerouslocal names and epithets,6 suchas Karabasmos,Keilade(i)nos, Manimazos, Vetespios (Outaspios), Aularchenos,Aulosadenos, and Pyrmeroulas. The words0£05 andpxS areoften used interchangeably orboth together.7 Scholarshave remarked on the extraordinaryvariety of attributesap- parentlypossessed by theThracian horseman. Ivan Venedikov's descrip- tionis representative:the Thracian horseman appears with the attributes of nearlyevery Graeco-Roman deity, ranging from Aphrodite's shell to Ares'helmet, from the Sun'sradiate crown to Asklepios'sserpent staff, fromApollo's lyre to Silvanus'ssaw, to nameonly a few.8 dreikopfigenHund der 3. This numberis basedon pub- Britannia,southern Russia, Egypt, undvon dem begleitetwird wie die trike- lishedmonuments; since many others AsiaMinor, Tunisia, and Rome; see Unterwelt Gottindes Todes, Hekate, so areas yet unpublishedand others are CCETI,p. 1. phale anderen allerdingsauLerst beingexcavated, a precise total is im- 5. Thesetypes are defined and ap- tragter auf Denkmalern eine possibleto calculate.The maincollec- pliedby Kacarov,"Denkmaler," passim. seltenvertretenen aufseinem Haupte und tions(corpora and catalogues), which Theyare by no meansstrict categories, Strahlenkrone von denBusten des Sol complementeach other, include butused for convenienceby Kacarov ist flankiert In anderenMonumen- KacarovaDenkmiler";CCET; LIMC andthe editorsof CCET.This classifi- undder Luna. ThrakischeReiter auf- VI.1,1992, pp. 1018-1081,pls. 673- cationis not usedin the presentpaper. tenwird der als Gott derFruchtbarkeit und 719, s.v.Heros Equitans (H. Koukouli- 6. On the epithetsof theThracian gefaLt Aphroditeeine Muschel oder Chrysanthaki,V. Machaira, P. Pantos, horseman,see especiallyGoceva 1992. haltwie Nimbushinter seinem et al.);IGBulg; Gerov, Inscriptiones. 7. E.g., CCETII.1335 is a dedica- hat sie als kannferner angetan sein mit Subsequentreferences to Koukouli- tion 0rx p AsoExv; 331 0rx Ka- Kopfe.Er desAres, kann in seiner Chrysanthakiet al.in LIMCVI.1 sv; 365 p KaspNv; II.2 655 demHelm furAsklepios typischen areabbreviated as LIMCVI. 1. and656 0rx o Baax8C0La. Handden halten,erscheint mit der 4. Thraciansserved in the Roman 8. Venedikov1979, p. 2: "Obwohler Schlangenstab desApollon, dem Waldmesser armyand are attested in Pannonia, nurauf wenigen Reliefs drei Kopfe hat Kithara MONUMENTS OF THE THRACIAN RIDER 2II The prevailinghypothesis is thatthe Thracianrider is an advanced caseof religioussyncretism, conflated with nearlyevery Greek, Roman, Thracian,or Easterndivinity.9 In mostof the relevantscholarship he is viewedas an all-purposegod, a significantstep on the wayto monothe- ism,if not monotheismper se.l° The mainproblem with the conceptof religioussyncretism in thiscase is that,although one can easily understand thephenomenon whereby two or three deities from different cultures, but with moreor less similarfunctions, are conflated as a resultof historical interaction,it is muchmore difficult to imagineone deitybeing merged withnumerous other gods or heroes, whose cults and traditions are hardly compatible.How did thisreligious concept function? How didworship- perswho set up a thank-offeringor madea vowin hopeof well-being,or individualswho erected a gravemonument, perceive this deity? INSCRIPTIONS AND ICONOGRAPHY My approachto theproblem outlined above is basedon a monument-by- monumentexamination of the relationshipbetween inscription and ico- nography.The difficultiesencountered can be illustratedby two groups of examples:Group I consistsof differenttypes of monumentswith identical iconographicalfeatures; and Group II exhibitsthe samedivinity's name on monumentswith different iconography. GROUP I Thefirst group includes the two most popular scenes in theThracian rider's iconography:the horsemanfacing a snake-entwinedtree and the horse- manas a hunter.The firstof thesescenes is illustratedby CCETI 34, 40, 162, IV 29, andIGBulg IV 2134 (Figs.1-2). These monumentsshare identicaliconographical elements: the horseman,wearing a chlamysand des Silvanusund dem Szepterdes holdingthe reinsin his righthand, is turnedto the right,facing a snake- Zeus.So erscheintdieser eigenartige entwinedtree and an altar;the horseis waLcing(not standing still or gal- undrecht ungewohnliche thrakische loping,as on othermonuments). Normally such similarity would suggest Gott in Funktionenund ausgestattet areone andthe same. mit Attributenfast aller graco- thatthe figuresdepicted romischenGottheiten." The inscriptions,however, reveal a differentpicture. CCETI 34 from 9. The extensiveliterature in which Odessus,northeast Bulgaria, is a dedicationto the heroKarabasmos: theThracian rider is considereda result of syncretismis not quotedhere for AyaOrittuX[YIt] purposesof economy.One of the earlier VHpxKapa,BasCux £vXaptcptov xotvxvox ox =£pt andbriefer accounts can be foundin M£vav8pov* . AsoBxvtov xat @£08Xp0V @£08Xp0V Venedikov1963. For a morerecent [xaxAsoB]vtov @£utcraxat @tXO4£VOV @tXO4£VOV discussion,see Werner1999, pp. 59- [xax- - -]pa H £V@VOS xax A0T£CUL8XPOV,8 121.This is alsothe viewexpressed in LIMCVl.l, p. 1066,n. 28. av£0Nxav. 10. E.g.,Fol andMarazov 1977, The monumentwas found in a LateAntique necropolis in thevicinity of p. 17:"One wonders if this herowas apparentlyin a secondarycontext. If not the representationof