photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Dick Osseman | all galleries >> Istanbul >> Museums - Müzeler >> Istanbul archaeology museum >> Stelai or steles > Istanbul dec 2007 1282.jpg
previous | next
12-DEC-2006

Istanbul dec 2007 1282.jpg

view map

Votive stele with the representation of a ‘Thracian horseman'.
Later on christianised through the addition of a cross. (Possibly it was reused as a tombstone).

In later centuries Christianized people possibly made connections with warrior saints, such as Saint George and Saint Demetrius.

Source: Wikipedia.

‘Thracian horseman’ is the conventional term for a recurring motif from the iconography of Paleo-Balkanic mythology during the Hellenistic and Roman era. The tradition is attested from Thrace to Moesia and Scythia Minor (nowadays Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova). It is also known as the ‘Thracian Heros’ or as ‘Heros Karabazmos’, a god of the underworld usually depicted on funeral statues as a horseman slaying a beast with a spear.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.

Stele. Strange in that it has a cross and yet is described as belonging to the Heroic Horseman cult of the Thracians.

Nikon D2x
1/40s f/4.0 at 125.0mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
comment | share