The Mysteries of Sabazios

THE MYSTERIES OF MITHRA
or
THE MYSTERIES OF SABAZIOS
PETR GEORGIEV
Book one: The Mysteries of Mithra or the Mysteries of Sabazios
Book two: The Thracian cheros
Book three: The adara rider an ancient monument
THE MYSTERIES OF MITHRA OR

2016 Sofia, Bulgaria

Petr Georgiev, Author
Bulga Media Publishing House
Translation Vasil Lenshev
Corrector Aneta Michailova
Book cover Ivan Stamenov
Print: Bulged OOD
ISBN: 978 954 9670 26 4
The Mysteries of Mithra or the Mysteries of Sabazios
Table of Contents
1. Why was this book written? 5

2. The Mithra Iconography 11
3. A bull sacrifice, Sabazios 16
4. Zagreus, Dionysus, Sabazios a snake, a ram or a lion, a bull 21
5. The Crater, the Lion and the Snake 30
6. Mithraeums 35
7. Mithras Banquet 39
8. The Birth of Mithra 44
9. The Reincarnations of the Sun God 48
10. Rome, Mithra, Sabazios 51
11. Sabazios and Pergamon, Thrace, Macedonia 55
12. Ghosts from the Past 59
13. Appendices 67
Although focused on the Roman Mithraism, this book is actually an analysis of the
symbolic language of the material monuments of the Roman period the so-called
Mithra reliefs, Sabazios hands, reliefs of Dionysus and of the Thracian Horseman.
The reliefs and sculpture compositions shown use the same symbolic language.
The compositions are also thematically synonymous generally, they are an

expression of religious piety and homage to the ritual religion of the Sun in its three
hypostases Zagreus, Dionysus, Sabazios.
Why was this book written?

The first international congress on the study of Mithraism was held in
Manchester, England, in 1971. The congress criticised seriously Franz Cumonts
formulation about the Iranian origin of Roman Mithraism. Suffice it to quote the
position of one of the organisers: Indeed, one can go further and say that the
portrayal of Mithras given by Cumont is not merely unsupported by Iranian texts
but is actually in serious conflict with known Iranian theology. Cumont reconstructs
a primordial life of the god on earth, but such a concept is unthinkable in terms of
known, specifically Zoroastrian, Iranian thought where the gods never, and
apparently never could, live on earth 1
Neither the congresses, nor the later treatments have provided an answer to the
question about the origin and the essence of Mithraism. This is what the present
book should do, adhering to John R. Hinnells advice who writes: I would accept
with R. Gordon that Mithraic scholars must in future start with the Roman evidence,
not by outlining Zoroastrian myths and then making the Roman iconography fit that
scheme. ... 2 .
Forty years after the congress, things have not changed. Despite the statements
and the conclusions, the researchers continued with the old scheme pouring
Persian analogies in the Roman forms or vice versa. The result is deplorable there
is nothing in common between the iconography and the written materials. This is so
because the common thing between the Persian Mithra and the Roman one is just
the name.
The method stated by John R. Hinnells lies in the basis of this book we will
talk mainly about the symbolism of the iconography of Mithra-Dionysus-Sabazios
in Europe and Asia Minor from the Roman period and I think that it, along with the
information from the written sources, will outline clearly the image of the Roman
Mithra and Roman Mithraism in Europe. The images from the reliefs are elements
of a symbolic language, which is extinct for us, unfortunately. Whether I have
deciphered it correctly I hope so.
Although Mithra is usually said to be a Persian god, it was not in Persia that it
was mentioned first. Mithra is present almost at one and the same time both in the
Hittites of Asia Minor (the agreement with the Mitanni) and in the religious Rigveda
hymns after 1600 BC, where he is accompanied by the gods Varuna and
Ahriman 3 . In the main sacred book of Zoroastrianism, Avesta, Mithra is mentioned
in the period 1000-600 BC as a god of secondary importance. Significantly later, in
404-259 BC, Mithra was placed alongside the main god Ahura Mazda and Anahita
in the monuments of Artaxerxes. Much later, Antiochus I Theos (69 BC ca. 36
BC), the King of the Anatolian kingdom of Commagene, son of Mithridates I
5
Callinicus (Mithridates given by Mithra), erected a temple, in which one of the

statues is called Apollo-Mithra-Helios-Hermes. This compound name has its
history it is said that Antiochus was a distant descendant of Alexander the Great
and for this reason he aspired to combine in one the gods of his predecessors, to
erect a monument of all gods.
In the 1st century, Plutarch describes Cilician pirates, defeated by Pompey a
hundred years earlier, who celebrated some secret rituals, among which those of
Mithra, which continue till nowadays. This quotation is the reason why later on,
the Roman rituals were groundlessly related to Mithra of Cilicia but we do not know
who the Cilician Mithra was, nor what his rituals were. What we can and should do
is familiarise ourselves with the Roman Mithra.
During the 1st century, the Emperor of the Kushan Empire minted coins with the
image of a man with a nimbus and the inscription MIIPO 4 . The Kushans are Tochari
(Yuezhi) who had been living in the Xinjiang province of China. However,
Ptolemy 5 says this potent solar deity was worshipped in all the countries that
stretched from India to Assyria.
Probably, this wide spread gives the grounds to define the cult to Mithra in the
Roman Empire as Persian but this is not serious. However, who was the first person
in Europe to state that the mans figure sacrificing a bull and looking at the rising
sun is the Persian Mithra? According to Richard Gordon 6 , this was probably done in
1550 by the naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi who, while describing a sculpture in
Cardinal Pio da Carpis garden, mentions a niche, in which there is the God Mithra
of the Persians who is killing a bull. Only twenty pages above in his exposition,
Aldrovandi writes about a man killing a bull. Probably it is Martin Smetius 7 , who
has stronger reasons to assert that the one who makes the sacrifice is God (although
gods kill but do not make sacrifices), as he describes several inscriptions with the
name Mithra, including the inscriptions on the Capitols relief, which is kept
nowadays at the Museum of the City of Lens DEO SOL IINVICTO MITRE and
NAMA SEBESIO. Before that, however, the Persian origin of Mithra was
acknowledged in the earliest literature about them. It is by the Latin poet Statius
who while writing about the 80AD describes Mithra as a person who twists the
unruly horns beneath the rocks of a Persian cave 8 . Yes, Mithra was famous mainly
as a Persian god, this is important. The Roman Mithra was a god in a secret society
what can we write about a secret that we learn about from later Christian
comments?
A demonstration of the Iranian connection is also a text by Saint Jerome 9 ,
confirmed by a series of inscriptions, which contains the seven stages in the
admission, one of them being the Persian: The musthV, (sacratus) takes in
sequence the names of the Crow (corax), the Husband (cryptius), the Soldier
(miles), the Lion (leo), the Persian (perses), the Messenger of the Sun (heliodromus)
and the Father (pater).
In 1903, (113 years ago) Franz Cumont issued his work The Mysteries of
Mithra where he further develops the thesis about the Persian origin of the Roman
Mithraism despite the absence of any archaeological evidence in Asia Minor, and in
6
Cilicia and Commagene in particular, about a cult to Mithra of the Roman type. This
is also what Cumont admits and asks: Why are no vestiges of the Persian Mysteries
found in Asia Propria, in Bithynia, in Galatia, in the provinces adjoining those
where they were practised for centuries? And he replies to himself: ... because at
least from the time of Vespasian no legion was charged with the defence or
surveillance of their territory.
This quotation is indicative. Roman Mithraism is where the Roman legions are.
Cumont continues: and if we wish to assign absolutely the circumstances of its
origin (and distribution of Mithraism) we may take it for granted, with every
likelihood of truth, that the eighth legion, which was transferred from Moesia to
Upper Germany in the year 70 A.D., first practised there the religion, which was
soon destined to become the preponderating one in this country. And a little bit
further: ...the Persian religion was practised in Africa almost exclusively by those
whom military service had called to these countries from abroad; and the bands of
the faithful were composed for the most part, if not of Asiatics, at least of recruits
drawn from the Danubian provinces.
The fact that the legions brought Mithraism was marked also by Vermaseren 10 :
Material evidence from the second century A.D. shows that wherever the Romans
planted the standards (flags), Mithra and his cult followed There is throughout a
strong connection between the Danubian provinces, where the Mithra cult is
widespread in the outposts, and Africa. Vermaseren gives as an example Valerius
Maximianus born in the modern Pettau or Ptuj, Slovenia, Dalmatia, where he
consecrated Mithraic temples in Alba Julia (Dacia) and Numidia. Vermasern
continues: Evidence of Mithraism can be found at Troesmis in Moesia and also in
Sitifs (Setif) in Africa, both places where the Second Legion (Legio II Herculia) was
stationed at different times. M. Aurelius Sabinus, who came from Carnuntum
(Deutsch-Altenburg) east of Vindobona (Vienna), where Mithras enjoyed profound
reverence, consecrated as commander an altar at Lambaesis. Vermaseren describes
also the case, in which M. Aurelius Rufinus, born in the town of Bizye in Thrace,
being member of the Septimius Serverus expedition to Palaepolis on the island of
Andros, consecrated a Mithraic temple in a cave. Probably, according to
Varmaseren, Rufinus was initiated into the cult at his birthplace.
Whether it is by chance or not, in the information provided by Cumont and
Vermaseren the participants in these actions are soldiers from the Balkan region.
This confirms the scheme of distribution of the artefacts of the Mithra cult (see the
enclosed map) the first two centres are in the Balkans present-day Northern
Bulgaria and Dalmatia-Pannonia. The second centre is Germany where the legion
camps are. Actually, Germany is the country where the biggest number of Mithra
temples were discovered, the bas-reliefs are imposing in size and most complete in
composition Cumont writes. The third centre is Rome where the main part of
slaves from the conquered Balkan lands was probably directed and where there was
a large garrison made up of soldiers drawn from all parts of the empire and the
veterans of the army, after having been honourably discharged, flocked thither in
great numbers to spend the remainder of their days 11 .
7
When quoting Cumont and Vermaseren, there is an interesting statement by the

latter regarding the roots of the Roman iconography: ...In my humble opinion, this
cult is based more on the Hellenic concepts rather than on the Iranian substrate, as
the brilliant Franz Cumont once believed 12 .
The main source used in this book is the so-called Corpus Inscriptionum et
Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae (CIMRM), Vermaseren 13 , or in particular,
the version by Gordon, Richard, L. (2004), CIMRM Cupplement, Electronic
Journal of Mithraic Studies.
A map of the important finds of Mithraism in Europe 14 .

1. Thrace, Moesia, Dacia, Illyria, Pannonia, South Italy.
8
2. Germany, North Italy, Britain, France.
3. Germany, France, North Italy, Britain.
9
10
The Mithra Iconography

According to Herodotus, the Persians have no images of the gods, no
temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I
think, from their not believing the gods to have the same nature with men, as the
Greeks imagine 15 . It was probably like this during Herodotus time but three
hundred years later Antiochus erected a monument in Comagena a unified
image of Apollo-Mithra-Helios-Hermes as the God of all people. On the relief,
Mithra has a nimbus of light, similarly to Helios, he is dressed like the Persian
Antiochus, wearing a Thracian- Phrygian hat and with a knife in hand. A knife
a distinguishing sign of the Roman Mithra.
On Artaxerxes relief, Mithra is portrayed with a nimbus of rays, too.
CIMRM 30
Reliefs from Persia with images, which are said to be images of Mithra. In Europe, the
Sun God, also called Helios, was depicted sitting in the chariot with four horses.
11
The images ascribed to Mithra in Persia can be counted on the fingers of ones
hand, but they have nothing to do with the iconography of the Roman Mithraism.
The Rigveda and Avesta texts do not depict Mithra as the sun 16 , but as the
bearer of light. This is the reason why he was portrayed with a sun nimbus. The
identification of Mithra with the Sun is a later interpretation. However, the late
Roman Mithra does not even have such a nimbus and this is the first difference from
the images of the Persian Mithra.
CIMRM 641
The Roman god Sol and Mithra from a Mithra relief.
12
This image of Mithra and Sol is indicative it defines Sol and Mithra as two
verydistinct characters, and Mithra as an object that has nothing to do with the Sun.
Mithra was not portrayed as a sun on the Roman reliefs, there is no inscription
either that directly states that Mithra is a Sun.
The above image of Mithra and Sol is part of the image called Mithras
Banquet. On the reverse side of the plate, the scene shown below is depicted a
typical scene of a Mithra relief, the bull slaughtering.
CIMRM 641
A relief Mithra sacrifices a bull, Louvre
On the relief, the Invincible Mithra, Sol Invicto, has stabbed the bull with a
knife; there are also a snake, a dog, a scorpion and a crow. In the two upper corners,
there are a man and a woman symbolising the Sun and the Moon.
The relief is typical for the predominant part of Mithra reliefs. As usual, the
bulls tail ends with wheat ears.
Usually, the relief is thought to be an imitation of the motif of the classical
Greek group of Nike sacrificing a bull.
13
The sculpture of Nike sacrificing a bull
However, the sculpture of Nike could hardly be the only followed pattern of
representing a sacrifice; the golden Geto-Dacian Helmet of Poiana Coofeneti is
also from the IV century BC and it presents the same idea of iconography with the
victim here being a ram; the Ancient reliefs of Panticapaeum, Kerch, 1 BC.
CIMRM 11 CIMRM 12
A Geto-Dacian Helmet, Kerch, a sacrifice
Another relief that from the Pergamon Museum, Berlin will tell us more
about the meaning of the depicted group. There is a surprising fact: in addition to
the standard figures of Mithra a bull, a dog, a scorpion and a crow, there is a
woman with a basket full of fruits by the snake; a figure, which cannot be seen in
any other relief of the Mithraism iconography. The basket full of fruits is a symbol
of pregnancy as the womans figure itself shows.
The second surprise is that despite the extensive diverse comments on all other
images, there are no comments about this image, it is not noted by the otherwise
verbose commentators of Mithraism.
14
Pergamon Museum in Berlin
In this relief, there are two topics: the inevitable death and the birth the knife
is not yet stabbed in the bull, the infant has not been born, yet. But who dies and
who is born?
15
A bull sacrifice, Sabazios

In ancient Egypt, the god of fertility is the continuation of Amun Ra. Every
spring, the bull Apis was ritually slaughtered to resurrect again from the mud of the
rising waters of the Nile into the image of the young Osiris. The ritual death of Apis
and his resurrection are celebrated in Egypt every spring, outlining the annual solar
cycle. The regular repetition of the ritual has associated firmly the image of the bull
with the God of Fertility and Apis is depicted exactly in this way a bull with a Sun
and a Serpent between the horns that resemble a Moon. There is a serpent depicted
above the bulls head. We will see this serpent later on, with the bull from the
Mithra reliefs, and it is firmly connected to it.
There are lots of elements in the Mithraic reliefs that show that it is actually a
matter of depicting such a sacrifice, in which the bull personifies the god of fertility.
1. In most cases, the bull is portrayed with a tail of wheat ears, which clearly
speaks about the nature of the image the bull is associated with fertility similarly
to the Egyptian Apis
16
2. What is left from the old year? Seeds that we will use during the new year.
The scorpion tears off the bulls testicles, it preserves the semen. Autumn ends
during the Scorpio sign (24 October) 17 when the fruits of the year are harvested.
3. The depiction of the rising sun and the setting moon in the upper corners
shows the time cycle the change of seasons. Often, the sun is carried on a horse-
driven chariot and the setting moon the symbol of the long winter nights is on a
carriage towed by bulls.
Christies catalogue
The two figures with torches: the left one next to the rising sun is upright, while
the right one is leaning; to the left there is a cock a symbol of the rising sun, and to
the right the owl a symbol of the night. The change of seasons is clearly
emphasized.
17
The other elements of the relief: the crow a symbol of a messenger in antiquity
will spread the news about the birth of the new sun, the dog is a symbol of a
companion in the world beyond.
The gods of fertility (Telipinu of the Hittites, Sabazios in Asia Minor and Thrace,
Baal in Babylon) have been depicted as adult men, the latter two imaged either with
bulls horns or with the sign of the setting Moon.
Telipinu Sabazios
The ceremonial celebrations of the change of seasons are traditional in the

Balkans, too. According to Macrobius 18 : in Thrace the Sun is called Sabazios and
the Thracians celebrate him with magnificent piety. Sabazios is celebrated
nowadays, too Etropole 19 , Strandzha 20 ; there are dozens of reliefs of the Thracian
horseman holding up three of his fingers a gesture known as the gesture of
Sabazios.
Is there an element of the Mithra imagery that directly states that the bull is a
symbol of the dying cyclic god of fertility, always dying and always coming to
birth? Yes, there is this is an inscription on one of the best produced figures that
have been found in the Romes Capitol, now in the New Louvre Museum, Lens,
France. Under Mithra, there is an inscription: DEO SOL INVICTO MITRHE. The
inscription is graphite, the standard in similar inscriptions reads: the invincible god
Sol of Mithra; next to the Mithras knife, over the bull, it is written: NAMA
SEBEZI.
18
According to Cumont, NAMA SEBESIO is either a spell or a Persian greeting.

The wrong spelling of the word name can be suggested here, which is written in
Latin as nominis, in Galician, Portuguese and Italian nome, German name,
Romanian nume, French nom, Swedish namn. However, there is more probable
version that NAMA is the Sanskrit word nama, translated as glory, bow, reverence,
which matches well the concept of the book 21 and further clarifies the exposition.
CIMRM 415-416
The relief in the New Louvre in Lens
The NAMA SEBESIO inscription
Is the bull, which Mithra kills, really the image of Sabazios? Sabazios who is
being killed so that the new sun is born. What should be the relief that would depict
the murder of Sabazios by Mithra? Of course, this should be the act of the murder
itself. This act of the murder of Sabazios by Mithra is depicted on a sculpture from
the Capitol, which is now kept at the Vatican Museum. The sculpture shows a bust
19
of Sabazios with the invariable fir-cone in the hand the carrier of the semen. In
front of Sabazios there is Mithras figure in the typical pose from the bulls murder.
However, there is no bull. Instead, Mithra has stabbed the knife in Sabazios. The
expression on Sabazios face is unambiguous Sabazios is dying. What the relief
shows has been expressed clearly and plainly Mithra from the reliefs of the Roman
Mithraism kills Sabazios; the bull is the symbol of Sabazios.
Vatican museum inv. No 12158 22
To the front, there is a funeral urn, a serpent coiled around it, the Lion is to the
right and the two torch-carriers bending their heads over the urn. This is a standard
scene of mourning over the funeral urn depicted on many reliefs of Mithraism.
After the appearance of the lion and the serpent, it is time

to answer the question symbols of what are they?
20
Zagreus, Dionysus, Sabazios a snake, a ram or a lion, a bull

Helios, highest object of reverence for the horse-loving Thracians 23
In the middle of the Louvre relief (CIMRM 641), there is a sacrificial altar, on
which a horned snake crawls, and in this relation Nonnus 24 describes how Zeus, in
the guise of a dragon, created Zagreus: By this marriage with the heavenly
dragon, the womb of Persephone swelled with living fruit, and she bore Zagreus the
horned baby. Persephone is the wife of Hades, the ruler of the underworld.
The Boethian version about the birth of Zagreus explains: Zagreus was born
from the union between Zeus and Semele (form Phrygian, Zemelo, Earth; Old
Bulgarian zemlya 25 ). Zagreus born from the union between the Sky and the Earth.
The snake is the symbol of the spirit of Zagreus.
The name Zagreus has no meaning in Greek (it is translated approximately as
hunter), however, it has a beautiful meaning in Bulgarian shine, rise, which
perfectly describes the ritual sun religion with the sunrise, the birth of Zagreus and
later with the sacrifice of Sabazios, the sun god, whom the Thracians celebrated
with magnificent piety. And between Zagreus and Sabazios in the annual cycle,
there is the time of the Thracian Dionysus, the inseminator. The snake is the symbol
spirit of Zagreus, Dionysus and Sabazios.
The horned snake from a figure of Sabazios hand, the same as in the images of
Mithra.
On the reliefs of Dionysus triumph, the following recurring symbols are clearly
expressed: a basket with a snake coming out of it (birth), a small child (Zagreus), a
ram (fertility), a lion (strength), a staff with a fir-cone (seed), an upturned vessel
with water running out (a womb, a mother, birth). On the magnificent sarcophagus
from the Metropolitan Museum, Dionysus has set his foot on the basket, from which
the serpent comes out (the birth). Dionysus foot on the basket means: this is past.
The serpent personifies birth, the lamb is the infant age of Dionysus; the lion,
on which Dionysus is sitting the youth Dionysus grown into manhood. This
closeness identifies Dionysus with the lion, Dionysus is accompanied by a lion or
has a lions hide on his shoulders on dozens of reliefs.
21
Triumph of Dionysus 26
The same gradation is shown on the reliefs on several sarcophagi: Walters Art
Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Moscow,
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The depiction of the snake, the ram (lamb) and
the lion on the reliefs of the Danubian Horsemen has the same age aspect, the same
approach has been used also in the figures Sabazios Hands where Sabazios is
over the ram, above Dionysus age.
There are dozens of coins from Pergamon showing the symbol of the birth of God. 27
22
There are dozens of coins from Pergamon showing the symbol of the birth of God. 28
A young lion as a symbol of Dionysus is present on the reliefs depicting

festivities in celebration of Dionysus. On the bronze plate Dionysus with his
symbols ivy, a lion, a staff with a fir-cone and the sign of the Sun above the head.
The reliefs in question reflect the picture of a complete ritual religion to the Sun,
whose rituals are repeated annually, starting with the death of the Sun, in the face of
Sabazios, the birth of Zagreus and continuing with the Dionysia in the spring.
The same gradation is present also on the so-called Sabazios Hands. After the
birth in the cave with the messenger crow, there follow the table on the occasion of
the birth with loaves of bread with a cross (found on Mithra reliefs, too), the ram, on
which Sabazios is standing. Figuratively, the act means this is past, Sabazios is
above the time of the ram, he is close to the Moon, the symbol of the other world.
23
Seint Luis art museum Melbourne museum, Pompeii
Figures of Sabazios Hands
The hand expresses Sabazios gesture three fingers raised. Two of the raised
fingers are marked with an eagle and the amphibian frog, symbolising the Sky and
the Earth. The eagle holds in its talons a sheaf of lightning. Sabazios points at them
both, the father and the mother.
The fir-cone on the third raised finger is a symbol of
the tree of life, the spirit of life, of God, that spiritualised
both the Earth and the Sky 29 . Sabazios gesture expresses
the unity of the trinity the Holy Spirit, the Father and the
Great Mother.
The horned snake, the spirit of Zagreus, Dionysus,
Sabazios, has passed the way from the birth to the crater
(the funeral urn) a symbolic representation of life from
birth until death.
The unity of Zagreus, Dionysus and Sabazios as the sun allegory of the annual
cycle defines the snake, which is present in all three of them, as the spirit of
Zagreus, of Dionysus and of Sabazios at the same time (as with
Demostenes, like the horned snake with Nonnus), and this spirit, being an immortal
24
substance, remains after the death of Sabazios (the snake around the funeral urn on
the reliefs of Mithra and the Danubian Horsemen, the snake by the sacrificial altar
of the killed bull). This is the same snake, coiled around the tree from the reliefs of
the Thracian Horseman an image of the universal non-personified god, sometimes
referred to in a text or through implication.
The ram and the bull define the age characteristics, the lion the quality ones.
What has been said about Sabazios is depicted with utmost clarity on the
following two reliefs. The relief of Tanais shows the known composition from the
reliefs of the Thracian Horseman, however, instead of a snake, as usual, a bulls
head is depicted within the tree crown. The inscription under the horseman shows
that it is a dedication to Tiberius Sauromates, a king from the Thracian dynasty of
Rhescuporis and starts as follows: The Basileus, being Sabazios, which probably
meant the king, being a follower of Sabazios.
A relief from Tanais A relief of a Thracian Horseman, Istanbul
Both reliefs feature altars of the sun god Sabazios. On the first altar, his age
symbol is represented, on the second one his spirit and symbol, the snake. On the
same altar, but on another instance, the sacrificial bull would be killed, the symbol
of Sabazios.
Following the research on 665 monuments of the Thracian Horseman, Dilyana
Boteva makes the daring conclusion: From the point of view of the divine
hierarchy the snake god stands higher (than the reset, depicted there, authors
remark) 30 . Yes, but with one clarification not higher than God, the spirit of life,
symbolised with the tree of life, around which the snake is coiled; his guardian,
defender and protector.
These facts and the facts from the sources have allowed Alexander Fol to write
that the reptile may be Sabazios himself in a zoomorphic image 31 . Fol is rather
cautious perhaps he is the written sources are actually scarce. However, the
language of the hundreds of relief states it clearly the lion is a zoomorphic image
of Dionysus, the bull of Sabazios, the snake is their common beginning the
spirit.
25
On the following reliefs, the horseman is with three raised fingers the sign of
Sabazios in front of the symbol of the god Sabazios, or according to A. Fol, in front
of his zoomorphic image.
On a substantial number of the several hundred thousand known reliefs of the

Thracian Horseman, which appeared at the same time with the reliefs of the Roman
Mithraism, the horseman makes a gift, a sacrifice or sends an appeal in front of a
sacrificial altar, behind which there are the tree of life and the snake coiled around
it.
26
The tree of life with the snake coiled around it can be found also on the reliefs of
the Roman Mithraism, the tree, from which Mithra was born.
Taking the snake as an anthropomorphic image, or more precisely a spirit of
god Sabazios, he himself identified with the Sun explains the images on the
Roman coins from Pautalia, Augusta Traiana and Serdica, on which the chthonic
creature, the snake, bears the sign of the Sun. The symbols engraved on the coins
are interesting. There are three elements in them that connect them to Sabazios, the
first of them being the sign of the Sun. The second sign also leads to Sabazios
some of the snakes are shown with beards, some have a crest, too. The third element
is more essential the tip of the tail ending with three wheat ears, a symbol of
fertility.
The three ears on the tail tip are identical to the ones found on the bulls tail
from the reliefs of the so-called Roman Mithraism.
This link is interesting and indicative, it again identifies the bull from the Mithra
reliefs as an image of Sabazios. In concordance with the idea that Sabazios is the
sun god that characterises the fertile last part of the year, there is an actual
circumstance of his cyclic death, which explains the scene with his sacrifice
similarly to the Egyptian traditions.
27
The evidence by the ancient authors:

Demosthenes 32 (330 BC): The noble orgiasts, crowned with fennel and poplar,
through the highways, squeezing the big-checked serpents, and lifting them over
their heads, and shouting Ev Sab, which shows that it is matter of celebrating
Sabazios.
Clement of Alexandria 33 (II AD) Sabazios is the god drawn from the bosom,
a snake.
Arnobius 34 (IIIIV AD) adds the golden snake.
Hesychius 35 (V AD): The Thracian Dionysus is the other name for Sabazios
According to Hesychius the Thracian Dionysus is not the Greek one.
Aristophanes 36 (430 BC): Judging by what we find at many places, it seems
that Dionysus and Sabazios are one and the same deity.
Amphithea (IIIII BC) Sabazios and Dionysus are the same thing.
Plutarch 37 (46127 AD), while describing Olympias, the mother of Alexander,
writes: All of the women in this region, since ancient time, were inclined to Orphic
rites and to the secret rites of Dionysus and have the name Klodones and
Mimallones and performed many rites similar to the Edonian women and the
Thracian women around [Mount] Haemus, from whom, it seems, the word
threskeuin came to be used for intense [or immoderate] and superstitious [or odd in
an excessive way] religious services[or sacrifices]. Now Olympias who, more than
the other women, strove after these inspirations and carried out these frenzies more
barbarically, introduced to the celebrating groups great tame serpents...
A relief from Belintash, Sabazios on a throne, with snakes coiled around him, holding in his
hand a fir-cone as in the reliefs from Copenhagen and Albania.
28
The sources do not say much about the other reincarnation of Dionysus-
Sabazios in the image of a bull. Although not precisely, Diodorus mentions that
some people talk about the myth, that there was another, much more ancient
Dionysus, the second Dionysus. For according to them there was born of Zeus and
Persephone a Dionysus who is called by some Sabazios and taught people in
farming. He was represented as wearing horns. Diodorus also adds: As they felt
ashamed of societies, they celebrated his birth and performed sacrifices secretly
and during the night, which corresponds also to the sacrifices in a cave under lit
torches in Mithraism.
The analogue of Sabazios, the Babylon god of fertility Baal, is depicted as a bull
or wearing bulls horns.
Apis, the Egyptian god of fertility, is depicted as a bull with a sun disk between
the horns.
The symbol of Sabazios is the two-horned moon (the hands of Sabazios, the
relief from Copenhagen).
Zagreus was born a horned snake and his last reincarnation is a bull.
Plutarch writes that on the Pelasgian island of Tenedos there was a cow which
received special care and when it gave birth to a bull calf, they would slaughter it
with an axe, as if it were Zagreus, the young Dionysus 38 . Plutarch also says that
the women of Elis invoke him, praying that the god may come with the hoof of a
bull 39 , and also that many of the Greeks make statues of Dionysus in the form of a
bull 40 .
In crazy exultation, the maenads of Euripides in Dionysus triumphs tear to
pieces bulls on the meadows, similarly to the concept of the later expression tasting
the body of god.
The king of Pergamon, Attalus, who introduced the cult to Sabazios in the
kingdom, was called the son of the bull, wearing bulls horns.
The shown sculptures of Dionysus, the young Sabazios, are also with bulls
horns just showing.
Heraklion, Crete Beirut Le Louvre
29
The horned snake and the bull are shown side by side in the Mithraeum in
Ostia.
The reliefs of the Thracian horseman and the relief of the Roman Mithraism
appeared at the same time and reflect the same thing reverence to the Sun God.
The written sources and the reliefs outline the ritual religion of the Thracians as
annual cyclic rituals to the Sun God with Hypostases in the images of Zagreus,
Dionysus, Sabazios, which is also the reason for Alexander Fol to title his books
about the Thracian religion as The Thracian Zagreus Dionysus and The Thracian
Dionysus Sabazios.
The Crater, the Lion and the Snake

On a significant part of the Mithra reliefs there are a lion and a snake, bent down
over an upright vessel, similarly to the one from the reliefs of the Danubian
Horsemen. The upright vessel in ancient iconography in the respective context is the
funeral urn. As already said, the snake and the lion symbolise Zagreus and
Dionysus, two of the hypostases of the sun god. On the vessel from the Cologne
Museum shown below, in addition to the sun and the two torch-carriers, there are a
lion and a snake being the handles of the urn vessel. What do the symbols of
Zagreus and Dionysus above the funeral urn mean?
Museum, Kln CIMRM 1020
On the territory of Germany (Heddernheim, Karlsruhe, Osterbrcken), some of

the most important reliefs were found, which are defined as reliefs of the Roman
Mithraism. They differ substantially from the known reliefs depicting a particular
group next to the dying bull a lion, a snake, and an upright urn. This group is
known from most of the reliefs of the so-called Danubian Horsemen.
The relief from Heddernheim is the richest relief depicting the act of birth of the
new sun. On it, in addition to the standard elements of other reliefs, elements are
also presented that reveal the link of the Mithra reliefs to the Thracian world.
30
In the top right corner, there are the tree of life and the snake from the Thracian
Horseman relief, the snake as Sabazios spirit.
CIMRM 1083
Mithra, the Heddernheim relief
Under the bull one can see the famous group from the reliefs of the
Danubian Horsemen a lion, a snake and an upright vessel (crater). This group
of the grievous lion and snake standing by the funeral urn has been reproduced
on a big number of the reliefs.
The presence of the lion, the snake and the crater on Mithraic reliefs cannot be
explained and grounded by the concepts of Mithraism as a Persian one; there is
31
striking silence on this issue. The snake (the symbol of birth, of Zagreus) and the
lion (Dionysus) obviously grieve and mourn for the bull, and the upright urn
symbolises death. However, the Sabazios spirit, the snake, is alive and it laments
the ash in the urn. Let us remind according to Herodotus, the Thracians believed in
immortality. A. Fols analysis adds in immortality of the soul. 41 Immortalisation
through the immortal spirit, the spirit of life.
CIMRM 1283
A relief from Karlsruhe
At the bottom of the Karlsruhe relief, there are again

the mourning Lion and Snake with the upright crater. The
image to the left shows an enlarged section of the relief,
which presents a Thracian scene described by
Herodotus 42 : when there is thunder and lightning
these same Thracians shoot arrows skyward as a threat
to the god, believing in no other god but their own 43 .
On the left of this relief, and of many other reliefs, a stout mans figure is
shown recumbent. The Thracologists define him as the resting Heracles an
element that can be found on many Thracian reliefs. Heracles is always shown close
to Mithra, sometime with a weapon.
32
The next relief is from Osterbrcken, remarkable with the depicted scenes;
the lion and the snake are also there.
CIMRM 1292-1293
One of the scenes repeats a theme from the votive plates of the Thracian
Horseman the horseman, the lion and the servant behind him.
33
The lion and the snake are an element, which can be often found in Thracian
iconography. As with the Mithra reliefs, the scenes depict sacrifice in front of a
sacrificial altar in a cave, symbolised by the vault above the horseman. Thrace is
famous with the vault temples situated under hillocks, which probably served for
sacrifices, too. The images of Mithra are a specific thematic continuation of the
reliefs of the Thracian horseman, related particularly to the birth of the new sun.
The Mithraeums were built by the water sources, often marked by human
figures holding a vessel with water flowing out of it. The Thracian horseman often
presents a gift to the lion, with its paw laid on an urn with water flowing out of it,
the symbol of the spring, near which the sanctuary is situated. The gift is presented
in honour of both Dionysus, emphasized by the lion, or of their spirit, symbolised by
the snake (the icon in the middle).
The reliefs of the type of the so-called Danubian Horsemen, reflecting scenes of
initialisation, also repeat elements both from the Thracian Horsemen and from the
reliefs of Sabazios.
A relief of the Danubian Horsemen type
34
In the bottom, there are again the lion, the snake and the funeral urn,
symbolically mourning for the kid (Zagreus) who entered adolescence (Dionysus);
or the adolescent (Dionysus) who entered the adult age (Sabazios).
Mithraeums
According to Jonas Bjrnebye 44 : Mithraists never used the word Mithraeum, as
far as we know, the preferred words were speleum or antrum (a cave), crypta (an
underground passage or corridor), fanum (a sacred place) or even templum (a
temple or a sacred area). Probably in a similar way during that time the word
mithraism was not used either, it was coined later.
The Mithraeums were built in most cases under the ground with a vault ceiling
resembling a cave. At one end, a bas-relief was placed or the sculpture group
Mithra is killing the bull. In many cases, above the figure, there are openings in
the ceiling, made so that the daylight would fall on the composition. Research has
been carried out about some temples, for which it is claimed that this happens on the
day of the winter and summer solstice 45 . This fact is touched upon in the reliefs of
Mithra over the cave, there are usually two openings, through which the sun and
the moon are seen in such a way that they illuminate the scene on a certain date
during the day and the night.
CIMRM 229
Caesarea Maritima, Israel
35
There is a path or a passage leading to the composition. The mentioned places

represent buildings for consecration and feasts along the two sides of the passage
there stood the initiated persons in front of whom dishes were served. The majority
of the premises are under the ground.
Mithraeums, restorations
Below are the figures from the Mithraeum in San Clemente, Italy. Along with
the scene of the bull slaughtering, there are also a relief of a snake, the figure of
Mithra coming to birth and also the sculpture of the Roman Sol.
CIMRM 339-340 CIMRM 344 CIMRM 343
Sculpture compositions at the Mithraeum in San Clemente, Sol is along with Mithra.
36
A relief or a sculpture of Sol were found also in other Mithraeums, as well as

inscriptions with the name of Sabazios and elements of the rites of Sabazios. This
fact shows that the Mithraeums, as they are called nowadays, are not specifically
temples of Mithra but temples of the Sun, ritual temples, in which the New Sun or
the New Year were seen with particular rituals and procedures that also included
Mithra in some of the scenes. The following materials support this statement.
Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3
Figures 1, 2 and 3 show three buildings, all of them situated in Ostia, Italy. The
common idea is obvious elongated design with an alley (passage) in the middle,
covered with mosaics with images or an inscription and higher edges at the sides.
The first structure is called Mithraeum because an inscription was found there
including the phrase DEO INVICTO MITHRAE:
(DEO INVICTO MITHRAE DIOCLES OB HONOREMC).
The second structure is called Sabazium because there is an inscription in it that
mentions Sabazios.
(L.AEMILIV[s ---] F=EVSC(us) EX IMPERIO IOV IS SABAZI VOTVM
FECIT 46 )
37
On the third structure, there is no inscription but it is also called Mithraeum

despite the images, the majority of which correspond to the Sabazios iconography
the messenger crow, the snake. Therefore the question of which god the Mithraeums
were dedicated to Sol, Sabazios or Mithra is meaningless. Sol, Sabazios and
Mithra are just an element of these rituals.
The horned snake of Sabazios at the Ostia Mithraeum.
The snake, the symbol of Sabazios, is found on each relief of Mithra. As it is

likely that the cult to Sabazios penetrated Rome significantly earlier than Romes
ally Pergamon, or after the conquest of Macedonia and the west Balkans, then the
temples, which are called Mithraeums nowadays, are probably dated from an earlier
period than currently accepted.
The people writing about Mithra omit, intentionally or not, a well-known
aspect Herodotus description about how and in what temples the Persians
performed sacrifices. The customs which I know the Persians to observe are the
following: they have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars []. This way they
offer sacrifice to Zeus (the god, authors remark) on the mountain tops and call
Zeus the heavenly vault. But the man who wishes to sacrifice brings his victim to a
spot of ground which is pure from pollution, and there calls upon the name of the
god to whom he intends to offer. It is usual to have the turban encircled with a
wreath, most commonly of myrtle. 47
From the above it is clear that the Persians performed sacrifice not in a cave,
under the ground, but on the mountain tops, close to the heavenly vault; the figure
performing the sacrifice on the Mithra reliefs is not wearing a turban and is without
myrtle branches. This fact is a serious argument against the thesis that the so-called
Roman Mithraism was brought from Persia.
As a rule, the Mithraeum temples have no fixed orientation.
38
Mithras Banquet
Some of the scenes on the Mithra reliefs are called a Mithras Banquet and they
reflect the festive celebrations. Masked participants played rituals, among which is
the slaughtering of the bull. The relief from Dalmatia shows masked participants
such as the crow, the lion, the snake and the bull in front of the old and the new Sun,
with hands raised in greeting. The table is covered with the bulls hide, its head is
also there. On the tripod in front of them, small loafs of bread are placed with a
cross engraved on them, similarly to the loaves from Sabazios hand.
CIMRM 1896
Saint Augustine (354430) describes the scene as follows: Some are flapping
with wings like birds, imitating the caw of the crow, others are snarling like lions 48 .
On the following scenes, there are the participants in the festivities they bring
sacrificial gifts to the table where Mithra and Sol are seated.
39
CIMRM 480
The reproduction reveals an interesting detail at the celebrations, in addition to

the new sun, there is also the old one on the first scene the new sun is reaching to
the crown of the old one, the new sun is by the table next to the sun with the crown
passing out. The two greet the participants.
On the first three reliefs of the ones shown below, the participants raise a toast
after the sacrifice, the bulls hide is beneath them. On the first relief, the horned
snake is in front of the sacrificial altar, on the second relief, in addition to the bulls
hide, there is a bunch of grapes placed on the tripod table, on the last three reliefs,
the sun has taken off its crown. The grapes, the taken off crown and gown probably
symbolise the role of the old sun fertility that has gone away.
CIMRM 641 Lopodunum/Ladenburg, Germany.
40
Mithreum of Rirgel CIMRM 1083
Again a banquet over the killed bull; on both scenes the old sun has taken off its crown.
Probably in the Roman legions consisting of numerous tribes, various religions

were mixed, however the birth of the new sun in the Roman Empire was a common
holiday with common iconography the sacrifice of the bull.
Around some reliefs, additional details and scenes are shown, which clearly
show that these are scenes of a religious ritual recreating the birth of the new sun or
the seeing of the New Year. The main characters in this ritual are the person
performing the sacrifice and the one in the role of the sun. On the first image, the
performer of the old sun, being the god of fertility, offers grapes to Mithra. I will
remind that even nowadays in Portugal and Spain, at midnight of the New Year,
under the tolling of the bells, twelve grape berries should be eaten and this custom
has been imported by the Spaniards from Cuba. Grapes are offered at the table also
in some regions of Bulgaria.
CIMRM 1083 Mithreum Ostia
What is noticeable here is not the grape berry in the hands of Sol but the fact
that Sol is not wearing a sun crown: the crown is on the wall behind the two, i.e. it is
a theatrical property. This fact confirms the assertion that it is a matter of a
performance during a celebration. The objects to the right are images of a torch, a
lash and a suns crown depicted in the Ostia Mithraeum, the theatrical property of
the performance. On the relief below, a part of the relief from the Heddernheim
Mithraeum, an expressive scene is depicted, which presents a part of this
performance. The main protagonist is the priest who is killing the bull.
41
Heddernheim CIMRM 1083
The first figure of the composition is repeated many times on stone carvings,
which the Mithraists name Mithras birth from a stone. In this case, it is visible
that this is a tree. Later on, we will see that the problem a tree or a stone actually
exists and we will try to understand which is the original element and which is the
transferred one.
The second scene of the Heddernheim relief shows Mithra carrying the bull. The
bull is no longer a god, it is only a body, its spirit in the image of a snake returns,
being depicted also on the reliefs of the Thracian Horseman on the tree of life, on
the tree of the souls, the symbol of the Holy Spirit.
The third scene shows how Mithra puts the crown on the head of the person who
will play the role of the new sun and the putting on the gown.
On the last scene Mithra has taken off the crown and the sun gown from the
person performing the role of the old sun and greets him.
I am tempted to make a comment it is obvious how the historians have
invented the Mithraism religion out of a New Years ritual or theatre performance,
accompanied by the New Years banquet, where this religion even rivals the
originating Christianity.
Usually, after this scene, another one follows, in which the sun, the priest and
the messenger with a caduceus, the messengers staff, start with the chariot to
announce the birth of the new sun.
42
On other reliefs, the ritual scenes of dedication before and after the
ceremony are shown.
Elements from the theatrical property of the celebrations the messenger crow,
the messengers caduceus, a bulls leg, a crater and a snake.
A Mithraeum with an image of the ceremony property, which includes the urn, is
depicted twice in the beginning and in the end.
43
The iconography of the Roma Mithraism originated unexpectedly as a ready

concept, brought from the outside. The archaeology does not support in any way the
import of the Mithraic iconography from the Eastern lands. The technology of the
Roman empire and the Balkan legions of warriors dislocated to the West have
created villages and towns, in which they not only lived but also celebrated the
coming of the New Sun (New Year), created conditions for manifestation of
iconography with the main image of a sacrifice of a bull in a cave, the death of
Sabazios.
The majority of the Mithraeums are underground temples. While the Mithra-
societies themselves are considered secret societies. A big part of the Thracian
temples in the Balkans are under tumuli or cave sanctuaries. The reliefs of the
Thracian Horseman reflect this fact through the arches they show; as well as the
Roman Mithraic reliefs. The Thracian Zalmoxis preaches his belief in immortality
of the soul among his table-companions through initiation feasts at special premises
(Zalmoxis made a hall, where he entertained and fed the leaders among his
countrymen 49 ; the feast halls built by the Thracian rulers Cotys, Dromichaetes,
Diegylis were called andreons, estiatorions). The Orphics also preach their belief
among wealthy citizens at specially organised feasts. Both societies the followers
of Zalmoxis in Thrace and those of the Roman Mithraism are secret societies of
initiated people. Both of them excluded women. The feast of the initiated people is
equally iconic for the Thracian religions and for Mithraism.
The Birth of Mithra

The birth of Mithra presented here and the following images show that we are
not talking about a stone but about a tree, which, according to Vermaseren 50 is a
cypress, i.e. an evergreen tree, a symbol of the tree of life. On CIMRM 344, the tree
even resembles a fir-cone. Each branch of the tree is presented with a central midrib
(line) and lateral panels, similarly to the cypress branches, of course stylised.
Kln, Germany. CIMRM 344 Heidelberg, Germany
44
Other examples could also be shown but even here the artistic notion of a tree
crown is clearly visible, but not of a rock.
The person born from the tree is holding a knife in one hand and a torch in the
other, which shows that this is the one who offers a sacrifice, Mithra. What does this
symbolism mean the birth of the bull-slayer from a tree, a symbol of the tree of
life?
We can suggest that taking the life of a god in a religious ceremony may be
performed only by a god. The green tree is a symbol of the tree of life, i.e. of the
spirit of life, of which the gods immortal soul is part. Mithra is a materialised spirit
born by god.
Very often on the tree, along with Mithra, there can be seen also the symbol of
Zagreus, Dionysus, Sabazios, of their spirit, the snake coiled around the tree of life
as it is depicted on the reliefs of the Thracian Horseman. This is also so on the
figure to the right (from the Archaeological Museum, Bulgaria), shown below, as
well as on the three sculptures from the museums in Ptuj, Slovenia, Sarmizegetusa
Dacia, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, Austria, which supports the statement that the god
was born from the tree of life; in iconography, there is no recurring symbol of a
snake coiled around a stone.
National Institute of Archaeology with Museum, Bulgaria
Left the mourning lion, right Mithra is born from the wood with a snake coiled around
it 51 . The inscription says: The holy, invincible god.
45
CIMRM 1492-1493 CIMRM 1687 CIMRM 2134

Mithra from the tree of life, with a snake coiled around it
CIMRM 1240 CIMRM 1991 CIMRM 1756
At the same time, there are also reliefs, which clearly show that Mithra is born
from a rock. On the first relief from the Mithraeum in Ptuj, the inscription says
Happily born from a rock, although the rock was shaped like leaves or branches of
a cypress. On the second relief, also from Ptuj, Mithra is born from a rock. On the
last relief from Heddernheim, both the workmanship and the inscription accentuate
on the birth from a rock. Here Mithra himself is called the invincible god: DEO
IN MI, P GNERICEM (the invincible god Mithra, born from a rock).
Ptuj, Slovenia CIMRM 1593-1594 Heddernheim

The birth from a rock is supported also by the following two sculptures.
46
S. Stefano Rotondo, Rome CIMRM 353
The inscription under the first sculpture affirms born from the rock
Petram genetricem.
It appears that in the religious domain, there exist two controversial ideas about
the birth of the bull-slayer born from a tree or born from a stone. How can these
two facts be explained?
In my opinion, this ambiguity shows that the concept of born from a tree was
transformed into born from a rock. Probably, the reason is assimilation of the idea
of Mithra, the bull-slayer by Mithra, the soldier. The iconography of Mithraism
was developed in the military environment of the Roman legions; Mithra was
gradually identified with a soldier. An invincible soldier cannot be born from a tree,
the birth from a rock corresponds to the soldier power and strength. There is a text
that relates Mithra to a rock but obviously it does not refer to this Mithra and
definitely does not show the birth of Mithra from a rock: Klaus retells the story of
how Mithra spilled his seed onto a rock, and the stone gave birth to a son, named
Diorphos, who, worsted and killed in a duel by Ares, was turned into the mountain
of the same name not far from the Armenian river Araxes 52 .
After all, probably a folk tradition reflecting the outlook on life in the modern
Roman time turned into a military cult where Mithra was the invincible god. The
Mithra reliefs a ritual carved and frozen on a stone.
In the iconography we know, Mithraism is the result (according to Cumont) of

the layers of concepts over the Persian zoroastrianism, derived from the uncultured
region of Pontus that imparted its imagery. He was probably right from his point
of view. But who is the uncultured one? The one who creates images or the one
who cannot understand them and ascribe them to another religion? This concept is
persistently supported nowadays even by the researches of the Thracian areal who
obviously know zoroastrianism better than the Balkan spiritual world. I understand
them, the situation requires that one sells what is well advertised today and brings
benefits.
47
The reincarnations of the Sun God

The first stele (CIMRM 822-823) is from the Walbrook Mithraeum, London,
Britain. The second one is from Bulgaria, the Archaeological Museum, Varna. The
compositions are identical and they repeat the same motif the celebration of
Dionysus. The images probably come from the same workshop.
CIMRM 822-823 Archaeological Museum, Varna
Dionysus with his symbols the snake and the young lion
At first sight, Dionysus presence is unwonted in a Mithraeum. However, in the

light of the above-said the Mithraeums, the temples of the sun this fact has a
logical explanation.
The stele of Modena is described as an image of the deity Phanes. This would
be so if we considered the symbol of the birth from an egg the reserved mark for a
god, which is obviously not the case, but rather it also means the start of counting
the time, which cannot be a monopoly. Thematically, such sculptures are found
mainly in Mithraeums and probably it is also from a Mithraeum. This stele is the
transition to the so-called sculptures of Leontocephali a human body with a lions
head from various Mithraeums.
The stele, however, is full of the Dionysus-Sabazios symbolism. There are
rays coming out of the gods head, the moon is on his shoulders. The snake, the
goat, the lion and the bull are here the temporal symbols of Dionysus and
Sabazios. Obviously, this is a about an annual cycle (the meaning of the zodiac
48
signs around the image), about the cyclic sun god and the symbols of its
development from birth till death.
CIMRM 695-696
The stele of Modena
The god is portrayed at an age in the sign of the Aries, the time of Great
Dionysian celebrations. Probably this is a generalised image, on the relief the
handsome Dionysus can be seen, however, his feet in the fire of time are now
hooves (Plutarch Come to us with a bulls hoof 53 ). We can say that the arrow
represents a certain moment of the annual cycle, expressed through the symbols
describing also Zagreus, Dionysus, Sabazios.
The fir-cone is missing from Dionysus staff but it is also missing from
Sabazios staff, which emphasizes once again the transition from Dionysus to
Sabazios. The symbol of a snake coiled around Dionysus and around the Spirit of
life (the Tree) of the Thracian Horseman is not only a symbol of the Gods soul but
is also a defender, guardian, heros, cherubim 54 of the body.
49
I would consider the below images as a next stage, a late timely projection of
the image of Dionysus from the stele of Modena, their development and
continuation.
CIMRM 545 Bordeaux, France.
Time is ruthless, it has its very cruel side. The old age distorts Dyonisus
features, he becomes the cruel god who locked his successor in the dungeon. For
this reason, the god is portrayed with cruel features and often holds a key in his
hands. The image is an illustration, a personification of the other Sabazios, the
late Sabazios... who must be killed.
What a successor are we talking about? The images of the mother from the cave
where she is tied with ropes clarify the concept presented below.
The enchained mother from the sculptures of Sabazios hands
50
The mother with the infant in the cave from Sabazios relief of Ampurias;
A Mithra relief, the mother in the cave just before delivery.
Probably the story, carved on stone and bronze, can be retold in a couple of
words and its representation in the folklore would sound like this: The great spirit,
the God, spiritualised the Earth and the Sky but darkness prevailed. Then the union
between the Earth and the Sky has given birth to Zagreus, the horned child, the Sun,
Zagreus. The titans tore the child Zagreus to pieces but the Sky brought him back to
life and Dionysus was born who was gradually transformed in Sabazios over the
time. Sabazios would grow up rich and generous but at the end of his days he grew
weaker, time turned him into an old, tired man and the Earth fell in the grip of cold.
Sabazios hid in the cave, the Mother was also there, expecting her baby the new
sun. Sabazios knew he will die when the baby is born. Sabazios tied the mother
with thick ropes. Then God was enraged and it gave birth to the Invincible. The hero
killed Sabazios in the cave and set the mother free. So, this story was repeated again
and again every year, from time immemorial till nowadays.
Of course, this presentation has some naivety and meanness but it also has some
truth in it. On many of Sabazios hands, the mother giving birth is enchained,
tied and awaiting the saviour. The raven is next to her and it will spread the news of
the birth of the new sun.
Mithra from Persia was a guarantor of the contracts, agreements and justice.
Sabazios broke the contract and was killed. By Mithra. And yet, next to Mithras
knife, the inscription remains Glory and honour to Sabazios.
Rome, Mithra, Sabazios

According to the historians, the beginning of the development of the so-called
Roman Mithraism in Europe with the famous Mithra iconography was at the end of
the 1st century AD, and it is manifested with particular strength during the 2nd
century, and to a certain extent in the 3rd century. This coincides with the time of
Emperor Aurelian (270-275) who decided to strengthen the positions of the Roman
SOL, an important deity in the Roman Pantheon. Aurelian built a big temple of the
sun SOL at the Field of Mars. God Mars was the Roman god of war and was the
51
second important Roman god after Jupiter. Initially, he was the god of fertility,
harvest, cattle and frontiers, as well as defender of the cattle, fields, borders and
farmers. (In fact, this is how the Persian Mithra started, too a god of fields, cattle,
frontiers and contracts). During the expansion of the Roman Empire, Mars was
connected with battlers and turned into a god of equal significance as god Ares from
the Thracian mythology 55 .
The tradition was established to celebrate the Roman Sol as a state cult every
four years, on the day of gods birth 25 December. A college of pontiffs of the Sun
was created, too, nominated among the senators. Aurelians idea was to create a
single monotheistic religion, which should unite the peoples of the Empire
(Antiochus idea) under the sign of the Invincible Sun, probably due to the fact that
the sun was actually a religion of many Roman peoples and was honoured by them,
although in a different way.
Aurelians idea about the Invincible Sun God,

he called himself a God (Sun)
The sun was depicted on coins with the inscription Lord of the Roman
Empire (SOL DOMINVS IMPERI ROMANI). The cult was official for the
legionaries and the sun was depicted on their standards. So, if it had not been a
military cult, Aurelian was pushing it in this direction. Probably in the trend
outlined by the established attitude toward Mithra the god in the Roman legions.
Shields of Roman legions with images of the sun
The nature of the new imperial religion of Aurelian becomes clear even only
from the shown coin the Roman god Sol is a warrior, the conquered people are in
his feet. It is not by chance that Emperor Aurelius erected a pantheon of the sun god
at the Field of Mars.
52
It could be asserted, quite reliably, that a new military cult toward Mithra was
created, a cult of the legions, in which the bull killer is the warrior, the invincible
god Mithra. So during Aurelians time, the model warrior is no longer Mithra alone
but also his adept Sol. SOL becomes INVICTO, THE INVINCIBLE.
Probably, during that time, Sol became the God of Mithra DEO SOL
INVICTO MITR, the re-utilisation of the old monuments had started. On the
relief from the Villa Borghese, a graffito is added under Mithra DEO SOL
INVICTO MITRHE. The inscription above the bull was subsequently added on the
sculpture from Alba Iulia, Sibiu Museum, Romania D.S.I.M. DEO SOL
INVICTO MITR.
CIMRM 1935
The inscription DEO SOLI INVICTO MITHRAE means the invincible sun
god Mithra, if translated literally. MITHRAE - genitive, singular, meaning
possession inflection . The stem is MITHRA, written on a pedestal of Mithra
CIMRM 1942. The variants of the name Mithra in the inscriptions according to
CIMRM are mainly Mithrae or only rarely Mitrhe:
CIMRM 76 Mithrae
CIMRM 436 Mithrae
CIMRM 660 Mitrhae
CIMRM 841 Mytrae
CIMRM 848 Mithrae
CIMRM 1242 Mitrae
How should the possession or appropriation Mithrae be interpreted? As

a patronage? It is true that Mithra kills the bull and sets the new sun free but is this
a reason to refer to it as Mithras (Mithrae)? Or is this a way of elevation through
getting closer to the idol warrior, identical to Mars or belonging to the god of war,
Mars? Or this is just an exclamation from the ceremonies of killing the bull the
INVINCIBLE SUN BELONGING TO THE INVINCIBLE MITHRA. So, the
ceremony would begin. Which is more likely.
There is no explicit inscription stating that Mithra is the sun god. There is no
such indication in the Greek inscriptions, either.
53
On the majority of the reliefs, there are no inscriptions; there are only few
reliefs, which have Mithras name written on them, mainly in the version of: DEO
SOLI INVICTO MITHRAE or SOLI INVICTO DEO.
CIMRM 546-547
Here, the inscription SOLI INVICTO DEO is clear, the relief is dedicated to
Sol, the Roman sun god that became the invincible sun god.
The inscription on the relief from Bulgaria (National Institute of Archaeology
with Museum, p. 43) DEO SAMCTO INVICTO means the holy, invincible god.
CIMRM 435-436
The relief features the standard inscription DEO SOLI INVICTO MITHRAE.
The statements of some historians show that there are numerous Mithra
monuments known but the monuments of Sabazios in Rome are just few. The
reason is that out of the several inscriptions with the name of Mithra, the historians
build the so-called Mithraism without noticing Sabazios behind them. However, he
was mentioned there under the name of SOL. But it is not only the historians who
exaggerated Mithras role at the expense of the sun god by creating the idea of
Mithraism; this was also done by the commanders of the Roman legions who
probably created the invincible Mithra out of the ritual Mithra.
The warrior god cannot be born from a tree therefore Mithra was said to be
born from a rock.
54
Sabazios and Pergamon, Thrace, Macedonia

Cumont and other authors see the origin of the Roman iconography in
Pergamon. According to Cumont, the relief of the bull slaughtering is a scene that
depicts all characteristics of the Diadochian epoch, the original of all the works of
this type has been provided by an artist of Pergamon 56 ; this famous artistic group
was based on an Attic original by an artist of Pergamon in the second century B.C.
The original of the relief an ornament in the balustrade of the temple of Athena
Nike on the Acropolis the well-known figure of Victory sacrificing a bull 57 ; at
first identified with the Sun-god Helios by the Greeks, the syncretic Mithra-Helios
was transformed into the figure Mithras during the 2nd century BC, probably at
Pergamon. 58 ; and it was at Pergamon, in the 2nd BC, that Greek sculptors started
to produce bas-relief imagery of Mithra Taurocthonos, Mithra the bull-slayer 59 .
Pergamon, and of course, Greece.

Pergamon has its merit in the development of the cult to Sabazios in Asia Minor.
However, Pergamon is just one of the units constituting this cult, its roots are deeper
in time.
In 134 BC, the King of Pergamon, Attalus, introduced the cult to Sabazios as an
official cult. The pre-history of this act is the following.
Lysimachus, a bodyguard, general and military commander of Alexander the
Great, following Alexanders death, as of year 284 BC, ruled over Thrace, the
present-day Bulgarian Black sea coast, Macedonia, Thessaly, the coast of Sea of
Marmara and present-day Northern Anatolia. According to the available information
by the ancient authors in Tirizis at Kaliakra, Thrace and Pergamon, Asia Minor,
Lysimachus built fortresses, in which he kept the Darius treasures plundered from
Persepolis. Probably the guard of the fortress and the treasury was assigned to a
trusted garrison of Macedonians or Thracians. Lysimachus was killed in 281 BC.
Three years earlier, in 284, Pergamon was declared an independent Kingdom ruled
by Philetaerus. Philetaerus father was a Macedonian and his mother was a Pontian.
Philetaerus was probably supported by the local garrison of the fortress, it is likely
that a Balkan colony already existed there. Thanks to its treasures, Pergamon
became a major cultural centre with numerous temples. The Temple of Zeus with
images of the War of the Titans, of Aphrodite, Gaia, Hekate, Helios and many
others, can be found nowadays at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. It is due to its
wealth that Pergamon ruled over a considerable part of Asia Minor. The second
largest library in the ancient world after the one in Alexandria.
The explanation why the cult to the sun, the cult to Sabazios became a state
religion in the Pergamon Kingdom is probably contained in the composition of the
Pergamon garrison Thracians and Macedonians. Macrobius 60 writes that in Thrace
the Sun is called Sabazios and the Thracians celebrate him with magnificent piety:
We know that in Thrace the sun is considered also Liber. The Thracians call it
55
Sabazios and honoured it solemnly, as it is written by Alexander Polyhistor. A

temple on the Zilmissos hill is dedicated to it, a round temple with its roof having an
opening in the middle. The round shape of the temple shows the nature of this star.
The light enters through the roof top and this shows that the sun illuminates
everything with its rays that it emits from the top of the sky and that its illumination
reveals everything....
The inscription on the plate shown below 61 , found ten years ago at the Greek-
Macedonian border, known as a stele from Edessa, dated from the beginning of the
ninth century BC, also shows that the Macedonians offered sacrifice to the
supreme god Sabazios and it reads:
Perdiccas, son of Argaeus ( ) leading his Makestes (Macedons),

having reached the Acropolis of Edessa coming from upper Illyria, offered sacrifice
to uppermost (god) Sabazios [Sabazion]. Afterwards, when he conquered entire
Midas country, being outraged with foreign Greeks who were charged for intrigues,
exterminated them immediately while releasing indigenous Brigians to wander
away, because both these people spoke different languages. Since then being elder
sovereign of Brigea enjoyed the profits of this very ancient city (Edessa) renaming it
to Aigai while repelling fugitives to return with exception of captives. This marble
chronicle was chiselled in Greek language by Dredas son of Gordios, in memory of
a sorrowful remembrance.
Herodotus writes: According to the Macedonian account, the Phrygians, during
the time that they had their abode in Europe and dwelt with them in Macedonia,
bore the name of Brigians. But on their removal to Asia they changed their
designation to Phrygians at the same time with their dwelling-place. 62
56
Here we could ask ourselves whether these wondering Brigians who lived
among Macedons and Thracians and were chased away by the Macedons created the
Anatolian Phrygia of the kings Midas and Gordias? Did these Brigians leave there
the inscription Sabaz, the son of Cybele, due to which Sabazios is called a Thracian-
Phrygian god? The capital of Phrygia was the town of Gordium, conquered six
centuries later again by a Macedonian king, Alexander, after he sliced the knot
made by the Phrygian king Gordias in front of the temple of Zeus.
In 370 BC, the ruler of Lidia (a part of Persia at that time) prohibited the priests
to take part in the festivities in honour of Sabazios, at which there were fire dances
and the priests carried something in their hands, because the ritual desecrated the
cult to Ahura Mazda whose main element was the admiration of fire.
Strabo (68 BC 24 AD) says that the Phrygian Cybele (one of the Mothers
names) is Sabazios mother in a certain respect; and also that the priestesses at the
temple of Artemis in Castabala, the Tauros Mountain, dance over fire.
4 April 204 BC Rome buys the cult of the Phrygian goddess Cybele.
139 BC the praetor of Rome expels the Chaldeans because they corrupted the
Roman morals with the cult to Jupiter Sabazios that they practised and the next year,
according to Titus Livius, Rome introduced the cult to Sabazios in Rome.
135134 BC according to the inscription from Pergamon, the King of
Pergamon, Attalus, officially introduced the cult to Sabazios in the kingdom brought
by his mother, Queen Stratonice from Cappadocia 63 . Attalus was called bulls
son, wearing bulls horns 64 .
133 BC the Asia Minor Kingdom of Pergamon voluntarily joined the Roman
Empire. From this moment, for more than two hundred and fifty years until the
origination of the Roman Mithraism, temples would be built in Rome and the
Empire, reliefs would be made with the cult to Sabazios, and they would be usually
attended by priests from the temples, from which the cult was imported (Asia
Minor, the Balkans).
* * *
Christianity of the later years speaks about the actual meaning of the symbols of
the lion and the snake. They become one of the major objects of criticism and
contradiction. On the shown mural painting from Ravenna, the Archbishop's
Chapel, 5th century AD, the Eternal God, Jesus Christ, is a winner who has set his
foot on the snake and the lion. Jesus is holding in his hand a book with the
inscription: I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. The only one. The mural
painting is from the time when it was still remembered well who the lion and the
snake were.
57
Mosaics, Ravenna, St. Andrew Chapel, 4th-5th century AD
Even in the 12th century, the lion and the snake and the image of the sun
the cock, are the main enemies of Christianity see the sculpture group in front
of the city-hall of Munich.
The attempt of Emperor Aurelius to unite the various cults toward the sun is an
attempt at creating a monotheistic religion that serves the empire. A contrary
reaction probably followed as only 36 years later the Edict of Toleration, or the so-
called Edict of Serdica, of the Roman emperor Galerius, was proclaimed, issued on
his behalf and on behalf of his co-rulers, the Augusti Constantine and Licinius, in
Serdica on 30 April 311. The edict unconditionally gave Christianity the status of a
58
legal religion (religio licita), a worship recognized and accepted by the Roman
Empire. The First Council of Nicaea in 325, convened by Emperor Constantine I
who was born in Naissos (present-day Nis, Serbia), finally gave way to Christianity
establishing the Creed and the Symbol of Faith. However, the concept of the old
holy trinity Holy Spirit, Father and Holy Mother still existed in people's minds
and for this reason the necessary compromise brought to the trinity, which is hard to
assimilate even nowadays: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Of course, not everybody accepted the image of the newly created Son Christ.
Probably this is the reason why in the temples in the Roman catacombs the new son
appeared, whom the believers depicted as Orpheus, the good shepherd.
Christian images of the good shepherd in the catacombs Priscilla and Domitilla, Rome:
The Patriarch's basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, Aquileia
After all, what do the Roman Mithraistic reliefs depict? Nothing else but
nativity.Icons of the nativity, the birth of the New sun. Some of them are
accompanied by additional artistic images of ritual scenes; of domestic scenes with
activities related to the festivity. We could infer that the reliefs of the cult to the sun
in the Roman empire reflect the attitude toward the sun god of various peoples in
the Empire where in a situation of syncretism there existed the Roman Sol and the
Balkan Sabazios with a common relief image of the death of the old sun and the
birth of the new one.
Ghosts from the Past

In Rome, between the 1st and the 4th century, the Balkan-Asia-Minor concept
of religious ritualism toward the sun was established with its notion of development
of the annual cycle in the image of Zagreus, Dionysus, Sabazios with the same
symbolic means in iconography the images of the snake, the ram and the lion, the
bull and also the images of the sky, the earth and the tree of life as the image of the
Holy spirit. They are incorporated in the ideas that we call nowadays Roman
Mithraism, reliefs of the Thracian Horseman, Hands of Sabazios, which have
common elements:
- the action takes place in a cave;
- the snake is the personification of the soul;
59
- the snake and the lion in front of the funeral urn;

- the dog as an invariable companion;
- the Thracian clothes;
- the messenger crow and the cock.
Rome and its system of state have allowed for the manifestation of the Thracian
spiritualism on the stone reliefs of the Thracian Horseman, Sabazios and Mithra,
which have remained hidden until that time from the sight of the world however
existing in the Thracian rituals, part of which are performed even nowadays in the
Bulgarian lands.
The idea of the birth of the new sun is depicted in an especially beautiful way on
the image on the back side of the plate of the first image of Mithra and the bull of
this paper the relief at the Louvre Museum. The relief is called by the learned
Mithras Banquet.
In the sky, there is a moon with its face turned aside from the scene. The bull,
the image of Sabazios, the setting sun, is laid down. The new sun has come down to
the people dressed in warm winter clothes, the victim bull is laid down.
60
The sun descends lowest on the horizon, near the people, on 22 December; on
25 December it starts ascending again. This is the time of the winter solstice when
the days start getting longer and the night is gradually decreasing. It is winter time,
the people wear their winter clothes. For the Bulgarians, this is the Christmas Eve,
the night before Christmas. According to the ritual, one vacant seat is left at the
table. After the pray, the oldest member of the family says three times: Come
down, God, to have dinner" 65 ! And God would come down.
Those Bulgarian men who celebrate Christmas, the birth of the new sun, wear
the same clothes hooded cloaks (called yamurluks in Bulgarian), the same hoods
and the two groups carry clubs in their hands. There identical images on the Greek
vase with Orpheus V BC 66 the same clothes with the same horizontal strips in
the pattern.
During the Dionysus holidays, the celebrations of the conception, the women
would dance and carry in their hands baskets full of snakes. In 370 BC, in Lydia, at
the celebrations in honour of Sabazios there were fire dances and the priests would
carry something in their hands. The same way nowadays the Bulgarian women
dance over fire.
61
A Bulgarian woman performing the ritual described 2,500 years ago. She is
carrying in her hands the icon of St. St. Constantine and Helen. Constantine who
killed Sabazios forever.
The snake with a crest is depicted on the sacrificial altar on the back side of the
relief at the Louvre.
The object the man holds, to the right of the sacrificial altar, is the ancient
caduceus, the messengers staff. 67 What do the three men announce? The thing that
the three wise men announced the birth of the Infant. The three priests from the
relief are the three ancient wise men 68 , later borrowed by the Christian religion. 69 In
antiquity, the caduceus was the staff of the messenger made of olive or laurel tree,
decorated with branches wreathed in the form of 8. It is identical with the
traditional Bulgarian survachka (a stick of cornel-tree twigs decorated with
colourful threads) used by the children in Bulgaria only on the Christmas day, the
day of the winter solstice. Surva, surva, New Year! the Bulgarian children wish.
Sura 70 is a Thracian word, which means healthy, brave, heroic. The Indo-Iranian
62
word suria is translated as bright, shining; heavenly body, sun. Health to the newly-
born sun!
Very often, at the top of the survachka there are strips hanging, probably
imitating the fire, with which the messenger from the relief lights his caduceus to be
visible during the night.
If we are to look for an ancient analogue of the Christmas tree covered with
garlands, we will find it in the votive plates of the Thracian Horseman where the
tree of life is wreathed by a snake.
Nowadays, we continue placing gifts under it or express our wishes as people

used to do in ancient times. The star does not mean anything else but the birth
of the new sun by analogy with the images from Urartu, Assyria.
63
Gifts, appeals and wishes; on this Christmas tree, accidentally or not a birth from
the tree of life, similarly to Mithra's birth
The loud mummer parades in Bulgaria are a legacy of the Dionysus festivities where
young people were also dressed in hides.
64
65
NOTES
1
John R. Hinnells, Reflections on the bull-slaying scene in Mithraic studies, vol. 2, p. 292
2
Again there
3
In Rigveda,
1 Book 13, verse 46:
The Sun ...... rises, the eye of
Mithra, Varuna, Agni.
2. Book 13, Hymn 2:
35 . It (the Sun) has risen high, ..... the eye of
Mithra, Varuna and Agni.
4
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/0100_0199/kanishka/kanishka.ht
ml
5
Ptl., Tetrabibl., II, Procl., Paraphr. in Ptol., p. 93.
6
Richard Gordon, Interpreting Mithras in the Late Renaissance
7
Again there
8
Boyce, Mary; Grenet, Frantz (1975). Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman rule,
Part 1. Brill. pp. 468, 469. ISBN 90-04-09271-4. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
9
St. Jerome, Epist. ad Laetam, 107.
10
Mithras, the Secret GodBy: M.J. Vermaseren, London, 1963
11
Fr. Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra
12
M.J. Vermaseren, "Nuove indagini nell'area della basilica di S. Prisca in Roma", in
Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome. Antiquity, n.s., 37, 2 (1975), pp. 87-96,
p.93:
13
Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae CIMRM, which
represents a collection of inscriptions and records related to the practising and history of
Mithraism issued by the Department of Fine Arts and Literature of the Flemish Academy
(1947) and compiled and supplemented by Maarten Jozef Vermaseren, was published in The
Hague under this title in 195660.
14
http://www.theposthole.org/sites/theposthole.org/files/downloads/posthole_41_309.pdf
15
Herodotus, History, Clio, 131
16
In Avesta:
1. Zend Avesta, part 3, Yasna 1: The Sun (rises) on swift horses, Ahura Mazdas eye, and
to Mithra, the lord of provinces.
2. The Sun on horses, Ahura Mazdas eye, and to Mithra who is the lord of provinces.
3. He (Mithra), first of the heavenly gods,
reaches over Hara before the undying, swift-horsed sun. (Chapter IV 13)
17
Two days after this date is the Bulgarian St. Dimitri's Day, which is perceived as the end
of the field work.
18
Macrobius, (Macrob. Saturn, I, 18, 1-11)
19
, ,
. . - , 2000
20
, ,
21
Paulinus S. Bartolomaeo, The samscrdamic language, p. 115. Thanking Esteban von
Chukarski for the address:
66
https://books.google.bg/books?id=6I65BtbOpe4C&pg=PA115&lpg=PA115&dq=%E2%80
%9CNama+Sebesio&source=bl&ots=CfFvt4S0Oj&sig=enD0bqQDKgK_dkSWdREIaQB8
TSQ&hl=bg&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjov8iMjbTKAhXCeQ8KHeIODU4Q6AEIVDAI#v=on
epage&q=%E2%80%9CNama%20Sebesio&f=false ; nama is a word used to this day in
India as namaste.
22
Bronze bust of god Sabazios, 2nd-century CE. Musei Vaticani, temporary exhibition
(aug 2013) in Colosseum, Rome,
Italyhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bronze_busts_in_Italy#/media/File:Saba
zios_Colosseum_Rome_Italy.jpg,
23
In the Scholia to the Iliad, XIII, 705, the so-called fragment 523 of Tereus by Sophocles
is quoted.
24
Nonnus, Nonn, Dion, VI, 155223
25
. , , 60; , ,70, 81.
26
Triumph of Dionysos, Sarcophagus, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art . 260
270 Phrygian marble,
27
Sacred baskets with sacred snakes from Pergamon, Asia Minor, from II BC; from the
period when the King of Pergamon, Attalus III, officially introduced the cult to Sabazios in
the Kingdom (inscription IS II 2755).
28
Sacred baskets with sacred snakes from Pergamon, Asia Minor, from II BC; from the
period when the King of Pergamon, Attalus III, officially introduced the cult to Sabazios in
the Kingdom (inscription IS II 2755).
29
The symbols of the Sky and the Earth, the eagle and the snake, are also symbolic
guardians of the tree of life, represented as such on both the Neolithic plates from Gobekli
Tepe and on the relief of the Thracian Horseman from Byzantium. As a terrestrial creature,
in particular scenes, the snake also symbolises the Earth. The tree of life is a symbol of the
spirit of life, all-penetrating and all-embracing, existing in every living creature.
30
,
Following the research on 665 monuments of Heros, Dilyana Boteva makes the daring
conclusion: From the point of view of the divine hierarchy the snake god stands higher than
the Heros but also than the woman....
31
, , 89 .
32
Demostenes, On the Crown
33
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation
34
Arnobius, Against the Pagans
35
Hesychius, Alphabetical Collection of All Words
36
Aristophanes, Birds
37
Plutarch, Parallel Lives
38
Robert Graves, Again there
39
Plutarch, Moralia, Isis and Osiris, 35
40
41
. Fol. Thracian Legends, 131
42
Herodotus, 494
43
Obviously, the archer aims at clouds and not at a rock as a popular myth about Mithra says,
not supported by any documents.
44
Bjrnebye, Jonas (2007). The mithraea as buildings
67
45
A. Joanne GREIG, Layout and orientation of cult sanctuaries (Mithraea) dedicated to the
mysteries of the Roman god Mithras: The Mithraeum of Angera was oriented so that the
rising sun at the equinox penetrated an aperture above the entrance and illuminated the main
cult picture;
Bourg-Saint-Andeol Mithraeum Tauroctony looks east across the valley of the Rhone,
suggesting that the doorways of the Mithraeum served as crude diaphrames to direct the
incoming sunlight onto the tauroctonies.
Examples from CIMRM
Mithraeum Caesarea Maritima, Israel: Two shafts in the ceiling are made so that the light
in the Mithraeum falls at an angle, one of which admits light during June ever closer to the
altar.
Mithraeum Hawarte / Hawarti, Syria. There is a horizontal gap in the west wall of the
main chamber. Experiments have shown that light through this source will fall on the niche,
and specifically on the face of Mithras (if a tauroctony relief of normal proportions was
present in it) throughout December and up to January 6th.
46
http://www.ostia-antica.org/regio5/12/12-3.htm
Regio V Insula XII Sabazeo (V,XII,3)
47
Herodotus, History Clio, 131, 132
48
Ps. Augistine, Quaest. Vet. et novi Test., 114, (..., v. II, p.8)
49
Herodotus, 495
50
M.J. Vermaseren, Mithras, the Secret God, London, 1963 .
51
The inscription DEO SAMCTO is interesting here. SAMCTO from Latin means holy.
Then, the beginning of the inscription would mean approximately THE HOLY
INVINCIBLE GOD.
52
Pseudo-Plutarch, About Rivers, XXIII. 4. (Ps.Plutarch, De fluviis, XXIII. 4.)
53
54
The words defender, guardian, heros, cherubim are synonyms, cf. . , ,
.
55
https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%81_(%D0%B1%D0%BE
%D0%B3)
56
http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1445&context=ocj
Franc Kumon The mysteries of Mithra, 204
57
http://gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/grsm_mythra.htm
George Robert Stowe Mead, The mysteries of Mithra, 1907 VOL. V.
58
http://www.romanarmy.net/mithras.shtml Mithras Sol Invictvs An initiate's Guid
59
http://www.crystalinks.com/mithraism.html Mithraizm Mithraic Mysteri
60
Macrobius, (Macrob. Saturn, I, 18, 1-11)
61
http://illyria.proboards.com/thread/36349/game-show-question-slav-
greek#ixzz3rv7lWXXyhttp://www.slideshare.net/madopol/macedonia-4000-years-of-
albanian-continuance, http://illyria.proboards.com/thread/36349/game-show-question-
slav-greek#ixzz3rv7lWXXyhttp://www.slideshare.net/madopol/macedonia-4000-years-of-
albanian-continuance
68
The plate was deciphered by Prof. Dr. Ahmet Leitani from the University of Beirut. The
chronicle written with Phoenician symbols reveals the Macedonian invasion on the Balkans
in the 8th century BC.
This conclusion is based on the type of late Phoenician symbols, on the use of and
double consonants instead of the later-Greek complex consonants and , and also on
other facts about both the dialect and the direction of the script.
62
Herodotus, History, Book VII, Polymnia, 73
63
W. Dittenberger, Orient gr. inscr. no 331
64
Pausanias, Phocis
65
, . , -

(20072011)
66
Pergamon Museum, Orpheus is playing the harp in front of Thracian warriors, a krater
with red figures from 450-440 BC.
67
The men are carrying torches, the man in front of the sacrificial altar is holding a caduceus
over the fire flames. Because of the darkness and probably in order to be seen, the upper part
of the caduceus is also in the form of a torch. The caduceus, as the staff of the messenger or
the herald, is known from Thucydides' description, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book
One, 53, Translation: Milcho Mirchev, 1979. Quintus Curtius Rufus, Book Three, Histories
of Alexander the Great
68
Volkhv (wise man) is a word for priest used by the Slavs and borrowed by
Christianity. In the Greek and Latin translation of the Bible the name magus is used,
which is of Iranian origin.
69
Nowhere in Mithraism has it ever been alluded that Christianity is its opponent or
antagonist. Pausanias (115180) in the Description of Greece provides a detailed
account of all sanctuaries in the region but does not mention about Christianity.
70
, , Sur, 40, 51, 65
69
70
Attachments
1. Reliefs of Sabazios
The relief from Ampurias
The sun god Sabazios is in the centre of the composition. Behind his back (to the
right) is his past the cave with the Mother (a cave, birth from the earth), the
infant and the messenger crow; above the cave there is the tree of life with the
crowned (horned, crested) snake the spirit of the infant Zagreus crawling up.
The tree does not bear fruit but seeds. This is in Sabazios past. In front of Sabazios
there is the fruit tree, the symbol of the god of fertility.
Sabazios is standing on his past, a rams head, under Sabazios there are three
funeral urns, which symbolise the death of the child Zagreus, the youth Dionysus
and himself, the man Sabazios. There follows again the cave with the Mother in
front of the sacrificial altar and the circle is closed.
71
The relief from Copenhagen
The tree of life is behind Sabazios, this is the past; on the staff, instead of the fir-
cone of Dionysus, there is Sabazios hand. To the left one can see objects, which
symbolise abundance a bee, an animal leg, a fir-cone with seeds, which Sabazios
will leave behind him. Here again Sabazios has set his food on the rams head. The
Mithras at Sabazios both sides are decorated with horns, symbols of Sabazios and
ritual objects used in the sacraments of Sabazios. Sabazios is also the sacrificial
bull, which is symbolically killed by the priest a symbol of the end of the old year.
The funeral urn is by Sabazios legs. On the staff a hand with Sabazios gesture.
Sabazios is holding in his hand the fir-cone from his staff, the seed that he will
leave.
72
The relief from Bulgaria, Haskovo
A relief of Dionysus-Sabazios. The relief from Haskovo (Bulgaria) repeats the

symbols and the method of depiction used in the relief from Ampurias. However,
the relief still features the young Dionysus or Dionysus-Sabazios, the staff still has a
fir-cone. Next to it, there is the sun, which has passed its zenith, behind it is the tree
of life with the snake, the basket full of snakes, the vessel with phalluses from
Dionysus triumphs. The vessel, used for scooping up seeds, is turned bottom
upward the seed is sown. The past is behind Dionysus-Sabazios. In front of
Sabazios, in the liknon, in which phalluses were carried during the processions, does
not contain a phallus but Silenus with a face wrinkled from the old age. Sabazios
has stretched his right hand over the sacrificial altar and ritually pours over,
revives the dead, as it is done nowadays.
73
The relief of Sabazios from Albania
Behind Sabazios is the tree of life, the Holy Spirit, God; the eagle the Sky, the
snake the Earth. The union between the earth and the sky (and the Holy Spirit)
gave birth to Zagreus the Sun. Zagreus Dionysus Sabazios. On this relief, the
tree of life gives birth to Sabazios, while on the relief from Copenhagen it is the
Sun.
74
A Dacian relief with the symbols of Zagreus, Dionysus, Sabazios
To the right, there is the tree of life, which gives birth to Zagreus, the Sun.
Below is the line of life a ram, a bull, the banquet table with the funeral urn and
the mournful crow. However, to the left of the tree of life, the snake is rising again
and the cycle is repeated. Every cycle finishes with the image of the sun. The figure
behind Sabazios is holding a skull in its hand, the figure in front of Sabazios has
lifted a horn in a toast. Under Sabazios there is his past, a figure of a young man.
Sabazios is depicted as the bad Sabazios waving a battle axe.
75
2. Images of Sabazios hands
British Museum.
The gesture of the Thracian Holy Trinity. The fir-cone, the symbol of the
evergreen tree of live, of the spirit of life, of God. The birth of the son, the sun, the
night of nativity; the snake, Sabazios spirit.
76
Saint Louis art museum
Above the lightning an eagle and the amphibian frog, symbols of the Sky and the
earth, the father and the great mother whose union gives birth to the Sun.
77
Barakat gallery Museum of fine arts Boston
On the figure to the left again an eagle and the amphibian frog, symbols of
the sky and the earth, of the father and the great mother
78
Melbourne museum, Pompeii
79
French Museum Collection (RMN)
80
Museo nacional de arqueologia Subacuatica, Spain

Villa Santa Maria Abruzzo
81
Dnboswell /Sabazios/ Gradnitsa, Bulgaria
Sabazios hands, above which there had been an eagle, standing on lightning.
To the right instead of Sabazios, a bulls head is depicted.
82
Sabazios hands, on which a festive table and the heads of a ram, a lion and a
bull are depicted. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
83
Sabazios, standing on a rams head, a symbols of his past
Sabazios, a relief from the city of Razgrad, Bulgaria
84
Sabazios as the god of fertility
85
3. Reliefs of Danubian Horsemen
The lion and the snake over the funeral urn the childhood and the adolescence
are buried, initialisation of the newly-born ones.
86
Again a lion and a snake over a funeral urn
87
4. Reliefs of the Thracian Horseman
Istanbul
New York, Rockefeller center
88
Archaeological Museum of Plovdiv
89
90
National Institute of Archaeology with Museum
91
Ephesus
Caria, Asia Minor: the only goddess that begs the mother goddess health and
life for her children
92
anakkale, Turkey: on the sacrificial altar, there is a bull, the snake Sabazios
soul is crawling out behind the bull; so far the only relief from ancient times with
a horseman riding on a saddle
National Institute of Archaeology with Museum, Bulgaria
93
Plovdiv, a gift for the lion, the pouring urn is under the paw
A horseman with a gift for the lion, Dionysus
94
Archaeological Museum, Sofia
95
A Thracian family and a horseman with Sabazios gesture
96
Archaeological Museum, Varna
97
The mother goddess, Madara
98
Reconstruction of the relief of the mother goddess, Madara
99
A Christian icon with the Thracian symbols the snake and the tree of life
100
5. Reliefs of Mithra
CIMRM 548
Archaeological museum, Venice
101
CIMRM 75
CIMRM 592
102
Royal Ontario Museum, Canada. CIMRM 81
Kurtovo Konare, Bulgaria, CIMRM 2338
103
CIMRM 335
104
CIMRM 596
CIMRM 771
105
6. Dionysus
106
A satyr, a snake, a tree with a fir-cone, at the back a woman is carrying a liknon
with phalluses
Dionysus, a staff with a fir-cone, a young lion
107
A satyr and a lion
A lion, a staff with a fir-cone, a basked with a snake
108
A snake, a lion cub
109
National Archaeological Museum, Sofia
The Drunk Dionysus embracing a satyr with a whistle; the second one is carrying
a basket with snakes. Wine is pouring from the horn in Dionysus hand, the lion is
drunk.
110
THE THRACIAN HEROS
Book two
Table of Contents
1. The Thracian Horseman 113

2. The tree of life and its defenders 114
3. Caduceus,the symbol of the Tree of Life and its defenders 118
4. The Tree of Life and the Begging Goddess 121
5. To create a Heros 126
6. The gesture of Sabazios. The Thracian Holy Trinity 127
7. The God of Gods 131
8. Conclusion 133
112
THE THRACIAN HEROS
1. The Thracian Horseman

A horseman and a serpent coiled around a tree these are the indisputable
essential features of the images known as reliefs of the Thracian Horseman. The
horseman is called god and Heros. More than 5,000 1 are known to originate from
the territory of Bulgaria.
This huge number determines the importance of the images; the purpose and the
reason for their appearance must have been explained long ago. The analysis shows
that the present concepts of what the horseman and the other relief elements
represent are nave and wrongful, to say the least.
Often, the horseman is displayed with his hand up and three fingers
raised in the so-called gesture of Sabazios. What does the gesture of
Sabazios mean?
The so-called hunting scenes (scenes with animals) depict the granting of a
gift in front of a sacrificial altar, as the ancient practice was. The Gods image
is usually behind the altar but here there is a serpent behind the altar. Is the
serpent behind the altar the God? What does the tree symbolise, is it the idea
of the tree of life?
113
2. The tree of life and its defenders.
One of the earliest known images of the tree of life dates back 9,000
12,000 years and is from the megalithic complex Gbeklitepe, Asia Minor.
At one side of the tree there is a bird, and at the other side a serpent. Tree,
Sky and Earth.
A motif of the same nature is found in the image of a Sumerian vase and
the interpretation of this image is the tree of life protected by celestial and
earthly spirits. The two serpents coiled around the tree are considered a
single deity called the defender of the good tree.
The same motif a serpent with two serpents around it is found again in the
megalithic complex of Gbeklitepe (from 9,000 years ago).
114
THE THRACIAN HEROS
The motif of the tree of life protected by celestial and earthly spirits evolves and
in the East it is depicted as being defended by winged spirits and in the Balkans it is
defended by a serpent. On the next images we can see the tree of life protected by
winged spirits from Assyria, Egypt and Urartu.
The Assyrian term for the defending spirit is karabu, the Akkadian
kuribu, the Babylonian karabu. According to Jewish Encyclopedia, the
Assyrian term means great, mighty 2 , bun in Akkadian and Babylonian the
meaning is favourable, blessed 3 .
115
Many times in the Old Testament, and once in the New Testament, the
name cherub (cherubim) is used, Hebrew , pl. , Latin cherub[us],
cherubi[m] (cherub) 4 . The cherubim are situated at the East of the Garden of
Eden to protect and keep the way of the tree of life (Genesis 3:24In the
Eastern religions, the concept of guardian, defender bears divine functions.
In the Judaic religion the guardians, protectors were divine creatures called
cherubim. In the early period of the Israelites, the cherubim were perceived
as creatures who exist close to God and as guardians of the holy places; the
cherub is the defender of the door to Eden 5 .
The same functions are found also in the images of the winged griffins. In the
Iranian mythology, the winged creature Simurgh is depicted as guardian of kin and
man. The Zoroastrian texts read that Simurgh sits under the tree of life and is even
identified with it 6 .
In the Judaic religion, as well as in Assyria and in Babylon, the cherubim
perform guardian functions, defenders of the tree of life, and they have
similar pronunciation cherub, krv, karabu, kuribu close to Heru or
Heros. In the general case, the contemporary word cherubim is equivalent to
the ancient-day guardians, protectors, most of all guardian-deities of
the tree of life. There is a clear and close analogy between cherubim that
protect the tree of life and the serpent defending the tree of life from the
Thracian Horseman reliefs. But is the serpent the Heros? The similarity of
the names, the admiration as if to a deity and the attitude of the snake toward
the tree of life are eloquent proofs of this. The Heros from the reliefs of the
Thracian Horseman is the snake, the defender and guardian of the tree of life.
In the Balkan iconography, the serpent has a special important role; the
winged griffins (winged deities) are an Eastern tradition Egypt, Assyria,
Persia, Central Asia.
The definition of the name Heros as protector, guardian, cherub
corresponds to the generally accepted interpretation of the words origin
from the Indo-European root ser - keep watch over, guard, corresponding
to the Lating servare - to save, protect, defend, Sanscrit sarvah, Avestan
haurva, Old Persian haruva protector, defender7 . L. A. Gindin also defines
the name Heros as protector, defender, referring to Fisk, Bestville and
Pokorny 8 .
The same root is found in the name of the Har Brzait Mountain in
Central Asia the Guardian Mountain (Har). There are also interesting
coincidences ser/her form serpent; herp is a word denoting reptiles and
amphibian (thence, herpetile, herpetology). 9
The name kuribu is close to Korybantes. The Korybantes were dancing armed
soldiers. They are displayed in an attractive manner on the silver plate from
Parabiago, Italy (Parabiago Patera, IV century) dancing around Cybele.
116
THE THRACIAN HEROS
After Rhea hid young Zeus from his father Cronus in a cave on the Island of
Crete, her servants and companions Curetes and Korybantes made noise banging
their weapons and shields in order to drown the cry of the kid Zeus. In both cases
the Korybantes are creatures that perform the same role as the cherubim they
guard, protect, defend Cybele and Zeus.
In the Thracian language Korybantes probably transformed into kolabri
(kolobri?). Vl. Georgiev writes: , a song that accompanies the weapon
dance . 10
Korybantes, kolabri (kolobri) have common origin and meaning from Cherub,
where the most logical link is to defender, guardian, Heros. However, Vl. Georgiev
is also right in his statement that the Bulgarian word horo 11 originates from
.
On a relief of the Thracian Horseman from the Temple of the Pontic
Mother of Gods in Balchik placed by two brothers, the dedication is to
Heros the Defender ( ). 12
The dispute around the origin of the name Heros is more than 2,300 old.
The oldest comment about the meaning of Heros belongs to Socrates of 360
BC. In Platos dialogue Cratylus, Socrates explains to Hermogenes: They
all (authors remark the Heroses) are born either from the love of some
God to a mortal woman, or of a mortal man to a Goddess; think about the
word in the old Attic Greek dialect and you will clearly notice that Heros is
only slightly different from Eros from whom the Heroses originate: this is the
meaning; and if not, they must have been skilled orators and dialecticians
that could ask questions because eirein (to say, use words) is the same as
legein (speak). Therefore, as I said, in the Attic Greek dialect, the heroes are
also orators and people capable of asking questions. All this is quite easy; the
noble heroes are sophists and orators.
In fact, Socrates searches for the origin of the word Heros, which is
obviously not descended from Greek.
117
The relief from Sumer shown below depicts the tree of life, to the left of the tree the
specialists distinguish the Mother-Goddess (Mother Earth), symbolised by the sign
of the serpent; to the right there is the Father (Sky God), symbolised by a bird. The
Mother and the Father have stretched their hands to the tree of life and this gesture
speaks about the supremacy of the tree. It is evident that both the Mother and the
Father are suppliants, suitors.
The tree of life is a symbol of the phenomenon that originated in the Eastern
religions as an all-penetrating and all-embracing spirit of life, which exists in every
living creature from the plants to God. What could the Gods expect and receive
from the spirit of life but life itself?
The relief shown below 13 from Constantinople is probably the only one on the
Balkans, in which the tree of life is protected by a serpent and an eagle at the same
time (an earthly and a celestial spirit), a functional analogue of the Sumerian
statuette. Instead of his three fingers up, the horseman is holding three tied sprigs,
which also means trinity. Of course, trinity of what is in front of him the tree of
life and its defenders, or in the general case the Earth, the Sky and the Spirit of
life.
3. Caduceus, the symbol of the Tree of Life and its defenders
The staff, which we nowadays call Caduceus, where the image of the
gryphons is replaced by a pair of wings, originated from the ancient image of the
Sumerian defender of the good tree. The caduceus was used as a token of the
good will of travellers and messengers, quite often it was made of olive or laurel
tree decorated with sprigs wreathed in the form of 8. 14 The token meant I,
the messenger, come with peace under the wing of the earthly and heavenly
Cherubs. The Egyptian Anubis and the Balkan Hermes (the god, forefather of
the Thracian aristocracy) 15 used this staff to take the souls of the mortals to the
underworld kingdom.
118
THE THRACIAN HEROS
The Defender of the Good Tree. Sumer; Hermes, Anubis
The Caduceus is also known as the staff of the Roman Mercury; it was used
by the travelling merchants for the same purpose. From the reliefs it can be seen
that both images a caduceus with and without wings, are of the same use and
origin. It is the variant with a serpent coiled around a tree that lies in the basis of
the practical and sacral iconography of the Balkans.
Roman coins with images of Mercury (Hermes) and a caduceus,

a relief from Drama 16
The sceptre of Osiris where the Tree of Live is symbolised by a fir-cone

originates from the Sumerian image. The caduceus was depicted on the
Balkans during the V century BC as two serpents standing against one
another; the two serpents defend also the rulers of Pergamon during II-I
century BC.
119
The sceptre of Osiris, Caduceus 5th century BC 17 ,
Coins from Pergamon, Goddess Nike guarded by two serpents 18
On the reliefs from the Balkans, the tree of life is depicted with a serpent
coiled around the stem.
The reliefs shown below which are versions of Asclepius staff can be
assumed as an evolution of the images of the tree of life defended by the serpent. In
this case the serpent is the symbol of protection, health and life.
120
THE THRACIAN HEROS
An image of Asclepius at the Liverpool Museum, 5th century, a relief from

Ephesus, a staff with a stylised serpent and wings. The last image is from Augusta
Traiana and is the predecessor of the present-day sign used in pharmacy.
4. The Tree of Life and the Begging Goddess

Many reliefs show the tree of life, the serpent and Hygieia with a vial in hand.
On the relief with the images of Hygieia and Adonis it is clearly visible the
serpent grants its venom, it grants life.
On the fragment, to the right of Hygieias statue from the 2nd century (Ostia), a
copy of the Greek statue of 360 BC, the empty phiale can be clearly seen, which
questions the statements that the Goddesses is feeding the serpent.
121
The relief from Sumer shown below depicts the tree of life, to the left of the tree
the specialists distinguish the Mother-Goddess (Mother Earth), symbolised by the
sign of the serpent; to the right there is the Father (Sky God), symbolised by a bird.
The Mother and the Father have stretched their hands to the tree of life and this
gesture speaks about the supremacy of the tree. It is evident that both the Mother
and the Father are suppliants, suitors.
The tree of life is a symbol of the phenomenon that originated in the Eastern
religions as an all-penetrating and all-embracing spirit of life, which exists in every
living creature from the plants to God. What could the Gods expect and receive
from the spirit of life but life itself?
So, what does the relief from Sumer have in common with the Balkans and the
Thracian horseman?
122
THE THRACIAN HEROS
The image shown 19 is identical in meaning with the relief from Sumer. The only
difference is that the horseman to the left is not God. Between the Mother-Goddess
and the horseman there is the tree of life and the Heros, its guardian and defender.
Just like Hygieia, the Mother-Goddess holds the vial in her hand. The Mother-
Goddess with her hand stretched, with or without the vial, is a typical way of
presenting her. The horseman has laid his gifts on and in front of the sacrificial altar
and is also holding the vial with his hand.
The Mother Goddess with the stretched hand and the phiale.
123
Many of the horsemen in the Thracian images also hold the vial. The stretched
hand symbolises a plea. What do the Goddess and the horseman plead for? In this
case, the scene corresponds to a famous pray from the third century, which says:
Spirit of Spirit,
if it be your will,
give me over to immortal birth
so that I may be born again
and the sacred spirit may breathe in me! 20
Spirit is God. The great mother is the Goddess who gives birth, thus bringing
life to the world but at the same time she begs for life and receives it from the ree
of Life, from the Protector of life, the Spirit of the Spirit, the Heros. Both the
horseman and the Great Mother receive life from the Heros and the following reliefs
confirm this 21 :
This relief is said to be one of a God from Caria (Asia Minor) 22 . Here, too the
Mother of Gods receives life from the Heros.
124
THE THRACIAN HEROS
The relief from Ephesus, Western Asia Minor (1st century AD), is a typical relief
of a Thracian rider and fully repeats the idea expressed in the previous reliefs the
rider is the one who makes a gift to or begs for help from the Heros. The rider is not
a god or a deity, the gods do not make sacrifices; the deity is behind the sacrificial
altar. A personality is declared a Heros after death, after passing the border dividing
the dead and the living. The one who makes a sacrifice is a person from the real
world, the world of the living people. Then, why is the rider called Heros?
The possible answer is that the rider is an image from the afterlife, an unreal
image, a mediator between the living and the one who gives life and as such he is
called Heros. In the Description of Greece 23 , however, Pausanias speaks not only
about Heroses but also about wives of Heroses; in epitaphs from the Balkans and
Asia Minor women were also called Heroses 24 but there are no female riders; on
inscriptions with images of riders the names of Hera, Epona and Nympho 25 are
written however the reliefs display riders and not women. Asclepius was also called
Heros many times but there is no Asclepius on a horse: it is not the rider who is
called Heros.
More often Heros is anonymous, but sometimes the message on the votive plates
is addressed to Heros Asclepius, Zeus, Dionysus, Sabazios - the Snake, Heros is
recognized as a specific god. And why not, the serpent is spirit, a part of the Spirit
of life.
Heros in real world and Heros in afterlife are two different concepts. Nowadays,
we call the rider Heros only because we ignore the question of what the serpent is
before which the rider bows. The serpent is not a supreme god, it is the supreme
defender, the protector of God, the mediator toward God, a Heros.
125
5. To create a Heros
During the Trojan War, mortals, living people, fighters from both sides
Hector, Achilles, Patrocles were called Heroses.
Herodotus (which also means a gift from Heros) speaks about the Greeks who
honoured Heracles both as an Olympian God and as a hero; the Egyptians, unlike
the Greeks, did not have the custom to honour heroes. (This fact explains where the
images, analogous to the Thracian horseman with the inscriptions Heros, come
from, as they had appeared in Egypt during the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty and in
Roman times.) 26
At the beginning of the first millennium, the spirit of the deceased becomes a
Heros; when alive one is not a Heros. However, if the deceased persons spirit is the
Heros, how did ancient people depict this immortal soul that was turned into a hero?
The answer to this question is given by the image of a young man declared a
Heros posthumously. Polydeukes (Polydeukion) was the favourite student of one of
the richest persons in the Roman Empire who lived during 2nd century Herodes
Atticus a Greek, a philosopher and a philanthropist who lived in Athens and in
Rome. When Herodes favourite student died, he organised a grand campaign to
proclaim his student a hero. Nowadays, dozens of sculptures of the glorified young
man are known. The most notable relief of the series of images of Poly is the
following:
The relief shows a boy who probably understands his fate, confused and
helpless. Behind him, there is armour that he never wore and a horse that he never
rode. This is the living Poly who could never be neither a warrior, nor a hero. To the
right is the funeral urn.
On the left side of the relief there is a powerful serpent coiled around a tree: a
scene taken from the ancient Sumers the Lord Protector and Defender of the Tree
of Life. A ready-made image, the one of the Heros, is attached to the personality to
126
THE THRACIAN HEROS
impart it new identification. The serpent around the tree is Polys new eternal role
the Defender, Protector, Heros of Life.
The living Poly is not Heros; his eternal spirit is proclaimed Heros, symbolised
with the image of Heros. This is so because Herodes Atticus wished so.
The tree of life with the serpent is a label or an emblem showing the rider as a
Heros. However there is no rider who was a Heros while still living. The rider from
the image is a parallel character of the one that becomes a Heros after going to
afterlife; a parallel character from the real world to something that exists only in
afterlife.
The following relief have the same structure and direction of making the
personalities heroes. The relief is remarkable for its expressiveness, I would call this
picture Meeting the Heros. To the left, there is a woman looking down hopelessly,
holding in her left hand a piece of cloth in a way that cannot be mistaken this is a
crying woman. In her right hand, the woman is holding the palm of a warrior but is
not looking at him. Her husband is a Heros but she is not happy.
6. The gesture of Sabazios. The Thracian Holy Trinity
On the Sumerian relief, ( 4) the Spirit of life, the Mother-Goddess and the
Father represent a stable triad, which is repeated in the votive figures of Sabazios
hands, wide-spread between the 2nd century B.C. until 4th century.
127
Figures of Sabazios hands from Pompeii
Sabazios hand is with three fingers up and this is where the expression
Sabazios gesture comes from. On the thumb, usually a fir-cone is depicted, a
symbol of the evergreen tree of life, of the spirit of life.
On the next image, above the forefinger and the middle finger, there is an eagle,
standing on lightnings, and a frog over the eagles wings.
128
THE THRACIAN HEROS
The two lifted fingers correspond to two objects the celestial bird and the
amphibian. In this case, the frog symbolises the Mother-Goddess and the eagle the
Father. In this relation, if we paraphrase Nonnus 27 , the union between the Earth
(the Mother-Goddess) and the Sky (the Father) has given birth to Zagreus, the
horned serpent (authors remark with a cocks crest).
Sabazios hand with two fingers up, next to them there is a serpent with a cocks
crest. In this case, this signifies the birth of the Sun, personified through the child-
god Zagreus, the first phase of the development of the annual solar cycle; the child
Zagreus was torn by the titans so that the once born is re-born twice (the first time
as Zagreus), the youth Dionysus. The second half, the fruitful one, of the annual
cycle is the time of the mature man Sabazios. 28
Sabazios hands, through the image of the Mother with the infant in the cave
(in the lower part of the hand), the ram (Dionysus the fertiliser) and Sabazios
above him, express exactly the cyclic recurrence of the sun birth (25 December),
spring, summer and autumn.
The definition of the Spirits supremacy over the Mother-Goddess and the
Father generates a concept about the world that could be expressed in the following
way: In the beginning was the spirit. It spiritualised the Earth and created the
Mother-Goddess; it spiritualised the Sky and created the Father. This concept lies
in the basis of the philosophy of the Thracian religious doctrine, in which the
invariable element is the triad (trinity) of the Holy Spirit (spirit of life), the mother
of Gods (Great Mother) and the Father.
The birth of the Son the Sun, in its three hypostases Zagreus, Dionysus and
Sabazios, and the festivities on the individual occasions the birth of Zagreus and
his death, Dionysus birth and time, Sabazius time and his death, are the ritual
aspects of the religion of the Sun in the Asia Minor Balkan region.
129
In the left part of the reliefs of Sabazios from Albania and Copenhagen, the triad
of the Snake, the Eagle and the Tree of life is depicted; Earth, sky and spirit, matter
and spirit, from which the Sun God is born.
* * *
Christianity, following the idea of monotheism, rejects the Mother-Goddess
from the Holy Trinity replacing her with the Son (Jesus Christ); the spirit of life
is preserved as a secondary element the Holy Spirit, deriving from God. It may
be said that if in the beginning was the spirit, Christianity replaces it with the
in the beginning was the word.
Everywhere in the Old Testament of the Bible the word goes about
the Father, about the one and only God, but nowhere can we find the word
trinity, not to mention the concept of the Trinity God. The word trinity
itself appears for the first time in the Christian theology somewhere around
170 A.D. Theophilus of Antioch, who became a patriarch or archbishop of
Antioch in 168 A.D., speaks about trinity, although not in the context of the
Christian faith. Instead, he relates trinity to God, His Word and His
Wisdom 29
The idea of the Holy Trinity Father, Son and Holy Spirit is
imposed on Christianity and established in 325 A.D. at the First Council of
Nicaea. The new Trinity God replaces the then existing Holy Spirit, Great
Mother and Father. These facts define Christianity as a product, which is
closest to the religion of the people from the Balkans and Asia Minor, in
which the Holy Spirit reigns along with the Earth (Great Mother) and Sky
(Father) spiritualised by it.
130
THE THRACIAN HEROS
7. The God of the Gods

In general, the Thracians refer to God as Zi (Zi, Zi) the same name is
used by Vl. Georgiev and Iv. Duridanov. All-penetrating and all-embracing,
without beginning and end, the God who grants the spirit of life to every
living creature in the Universe, the spirit of life.
or (Zeus) is the Greek translation of Zi (Zi, Zi). The Hittites
call the God Siu, the Lydians Ziva, the Germanic peoples Zio, Ziu, Tiu,
the Anglo-Saxons call it Tiw, the Celts Duv; the Chaldeans, however, used
the word Zi, which is the root of life and means spirit for them; thus, Zi-ana
is usually perceived a celestial spirit; in the Vedas jiva-atmas refers to living
soul 30 .
In Polish zycie means life, in Russian zhizn (), in Latvian dzve, in
Belorussian zhytsyo (), in Czech ivot, and in Sanskrit the Bulgarian
alive ( zhiv) is ziva.
The sign of the God of Life was inscribed as early as Neolithic times in the
temples of Gbekli tepe as the Tree of Life defended by earthly and celestial
spirits (a serpent and a bird) and this idea was repeated in Sumer, Assyria, on the
votive tablets of the Thracian rider 31 . The stylised image of the God and its
defender cherubs 32 from Gbekli tepe is the unique letter from the Bulgarian
alphabet called life () (az, buky, vedi, glagoli, dobro, jest,
zhivete), the sign from the graffiti and from the Rosette from Pliska.
The plate from Gbekli tepe with the sign of the God of Life and its cherubs (defenders)
Zi, Zi, Ziu is the name of the Spirit of Life of the Thracians, he is also
the God. Probably, the form Zi e Zi, or Ziezi, corresponds to the religious
category the God of Gods. Ziezi ex quo Vulgares, 33 Ziezi, of whom the
Bulgars are, is written in the Latin Chronograph from 354.
131
8. Conclusion:
1. The horseman is not God Heros; the horseman presents a gift and
addresses a plea to the Heros, respectively the tree of life, the spirit of
life
2. The serpent as part of the tree of life is its defender, protector,
master, Heros, Cherub.
3. The name Heros is an epithet, which most probably means guardian,
protector when addressing a god.
4. When addressing a person the possible meaning is protector,
guardian, related to an address to a posthumously deified person, similarly to
the saints nowadays who have patrons functions.
5. The horsemans gesture holding three fingers up, the tree of life with
the serpent coiled around it are the sign of a religion with complex
symbolism and meaning: trinity of the Holy Spirit and the Earth (Great
Mother) and Sky (Father) spiritualised by the Spirit.
6. The reliefs of the Thracian horseman are generally messages and pleas
for health, placed by the Thracians in front of sanctuaries and healing
springs.
132
THE THRACIAN HEROS
NOTES
1
Fol, Al. The Lonely Walker (, . . ., 2006, .
407.)
2
Cherub JewishEncyclopedia.com, 2002-2011. Original, 1906.
3
De Vaux, Roland. Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions (trans. John McHugh).
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherub#cite_note-
Jewish_Encyclopedia-2).
4
And the LORD spake unto Moses above the mercy-seat, between two Cherubim,
who were above the ark of the testimony, of all the things that the Lord gave Moses and
ordered to the children of Israel. Exodus 25:18-22; 1 Kings 04:04; Samuel 06:02; 1 Kings
8:4-8; 2 King 19:15; 1 Chronicles 13:06; Psalm 80:1; Psalm 99:1; Isaiah 37:16).
5 Genesis 3:24. Cherubim Guardians attached to the throne of God as a
protective barrier to defend His Holiness and the garden of Eden, to protect the tree of life;
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim, and
the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
6
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BC%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B3
7
Grammatica dell'indoeuropeo moderno etimologia,
dnghu.org/indoeuropean/indoeuropeo_etimologia.htm :
48. PIE root ser- gives srs, guardian, heroe, Gk. , and general verbal base serw,
guard, protect, in srw, keep, preserve, Lat. serure, srwio, serve, as Lat. serure, and
srwos, slave, servant, Lat. seruus (forms also found in other Italic dialects, cf. Osc.
serevkid, protection, ooserclom, usually considered borrowings from Etruscan); cf. also
O.Ind. Av. haraiti, (pasu)haurv, shepherd, Gmc. sarwia, Bal. serg-, Sla. stergt.
8
Gindin, L. Al. Oldest Onomastics of the Eastern Balkans (, . .
. ., 1981, . 83.)
9
There are also interesting close similarities with (tzar ), the German
Herr, corresponding to master, ruler.
10
Vl. Georgiev. The Thracians and Their Language, p. 18 (. .
, . 18.)
11
There again. Ibid.
12
Igor Lazarenko, Elina Mircheva, Radostina Encheva, Daniela Stoyanova,
Nikolay Sharankov, The Temple of the Pontic Mother of Gods in Dionysopolis, 59
13
The British Museum, a relief from Constantinople
14
The caduceus, as the staff of the messenger or the herald is known from Thucydides
description, History of Peloponnesian War, Book One, 53, Translated by Milcho Mirchev,
1979. Quintus Curtius Rufus, Book Three, Historiae Alexandri Magni
15
Herodotus, History
16
A relief from Drama presented as Hermes and Persephone. Provided by Todor
Uzunov.
17
Dallas Museum of Art, http://www.davidrumsey.com/amica/amico953608-
41133.html#record
18
Titus (A.D. 7981)
19
New Yord, Rockefeller Center, end of 2nd beginning of 1st century B.C.
133
20
The Mithras Liturgy from the Paris Codex Edited and Translated by Marvin
W. Meyer http://hermetic.com/pgm/mithras-liturgy.htm
Spirit of Spirit,
if it be your will,
give me over to immortal birth
so that I may be born again
and the sacred spirit may breathe in me!
21
Museum of fine arts Boston, Ephesus museum
22
Museum of fine arts Boston,
23
Pausanias. Description of Greece, Elis, 1512: The Eleans also pour libations
to all heroes and wives of heroes who are honored either in Elis or among the Aetolians.
24
Georgiev, Petar. The Thracians who Created Christianity. S., 2014, p. 16
(, . , . ., 2014, . 16.)
25
Kazarow, Gawril I. Die Denkmler des thrakischen reitergottes in Bulgarien.
Leipzig, 1938, S. 289.
26
Herodotus, History, Euterpe, 50.
Cultes et vie religieuse des cites greques du Pont Gauche VII-I siecles avant
J.C., Publ. par Peter Lang SA, Bern 2008. (Dobrinka Chiekova): In
2nd century BC, in some regions of Ptolemaic Egypt, a Horseman God was honoured called
, [Heron, Heros]. The Thracian origin of this deity is very questionable, as it
could equally have Anatolian, Syrian and even Egyptian origin. Based on what Herodotus
had said, the Egyptian origin of the Heros is not very likely. Rather, the images were
transferred there from the Balkans during the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
27
Nonnus, Nonn, Dion, VI, 155223.
28
, (Macrob. Saturn, I, 18, 1-11)
29
Jones, Marie & Larry Flaxman. The Trinity Secret: The Power of Three and the
Code of Creation, S., 2011, p. 19.
30
Yonkov-Vladinkin, N. The History of the Ancient Thracians (-,
. . ., 19111912, . 105.)
31
There again. Petar Georgiev, Bendis, book 2, The Thracian Heros (
, , . 2., ).
32
There again.
33
The name Ziezi is common for the peoples of the Balkans. Thus, for example, on
a votive tablet from the village of Chomakovtsi, Vratsa Region, we can find Zieisi (in the
Museum in Vratsa). G. Mihaylov published an inscription from the village of Kunino, Vratsa
Region, 3rd century, containing the name Zeizeis. An epitaph from Rome of Queen Ziais,
daughter of Thiatus, of Dacian origin, and the wife of Pieporus, the king of the Costoboci,
buried by her grandsons Natoporus and Drilgisa.
On a stele from the Island of Lemnos, the name Ziazi is found. The
scientists identify the stele as a product of the pre-Hellenic population of the island from 6th
century B.C. These facts mean at least that this name, or another, which is very close to it
with several writing versions, was known in our lands and in the Aegean Region.
Ziezi is the forefather of the Bulgars, according to a text from the Latin
Chronograph from 354: Ziezi ex quo Vulgares God of the Gods, of whom the Bulgars are.
134
THE MADARA RIDER
THE MADARA RIDER AN ANCIENT

MONUMENT
Book three
135
Table of Contents
1. The Contour 140

2. The high saddle, a quiver and a bow 140
3. The inscription on the right 145
4. The diadem in the figure's hair 146
5. The lion from the relief 147
6. The spear that pierced the lion 150
7. The semi-spherical object under the lion's paw 151
8. The Rider's figure 152
8.1. A skirt or shalwars. The stirrup 153
8.2. The belt of the figure 155
9. The dog from the relief 157
10. Why the lion was destroyed 157
11. The reconstruction 158
12. Conclusion 160
136
THE MADARA RIDER
The Madara Rider is a relief carved on a sheer rock at the height of 23 m; it is

2.60 m tall and 3.1 m wide at its foundation. In 1954, a team from the Bulgarian
Academy of Science explored the site and expressed an opinion that the monument
is Medieval and was built during the 8th century. Despite the opinion of the
archaeologists Karel korpil, Georgi Balaschev, Dimitar Krandzhalov and Stamen
Mihaylov.
The thesis maintained in the present paper disputes the existing concept
about a Medieval monument and based on own research on the spot, provides a
grounded assertion that this is the most ancient antique rock relief of that size
depicting a regional Thracian goddess, the image of the Great Mother, also called
Madara, the Mother.
137
138
THE MADARA RIDER
This presentation is an attempt at revealing concisely the results of my own

research aimed to describe the Madara Rider relief as an image and to identify the
time of its creation. The research results are totally divergent from those of the
research of the Institute of Archaeology of the Bulgarian Academy of Science of
1954. 1 The BAS research is characterised by a high level of detail and certain
orderliness but also by numerous mistakes and omissions that lead to wrong
conclusions. Therefore, the parallel presentation of the elements from both analyses
would help clarify the correct essence of the problem. The BAS collection contains
materials regarding the relief prepared mainly by Todor Gerasimov and Stancho
Stanchev. The authors' thesis is that the monument was created at the beginning of
the 8th century and depicts the triumph of the ruler Tervel. However, in own
research conducted by Karel korpil 2 , Georgi Balaschev 3 , Stamen Mihaylov 4 and
Dimitar Krandzhalov 5 the authors defend the assertion of its antique character.
The results of the present research show that the monument was built during the
Antiquity and in the 8th century, it was reconstructed (restored). The thesis of a
later restoration of the site was first presented by K. korpil. 6
During the initial construction, the figures of the rider and the horse were shaped,
as well as those of the dog, the lion and the inscriptions under the rider. Later, due to
natural reasons, the dog's rear right leg and the rider's right foot were destroyed.
During the restoration of the monument in the 8th century, the figures of the
horse, the rider and the dog were encircled by a contour (a groove), the inscription
to the right of the rider was made and all these elements were painted in red. The
fact of the paint covering was confirmed in 1954 and also by the research of the
Restoration Department of the National Academy of Art. During the last exploration
in April 2015, it was ascertained that the lion had also been covered with red paint.
Fig. 1: A picture showing the colouring of the relief according to the

research by Prof. V. Todorov, NAA 7
139
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
1. The Contour
The contour, called by Gerasimov and Stanchev a groove, encircles closely the
rear right leg of the dog, which is not whole, however, and almost all figures except
that of the lion. In this relation, Gerasimov 8 writes: We should say a couple of
words about the rear right leg of this image. To our surprise, it is presented by
the sculptor as amputated. Its low part is missing. The fact that the leg was not
initially whole (emphasis in italics is mine) and not broken subsequently (...) is
proven by the groove (the contour, author's remark), which follows the profile of
the dog's leg presented as cut to the thigh. For the time being, this strange
peculiarity remains the only enigma that cannot be plausibly explained (the
emphasis in italics is mine, P.G.).
It is unthinkable that an artist would recreate a dog with three legs. It is clear
that there is overlapping of activities performed during different times the groove
round the horse, the dog and what remains from the rear right leg was made at a
later stage. The leg was already destroyed by the water flowing out of a karst
opening above it and there was nothing to be encircled. The rear left leg, although
not intact, is encircled by such a groove; while from the right leg only what has
remained is encircled. The lack of a groove outlining the rear right let shows that at
the initial carving no groove was made round the figures.
Fig. 2: The dog and the karst opening, from which the water flows and washes
away the right leg: the groove encircles the whole left leg and half of the right one.
2. The high saddle, a quiver and a bow

An evidence of the late making of the groove is its position in a niche behind the
rider's back, which was formed after a rock had fallen down as a result of the cleft in
the rock.
140
THE MADARA RIDER
Fig. 3. The groove in the rock niche behind the rider's back.
We will show: the relief had already existed when the cleft formed.
According to Gerasimov and Stanchev, the groove in the niche represents the
back end of a high saddle.
The high saddle of the relief is the main argument for the late origin of the
monument, as it was brought to Europe by the Bulgars and the Avars during the 6th
century. Both Stanchev and Gerasimov, each in his own way, interpret the high
saddle: the first one depicts the high saddle with a triangular profile, while the
second one shifts directly from a volumetric to flat image.
b c
Fig. 4. a high saddle from the so-called Kubrat's grave,

Pereschepyne; b, c a high saddle according to Stanchev and Gerasimov;
The second picture of Fig. 5, however, shows that the continuation of the contour
perpendicular to the rock passes behind the rider and the contour cannot be the back
side of a saddle. Therefore, something else has been depicted at the place of the
missing piece. Probably, during the restoration, the damaged piece was still there
141
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
with the respective image on it but it was removed and the contour was made at its
place at the bottom of the hole.
Fig. 5. The niche, in which the groove was made. To the right is the rider's elbow.
The arrow points are a protuberance (A) described by Stanchev as a rectangular bulge
Stanchev, however, points out something essential: Under the rider's left hand
elbow... a rounded protuberance can be seen. The rider's body seems to be pressed,
at the waist, between the rectangular bulge behind his back and this rounded
protuberance. By rounded protuberance Stanchev means what is marked with 2 on
Fig. 6, which ends under the rider's left hand elbow, and by rectangular bulge the
area within the dotted line under the rider's right elbow. As there is no free space
under the rider's elbow, it can be said that the two figures with the dotted lines are
the back side of a saddle (3).
Fig. 6: 1 groove; 2 rounded protuberance 3 rectangular bulge
142
THE MADARA RIDER
The saddle described by Stanchev resembles strongly the saddle from the
following relief:
Fig. 7. Number 2 marks the front part of the saddle, a similar rounded protuberance,
1 and 3 the back part, corresponding to the "rectangular bulge
behind the rider's back".
The shown saddle is of the pack-saddle type, it is of the same type as the saddle
from the monument where the rider is half-turned to us, the left hand resting on the
front part of the saddle and under his right elbow there is the saddle's rear part. The
relief of Fig. 7 is dated from the 4th century 9 . The existence of such a saddle makes
void the argument about the late origin of the monument.
The fissure that formed the niche is related to one more fact: on Fig. 8, arrow 4
points at the strongly protruded part of the rock, which almost touches the rider's
right arm, about which Stanchev writes: One cannot assume that when removing
the background, the artist left this part protruding unless he wanted to depict
some object there (p. 186), and after that (p. 194) he qualifies this observation as a
true token that this is a bow sheath. In fact it can be suggested that a quiver has
been depicted, starting from the rider's hand and going along the bulge but
interrupted by the fissure. The pointed bulge is much more likely to be a quiver
depicted many times on Artemis' reliefs and carried in the same manner on the
right shoulder. The quivers are usually carried on the left side, by a rider's leg and
this fact can be observed on multiple images. It can be assumed that the quiver was
depicted on the semi-destroyed wall behind the rider and was subsequently
transformed into a contour in the niche. The number designations on Fig. 8 are the
following: 1 a bow sheath, 2 saddle's front part, 3 saddle's rear part, 4 a
quiver.
143
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
Fig. 8 shows that when the rock cracked, the quiver was separated in two
parts. This means that the fissure appeared much later than the creation of the
monument and the contour in the niche was made after the fissure appeared.
Fig. 8 also shows that the bow sheath is empty, therefore the object in the rider's
left hand should be the bow taken by the upper end and hanging freely down. It is
not likely that the object is a whip a whip is usually held with the right hand with a
clenched fist. And the rider holds in his right hand the horse reins.
144
THE MADARA RIDER
Fig. 9. The object in the rider's left hand, view from different angles.
3. The inscription on the right

Inscription 1 on Fig. 10 is among the facts supporting late interference.
Gerasimov and Stanchev do not pay attention to korpil's remark that if the
inscriptions and the relief are from Tervel's time, then Tervel's inscription would be
at a central position (along with the inscriptions below the horse) but not a
supplement between the horse's legs. korpil writes: Even at first sight one can
see that the inscription is not related to the relief in any way and it was written
both between the horse's legs and under his right leg... It is not probable that the
artist chose a spot for his majestic monument, which was on already cracked rock
with homogeneous composition with a length of 400 m. The two fissures appeared
in historic times when the relief already existed and as a result, the wall between
them protruded several centimetres out. The inscription, however, was written
when the fissures already existed, which is clearly visible in the upper right
corner 10 .
Fig. 10: A painting by Rafail Popov, 1924 or 1920
145
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
Inscription 1 (between the horse's legs) is defined as an inscription of the

earliest ruler Tervel (705-707). The others are said to be of the times of Kormisosh
(716 and 762) and Omurtag (814-831). There remains an open question if
inscription 1 is of Tervel's times, why it is not at the central position where the other
inscriptions are but was additionally written in the corner? Or was that central
position already occupied? By which inscriptions?
4. The diadem in the figure's hair

korpil writes: Above the rider's head, two almost deleted lines can be seen,
which form a triangle in the upper part of the head, or perhaps (... some acute-angle
decoration of the head 11 . Todor Gerasimov and Stancho Stanchev quote what
korpil has said but do not comment on it. Their silence cannot be explained.
Fig.11
On Fig. 11, the arrow points at the triangular decoration. However, the right part
of the hair is destroyed (2), which shows that there obviously was a symmetrically
positioned decoration, as shown on Fig. 12. The dotted line passes across the front
part of the face.
Fig. 12
146
THE MADARA RIDER
I will call this two-horn image a diadem.

Fig. 13 shows that the left part of the actual image ends in a depression resulting
from the destruction of the face in this area. The conclusion from this fact is that this
part of the diadem was additionally created on the already damaged face i.e.
there is again additional interference.
Fig. 13
5. The lion from the relief

With the lion, there is also substantial subsequent interference. When looking it
from the front, the lion's image looks as shown on Fig. 14. It is accepted that the
semi-spherical object at point A is the lion's head. This means that the length of
what is assumed to be the head and the mane together (AB) is equal to the body
length (CD), (sections AB and CD are equal). The actual size of the head and the
mane from the relief, measured from the upper part of the mane, is 90cm. The body
is also 90 cm., which is improbable there does not exist such a lion's head, which
is of the same size as the body. The small arrows point at remains of the mane's
lower section, situated in a semi-circle around point C, which means that the head
was there. This fact is also confirmed by the remains of the depicted head under the
horse's leg the left ear and the profile of the head's upper part can be seen.
147
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
Fig. 14
Gerasimov sees the lion as he has depicted it on Fig. 15 frozen in a posture of

submission and obedience. This reconstruction is inaccurate the head is
shortened so as to achieve an acceptable image.
Fig. 15. To the left of the drawn line there cannot be anything (see photo),
there is a niche there
The image on Fig. 16 shows a section profile of the relief (according to Stancho
Stanchev) passing across the horse's body, the rear left hoof and the lion's left paw.
148
THE MADARA RIDER
Fig. 16
This section shows that under the horse's trunk a niche was hollowed, which is
40 cm deep at the section and for this reason the horse's rear left leg is even pointed
to the opposite direction. So, what was the purpose of this niche? The niche at the
lion's head (the semi-spherical object, point A) is 60 cm. deep and it was needed to
form the head as it is shown. Therefore the semi-spherical object from the drawing
to the left (point A) along with the mane (A-B) is not a lion's head there is no head
with such mane.
The analysis shows the lion holds its head upright and his paw is rested on the
semi-spherical object protruding ahead. I.e., it was not shot, killed or subdued, as
it is accepted. In this case it performs the same role as the lion from the temple at
Zhaba Mogila (Frog's Mound) Strelcha, near Starosel 12 , and all over the world a
guardian, defender of the sanctuary (the spring) that Madara is. 13
A recreation of the lion would look as shown on Fig. 17, which corresponds to
the truth adding the head within the outlined destructed spot at the bottom of the
hole and coincidence of the mane with the mane remains from Fig. 14 (the small
arrows).
149
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
Fig. 17
6. The spear that pierced the lion

According to Todor Gerasimov and Stancho Stanchev, on the relief there exists
a well outlined spear stabbed into the lion, i.e. the scene expresses the triumph of
a ruler.
Another interesting image is that of Artemis-Diana and a boar pierced by an
arrow on a Roman coin of Geta of 64 BC 14 (Fig.18).
Fig. 18: On the reverse side a boar pierced by an arrow, under it a stylised dog.
The comparison with what is depicted on the relief shows that it is more likely
that the object above the lion is not an arrow. On numerous reliefs, Artemis is
depicted as a caring mother embracing a deer but also threatening it with an arrow.
The arrow is the Goddess' attribute, it is a way of indicating her character. Artemis
is often defined as a the ruler of wild nature. The arrow is a symbol I rule, the
lion is a symbol, too I defend, protect. When it is a matter of symbols, the question
whether the lion is pierced by the arrow or not is pointless.
150
THE MADARA RIDER
Fig. 19: Different views to the lion and the arrow. 15
7. The semi-spherical object under the lion's paw

Prof. D. Krandzhalov writes about the object assumed by Gerasimov and
Stanchev as the lion's head: This is rather an upturned urn with water, a
symbol of the divine spring added to the relief of the Thracian rider 16 .
Krandzhalov means the numerous reliefs of the Thracian rider of the below
type a lion in front of the rider with its paw resting on an upturned vessel (a
crater, an urn) with water flowing out of it 17 (Fig. 20).
Fig. 20
On most reliefs that Krandzhalov refers to, the lion's paw is on a ceramic
vessel with water flowing out of it the rider makes a gift to the spring
guarded by the lion. What can be said for sure about the object under the
lions' paw on the relief is that it is definitely with a semi-spherical, slightly
prolonged form and it does not show to have been foreseen as a vessel
opening. However, a lot of images from the Thracian rider's reliefs have a
similar spherical or pear-like shape without an opening. The difference is that
there is water flowing from them.
The object is protruded to the front, which means that a layer has been removed
from the rock for the object to be formed. Therefore, the object is not a natural
151
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
formation but has been artificially made. I would suggest here a version confirming
that under the lion's paw a water pouring vessel is depicted.
Fig. 21
Under the rock, which forms the upturned vessel, there exists a peculiar
unevenness (Fir. 21, surrounded by the ellipse). It is weathered and almost
obliterated but during the performed examination it appeared that it could be
assumed to be a remaining of an image of flowing water.
Being a symbol in the Orphic tradition, the upturned crater (urn) is ascribed a
particularly mystical form. It is associated with the idea of the life-giving water,
spring of life and (the idea of immortality related to them); it is presented as a
holy purgative symbol 18 , a spring in the souls of all living creatures 19 . In this
particular case, the upturned crater is a symbol of the divine source of health and life
from the sanctuary in the Big Cave, which is located under the Madara Rider relief
and where reliefs of Asclepius and the Three nymphs have been found. The
upturned crater, from which water is flowing, is a symbol of a spring, but it is the
symbol also of the spring of life, a symbol of the mother, a spring of the souls.
This is also the symbolic meaning of the above compositions of the Thracian rider
the rider makes a gift to the spring, to the mother whose guardian is the lion.
This is also a reference to the name of the site where the relief is created
Madara. Modar is the word for mother in Farsi, mader, mater, mother, mutter, mat'
obviously have an Indoeuropean origin. Matre is the word for mother of the ancient
pelasgian people. 20 All of Cybele, Bendis and Artemis are embodiments of the idea
of the Great Mother. The relief is covered with red plaster the colour of the
woman, of the mother. 21
8. The Rider's figure

When assuming, a priori, that the monument is an image of Tervel, the explorers
do not pay enough attention to the rider's figure and make wrong conclusions about
152
THE MADARA RIDER
certain elements of the rider's image. Below, the rider's figure has been outlined
against the background of the rock and this shows that the rider is a woman. The
general features emphasizing the feminine character are: a cloud of hair (similarly
to Bendis' images), neck, female breasts and shoulders. The detailed analysis shows
unambiguously that in terms of the clothes and the accessories the image shows the
features of the ancient Goddess Artemis. And these are:
- the rider's garment, similar to a skirt or chiton;
- the riding manner the goddess is sitting sideways on the horse;
- the presence of a diadem in the hair;
- the women's gelt at the waist.
8.1. A skirt or shalwars. The stirrup

The lower part of the Goddess' garment is outlined over the horse's torso.
Stancho Stanchev writes about it: In parallel to the contour of the horse's
abdomen, over its flat side, one can see an edge of rectangular zigzags, which
outline the lower part of a broad skirt. According to Stanchev, this pleated
garment was described by Katsarov, Feher, korpil, Balaschev, Mijatovic. Todor
Gerasimov writes about it: The leg and the foot are outlined by deep parallel
grooves, which are distinguished by their dark colouring due to the lichen. The
broad silhouette of this part of the rider's body makes us suggest that he was
presented as dressed in wide Oriental trousers (shalwars).
Fig. 22: This is probably what Stancho Stanchev and Todor Gerasimov saw;
they call it a pleated skirt and shalwars (the second image).
153
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
The wide skirt falling down, the wide silhouette of this part of the ... body and
the wide shalwars raise another question aren't the rider's both legs at the right
side of the horse, which creates the illusion of the wide shalwars (the last image of
the series)? The body, half-turned to us, the right hand pulled to the back and the left
hand placed at the front also support this hypothesis. The Goddess is half-turned,
her legs are pointing foward. The right foot, which is closer to us, used to be a bulge
in the relief and for this reason it was destroyed naturally. (Later, when the contour
was outlined, the current position was emphasized the broken leg, as in the case
with the dog's leg.) In addition to korpil, Katsarov 22 , Balaschev 23 , Vs. Nikolaev 24
and D. Krandzhilov 25 also write about the rider's broken leg. Gerasimov and
Stanchev define it as a stirrup.
Fig. 23 shows close-view pictures of the stirrup from the left and the right.
Fig. 23
They show unusual thickness of the stirrup clamp, which confirms the
thesis that this is not a stirrup but a part of the broken foot of the leg. This is
also the opinion of the above-mentioned authors. The two feet are touching
one another at the heels; the right one is lower, which corresponds to the
naturally relaxed right leg. If we look at the image carefully, we will see that
the front part of the existing foot is much closer to the wall than the heel, i.e.
it is pointing to the left. This fact is emphasized also by Todor Gerasimov:
The shoe tip is carved more inward that the side plate of the stirrup 26 .
The leg, turned to the left, toward the wall, is obviously the left one a
rider's right leg is usually turned to the right. The element assumed to be a
stirrup is part of the missing right leg; broken as it was turned to the right,
outward.
154
THE MADARA RIDER
The goddesses Epona and Enodia, also assumed as Artemis, are depicted
on horses; Artemis usually rides a bull or a deer and only on a single relief
(in Byala Cherkva) the goddess rides a horse.
Fig. 24: The Byala Cherkva relief 27; Enodia on a horse with torches;
Epona on a horse with a belt over the hand.
8.2. The belt of the figure

Usually, Artemis and Diana are depicted with cloth belts, of which the long end
passes over the goddess' shoulder. There are also cases when both ends are hanging
freely down, as it is on the Roman coins from Marcianopolic, Deultum (Debelt) and
Serdica (Fig. 26.) Sometimes this belt is worn over the arm or as a veil of the
goddess riding a bull. 28
Fig. 25
155
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
Fig. 26
The coins provide spatial freedom for depiction and the belt is presented
as waving.
A belt, with one of its ends hanging down, is observed also on the figure
of the relief. In the specialised literature about the Madara Rider, this fact is
already pointed out in the following sentence: The rider is dressed in a long
garment with a belt around the waist 29 . Instead of passing over the left
shoulder, the belt's long end goes behind the goddess and falls down, slung
over the right hand. The freely swaying end shows that there is no quiver
behind the goddess.
Although the belt is clearly seen on the relief, Gerasimov does not
mention anything about it.
Fig. 27 shows the reconstruction of the belt and the goddess' dress.
Fig. 27
156
THE MADARA RIDER
St. Stanchev does not mention about the belt, either, while he claims that the
free end falling down is a quiver, similar to the quivers from the Persian dishes with
hunting scenes. A strange curved quiver, hanging over the rider's right hand...
Artemis' hanging belt is a legacy from the clothes of ancient Bendis, whose
leather clothes included a dangling strip.
9. The dog from the relief

The least commented object from the relief is the dog a typical hunting dog,
similar to those depicted in the Tomb of Alexandrovo and to the dogs
accompanying the hunters Bendis, Artemis and Diana. The presence of a hunting
dog in a monument of triumph, that the Madara Rider is pronounced to be, is
inexplicable.
Fig. 28 The dog from the Madara Rider and a dog from the Tomb of
Alexandrovo
10. Why the lion was destroyed

The lion's head has been destroyed. V. Todorov points out the fact that the
rear left hoof is strongly elongated and accentuated the horse has set its
foot on an artificial formation resembling a snake, which was sculptured
where the upper part of the lion's head is.
Fig. 29
157
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
According to him, the destruction of the lion's head and the depiction of a snake
is a Christian act aimed at the pagan symbols a snake and a lion. An analogue of
this act is a mural painting from Ravenna, the Archbishop's Chapel, 5th century AD,
on which the Eternal God Jesus Christ, is a winner who has set his foot on the
snake and the lion. Jesus is holding in his hand a book with the inscription: I am
the Road, also the Truth, also the Life.
Fig. 30. Mosaics, Ravenna, St. Andrew Chapel
It is not unlikely that this was an attempt to make the composition look like the
scene with St. George by transforming the lion into a defeated dragon where the
lion's head has been replaced, the paw has been removed from the semi-spherical
object and the actual paws have been turned into dragon's feet by adding the
exceptionally long nails, which do not look natural with the lion.
11. The reconstruction

An exemplary reconstruction would look like the picture below. The only
external elements added are the lion's head, the rider's foot and the lion's right paw.
The image to the right is created solely by bleaching (rubbing), without any addition
of colours or tinges.
158
THE MADARA RIDER
Fig. 31
The relief depicts several main figures:

- a female figure, seated sideways on the horse, her face slightly turned to the
spectator 30 the goddess is dressed in a long skirt (chiton) and wearing a long belt;
- a dog running after the horse;
- a lion with its head upright and lifted tail, standing in the goddess' feet and its
paw on the semi-spherical protuberance 31 and an arrow has been depicted
behind its back;
- the goddess is holding in her left hand a bow and has a quiver on her back.
After the initial creation, the relief was restored (a term used by korpil) or
re-used (a term used by V. Todorov), or both events happened but at different
times. Indications of such activities are the contour, the diadem and the destruction
of the lion's head. It is possible that there have been attempts at restoring the diadem
but it is possible that it has been outlined entirely as an imitation of a crown.
12. Conclusion
The relief represents an ancient scene with a goddess riding a horse, seating
sideways on the saddle. The arrow, the belt, the diadem and the dog that follows the
rider make the image look like Artemis, while the lion is a reference to this animal's
role with Cybele. Later on, the lion and the semi-spherical object under its paw
(probably an upturned vessel) enter steadily the iconography of the Thracian Rider.
159
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
Artemis was depicted riding a horse only in North-Eastern Bulgaria in Madara and
Biala Cherkva, Russe district. This religious phenomenon is plausible as the Getae
were a horse riding people.
There are about three hundred names denominating Artemis and this means that
there existed various regional images of her. Artemis from the Greek Polies is not
Artemis from Ephesus; the concept of Artemis of the Getae will hardly incorporate
the image of any of the above-mentioned.
Artemis was depicted with two different diadems a diadem resembling horns
turned downwards (see Fig. 25) and a two-horn diadem resembling horns turned
upwards a moon. Both of them indicate age the first one marks the eternal
virgin while the second refers to the mature woman, the mother goddess. 32
According to Yulia Boeva, an analogue of the two-horn diadem turned upwards is
the two-horned covering with a kerchief from the Ruse region, which defines the
married woman as a mother who is able to give birth i.e. the expression of the
child-bearing function of the Great Mother. This is the likely explanation of the
presence of the two-horn diadem on the relief.
The main merit of the relief is the fact that it was not made after an external
model it has no analogue, it was first created in this region and it gives a real
image of the regional goddess. Which is the goddess' name? It always had one name
Madara, the Mother. The Great Mother.
Fig. 32: The original picture of the Madara Rider and its reconstruction using bleaching.
The additions are the lion's head, the the rider's foot and the lion's right paw over the semi-
spherical object.
160
THE MADARA RIDER
NOTES
1
Velkov, Mihaylov, Beshevliev, Gerasimov, Venedikov, Stanchev. The Madara Rider,
Research on the Inscriptions and the Relief Sofia: BAS, 1956, p. 233
2
korpil, . Madara-Mogilla plateau. Byzantioslavica (Praha): 1932, IV, book 1.
3
G. Balaschev. Old Thracian Sanctuaries and Deities. Sofia: P. Glushkov, 1932.
4
Mihaylov, Stamen. Evidence for the Thracian Origin of the Madara Rider. Archaeology,
1999, issue 12
5
Krandzhalov, Dimitar. . Ceskoslovenska etnografi (Praha): 1953,
23, . 243.
6
korpil, . Madara-Mogilla plateau. Byzantioslavica (Praha): 1932, IV, book. 1, p.
125.
7
The Madara Rider: the Story of its exploration and protection. Access link:
http://www.nbu.bg/PUBLIC/IMAGES/File/departamenti/arheologiq/Microsoft%20PowerPo
int%20-%20madara.pdf
8
Gerasimov, Todor, The Madara Rider, Research on the Inscriptions and the Relief Sofia:
BAS, 1956, p. 130
9
Gravestone relief from the anakkale Museum, Turkey
10
korpil, . Madara-Mogilla plateau. Byzantioslavica (Praha): 1932, IV, book. 1, p.
125.
11
, . , IRAIK, , 400
12
At the Starosel temple, parts of two lions' feet were also discovered.
13
At the Madara-Mogilla plateau, korpil, taking into account who constructed the
numerous sanctuaries and the relief itself, writes: These are the Thracian Getae and their
holy land should be sought near Madara.
14 Access link:
http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=680023&AucID=1253&Lot=452&Va
l=2aa29078ed714422a63570de98cbec98
15
A collage of the pierced lion and the lion from the Monument of the Unknown Soldier.
16
, , . Praha: Ceskosovenska etnografie, I,
1953
17
Panega Head, Museum of Razgrad, Katsarov 367.
18
According to Eusebius
19
Proclus in Timaeum E, prooem., III, r. 169; Diehl, Orphic. Fr. 140.
20
, . . , . ., 1855, . 71.
21
The closest reference about whom the red colour belongs to is that of the Martenitsa
the female figure is depicted with the red colour and the male figure with the white colour.
22
, .. , . . : ,
1925.
23
, . . : .
, 1932.
24
, . () .
Bizantinoslavica: 1949, 42-58.
25
Krandzhalov, Dimitar. Madara Rider ( ). Ceskosovenska etnografie.
Praha: 1953.
161
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
26
Research on the Inscriptions and the Relief Sofia: BAS, 1956, p. 124
27
D. Dechev. Ancient monuments in the Bulgarian lands. A year-book of the Plovdiv
Library with Museum. Plovdiv: 1940-1941, p. 38, Fig. 8
28
On the coins fo Amphipolis and Naples, the scarf veil is over the riding goddess' head.
On the sculptures: statues from the Louvre, Versailles, the Vatican.
29
, . . , . , . .
[ - , .6]. : 2011.
30
Research on the Inscriptions and the Relief Sofia: BAS, 1956, p. 123.
31
Research on the Inscriptions and the Relief. Sofia: BAS, 1956, p. 187
32
More about the meaning of the two-horn symbols ram's and bull's horns can be found
in: . , , , 2011 ., 123 . ,
, 2014 ; , , . 18.
162
THE MADARA RIDER
Other books by the author:

, ,
http://www.otizvora.com/2010/07/2079
,

http://www.ivanstamenov.com/files2011/mkonnik-pg.pdf
,
,
http://www.otizvora.com/files2015/pg-thraki-religia.pdf
;
http://www.otizvora.com/files2015/pg-madarski-konnik-se-2015.pdf
163
AN ANCIENT MONUMENT
THE MYSTERIES OF MITHRA OR

2016 Sofia, Bulgaria

Petr Georgiev, Author
Bulga Media Publishing House
Translation Vasil Lenshev
Corrector Aneta Michailova
Book cover Ivan Stamenov
Print: Bulged OOD
ISBN: 978 954 9670 26 4
164

The Mysteries of Sabazios

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THE MYSTERIES OF MITHRA

THE MYSTERIES OF SABAZIOS

THE MYSTERIES OF MITHRA OR

2016 Sofia, Bulgaria

1. Why was this book written? 5

The compositions are also thematically synonymous generally, they are an

Why was this book written?

Callinicus (Mithridates given by Mithra), erected a temple, in which one of the

When quoting Cumont and Vermaseren, there is an interesting statement by the

A map of the important finds of Mithraism in Europe 14 .

2. Germany, North Italy, Britain, France.

3. Germany, France, North Italy, Britain.

The Mithra Iconography

The sculpture of Nike sacrificing a bull

A Geto-Dacian Helmet, Kerch, a sacrifice

Pergamon Museum in Berlin

A bull sacrifice, Sabazios

The ceremonial celebrations of the change of seasons are traditional in the

According to Cumont, NAMA SEBESIO is either a spell or a Persian greeting.

The NAMA SEBESIO inscription

Vatican museum inv. No 12158 22

After the appearance of the lion and the serpent, it is time

Zagreus, Dionysus, Sabazios a snake, a ram or a lion, a bull

A young lion as a symbol of Dionysus is present on the reliefs depicting

Seint Luis art museum Melbourne museum, Pompeii

Figures of Sabazios Hands

A relief from Tanais A relief of a Thracian Horseman, Istanbul

On a substantial number of the several hundred thousand known reliefs of the

The evidence by the ancient authors:

Heraklion, Crete Beirut Le Louvre

The Crater, the Lion and the Snake

Museum, Kln CIMRM 1020

On the territory of Germany (Heddernheim, Karlsruhe, Osterbrcken), some of

At the bottom of the Karlsruhe relief, there are again

A relief of the Danubian Horsemen type

Caesarea Maritima, Israel

There is a path or a passage leading to the composition. The mentioned places

CIMRM 339-340 CIMRM 344 CIMRM 343

A relief or a sculpture of Sol were found also in other Mithraeums, as well as

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3

On the third structure, there is no inscription but it is also called Mithraeum

The horned snake of Sabazios at the Ostia Mithraeum.

The snake, the symbol of Sabazios, is found on each relief of Mithra. As it is

As a rule, the Mithraeum temples have no fixed orientation.

The reproduction reveals an interesting detail at the celebrations, in addition to

CIMRM 641 Lopodunum/Ladenburg, Germany.

Mithreum of Rirgel CIMRM 1083

Probably in the Roman legions consisting of numerous tribes, various religions

CIMRM 1083 Mithreum Ostia

Heddernheim CIMRM 1083

The iconography of the Roma Mithraism originated unexpectedly as a ready

The Birth of Mithra

Kln, Germany. CIMRM 344 Heidelberg, Germany

National Institute of Archaeology with Museum, Bulgaria

CIMRM 1492-1493 CIMRM 1687 CIMRM 2134

CIMRM 1240 CIMRM 1991 CIMRM 1756

Ptuj, Slovenia CIMRM 1593-1594 Heddernheim

S. Stefano Rotondo, Rome CIMRM 353

In the iconography we know, Mithraism is the result (according to Cumont) of

The reincarnations of the Sun God

CIMRM 822-823 Archaeological Museum, Varna

At first sight, Dionysus presence is unwonted in a Mithraeum. However, in the

CIMRM 545 Bordeaux, France.

The enchained mother from the sculptures of Sabazios hands