Angela
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Very peculiar artifact. This god is new to me, never heard of him.
See:
http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/20...azios-shown-history-museum-bulgarias-gabrovo/
Here is a "cleaned up" or more intact version:
"The cult for Sabazios – depicted as a nomadic horseman god and heavenly father – of the Phrygians and the Thracians in Asia Minor and the Balkans, and was later also spread within the Roman Empire, all the more so after it conquered their territories in the 1st century BC – 1st century AD."
"The bronze hand is hollow but is very richly decorated with various symbolic ornaments such as birds and mammals, and deities’ staffs or wands."
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabazios
"Though the Greeks interpreted Phrygian Sabazios[3] as both Zeus and Dionysus,[4]representations of him, even into Roman times, show him always on horseback, as a nomadic horseman god, wielding his characteristic staff of power."
"It seems likely that the migrating Phrygians brought Sabazios with them when they settled in Anatolia in the early first millennium BCE, and that the god's origins are to be looked for in Macedonia and Thrace. The recently discovered ancient sanctuary of Perperikon in modern-day Bulgaria is believed to be that of Sabazios. The Macedonians were also noted horsemen, horse-breeders and horse-worshippers up to the time of Philip II, whose name signifies "lover of horses".Possible early conflict between Sabazios and his followers and the indigenous mother goddess of Phrygia (Cybele) may be reflected in Homer's brief reference to the youthful feats of Priam, who aided the Phrygians in their battles with Amazons. An aspect of the compromise religious settlement, similar to the other such mythic adjustments throughout Aegean culture, can be read in the later Phrygian King Gordias' adoption "with Cybele"[5] of Midas.
One of the native religion's creatures was the Lunar Bull. Sabazios' relations with the goddess may be surmised in the way that his horse places a hoof on the head of the bull, in a Roman marble relief at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.[6] Though Roman in date, the iconic image appears to be much earlier."
"The iconic image of the god or hero on horseback battling the chthonic serpent, on which his horse tramples, appears on Celtic votive columns, and with the coming of Christianity it was easily transformed into the image of Saint George and the Dragon, whose earliest known depictions are from tenth- and eleventh-century Cappadocia and eleventh-century Georgia and Armenia.[8]"
See:
http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/20...azios-shown-history-museum-bulgarias-gabrovo/
Here is a "cleaned up" or more intact version:
"The cult for Sabazios – depicted as a nomadic horseman god and heavenly father – of the Phrygians and the Thracians in Asia Minor and the Balkans, and was later also spread within the Roman Empire, all the more so after it conquered their territories in the 1st century BC – 1st century AD."
"The bronze hand is hollow but is very richly decorated with various symbolic ornaments such as birds and mammals, and deities’ staffs or wands."
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabazios
"Though the Greeks interpreted Phrygian Sabazios[3] as both Zeus and Dionysus,[4]representations of him, even into Roman times, show him always on horseback, as a nomadic horseman god, wielding his characteristic staff of power."
"It seems likely that the migrating Phrygians brought Sabazios with them when they settled in Anatolia in the early first millennium BCE, and that the god's origins are to be looked for in Macedonia and Thrace. The recently discovered ancient sanctuary of Perperikon in modern-day Bulgaria is believed to be that of Sabazios. The Macedonians were also noted horsemen, horse-breeders and horse-worshippers up to the time of Philip II, whose name signifies "lover of horses".Possible early conflict between Sabazios and his followers and the indigenous mother goddess of Phrygia (Cybele) may be reflected in Homer's brief reference to the youthful feats of Priam, who aided the Phrygians in their battles with Amazons. An aspect of the compromise religious settlement, similar to the other such mythic adjustments throughout Aegean culture, can be read in the later Phrygian King Gordias' adoption "with Cybele"[5] of Midas.
One of the native religion's creatures was the Lunar Bull. Sabazios' relations with the goddess may be surmised in the way that his horse places a hoof on the head of the bull, in a Roman marble relief at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.[6] Though Roman in date, the iconic image appears to be much earlier."
"The iconic image of the god or hero on horseback battling the chthonic serpent, on which his horse tramples, appears on Celtic votive columns, and with the coming of Christianity it was easily transformed into the image of Saint George and the Dragon, whose earliest known depictions are from tenth- and eleventh-century Cappadocia and eleventh-century Georgia and Armenia.[8]"