У статті аналізується оздоблення вуздечок коней, похованих у двох кінських могилах (Північній
і Південній) у кургані Товста Могила. На основі
аналізу пропонується реконструкція певних уявлень скіфів про потойбіччя, шлях до Світу предків
та його фінальний етап — прибуття до богині, яка зустрічала душі померлих.
The paper is devoted to the analysis of horse bridles
from Tovsta Mohyla kurgan of the 4th century BC. The
barrow was excavated by the expedition of Ukrainian
Institute of Archaeology headed by Boris Mozolevsky
in the Dnepropetrovsk oblast, Ukraine, in 1971. In this
kurgan the burial of noble warrior and two horse graves
with skeletons of 6 horses were found. The horses had
bridles decorated with images of various animals and
fantastic creatures. One bridle was decorated with the
images of mythological characters: the serpentine goddess
(Rankenfrau, probable Scythian goddess Api) and
two Scythian gods who were portrayed as the Greek
gods Hercules and Dionysus. All bridles have analogies
in other Scythian assemblages of the 4th century
BC.
It has been suggested that the reproduction of certain
images is associated with ideas about the path of
the deceased to the Ancestor’s World. The bridles were
decorated with images of fantastic animals and were
a kind of mask. According to the Scythian beliefs such
a bridle-mask helped to endow the horse with special
properties so that it could overcome obstacles on the
way to the Ancestor’s World. Probably, the serpentine
goddess (Rankenfrau) was the mistress of this Ancestor’s
World.
On the way to the Ancestor’s World the noble warrior
was accompanied by his assistant, marked by archaeologists
as «groom No. 3». Such a scene is depicted
in the crypt of Anfesterii from Panticapaeum on the
Bosporus (modern Kerch, Crimea). It depicts the arrival
of the deceased on horseback, accompanied by
assistant, to the goddess, mistress of the Ancestor’s
World.
Further research on this topic will extend our understanding
of the Scythian ideas about the Beyond.
