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RUJA POPOVA

THE CULT OF SABAZIOS IN THE NORTH BLACK SEA – VIA THRACE?

Who is Sabazios, mentioned in ambiguous reports of ancient written tradition? According to theOrphic hymns (Orphei Hymni 48.1-6; 49.1-7), he is the father of Dionysus. For Aristophanes (Schol. in Ar. Av. 874) his Phrygian origin is undisputable (IIT  I 159). According to the scholiast of the “Wasps” ( Schol.in Ar. Vesp. 9) “the Thracians give Dionysus the name Sabazios and call their priests Sabios” (IIT  I 156).For Alexander Polyhistor (=Macrob. Sat . 1.18), in Thrace the Sun (=Apollo) and Liber (Dionysus) are oneand the same deity – Sabazios.1 In the reports of Diodorus Siculus (4.4.1), long before the birth of theGreek Dionysus, another Dionysus was born to Zeus and Persephone; some people called him Sabaziosand celebrated his birth with secret sacrifices at night.2 

Lately, the cult of Sabazios is being examined quite thoroughly, in particular the problem of his

origin as well as of the different manifestations of his cult, although modern historiography has notfound a solution to the contradictions in the reports of the ancient authors. The reason for thisshould be sought in the inability to clarify the special features of this cult for the whole area of itsdissemination. The following text deals partly with these problems, its main task being theclarification of the course of movement of the cult of Sabazios from Asia Minor to the North BlackSea territories, where there is serious evidence of the presence of this cult during the first decadesof the 1st millennium AD. Well-known is the opinion that the idea of Sabazios came directly fromAsia Minor. The question is whether it is possible that this movement was accomplished throughEurope, i.e. through the territory of Thrace, in view of the peculiarities in the manifestation of thatcult practices in the North Black Sea region. The purpose of this text is not to clarify the origin ofthe cult but, based on concrete evidence, to follow its course of movement and its adaptation to acertain environment according to indigenous needs. It is an attempt to observe the Pontic area as a

zone of ethno-cultural contacts between settlers and indigenous populations, the cult of Sabaziosbeing a characteristic phenomenon. It is true, that the religion of the settlers who enter into closerelationship with the autochthonous population of this vast area and especially those living in theBosporus, cannot be isolated from the influence of the local cults, the Eastern Asia ones and theofficial western roman cults. This religious conglomeration will find its place here on the NorthBlack Sea lands, the cult of Sabazios being one of its manifestations.

The “Sabazios hand” in the so called benedictio latina, charged with multiple attributes, isundoubtedly one of the most important and most popular symbols of the divine presence in theperiod between the early Roman Empire and the 4th c. (Fol 1999, 80). The “hands of god” found so fardisplay a number of similarities and differences.

In 1900 the Emperor’s Archaeological Commission bought the bronze hand discovered inEkaterinoslav (mod. Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, situated on the bank of the river Dnieper (ancient

Borysthenes), whose first publisher was B.V. Farmakovsky (1902, 118-21; CCIS III, 26-27). The hand is“delicate in form”, which led the author of the publication to the conclusion that it was a femalehand. It is in the typical gesture of benedictio latina with a strobile attached to the thumb. Multiplerelief representations, some of which seem obscure, are piled up upon the hand. On the one side,inside a niche, a lying woman is depicted with a child and a bird hovering above them, possibly aneagle or some other bird of prey according to Farmakovsky. Near the root of the thumb, an amphora

1 It will be necessary to refer to the same evidence later.2 The evidence gathered from the written tradition and the interpretation of the source, see Fol 1994, 44-184.

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(according to Farmakovsky) or a wine crater (according to this writer), a branch, a frog and a lizardare piled up. Under the forefinger there are scales, a caduceus, a snake wrapped around the foldedfingers, and a tortoise. Under the little finger, Farmakovsky sees most probably some musicalinstruments like two flutes, a syrinx and a cymbal. For Farmakovsky, who is aware of other bronzehands and a hand with a votive inscription “to the Phrygian Sabazios”, the reliefs and the gesture of

the hand from Ekaterinoslav refer to “women who had given birth to a child”. Quoting hiscolleagues, who “dealt especially with such hands” and supported the view that all the picturedobjects should be considered as ἀποτρόπαια, Farmakovsky admits this character for the bird, thestrobile, the amphora/crater, the branch, the caduceus and the scales. Only in the musical objectsdoes he see relations with the eastern orgiastic cults, widely spread during the late Roman Empire,and he explicitly relates those objects to the Bacchic cult. However, this fact does not change hisopinion concerning the apotropaic character of the hand, while the piling up of the objects wasattributed to the perception that, if they are more numerous, then the protective forces of the amuletare stronger. Farmakovsky dates the find on stylistic grounds as early as the late Roman period.

According to images familiar from Thrace and Moesia, as well as others supposed to come fromThrace (such as the stone relief presently in the British Museum), Sabazios is dressed in the typicalPhrygian garments, has a beard and is very often represented raising his hand in the benedictio latina gesture, holding a sceptre or a strobile, i.e. in the iconographic type of the so called “Phrygian” god.Most often he is pictured among animal figures, symbols and cult objects with a distinct solar-chthonic meaning. The same animals and attributes are found on Sabazios “hands” as well.3 Far be itfrom me that each attribute in the imagery should be explained in “relation to Sabazios”, since ithas been proven that in the rite (and the Thracian Sabazios is god of the rite; Fol 1994) someinventions appear only incidentally only to fade away at a later date.

The ritual nature of all types of musical instruments is indisputable. Indisputable is also thesnake – a basic zoomorphic image of the deity reincarnated for new life, as described in the rite byDemosthenes (18.259-60). The so called “Anatolian/Phrygian”  stasis of Sabazios represents his mostpopular identification with the snake (again according to Demosthenes). On the one side, the snakeunites Sabazios and Zeus, thus influencing the iconographic image of Zeus-Sabazios. On the otherhand, it ushers him into the literary Orphism with the “horned snake” mythos  and Clemens ofAlexandreia (Protr . 2.15.1), who equates him to Dionysos-Zagreus. The snake remains a divineidentification in the realm of the unwritten, which springs up from the roots of non literaryOrphism. Except for the bronze hand from Ekaterinoslav, we see the snake also in the relief from theBritish Museum facing the bearded rider. The iconography of a hand found in Gradnitsa, and datingas far back as the 2nd-3rd  c.4  is very close to the one from Ekaterinoslav: there is a snake windingaround the wrist and rising to the little finger with its head kept on the palm of the hand,5 and asimilar piling up of imagery: a strobile upon the thumb, a branch, part of an eagle, the head of a ram,present also in the relief from the British Museum (the ritual sacrifice),6 a tortoise, a frog, a lizard ora crocodile (?) as in Voysil (chthonic attributes of the deity, but in no case his zoomorphicexpression). The strobile and the branch/tree are indisputably phallic signs/symbols and the bird ofprey most probably suggests the idea of the presence of the Great Goddess. 7  In the reliefs of bothhands the caduceus of Hermes appears. The connection with Hermes is attested in the remarkablerelief from Philippopolis (Cončev 1954, 15-20; Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 267-70; Fol 1994, 286-88), wherePan is also pictured. Hermes (as well as Pan) is one excellent indication of the connection with

3 Catalogue, see CCIS; commentary in Lane, CCIS III, 23-37.4  About the hand from Gradnitsa see in detail Milchev 1975, 48 ss.; Milchev 1977, 58-76; Tacheva-Hitova 1980, 49-73;

Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 271-73.5 About the snake as “an almost obligatory image for that type of monuments” see Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 271.6 About the ram as a substitute, see Fol 1994, 279; about the ram upon the hand from Gradnitsa, see Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 272.7 About the predatory birds as companions of Cybele, see Lane CCIS III, 26-27.

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death, death itself as a chthonic idea, which is a way to immortality. 8 This monument dating back tothe 3rd  c. and is unprecedented in the imagery of Sabazios, in which the story appears in twofigurative fields: re-confirmation of the “chthonic-solar” transition in the Heros with the“Phrygian” hat and the strobile in the hand on the lower level, while the upper level is organisedaround the “Phrygian” (according to iconographic indications) Sabazios, crowned with strobiles.

The chthonic deity is moving from death towards new life, moving upwards in the semantic fields,and occupies the highest place, becoming a Uranic deity, the “Thracian god Cosmocrator” (a betterdefinition of Tacheva-Hitova relevant to that age; Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 270). The reading of thisexpressive text recalls the report of Alexander Polyhistor (cited by Macrobius) concerning thehonouring of Apollo and Dionysos in dual Sabazios. He was celebrated with magnificent religiosity(magnifica religione celebrant ), while on the Zilmissus peak a round temple was built with an openingin the middle of the roof. This quotation takes us back to Herodotus 7.111 mentioning the sanctuaryof Dionysos, kept by the Bessi, also known from later authors. The questions concerning theattempts – in fact the impossibility – to identify that peak are faced with one problem: the Zilmissuspeak most probably is not an oronym, but a doctrinal position of the dual deity. Somewherebetween the 4th  c. BC (when the long age of profanation of the orphic doctrine and its gradualhellenisation began: Fol 1991, 207-08) and the 1st c. BC the Thracian orphic doctrine transforms its

Duality and attains Unity (not oneness) in the name of Sabazios (Penkova 2004, 314). This is theSabazios encompassing the solar and chthonic hypostasis of the dual God-Son, the seen and theunseen world, brilliantly witnessed by Alexander Polyhistor (Fol 2000, 185, 216).

The monument from Philippopolis bears evidence of the existence of a direct connection (sodynamically discussed in the research works about Thracian religion) between the cults of Sabazios andthe Heros in ancient Thrace (Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 269-70; Gočeva 2003, 84-90; cf. Boteva 2003, 91-99;Gočeva 2005, 193-200), along with the ivory hand from the village of Krassen (Dobrich region; cf.Bobcheva 1965, 35 ff.; Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 258-62; Gorbanov 1985, 233-36; Boteva 2003, 94-95; Penkova2004, 314), where the miniature image of the rider is located inside a nutshell.

The two monuments, the bronze hand from the Bosporan kingdom (Ekaterinoslav/Dnepropetrovsk) and the one from the heart of Thrace – region of Augusta Traiana (mod. village ofGradnitsa), so similar in the iconographic sense, show attributes which could find a “Sabazios’translation”; they also show analogies with other monuments dedicated to the same cult. The exactfunction of the “Sabazios hands” has not been explained so far. In some of them sacrificial gifts wereseen, placed in temples and sanctuaries (Macrea 1959, 328 ff.); some of them are believed to havebeen used in cult practices considered, like the hand from Krassen, which is thought to havecrowned the sceptre of a priest of Sabazios, represented in the way the deity is represented in therelief from Copenhagen (Gorbanov 1975, 13-18; Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 259; Boteva 2003, 94); handssimilar to those of Sabazios put on an altar as objects-mediators/ θύσθλα were pictured on votiveplaques from Ampurias in Spain; some researchers attribute a sacral function to some of them, asfor example to the hand from Gradnitsa (Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 291), hence also to the one fromEkaterinoslav/Dnepropetrovsk.

Having compared one monument from the heart of the Bosporan kingdom and the series of

monuments related to the cult of Sabazios from Thrace and Moesia Inferior we identified manysimilarities and analogies, while the differences are insignificant and not so important for theinterpretation of the manifestation of the cult. It is now time to examine the manifestations ofreligious rites of Sabazios in the North Pontic lands, as well as the historiography attitude there.

According to Rostovtzeff, the cult of Sabazios in the Bosporan kingdom, which he connects withthe collegia  and decorations on tombs in Panticapaeum (mod. Kerch), was born under Thracianinfluence; it syncretises the ideas of the Iranian solar cult and the Jewish monotheism in the cult of

8 Cf. Tacheva-Hitova 1982, 293 about Hermes Psychopompos.

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θεòς  Ὕψιστος  (Rostovtzeff 1914, 428-34; 1922, 179). The observation of tombs belonging to the“geometric style” gives him grounds for that. In them he discovers explicit attributes of the deity,including the eagle, which he claims to be not only the most typical, but also “bigger in size,compared to other attributes, and closer to the deity” (Rostovtzeff 1914, 429). The association ofSabazios with the vine is completely understandable since no clear distinction was made between

the “Thracian Dionysus and Sabazios”. He adds the strobile to the mentioned attributes – “weconstantly encounter this main symbol of the deity on objects of the cult” (Rostovtzeff 1914, 430).The appearance of Sabazios in North Black Sea tombs is attributed to the faith of the followers of thecult in the eternal life of Beyond. The tombs from 1894 and 1901 are of special interest for him becauseof the ships pictured in outline, with or without a crew. According to Rostovtzeff, together with thearmaments, they are most probably related to the daily routine of the deceased, but he presumes thatthey could also be related in some way to “the symbolic parts of the decoration” (Rostovtzeff 1914,434). The sketchy outline of the ships, as well as the whole decoration located under vine-garlands as iffollowing some archaic tradition with a code rather than an aesthetic meaning, and the solar signsabove them, recalls monuments from an earlier period with pictures of the solar boat.

Blavatskiy sees the paintings in some tombs as an evidence for the existence of a synod of thefollowers of Sabazios (Blavatskiy 1964, 200). He connects the terracotta figures with movable limbsand phalluses from Kerch (Shkorpil 1911, 62-63) with this same cult and defines it as the “the cultthat gives power” (Blavatskiy 1964, 200). In the context of θεòς Ὕψιστος and its place in the religionof the Bosporan kingdom, Blavatskiy defines “the main deity” as “emerging upon the foundations ofthe cult of Zeus and closely related to the Thracian cult of Sabazios and probably also of theSarmatian God-Rider” (Blavatskiy 1964, 197).

Vyaz’myatina sees the Thracian cultural influence in the penetration in the spiritual life ofcertain cults like the one of the rider, of Sabazios, of Asklepios and Hygieia, and qualifies it as atypical influence (Vyaz’myatina 1969, 121).

Krykin (1993, 165-78), who deals with the Thracian presence in the North Black Sea lands,explicitly declares that the cult of Sabazios “mentioned literally in all the North Pontic regions”(Krykin 1993, 166) penetrates directly  (my italics– R.P.) into the North Black Sea lands from Asia

Minor without any mediation of Thrace (Krykin 1993, 178).Ustinova is not that categorical in her claim about the Anatolian origin of the cult whichpenetrated in the North Pontic regions; she claims that there is no direct evidence related to thepresence of this cult in the Bosporan kingdom (Ustinova 1999, 166). She makes a clear distinctionbetween the two cults – the one of Sabazios and the one of θεòς Ὕψιστος, and on that basis shedenies Rostovtzeff’s interpretation of “tombs of the followers of Sabazios”, because she discoveredno direct evidence for their existence. The author’s opinion is that the cult of Sabazios “was indeedvery popular in Thrace” and could have possibly exercised “some influence on the θεòς Ὕψιστος ofthe Bosporus, but there is no proof that such an influence existed.” (Ustinova 1999, 166).

The author has not taken into account the bronze hand from Ekaterinoslav/Dnepropetrovsk. Thetwo cults – the one of Sabazios and the one of θεòς Ὕψιστος  (Fol 2004, 126-27), and their explicitdistinction need reconsideration and reinterpretation. Very often in the inscriptions from this

region an anonymous supreme deity appears, whose presence is only alluded through epithets. Butthe categorical relation of such epithets to one or the other deity is illegitimate, since in most of thecases they are common for both of them.9 

In the dissemination of the cult of Sabazios one should take into consideration also the religiouscommunities from ethnic enclaves along the coast of the Euxine Pont. These communities wereformed through population movements from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The penetration of

9 See for example the inscription from Kytaia, CIRB 942.

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elements of Thracian culture into this region is recorded as early as the 7 th c. BC (Vyaz’myatina 1969,79; Melyukova 1969, 119 ff.; Marchenko 1974, 149 ff.).

In conclusion, evidence in Herodotus 4.80 indicates the kinship and dynastic relations betweenScythians and Thracians. Most researchers acknowledge the Thracian origin of the Spartocids,10 rulersof the Bosporus from 438 BC to the end of 2nd  c. BC, whose role in religious life should not beunderestimated. A more significant role for the Thracisation of religion in the Bosporus is attributedto the dynastic relations during the first centuries of the new millennium until the very end of the 3rd c.

In spite of the opinion expressed for the lack of distinct evidence of a cult of Sabazios in theBosporus on the one hand, and of the certain presence of the Anatolian cult on the other, I can wellimagine the possibility that this cult moved from/through Europe, from the nature of the ThracianOrphism into the zone of ethno-cultural contacts between Thrace and Scythia (V. Fol 2000, 48-49).

10  Blavatskiy 1964, 55-56, who connects the Thracian name of the founder of the dynasty with the autochthonousinhabitants of the Asian shore of the Bosporus; Vinogradov 1980, 97, n. 185; Shelov–Kovedyayev 1985, 83-84, whoexplicitly joins those scientists, who acknowledge the Thracian origin of Sparadocus and not only consider the name tobe Thracian, but also typical of the ruling dynasty of the Odrysians.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blavatskiy, V. 1964. Pantikapey (Panticapaeum). Moscow.Bobcheva, L. 1965. “A New Monument Dedicated to the Cult of the Thracian Rider” (bulg.) Archeologia7(4): 35-37.Boteva, D. 2003. “‘Bear’s Hunt’ on the Consecrated Relieves of the Thracian Rider” (bulg.). Bulletin of the Dept. of

Bulgarian History and Archaeology and Dept. of General History, South-Western University “Neophyte Rilsky”,

Blagoevgrad 1: Power and Society. In honorem Prof. Margaritae Tač eva, 91-99.Farmakovsky, B. 1902. Pamyatniki antichnoy kul’tury, naydennye v Rossii: Bronzovaya votivnaya ruchka

Ekaterinoslavskoy gub. “Monuments of the ancient culture discovered in Russia: The bronze votivehand from Ekaterinoslav” Izvestiya Imperatorskoy Arkheologicheskoy Komissii (Bulletin of the Imperial

 Archaeological Commission) 3: 118-21.Fol, Al. 1994. The Thracian Dionysus. Book two. Sabazios. Sofia.Fol, Al. 1999. “Pontic Interactions: The Cult of Sabazios.” In The Greek Colonization of the Black Sea Area: Historical

Interpretation of Archaeology, edited by G. Tsetskhladze, 79-85. Historia Einzelschriften 121. Stuttgart.Fol, Al. 2004. Orphica Magica (bulg.). Sofia.Fol, V. 2000. “Entering the Long-Term History.” In Ancient Thrace, 41-60. Sofia.Gočeva, Zl. 2003. “The Cult of the Thracian Rider in the Context of the East Mediterranean Religion” (bulg.).

Izvestiya na Katedra Bulgarska istoria y arkheologia y Katedra Obshta istoria – Yugozapaden Universitet “NeophyteRilsky”, Blagoevgrad. N 1: Vlast y Socium. In honorem Prof. Margaritae Tač eva, 78-83.

Gočeva, Zl. 2005. “Über manche Probleme in der Ikonographie des thrakischen Reiters.” Thracia 16: 193-200.Gorbanov, P. 1975. “On the Character to the Figural Monuments of Sabazios and Some Aspects of his Cult”

(bulg.). Arkheologia 18(4): 13-18.Gorbanov, P. 1985. “The Ivory Hand from the Village of Krasen, Tolbuhin District” (bulg.). In Severoiztochna

Bulgaria: Drevnost y savremie 1, 233-36. Sofia.Krykin, S. 1993. The Thracians in the Ancient North Black Sea (russ.). Moscow.Macrea, M. 1959. “Le culte de Sabazios en Dacie.” Dacia 3: 325-39.Marchenko, I. 1974. “The Thracians on the Territory of the Lower Bug” (russ.) VDI 2: 149-61.Melyukova, A. 1969. “On the Problem of the Frontier Between Scythians and Getai” (russ.). In Drevnie frakiyzy v

Severnom Prichernomor’e, 61-80. Moscow.Milchev, A. 1975. “On the Cult of Sabazios in Lower Moesia and Thrace” (bulg.). AUSof. 66 (1972-1973): 35-77.Milchev, A. 1977. “On the Cult of Sabazios in Lower Moesia and Thrace” (russ.). VDI 2: 58-76.

Penkova, E. 2004. “Der thrakische Heros.” In Die Thraker. Das goldene Reich des Orpheus.  Kunst- undAusstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 314-21. Bonn.

Rostovtzeff, M. 1914. Ancient Decorative Painting in South Russia (russ.). Vol. 1 (text). St. Peterburg. Rostovtzeff, M. 1922. Iranians and Greeks in South Russia. Oxford.Shelov–Kovedyayev, F. 1985. “A History of the Bosporus in the Sixth–Fourth Centuries BC.” (russ.). In

Drevneyshiye gosudarstva na territorii SSSR, edited by A.P. Novosel’tzev, 5-186. Moscow.Shkorpil, B. 1911. “Report on the Excavations in the Kerch” (russ.) Izvestiya Imperatorskoy Arkheologicheskoy

Komissii 40: 62-91. Tacheva-Hitova, M. 1980. “The Cult of Sabazios in Thrace. Researches on the History of the Ancient Religions”

(bulg.). AUSof. 69: 49-73.Tacheva-Hitova, M. 1982. History of the Eastern Cults in Lower Moesia and Thrace V BC – IV AC. (bulg.). Sofia.Tacheva-Hitova, M. 1983. Eastern Cults in Moesia Inferior and Thracia (5th c. BC – 4th c. AD). Leiden.

Tsontchev, D. 1954. “Un monument de syncrétisme religieux en Thrace.” RA 44: 15-20.Ustinova, Y. 1999. The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom. Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God . Religionsin the Graeco-Roman World 135. Brill–Leiden–Boston–Köln.

Vinogradov, J.G. 1980. “Die historische Entwicklung der Poleis des nördlichen Schwarzmeergebietes im 5. Jh.v. Chr.” Chiron 10: 63-100.

Vyaz’myatina, M. 1969. “Thracians Elements in the Culture of the Population in the Lower Don” (russ.). InDrevnie frakiyzy v Severnom Prichernomor’e, 119-34. Moscow.

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1a. The Sabazios’s hand from Ekaterinoslav1b. The Sabazios’s hand from Ekaterinoslav

2. The Hand from Gradnitza3. The relief of Philippopolis

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5. The Tomb of Sabaziastai in Kerch (according to Rostovtzeff)

4. The Hand from Krasen