ANCIENT GOLD

THE WEALTH OFTHE THRACIANS

ANCIENT GOLD:
THE WEALTH OF THE THRACIANS

ANCIENT GOLD:
THE WEALTH OF THE THRACIANS
TREASURES FROM THE R E P U B L I C OF BULGARIA

IVAN MAR AZOV,

G E N E R A L EDITOR WITH ESSAYS BY

ALEXANDER FOL MARGARITA TACH EVA IVAN VENEDIKOV IVAN MARAZOV

AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY

IVO HADJIMI5HEV

HARRY N. ABRAMS, INC., P U B L I S H E R S , IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE TRUST FOR MUSEUM E X H I B I T I O N S IN COOPERATION WITH THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE R E P U B L I C OF BULGARIA

Warm greetings to all those viewing the exhibition Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thraciam Treasures from the Republic of Bulgaria.

Throughout history, art has been a celebration of culture, helping us to gain a deeper understanding of our world. Art provides us with the opportunity to know people of other societies and to discover all that we have in common. Indeed, the arts open our minds and awaken our senses to the human experience. The American people have the exciting opportunity to view some of the most precious art from the Republic of Bulgaria. This remarkable collection of gold and silver artifacts offers visitors a unique insight into ancient Thracian culture and helps illuminate Bulgaria's history. I am confident that all who visit this exhibit will be enriched by it. Hillary joins me in extending best wishes to all for a most enjoyable visit.

BILL CLINTON PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

I would like to express my delight at the fact that the unique exposition Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians Treasures from the Republic of Bulgaria will be on display in the United States of America. The culture and art of my people has a millennial history. I feel proud that the unique cultural heritage of Bulgaria built into the foundation of Western civilization will become known to the broad American public. The Thracian treasure exhibition will introduce the Americans to the little known ancient culture of the Thracians, which originated millennia ago in the Bulgarian lands. I would like to acknowledge everybody who has contributed to the materialization of this idea, and most of all, the organizers on the American side. My most sincere gratitude for both the financial support that made this exhibition possible, and the striking interest in the Thracian art of Bulgaria! I wholeheartedly wish the Bulgarian cultural treasures in the USA good luck and "fair winds."

PETAR STOYANOV PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

Sofia, AutjUSt 1, 1997

It is my pleasure to bring some of the most remarkable monuments of ancient Thrace the treasures of its rulersto the attention of the public of a great country. Although unknown to most Americans, the brilliant culture of the peoples who lived in the central part of the Balkan Peninsula is now considered one of the most important achievements of ancient European culture. The fruitful research of three generations of Bulgarian scholars has made the discovery of wonderful monuments possible in recent decades. Unfortunately, one exhibition cannot show all of them. The great tombs, frescoes, dolmens, and rock temples can only be seen where their ancient makers created them. Moreover, hundreds of other objects could not be included in the exhibition, objects that might seem modest, but which nonetheless reveal the high level of Thracian skill and sophistication, and which show us something of the everyday life, religion, and spiritual essence of this ancient people. It is my firm belief that this exhibition will make the American public aware of a part of the history and tradition of the Bulgarian lands that is still present in our life and mentality. Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians, on the other hand, is not only a cultural event,- it also represents an important stage in the cultural exchange between the Republic of Bulgaria and the United States of America. I hope that everyone who has been touched by the essence of these artifacts will share the romance and the wisdom of their history. EMMAMOSKOVA MINISTER OF CULTURE

' ->

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 8 by Ann Van Devanter Townsend LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION INTRODUCTION 1O

by Ivan Marazov

THRACE AND THE THRACIANS 13

by Margarita Tacheva

BETWEEN ARES AND ORPHEUS:

MYTH, KINGSHIP, AND ART IN ANCIENT TH RACE by Ivan Marazov 32

THRACIAN ROYAL TOMBS 72

by Ivan Venedikov

THE THRACIAN COSMOS by Alexander Fol CATALOGUE CHRONOLOGY NOTES 240 94 238

86

GLOSSARY 245 BIBLIOGRAPHY 246 INDEX 250

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This exhibition was begun in February, 1994, when Boyan Papazov, Cultural Counselor of the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria, came to my office in Washington, D.C. and asked if I would visit Bulgaria that May as a guest of the country's Presidency. I was delighted to accept, and indeed, I went, traveling the length and breadth of Bulgaria with two superb companions, Ivan Marazov, later our Guest Curator, and Ivo Hadjimishev, who was to become the exhibition's photographer. It was a mesmerizing introduction to a country that I have come to love. Ivo drove his tiny Russian car, amusing us with his keen wit,- Ivan, squashed in the back seat, identified wonderful sights for us; and I, in front, listened and drank in the unspoiled beauty of the land of the Thracians. Thus I learned about this fascinating ancient people. I saw the exquisite gold and silver vessels and jewelry, all found on Bulgarian soil, including what is believed to be the oldest goldwork in the world, made over the more than 4,000 years of Bulgaria's history. The Trust for Museum Exhibitions (TME) is honored that the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria has permitted it, together with the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, to organize the United States tour of Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians Treasures from the Republic of Bulgaria. Since any endeavor of this size results in many debts of gratitude, I acknowledge with great pleasure the splendid assistance and cooperation that we have received. A legion of dedicated individuals in Bulgaria and the United States has worked long and hard to organize the exhibition. We owe special appreciation to United States Ambassador to Bulgaria Avis Bohlen, to Mr. Papazof, to Professor Marazov, and to Mr. Hadjimishev. We owe equal thanks to Anneli and Richard Rahn, founders of Novecon, Sofia, who lent their colleague Maya Kalimerova to the project as Director of International Liaison. She has kept all of us, on both sides of the world, in touch with one another and on schedule with grace and tact. Without her, the exhibition, and this catalogue, would never have happened. In Bulgaria, we are especially grateful to Emma Moskova, Minister of Culture,- former Ministers of Culture Ivalio Znepolski and Georgi Kostov,- and many other individuals in the Ministry of Culture, including Anna Sendova, Albert Benbassat, Andrey Bogoyavlenski, Peter Balabanov, Georgi Guzhgulov and Natasha Todorova. We also wish to thank the museum specialists who assisted Dr. Marazov with planning and preparation, including Elka Penkova, Maya Avramova, Liubava Konova, and Elka Docheva of the National Museum of History, Sofia, and Margarita Vaklinova and Ivan Sotirov of the Archaeological Institute and Museum, Sofia. And, most importantly, we acknowledge the generosity of the participating museums in Bulgaria, without which there would be no exhibition. We are especially grateful to the scholars who contributed essays to the catalogue: Professor Ivan Marazov, Guest Curator and General Editor,- Professor Margarita Tacheva,- Professor Alexander Fol,- and Professor Ivan Venedikov. The enthusiasm of the host museums has been a vital ingredient of this project. It gives me great pleasure to thank The Saint Louis Art Museum,- the Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth,- the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco,- the New Orleans Museum of Art,- the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art,- the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,- and the Detroit Institute of Arts for their many contributions. We owe special thanks to Dr. Renee Dreyfus, Curator of Ancient Art and Interpretation at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, for her scholarly contributions and her sound advice. I also welcome the opportunity to thank all those at Harry N. Abrams, Inc. who contributed to the publication of the catalogue, especially Paul Gottlieb, Editor in Chief, Elaine Stainton, Senior Editor, and Carol Robson, Designer, for producing a beautiful book worthy of the subject and of the scholarship set forth herein. Finally, for their excellent and tireless work on the exhibition and catalogue, it gives me enormous pleasure to thank the staff of TME: Mary Sipper, Director of Exhibitions,- Vincent C. Fazio, Exhibitions Officer,Gabriela Mizes Hickey, Chief Registrar,- Kia Dorman, Development Officer,- Lewis Townsend, Comptroller,and Kathryn Aegis, Executive Assistant. And last, but not least, I wish to thank TME's dedicated volunteers, led by Keith Bamberger, TME's Volunteer Coordinator: Ann von Luttichau, Micaela Mendelsohn, Jerry Saltzman, Roberta Hoffman, Emily Hollis, Todd Lynch, Sandra Park and Alisa Pechenik.
Ann Van Devanter Townsend President, Trust for Museum Exhibitions

L E N D E R S TO THE EXHIBITION
Archaeological Institute and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia Yordanka Yurukova, Director Archaeological Museum, Varna Alexander Minchev, Director Archaeological Museum, Plovdiv Mina Bospachieva, Director History Museum, Blagoevgrad Kamelia Gruncharova, Director History Museum, Burgas Tsonya Drazheva, Director History Museum, Kazanluk Koslo Zarev, Director History Museum, Pazardjik History Museum, Kiustendil Ilya Prokopov, Director History Museum, Lovech Ivan Lalev, Director History Museum, Montana Uliana Derakchiiska, Director Dimitri Mitrev, Director History Museum, Razgrad Ivan Ivanov, Director History Museum, Pleven Mihail Grancharov, Director

History Museum, Russe Rumyan Ganchev, Director

History Museum, Stara Zagora Hristo Buyukliev, Director

History Museum, Targovishte Ilka Angelova, Director

History Museum, Veliko Turnovo Petyo Penkov, Director

National History Museum, Sofia Bojidar Dimitrov, Director

INTRODUCTION: THE VOICES OF A N C I E N T T H R A C E

BY IVAN M A R A Z O V

I he people of Thrace, a country to the north of ancient Greece, were I renowned in antiquity for their courage and their wisdom. Thrace was also the homeland of a number of the poets of Greek mythology: Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, and Thamyris. Moreover, the Thracians introduced the Greeks to the secrets of the mysteries religious rites that encouraged the union of the human spirit with that of the divine. The Thracians had no alphabet of their own, and thus they left no written record of how they saw themselves. All of our knowledge of the customs and beliefs of these earliest inhabitants of the Balkans comes to us from the writings of their neighbors, especially Greeks of the seventh to the second century BC, and later, Romans. But interpretations of events are inevitably based on our own conceptions of the world,- thus, the eyes and ears of outsiders to anyt culture often distort what they see and hear. When observations are made hundreds, and even thousands, of years after what they describe, the distortions may be even greater. Thus, Greek and Roman accounts of Thracian life and history have to be read with great care. Fortunately, the Thracians possessed a highly developed visual tradition, which offers us a series of original texts that are truly theirs. While it is a challenge, and a risky one, to try to understand a vanished civilization through its surviving artifacts, in this case we have no other choice. It is our hope that this exhibition will give these Thracian objects their own voice. The principal themes of the exhibition have been determined by the nature of the archaeological finds themselves: burials, horses and chariots, myths, royal insignia, royal gifts, cult sets, and treasures. These spheres of life and thought were the central preoccupations of the Thracian world, and thus the objects that have been found in the Thracian tombs and buried hoards have been chiefly harness ornaments, vessels, and jewelry. We must emphasize, however, that these masterpieces were not made primarily as art as things of beauty but as expressions of an ideological reality. During the past twenty-five years, exhibitions of Thracian art have toured museums throughout the world. This is the first exhibition, however, whose conscious aim has been to reconstruct the manner of life and the mythology of ancient Thrace. We hope that the brilliance of the gold and the artistry of the masters whose work is shown here will reveal, in its broader aspect, the Thracian philosophy of life and afterlife. We are particularly pleased that American visitors will be the first to see the most recent discoveries of Bulgarian archaeology, which give new insights into the Thracian past. It is with great pleasure that we present these timeless messages from the past, and we hope that they will speak to people today as they did in antiquity. After viewing the exhibition and reading the catalogue, should visitors feel that they have touched the essence of an unfamiliar and longvanished civilization, we shall be content, knowing that the radiance of the gold and silver has echoed the beauty of the songs of Orpheus. Welcome to the mystical world of Ancient Thrace!
1O

Opposite-. Men attacking a house, a detail of a scene on a gold amphora-rhyton from the Panagyurishte Treasure (cat. no. 71)

THRACE AND THE THRACIANS

BY M A R G A R I T A T A C H E V A

Introduction
"he ancient Thracians inhabited the lands of the Balkan Peninsula north I of Greece from earliest historical times. Yet there is little historical information about them until they came into contact with the Greeks. From the sixth century BC they were well known to literate peoplethat is, people who could read Greekprimarily from Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Evidence indicates that they were known to the seafaring Phoenicians even earlier, as modern archaeologists have found traces of a Phoenician presence on the Thracian coasts dating to the second millennium BC. Because the Thracians had no written language, most of our knowledge of them until recently came from accounts left by the Greeks and Romans. Since World War II, however, the art and culture of Thrace have attracted increasing scholarly interest as artifacts found on Bulgarian soil have provided a vast new storehouse of knowledge. In 1963, the German historian and archaeologist Joseph Wiesner, bridging the formidable barrier between Eastern and Western Europe after the Second World War, published the first comprehensive although briefhistory of this "lost people," as he poetically called them. 1

Above: Griffin attacking a doe, a gilded ornament within a bowl from the Borovo Treasure (fourth century BC; cat. no. 177)

Who Were the Thracians?

Long before they were mentioned in written history, the Thracians were a loosely organized group of tribes inhabiting the territory bounded by the Axios (now the Vardar) River, which flows through a Yugoslav Macedonia and Greece, the Aegean Sea, the Pontos Euxeinos (the Black Sea) and the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. The Propontis (the Sea of Marmara) washed the coasts of the Thracian Chersonesus (the Gallipoli Peninsula) and of Asia Minor, which was also inhabited by Thracian tribes. The Thynoi, Bithynoi, Phrygians, and Moesians were all related to the European Thracians, and customarily used the same, or similar, names. Just when these various tribes came to Thrace and Asia Minor is a problem that still puzzles historians. It is under investigation by researchers in many disciplines, who continue to analyze information from ancient Greek writings, as well as archaeological and linguistic data. Yet, with research completed to the present, archaeologists, linguists, and art historians from a number of countries, working together, have lifted the life and culture of the Thracians out of virtual oblivion. This essay is intended to introduce Thrace and the Thracians to a new audience in the United States, bringing to light some of the latest scholarly discoveries about this fascinating people. It is hoped that this information will interest not only scholars and confirmed lovers of ancient art, but also general readers, art historians, history students, and museum vis-

Opposite: Detail of a silver-gilt skyphos from Strelcha (cat. no.

itors. Certainly, thoughtful viewers of the exhibition that accompanies this book will come to know and appreciate the ancient Thracians, not only as the valiant warriors described by the Greeks, but also as a people who created objects of great elegance. As the pieces in the exhibition show, the Thracians appreciated beauty and fine craftsmanship. This is evident in their handsome bridles and riding gear, in the decoration of their chariots and helmets, and in the exquisite vesselsrhytons, phialae, and oinochoaethat they used for drinking and for pouring libations at the altars of their gods.

The Lands of Thrace before the Thracians

Until recently, when people spoke of ancient civilizations, they first mentioned Mesopotamia and Egypt. The origins of these great cultures can be traced back to the fifth millennium BC, and both developed societies and states around the end of the fourth millennium. The monuments that they left still inspire awe: temples and pyramids,- burials abounding in gold vessels and jewelry, bronze objects, and weapons,- hieroglyphic and cuneiform inscriptions relating the history of pharaohs and kings, wars and conquests. These superb achievements were the creation of farmers and stock breeders living in the irrigated lands of two great river valleys, one of the Nile, and the other of the Tigris and Euphrates. During the last twenty-five years, archaeologists and scholars of ancient history have become increasingly aware that the fifth millennium BC was a period of rapid cultural development in Europe, too. Indeed, just as the kingdoms of the Nile and Mesopotamia flourished along rivers, it should not surprise us that the early phases of another great civilization have come to light in the fertile valley of another great river, the Danube. In 1972, Bulgarian archaeologists found traces of this culture in northeastern Bulgaria, in the course of excavating the necropolis of a settlement dating to the fifth millennium BC, covered by the waters of Lake Varna, near the present-day city on the Black Sea of the same name. 2 This was an Eneolithic site, that is, it belonged to the transitional period between the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages, when copper and bronze were in production. The necropolis at Varna, unlike others known in southeastern Europe of the same period, was found to contain astonishingly rich burials. One of these yielded more than three pounds of gold, in the form of exquisite appliques, bracelets, and beads, as well as gold ornamentation on clay vessels (cat. nos. 65, 134, 142, 143,156, 157). Many of these objects gave evidence of a considerable degree of technical accomplishment. The massive gold bracelets found at the site, for example, were concave in shape, a form that challenges skilled goldsmiths even today. In one of the graves at the Varna necropolis, along with objects of the sort just mentioned, were the earliest power insignia ever discovered in the Mediterranean world. If we allow ourselves to imagine a dead chieftain, dressed in his tunic decorated with several hundred gold beads, his arms loaded with gold bracelets, and holding in his hands the insignia of powerthe stone ax-scepter and the copper spear with gold-plated han14

Below: The Vulchitrun Treasure (cat. nos. 184

dies that were found in the gravewe can picture a powerful ruling figure not unlike an Egyptian pharaoh. There are, however, differences between this early European ruler and his Egyptian counterpart evident in the manner of their burial that indicate a different social structure. While the pharaoh rests alone in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the European ruler lies buried among his kinsmen and subjects, even though, in his lifetime, his position was separate from theirs. The social division between ruler and ruled in the Varna culture, as this ancient culture is now called, is suggested by the objects retrieved from another archaeological site, a necropolis and settlement discovered near Lake Dourankoulak in the southern Dobruja, the steppeland along the Black Sea just south of the Danube delta. At this site, evidence exists that the ruler's house stood in the center of the settlement on solid stone foundations. The rest of the buildings, although of similar construction, were much smaller and considerably less substantial. 3 Careful evaluation of the evidence has shown that the gold objects found at the village of Hotnitsa, as well as the round clay tablets [pintaderae] decorated with symbols discovered elsewhere in the lower Danube area, are contemporary with the Late Eneolithic culture of Varna. 4 The tablet symbols have been interpreted by archaeologists as pictograms, suggesting that the people who inhabited the settlements near Varna, Dourankoulak and Hotnitsa used an early form of hieroglyphic writing. Unfortunately, we have no key to decipher the pictograms as yet.

Who were these people, skilled in working gold (which was mined according to metallurgists, in a variety of locations), making both plain and gilded pottery, and who, perhaps more surprisingly, had horse-drawn chariots? Were they native to this part of the world, or did they migrate from somewhere else? And if they came from somewhere else, where was it? From the steppes of the nomadic North, as the archaeological evidence seems to suggest? Or might they have come via the oldest bridge between Europe and Asia the Bosporus according to the legends recorded by the Greek lexicographers? Were the people of this Varna culture the ancestors of the people who succeeded them in this territory, the Thracians of the Bronze Age? To this last question it is possible to formulate a well-grounded no. As in many parts of the Mediterranean world, there is considerable archaeological evidence of a drastic drop in population at the end of the Eneolithic period in lands along the western Black Sea, whose people seem to have been overwhelmed by invaders in the Early Bronze Age. The end of the fifth millennium BC brought an end to the Varna culture. It was not fated to contribute to the formation of the Bronze Age civilization of the new millennium, as were the contemporary cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia. In the Early Bronze Age that followed the collapse of Eneolithic culture around the Mediterranean, the revolving wheel of fortune stopped at the island of Crete, the seat of the maritime empire of the legendary king Minos. Crete, roughly equidistant from Asia, Africa, and Europe, not only grew rich from its trade with the surrounding continents, it also adapted many of the cultural achievements of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the other peoples of the Mediterranean region.

The Thracians of the Bronze Age

We have considerable knowledge of the Bronze Age in southeastern Europe.5 Further, Greek myths and legends provide us with knowledge of the Bronze Age people of the Balkans, whom the Greeks called Pelasgians, Leleges, or Karians. Exactly who the mythic Pelasgians were is still a mystery. Written sources say that they inhabited the lands of the Aegeis, that is to say Italy, the Balkans,- Asia Minor, and the island of Crete, before either the Greeks or the Thracians settled there. 6 Homer includes "Pelasgian Argos" in Achilles's domain (Iliad 2.681). Even Herodotus (History 1.57) was unable to define the language of the Pelasgians, although linguists today believe that they spoke an Indo-European tongue. Linguistic data, supported by archaeological evidence from the preliterary period of the Balkans and Asia Minor, suggest some relationship between the Thracians and the Pelasgians. Hence, some scholars subscribe to the theory of a Thracian-PelasgianHittite-Luvian ethnic and cultural community during the Bronze Age. The life of the Pelasgians who inhabited the Balkans was disturbed by intermittent invasions from the north throughout the Bronze Age. The Achaeans, the first Hellenic settlers, arrived at the beginning of the second millennium BC, and created what is called the Mycenaean civiliza-

Opposite: Silver-gilt appliques from a harness found at Ravnogor, Pazardjik (second or first century BQ cat. nos. 55-60)

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tion. The Mycenaean rulers not only conquered and subordinated the Pelasgians and occupied their lands, but also challenged the authority of the Minoan state in Crete. Preserving everything worth keeping from the Pelasgian culture, and borrowing what they liked from the Minoans, the Mycenaean cultural synthesis led to the emergence of the first European civilization that bore the fundamental and perhaps most important feature of the Hellenic world: the ability to establish contacts with its neighbors successfully on both sea and land. The Mycenaean kings not only ended the hegemony of Crete in the Mediterranean, they also took on its key role in Mediterranean sea trade. Their megalithic fortresses and tombs at Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, and elsewhere guarded their riches and glorified their dead. These massive stone structures seem to have been built, as in Egypt, by the peasants dispossessed of their land, which had passed into the hands of the kings and their noble relations. A similar situation existed in the former territories of the Pelasgians to the north, in the lands that are today called "Homer's," "Mycenaean," or "Orphic" Thrace. The indigenous people who had survived the Achaean migration seem to have accepted the leadership of the new kings who migrated there. The tombs of that period, either cut into the rock of the
18

The Historical Extent of Thracian Settlement

Rhodope Mountains or built on the Mycenaean model, were splendid. The famous fourth -to-third-century-BC tomb discovered near the village of Mezek8 is a late replica of Mycenaean design, which was adapted by the Thracians and survived as an element of Thracian royal power for centuries after the form disappeared from Greece (see p. 75). In fact, from the early Mycenaean age, the Thracian kings were rich indeed, judging from the vast amount of gold used to make the magnificent pieces of the Vulchitrun treasure (cat. nos. 184-196). Although the dating of this treasure is disputed, the latest suggestion for its date is the sixteenth century BC. Today, most specialists assume that the gold vessels found in the treasure, weighing thirteen kilograms, were owned by an unknown Thracian king. Recently the Bulgarian scholar Ivan Venedikov presented his reconstruction of the unique tripartite vessel from this opulent set (cat. no 184). 9 It is generally believed that the Vulchitrun Treasure had a ritual function in the sanctuary of a solar cult. It was probably buried at the end of the second millennium BC, about the time of the Aegean migration, when the Dorian Greeks brought to the Balkan Peninsula a knowledge of iron-working technology. The Doric migration is thought to have occurred about the same time as the first and most significant recorded Balkan event: the Trojan War. Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, tell the story of the last days of Troy, a city in Asia Minor besieged by a group of Mycenaean allies. Several Thracian rulers who fought in the war are mentioned in the Iliad, all of them referred to as basilei, or "kings" by the Greeks. These are Rhesus (Rhesos, or Rezos), Pyraichmes, Akamas, and Peiroos. They were Thracian military leaders from the Aegean coast, loyal allies of the Trojans, nobly portrayed in the words of Homer:
Then Tbracicms from beyond the strait, all those whom Helle's rushing waters bounded there, Akamas led, and the verteran Peiroos. Son of Troizenos Keades, Euphmos led the Kicones from their distant shore/ and those most distant archers, Paiones, Pyraichmes led from Amydon, from Axios bemirroring all the plain. Homer, Iliad, Book II, 844-850 Translation: Robert Fitzgerald

Indisputably the most impressive image is that of the Trojan ally, the Thracian basileus Rhesus, in most serious threat to the Mycenaeans' plan to conquer Troy:
If you are bent on raiding a Trojan company, yonder are Thracians just arrived, far out on the left wing, apart from everyone. Their king is Rhesos Eionides, his horses the most royal I have seen, whiter than snow and swift as the seawind. His chariot is a masterwork in gold and silver, and the armor, huge and golden, brought by him here is marvelous to see, like no war-gear of men but of immortals. . . Homer, Iliad, BooleX, 433-444 Translation: Robert Fitzgerald

Archaeological investigations of the ruins of Troy showed evidence of a possible Thracian presence there, according to the Bulgarian scholar D. P. Dimitrov. 10 If so, a statement by Diodorus Siculus (7.11), a Greek historian writing in the first century BC, may well be true. He wrote that one hundred and seventy-seven years after the Trojan War, the Thracians achieved, albeit briefly, supremacy on the sea, wrested from the Pelasgians. Seventy-nine years later they lost this supremacy to the people of the island of Rhodes. This period of Thracian maritime power'' probably explains the habit in the ancient world of referring to the body of water that we call the Bosporus as the "Thracian" or "Moesian" Bosporus.

Opposite: Territories of the Thracian Tribes and Their Neighbors

The Legendary Thracian Kings

Since Homer's time, the Thracian king Rhesus has impressed the readers of the Iliad. Even though he was treacherously murdered before he could join the battle with his Trojan allies, he cuts a fine figure, against the gold and silver background of his weapons and chariot. Scholars disagree as to whether Rhesus was a figure conceived in epic tradition, oras most assume a poetic image of a Thracian king from a later period, when the Greeks were trading with the Thracians and colonizing their coasts, establishing such settlements as Byzantium, named after the Thracian Byzas, later the capital of the Byzantine Empire. It is generally assumed that over the centuries human imagination has intertwined implausible legends with accepted narratives of real historical events. It is difficult to determine the historical facts that inspired the legends and myths of the Thracian kings, partly because they were narrated by foreign observers, the Greeks. The legendary image of the Thracians was created by historians and dramatists in Greece and Rome, in periods when these countries no longer had kings, and what these authors wrote was based on their mythological traditions. In the past two decades many scholars have adopted a different approach to understanding Bronze Age Thrace. Comparing the images preserved on Thracian and Greek objects, they have employed both historical and legendary data to reconstruct the system of Thracian royal power. These images, many of them masterpieces of Thracian and Greek metalwork made by artists on commission from various Thracian kings, exhibit numerous figures from Thracian mythology and cosmogony that communicate ideas of Thracian royal power and its religious doctrine. These new avenues of research have gradually led to the reconstruction of a political and religious portrait of the Bronze Age Thracian ruler from the period of the Trojan War. The legendary Thracian king Orpheus has been associated with a specific political and religious doctrine, which he advocated. This doctrine, generally known as "Thracian Orphism," was based on the idea of the divine origin of the king and his royal power, and on the belief in the possibility of kings and aristocratic men to achieve immortality, as described in the myths and legends of ancient Thrace. 12