Иранская мифологема царской власти и пектораль из Толстой Могилы

Abstract

Статья посвящена анализу изображений на золотой пекторали из кургана середины IV в. до н. э. Толстая Могила. На основании изучения структуры пекторали, всех ее составляющих частей и на сопоставлении изобразительных мотивов с иранской мифологией, предлагается новый вариант интерпретации общего содержания изображений пекторали.

The article is devoted to the analysis of images on a gold pectoral from the Tovsta Mogyla of the middle of the 4th century BC. The product has a well-thoughtout structure (fig. 1). The main friezes are the internal and external ones. The central axis on which the most important scenes are located is highlighted. The arrangement of the scenes inside the friezes is subject to pendulum symmetry (fig. 2). The main theme of the external frieze is the death. The central scene embodies the triumph of death, but with each next scene it recedes, and in scenes with a hare and grasshoppers one can watch the transition of the theme to its opposite. The main theme of the internal frieze is life. The development of life is shown through the growth of cubs from the moment of birth to the beginning of adult life. Figures of birds on the frieze edges indicate a change in theme. The story of man, which also has its development, is interwoven into the internal frieze. Its beginning is in the central scene where two men create the clothes from sheep’s clothing. Such clothes in Iranian mythology symbolized the royal khwarrah. It can be assumed that the central characters are the gods who create the royal khwarrah and the happy fate of the future ruler. Such gods could be the Iranian Verethragna and Mithra, corresponding to the Scythian «Ares» and Oitosyros. In the three scenes of the upper frieze the myth about royal power is enclosed. Its main motives are following: predetermining the birth of the king and his happy fate, birth, raising by shepherds, being at the headquarters of the ruler after reaching adulthood and gaining royal power. The appearance of this mythology in the Iranian environment is probably associated with the accession of Cyrus the Great and the Achaemenid dynasty. In the Scythian environment it was called upon to legitimize the power of the rulerowner of the pectoral. Apparently the myth was a reference to the legendary times of Kolaxais, the ancestor of the Paralates, Scythian warriors and kings. In such a situation the pectoral was conceived as one of the visible incarnations of the royal family khwarrah, telling by means of iconography about its origin.

Стаття присвячена аналізу зображень на золотій пекторалі з кургану Товста Могила середини IV ст. до н. е.