Open AccessGRIFFIN AND SNAKE IN SCYTHIAN ART
Author(s) -
A.Yu. Alekseev
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
arheologìâ ì davnâ ìstorìâ ukraïni
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2708-6143
pISSN - 2227-4952
DOI - 10.37445/adiu.2019.02.32
Subject(s) - griffin , depiction , creatures , interpretation (philosophy) , art , paleontology , archaeology , history , ancient history , philosophy , art history , literature , geology , natural (archaeology) , linguistics
The note suggests the interpretation of a group of bronze pole-tops with a depiction of a griffin originated from Krasnokut Grave and some other burial mounds as representing the gnawing of a snake. The subject is extremely rare in the Hellenistic-Scythian art, close to him is known only one item — a gold plate of the sheath from the Elizavetovsky burial ground on the Lower Don-river. The reasons for the appearance and the essence of this composition remain unclear, except the most general assumption about the existence of ideas about the opposition of fantastic creatures — some kind of mediators associated with several zones of the Scythian Cosmos (mainly the upper ones), from the one side, to the animals (snakes) of the lower, chthonic and hostile to man zones, from the other.