DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0349
Dios and D/os Nysos 283
two, and this break, which shows clearly in the plate, almost destroyed the fifth letter in
ofipov. Dimensions as follows : Height, as now restored, 46 cm. Original portion: height
34 cm. ; width at top 36 cm., at bottom 365 cm.; depth of recessed panel 1^ cm.; thickness
at top 6 to 4 cm. Back roughly tooled.'
The relief shows Zeus Sabdzios as a bearded god on horseback advancing towards an
ancient leafless tree. He wears a chiton with short sleeves, a stiff chlamys over his back,
and a diadem round his head. He holds a thunderbolt in his right hand, a couple of
spears in his left. In the tree is an eagle side by side with a snake. Beneath the tree
burns a small square altar, close to which stands a wide-mouthed krath-. Thunderbolt
and eagle characterise the god as Zeus ; snake and krate'r (cp. Dem. de cor. 259 Kpar-qpi^v),
as Sabdzios. All four attributes are found on the .SaMc^-monuments already noted
(supra i. 391 ff. fig. 296 bronze hand, pi. xxvii bronze relief), which likewise have the
Fig. 179.
eagle and snake juxtaposed in friendly fashion. The unusual features of this stele are the
conception of the god as a rider and his connexion with a dream. Zeus Sabdzios is not
elsewhere an equestrian figure, unless it be he who on the well known but little under-
stood bronze plaque from Rome, now at Berlin (F. Lajard in the Mon. d. Inst, iv pi. 38, 1,
id. Recherches stir le culte du cypres pyramidal Paris 1854 pp. 113 ff., 281 f., 360 pi. 7, 6,
E. Gerhard ' Phrygische Gotter zu Pferd' in the Arch. Zeit. 1854 xii. 209 ff. pi. 65, 3
(§ 3 (c) i (o)), Reinach Rip. Reliefs ii. 30 no. 3, W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii.
2744, T. Eisele ib. iv. 250), swings a double axe as he gallops over a prostrate human
form. But the god appears in a variety of poses (figs. 179, 180, 185) according to local
convention, and here it is not difficult to recognise the influence of Thrace {supra fig. 175).
As to the dream, it will be remembered that in Aristoph. vesp. 9 ff. Sosias and Xanthias
both get dreams from Sabdzios. Xanthias sees a great eagle carry off an asp to the sky;
two, and this break, which shows clearly in the plate, almost destroyed the fifth letter in
ofipov. Dimensions as follows : Height, as now restored, 46 cm. Original portion: height
34 cm. ; width at top 36 cm., at bottom 365 cm.; depth of recessed panel 1^ cm.; thickness
at top 6 to 4 cm. Back roughly tooled.'
The relief shows Zeus Sabdzios as a bearded god on horseback advancing towards an
ancient leafless tree. He wears a chiton with short sleeves, a stiff chlamys over his back,
and a diadem round his head. He holds a thunderbolt in his right hand, a couple of
spears in his left. In the tree is an eagle side by side with a snake. Beneath the tree
burns a small square altar, close to which stands a wide-mouthed krath-. Thunderbolt
and eagle characterise the god as Zeus ; snake and krate'r (cp. Dem. de cor. 259 Kpar-qpi^v),
as Sabdzios. All four attributes are found on the .SaMc^-monuments already noted
(supra i. 391 ff. fig. 296 bronze hand, pi. xxvii bronze relief), which likewise have the
Fig. 179.
eagle and snake juxtaposed in friendly fashion. The unusual features of this stele are the
conception of the god as a rider and his connexion with a dream. Zeus Sabdzios is not
elsewhere an equestrian figure, unless it be he who on the well known but little under-
stood bronze plaque from Rome, now at Berlin (F. Lajard in the Mon. d. Inst, iv pi. 38, 1,
id. Recherches stir le culte du cypres pyramidal Paris 1854 pp. 113 ff., 281 f., 360 pi. 7, 6,
E. Gerhard ' Phrygische Gotter zu Pferd' in the Arch. Zeit. 1854 xii. 209 ff. pi. 65, 3
(§ 3 (c) i (o)), Reinach Rip. Reliefs ii. 30 no. 3, W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii.
2744, T. Eisele ib. iv. 250), swings a double axe as he gallops over a prostrate human
form. But the god appears in a variety of poses (figs. 179, 180, 185) according to local
convention, and here it is not difficult to recognise the influence of Thrace {supra fig. 175).
As to the dream, it will be remembered that in Aristoph. vesp. 9 ff. Sosias and Xanthias
both get dreams from Sabdzios. Xanthias sees a great eagle carry off an asp to the sky;