Here i wanted to talk you about the Madara Rider ( Madara Horseman ) early medieval large rock relief carved on the Madara Plateau east of Shumen in northeastern Bulgaria, near the village of Madara.
The relief depicts a majestic horseman 23 m above ground level in an almost vertical 100-metre-high cliff. The horseman, facing right, is thrusting a spear into a lion lying at his horse’s feet. An eagle is flying in front of the horseman and a dog is running after him. The scene symbolically depicts a military triumph.
The monument is dated back to circa 710 AD and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979. The dating means the monument was created during the rule of Bulgar Khan Tervel, and supports the thesis that it is a portrayal of the khan himself and a work of the Bulgars, a nomadic tribe of warriors which settled in northeastern Bulgaria at the end of the 7th century AD and after merging with the local Slavs gave origin to the modern Bulgarians. Other theories connect the relief with the ancient Thracians, claiming it portrays a Thracian god.
Continue reading The Madara Rider rock relief
The Hero god, also known as the Thracian Horseman, as he was worshiped by the Thracians, was not a specific person. Although ancestor worship of real people who had done great deeds bled into it, the Thracian Hero was an abstract figure, the idea of a Hero. It is this metaphysical entity around which worship centered. The Hero was no doubt the central figure in Thracian religion, the hope and faith of the people. Their hero was allseeing and allhearing, he was the sun and also the ruler of the nether world, he was the protector of life and health, and kept the forces of evil at bay. In modern Bulgaria he continues to perform that function going by the name of St. George.
The Thracian Hero was depicted all the time, all over the place. Always on a horse, slaying something, slaying anything, usually with a spear. Over 1500 stone reliefs and more than 100 bronze statuettes of the Horseman have been uncovered on the territory of present-day Bulgaria. From antiquity, through Roman times, through the middle ages, and today, the immage of the Horseman is inescapable in Bulgaria.
The Thracian Hero is also responsible for the Greek word ‘Heros’ from which the English word ‘hero’ is derived.
Continue reading The Hero god also known as the Thracian Horseman
The latest archaeological excavations at Perperikon revealed a site almost literally described by the ancient authors as the Temple of Dionysus in Mount Rhodope. A huge hall was carved into the rock and apparently left roofless, judging by the absence of holes for any roof beams in the surrounding rock walls. At the very centre of this open space, a magnificent round altar was sculpted from the rock, almost 6 ft in diameter and rising approximately 9 ft above the floor. 
The top of the alter revealed a multitude of oval cavities filled with fragments of late Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery. Northeast of the altar, an almost square platform must have served some ceremonial purpose. Fragments of smaller, clay alters were found at the foot of the central one. Perperikon and the rocks all around it are scarred by thousands of troughs, basins and spillways, which are difficult to study because most of them lie under centuries of earth. Excavations in 1983 unearthed a considerable portion of the northern slope but one can only imagine the sight that met the eye of the ancient beholder: the mammoth rock with thousands of alters cut in its side and the magnificent shrine perched on its top.
Continue reading Great Ancient Altars of Perperikon
The cult of Dionysus was deeply rooted in Thracian culture in the Rhodope. Another tradition for which the mountain was famous in ancient times was the mining of gold, silver and precious stones. One of the largest mines in Antiquity was located near the present-day village of Stremtsi, about a mile and a half from Perperikon. What remains of it are about a dozen entrances and more than 500 metres of galleries. The entire hillside was cut through by a thick network of tunnels and caverns. During the Pleistocene, the site must have been the bed of a subterranean river carrying gold-rich alluvium. In subsequent geological periods, the upper layers of rock must have collapsed and, as the river bed dried up, the alluvial deposits became consolidated. The ancient gold-diggers crushed the rock into gravel and then washed away the lighter sands with water from the nearby river.
Continue reading Perperikon Gold Cultular Treasures
Herodotus found the Oracle of Dionysus in the land of the Satrians remarkable: “[…] it is a prophetess who utters the oracles, as at Delphi.” Other sources provide evidence of at least two of those oracles which left a mark on world history.
Undoubtedly, the most important record in this regard is Suetonius’ account of the visit paid by the first Roman Emperor’s father to the Temple of Dionysus in the Rhodope. The prophets sat in a roofless oval chamber and, as the Roman historian tells us: ” … When Octavian, father of Augustus, at the head of his army, came upon the Holy Mount of Dionysus, he consulted the oracle about his son, and the prophets said to him that his son was to rule the world, for as the wine was spilt onto the altar, the smoke rose up above the top of the shrine and even unto heavens, as had happened when Alexander the Great himself had sacrificed upon that same altar.”
Continue reading The Oracles of Dionysus
For more than a century already, archaeologists have searched for the remains of the famous temple where Dionysus had an oracle. It is believed that, when made, the discovery will be as important as that of Troy and Mycenae. Very little is known about the temple today and the only thing which is know for sure is that it was in the Holy Rhodope mountains.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus is the main source of information about the temple of Dionysus. In his famous History, Herodotus gives an account of the march of Xerxes’ immense army on Greece in 480 BC. As the huge invasion force was slowly making its way along the Aegean coast, many Thracian tribes sent envoys to pledge their allegiance to Xerxes. Only the Satrians, who inhabited the Rhodope, chose to ignore him: “The Satrians however never yet became obedient to any man, so far as we know, but they remain up to my time still free, alone of all the Thracians. […] These are they who possess the Oracle of Dionysus; which Oracle is on their most lofty mountains. Of the Satrians those who act as prophets of the temple are the Bessians.” Indeed, the Satrians went down in later historical accounts as Bessians.
Continue reading The Temple of Dionysus on Holy Mount Rhodope
