У статті детально аналізуються зображення на золотих оббивках горитів чортомлицького
типу. Деталізується і уточнюється трактування
сцен із життя Ахілла. Робиться припущенні щодо
магічної складової зображень, сюжет яких майстром був ретельно відібраний і продуманий.
The paper analyzes the images on the gold gorytos
covers of the second half of the 4th century BC (fig. 1).
These items were found in the Chertomlyk kurgan (now
the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine), the Melitopol
kurgan (now the Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine), the kurgan
near the town of Ilyintssi (now Vinnytsia Oblast,
Ukraine) and the kurgan 8 from group of Piat’ bratiev
(Five Brothers) near the stanitsa Elizavetinskaya (now
the Rostov Oblast, Russia).
All gorytos covers are of the same size. They were
made using a bronze matrix (or a set of matrices) at the
same time and in the same workshop.
Most modern researchers accept the interpretation
of the central images on the gorytos covers as the scenes
from the life of Achilles, the hero of the Greek epic, who
was revered by Greeks as divine protector. K. Robert
proposed this interpretation in 1891. B. V. Farmakovsky
singled out five scenes from the life of Achilles
which sequentially represent the Hero from his childhood
to the death (fig. 2: 1).
In this paper the author identifies nine scenes
(fig. 2: 2). Upper frieze: 1) a young man (possibly Apollo)
teaches the boy Achilles archery; Thetis stands side
by side, she worries about the fate of her son Achilles
(fig. 3: 3); 2) Achilles says his mother Thetis goodbye
before leaving to the island of Skyros; 3) Odysseus
finds Achilles on the island of Skyros; 4) Deidamia, the
wife of Achilles, runs away in despair; 5) Peleus hands
over his weapon to his son Achilles.
Lower frieze: 6) Briseis regrets her fate as a slave
(fig. 3: 1—2); 7) Zeus establishes the events in the fates
of the heroes (fig. 3: 4); 8) Achilles accepts the gifts from
Agamemnon and makes peace with him, a wounded
Odysseus is standing beside him; 9) Thetis carries the
bag with ashes of Achilles and mourns his death (fig. 3:
5). All scenes tell about the events that preceded the
manifestation of Achilles as a great warrior and hero:
the beginning of warfare training, the events on the
eve of the beginning of the Trojan War, the events at
the walls of Troy and the quarrel with Agamemnon.
Perhaps these images are associated with the magic
of knowledge about the beginning, about the origin. In
this case, this is knowledge about the origin of Achilles
as a hero. Such magical knowledge made it possible to
wield the power of the Protector Hero and direct it to
the right direction like a prayer or a spell.
Gorytos was the Scythian weapon. This gorytos series
was made in some workshop of a Greek city-state,
possibly in the Bosporus kingdom. They were donated
to the Scythian rulers with a secret purpose: with the
help of magical images to restrain the warlike moods of
the Scythians, to pacify them. Therefore, these gorytos
were like a wooden horse which, according to the Greek
epic, the Achaean warriors left as the so-called gift of
Troy and with its help captured this impregnable city.
