Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

gallery of objects
ground, is a large basin containing three beakers with a ladle nearby. Behind the seated
woman (to the viewer’s left) the standing male attendant holds a drinking horn aloft
in his left hand. Behind him are two kneeling men facing each other. Both hold on to a
single rhyton from which they drink. One of the men wears a gorytos. Next is another
pair of kneeling men. One, who holds a short sword in his left hand, grasps the hair of
the other, who is evidently a captive wearing a loin cloth. In front of the captive’s chest
is what appears to be a ram’s head. All the men, other than the prisoner, wear typical
Scythian dress of trousers, thigh-length belted coats, and leather hats.
The scene as an entity defies interpretation, unless it is simply intended to illustrate
different aspects of Scythian life. The seated female is evidently a goddess who seems
to be being approached by a hero warrior as a suitor, a composition known elsewhere
in the Scythian repertoire (above, pp. 278–80). Her male attendant and the musicians,
who are encouraging the warrior in his quest, are part of the same engagement. The
two comrades sharing a single rhyton may be enacting the blood-brotherhood ritual
(p. 217), while the two men engaged in pouring drinks may simply represent convivial
comradeship. This leaves only the scene of the captor and his victim, which is unusual
in Scythian iconography. Implicit in it is the suspicion that the captive is about to
be beheaded as an act of sacrifice.
If the entire compilation is meant to be read as one, the simplest explanation is that
it displays the sacred marriage between the goddess and a hero with the attendant
jollifications; all Scythian life is there.
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