A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 47. (Nyíregyháza, 2005)

Régészet - János Makkay: The Miracle Stag in Ancient Greek mythical stories and their Indo-Iranian counterparts

MakkayJános Concerning the curious horse masks found in the Berek burials (see point 'k' above), where one of them (Fig. 26) has imitated horns of the mountain goat, the Vedic ritual comes to mind, where the horse bears the characteristics of the god Agni. Besides the horse, texts also mention another animal, obviously of equal importance, a goat with black spots - 'goat is like Agni', it is remarked; the fire is set up by some on the footprints of this goat (OLDENBERG 1988.40.). According to the Rig-Veda, at the horse sacrifice, in addition to the horse, a he-goat is given in sacrifice as 'Pü§an's share to announce the sacrifice to the gods'. The goat thus, acts as a guide on the way to the divine world (OLDENBERG 1988. 39-41.).

32 These two motifs and their admixture - animals converted into new forms, and the Heavenly journey - cannot be separated from the meaning of one depiction, discussed above (no. 'a', and Fig. 1), seen on the gilded silver breastplate found in the burial of the largest of the Seven brothers kurgans, on which, below the feet of the antlered stag suckling a calf, there can be observed an eagle with expanded wings. According to Gyula László, this representation had a mythological meaning which very deeply rooted in old traditions (LÁSZLÓ 1970/1974., the caption of Fig. 53). Now we can add to his suggestion that this meaning, to be communicated to the given society, goes back to very old times, to the time of the still undivided original speech community of the Indo-Iranians, if one considers its inherent, Vedic and Old-Iranian, correspondences. Well before the Scythians, this period can be identified with pre-Pit grave (pre-Kurgan) times, before the 3"' Millenia B.C. at least. This chronology, based on archaeological facts as well as linguistic considerations, confirms not only the dating given by Moravcsik (the earliest development of the Herakles-story with the Keryneian deer must be dated much before Artemis began to be imagined, and also represented, in the shape of an antlered hind). But also the assumed interpretation of Gyula László gains support, according to which the formation of such and similar mythical stories can be sought in the Upper Palaeolithic and following times, amongst religious beliefs of Ice Age hunters, living on territories, which later became the original homeland of Indo-lranian tribes. This was the period, when antlered hinds (i.e. females of reindeers) did live on territories which later became the steppe. Under the given circumstances, antlered reindeer hinds were suckling their calfs, and as such, they got a role in mythical stories. Later, after the Ice Age, reindeer herds, including, of course, their females, migrated to the north, and only red deer (Cervus elaphus) lived on the whole steppic and forest steppic belt. Surviving population groups, however, which continued to live on the same huge territory after the Ice Age, had kept their original mythological beliefs and stories, and according to the prototypes, represented suckling deer as having antlers. Slowly wild horses, and also red deer occupied the place of the reindeers (and mammooths) as the most preferred game, and this was probably the time, when stags's masks were applied to burial, sacrificial and mythical horses, and suckling hinds were represented as wearing antlers. This is only conceivable, however, if population groups of the steppic and forest steppic belt after the end of the Ice Age were genetic descendants of the Upper Palaeolithic inhabitants of the same territory. This can be expressed in modern archaeological terminology: if the peoples of the Pit grave culture can be considered the descendants of the Gravettien culture. Anthropological data, I think, would support such an idea: skeletons of both cultural groups can belong to the same Protoeuropid or Protonordoid type (MAKKAY 2000. 33-34.). Can, by the end, the suggestion of Gy. László be accepted, according to which such and similar Nordic elements became parts of the Ancient Greek Mythology? Further details can support his theory. ,: Piisan was the god of paths and wayfarers, similar to Hermes: Rig-Veda 1.162.2-4., and also X.16.4.. WHITNEY 1905/1996. 1.170.. and II. 533-538. See also VESCI 1985. 39. 32