Folia archeologica 45.

Beszédes József: Dioscuros ábrázolású sarokkő Alsóhetényből

170 MIHÁL.Y NAGY horses in this panel may be the other form of the Divine Twins in the first panel.

60 Similarly, the male god on the third panel, fishing up a snake seems to correlate with the deity represented as Heracles fighting with the Nemean Lion on the first panel: these two figures can be regarded as two manifestations of the same god as well. On the three panels of the second stripe, the theme of the fight of heroes against dark and evil powers prevail. If we assume, that the scenes were arranged consciously, according to a planned iconographical program, we may interprete the first panel of the seconcf stripe (Fig. 6) as tne fight of Heracles/Thor against a daemonic beast (the giant, named as Hrungnir in later sources?),

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1 in order to rescue the Dioscuri from the stomach of the snake. Thor uses his hammer as a weapon in this myth, which is substituted by the mace on this panel, while the club, Heracles' original attribute lies unfunctionally in the lower corner. One of these Dioscuri is named in the same myth as Aurvandil ('shining Vandal').

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2 Bellerophon who is represented on the next panel(Fig. 7), as he kills the Chimaera, may have been interpreted as a similar Germanic dragonkiller hero, named in later sorurces as Siegfried, Sigurd, Helgi or Haddingus. On the third panel again, Heracles/Thor with a snake in his hand represent the fight against tne Midgard Serpent. These three separate victories may refer to the last fight of the gods, the Ragnarök,

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4 but the goddess emerging from the earth embodies the rebirth of the 6

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Cf. De Vries 1957:11, 299 and 311-312. The snakes held by the goddess, emerging from the earth, moreover the vinestock on her left side must be considered as the symbols of earth and fertile vegetation. Dioscuri represented as horses: Much 1926, 40; and note 73 above. 6

1 Cf. De Vries 1957:11, 133. 6

2 De Vries 1957:11, 133 and Much 1934, 387. Since Aurvandil is in close relationship with the planet Venus, we may identify the female deity, at present in this scene, as the German Venus; and because of her attributes as a type similar to the Lacedaemonian one. 6

3 To the close relationship between Haddingus, the Dioscuri and Thor, see: Much 1926, 28—40; similar representation on an Alamannic pnalera from Seengen, dated to the 7th century A.D.: Floss 1967, 121. Fig. 11. Picture showing the letters in negative from the Lovas casket 11. ábra A betűk negatív képe a lovasi láuikáról