Apotropaic Images in the Eastern European Scythian Animal Style

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2023-2/86-104

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of the semantics of the Scythian animal style images in the Eastern European zone. The issues covered include characteristic motifs and the specifics of modelling techniques for Scythian zoomorphic images. The object of the study consists of 39 images that decorate golden sewn-on plaques from archaeological sites and locations within the Eastern European zone. The methodological complex included the traditional iconographic, formal-­stylistic and structural-­semiotic methods, and the general scientific hypothetical-­deductive method. The study is novel in that it analyses the models of zoomorphic and monstrous images in the aspect of characteristic motifs used to create ithyphallic images in erotic scenes and their stylization in the form of animals. The analyzed images of the “mountain goat”, “moose goat” and “predator” contain complexes of motifs that are characterized by semantic duality: they create images of “real” and “monstrous” animals, and at the same time — ithyphallic images, being their stylization in the images of animals. The artistic technique consists in imitation of reality and a metaphorical shift, resulting in a combination of “realistic” and “metaphorical” images. The dominant image is the apotropaic ithyphallic image. The systematization of motifs of ithyphallic images and their modeling will be used for a comparative study of all zones of the Scythian-­Siberian animal style.