Ein Thrakischer Herakles. Zur Phiale von Rogozen
A Thracian Herakles. More on the Phiale from Rogozen

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the famous artistic motif on the silver phiale with gilt from the Rogozen treasure. The author adduces a number of examples from Greek art that are variants of the motif “man pulling a woman towards himself, eager to undress her” that probably depicted the violation of Athena’s priestess Auge by Herakles in Tegea. Analysing the images, the author notes a number of differences between the image on the phiale from Rogozen and its Greek parallels: e.g., that only here the drunken Herakles has not grabbed the woman, but she is supporting him. This leads to the conclusion that the motif from Rogozen does not simply imitate the Greek models, being actually a specific interpretation of the scene. This is a Thracian rendering of the scene, which is at the same time the most representative one for that artistic theme. The exceptionally high quality of the work is not in the least indication that it was Greek execution, bringing instead yet another proof of the flourishing of Thracian art and workmanship in processing gold and silver.

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