engleski

The swan chariot of a solar deity: Greek narratives and prehistoric iconography

Literary testimonies for the Greek concept of Apollo’s swan chariot and the accompanying set of ideas were often discussed alongside some comparable Central and North European iconographic representations. This essay approaches the problem by collating, with a help of structural analysis, a number of highly specific complex prehistoric iconographic arrangements (most notable among them being the Dupljaja chariot), that suggest a similar concept was indeed current in the tradition of some European pre-literate societies. The principles employed here in iconographic analysis of complex symbolic structures, with a special emphasis on the possibility of transfer of their intrinsic meaning between different societies, offered a sound methodological basis for the comparison of literary with iconographic sources. After reconstructing the large-scale context in which these structures appear, which is also reflected in literary testimonies, it is concluded that their underlying muthos represents an account of the annual solar movement in terms of anthropomorphic causation.

water-birds, Apollo, iconographic analysis, Dupljaja, sun

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