The Mistress of Dogs and warrior initiation at archaic Trebenishte

Abstract

The paper analyses and interprets the symbolic meaning of an iconographic composition consisting of a central Gorgon flanked by two canines, present on a bronze tripod from the archaic necropolis of Trebenishte, near Ohrid (6th–5th centuries BC). After introducing and describing the subject of interest, the author goes on to analyse the Gorgon in the symbolic role of ‘Mistress of Dogs’, comparing it to similar representations from geographical and chronological aspects. This is followed by an overview of the symbolic role of canines in the prehistoric and ancient Balkans as part of a wider Indo-European cultural milieu. The observed findings are then analysed in relation to the archaeological context of the tripod itself, which was deposited, along with a complementary krater, in the ‘princely grave’ of a high-ranking male individual with a warrior identity belonging to the archaic community buried at Trebenishte. The final conclusions of the author are that the iconography of the tripod reflects symbolic notions of liminality and transformation, whereby the object was probably intended to be used in initiation rituals that derive from the Indo-European traditions of the ‘Männerbünde’.