Ivory figurine of Sabazios from Macedon.
One of 2 Ivory figurines of Sabazios from the chryselephantine, composed of or adorned with gold and ivory, couch in the main chamber of tomb III of Philip of Macedon's tomb at Aigai, 336 BC. Sabazios was a god of the Thracians and the Phrygians. In Athens, his cult's initiation ceremonies took place by night, and the adepts were purified by being rubbed with mud. A sacramental drink was also involved. The identification of Sabazios with Dionysos, which occurs regularly in Hellenistic sources, is unquestionable. However, Phrygian inscriptions relate him to Zeus, and in North Africa, where his cult is attested as early as the fourth century bce, he might have had the features of a heavenly god; hence he was later identified with the Semitic god Baal, both of them receiving the Greek epithet hupsistos ("highest, supreme")
Size: 7209px × 4843px
Location:
Photo credit: © DAVID PARKER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: age, aigai, ancient, archaeological, archaeology, archaic, arms, background, bearded, black, bronze, bust, carved, carving, ceremonial, ceremony, chryselephantine, civilisation, civilization, classical, cult, dionysos, dionysus, figurine, god, gold, greece, greek, hellene, hellenic, initiation, ivory, macedon, macedonia, man, myth, mythic, mythical, mythological, myths, open, period, philip, phrygians, sabazios, thracians, tomb
