Scythian Vs Greek Art Essay

Within these kurgans, scholars and archeologists began finding art that combined the elements of Greek and Scythian art. Animals, gods, hunting and warfare on horseback became a common image in the crossover art of the Greeks and Scythians coined Greco-Scythian art. Most of the warring imagery found on metalwork and pottery are scenes of the post-Persian War period showing battles between Greeks, Scythians and Persians. Their oriental dressing and clothing can easily identify the Persians on such art along with Greek warriors in the nude. Animals depicted as predators attacking horned prey, the hunting of lions and mythical scenes of gods seem to have been the main tradeoff between the two societies as trading on the Black Sea became more

This took the form of three figures in which one of the figures is in immediate danger. Oftentimes, these images included a lion or the hunting of lions. This was a well-known sport for aristocrats and kings. On a silver vessel from the Solokha kurgan (Fig. 9), two hunting scenes combined with the idea of one of the figures being in imminent danger. Each hunting scene consists of three figures with two riders in Scythian dress attacking the prey in the center of the composition. All of the riders are armed with bows, arrows and spears. On the obverse side of the vessel is two hunters accompanied by two dogs with one of the hunters in danger of being attacked by one of the lions. Similarly, a gold comb (Fig. 10) from the same kurgan depicts the characteristic three-figure scene with three warriors. Two of the figures are on their feet with one horseman adorned with Thracian and Greek arms and armor. Below is a frieze of lions separating the scene from the teeth of the comb emphasizing the direction of the battle. The wounded horse could be read as a prelude to the eventual outcome of the fight. The rider is clearly a Scythian identifiable by his dress and the gorytos worn at the back of his