Some features of the glorification of the dead in the ancient states of the Northern Black Sea region (based on the materials of tombstone epitaphs)

Yartsev Sergey Vladimirovich, Shushunova Elena Valeryevna

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the glorification of the dead in the ancient cities of the Northern Black Sea region. According to the authors, this process was associated with the appearance and spread in the epitaphs of a peculiar form of addressing the dead to the wanderer, who needed to be moved to pity and thereby endeared to them. At the same time, the authors draw attention to the fact that Zeus himself was the patron saint of wanderers. Taking into account the military-political situation in the Northern Black Sea region, which worsened in the first centuries of our era, due to the attack of barbarians and the establishment of the Roman Empire here, it can be assumed that it was through the wanderers, uniquely associated with an extensive system of roads and fortifications, that the descendants sought to get help from the supreme god and the main defender of cities. However, Zeus in this case was represented not only as the guardian of the state, but also as the guarantor of the foundations of Hellenic life, including numerous Greek deities, with whom, according to relatives, their deceased often merged in the process of deification. That is, in fact, in relation to the buried people, the supreme god-thunderer acted as a symbol of rebirth and new life. It was this god who was the supreme ruler of the Greek Olympic pantheon, the patron of all things, and the strengthening of his cult in the ancient cities of the Northern Black Sea region in the first centuries AD was fully justified and explained by the current situation.

Keywords: The Northern Black Sea region, the glorification of the dead, the cult of ancestors, Zeus, epitaph, motive of the dead's appeal to the wanderer.