Votive Relief with a Representation of a Reclining Hercules from Bela Palanka (Remesiana)

Abstract

In the city territory of Antique Remesiana, in 1979, near the southern necropolis of the city, a marble votive icon with a representation of a Reclining Hercules was found. The presentation of the reclining god, with a lion skin on his left shoulder and a club in his right hand is so far unique in the territory of the Roman province of Moesia Superior and represents Hercules in a way that he was frequently represented in marble statuary, bronze statuettes, reliefs and coins in other Roman provinces. Through the iconographical analysis of the representation of the Reclining Hercules, a close connection between him and the god Dionysus, as with the river-god images, has been underlined. This close connection implies certain characteristics of the god Hercules in this type of iconographical representation, close to the scenes and symbolism the god Dionysus encompassed in the connection with his triumph over death and gaining immortality in the afterlife, through taking part in a funeral banquet. The fact that the marble icon of the Reclining Hercules was found near the southern necropolis of the antique city of Remesiana, could point to a possible small sanctuary of the god or a temple of some other deity (Dionysus?), 3rd in which the votive icon of the Reclining Hercules also stood. The icon is dated to the century.