King Rhesos between Legend and Reality

Abstract

Although, in time, he was the focus of numerous studies written by experts in the field, the Thracian king Rhesos is still a controversial figure and there are countless unanswered questions about his participation in the Trojan War, about the territory he ruled over and even his existence as a real character. These questions were raised due to the different ways in which the Thracian ruler was illustrated in the existent documents. Since the main objective of this article is not establishing the authenticity of the sources about king Rhesos, we rested upon establishing how the story of king Rhesos, as it is revealed by more or less disputed texts, relates to the Thracian kingship, in particular, and to the Thracians, in general. Consequently, we can conclude that, in the Thracian world, the king identifies himself with the God and the High Priest and more often than not, the king embodies all these three qualities. On the other hand, the texts also trace features of the Thracian civilisation such as the tribal organisation, the military hierarchy, the social stratification or the ethnic differentiation.