Hippodamoi piceni - Alcune osservazioni sulle anse bronzee con despotes ton hippon dal Piceno

Some archaic bronze handles with the image of despotes ton hippon, found in Picenum, are usually recognized as copy of handles of Laconic bronze hydriai, like the famous Treia vessel. However the bronze handles represent the new hellenizing version of a iconographic type well-known in Picenum from the late seventh century in bronze, ivory and impasto artifacts. The succes of these Laconic hydriai in Picenum can be explained by the importance of the horse in the economy and ideology of local élites, as could show the archeological founds and the images of horses in the local art since the eighth century, as well the meaning of the despotes ton hippon theme. In this subject it is possible to see a figure of Picene mythology, like a horse-god or god of horses, of a type known by literary sources in Greece or Italy and evoked in the Adriatic area by Diomedes.