Rhesus is a mythical king of Thrace in The Iliad who fought on the side of Trojans. Rhesus arrived late to the battle and while asleep in his camp, Diomedes and Odysseus stole his team of horses during a night raid on the Trojan camp.
17th century engraving depicting Diomedes killing Rhesus while Odysseus steals his horses.
Odysseus and Diomedes stealing Rhesus' horses, red-figure situla by the Lycurgus Painter, c. 360 BC
Thrace is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east, it comprises present-day southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and the European part of Turkey, roughly the Roman Province of Thrace. Lands also inhabited by ancient Thracians extended in the north to modern-day Northern Bulgaria and Romania and to the west into Macedonia.
The physical–geographical boundaries of Thrace: the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Rhodope Mountains (highlighted) and the Bosporus.
Thrace in the Odrysian Kingdom showing several Thracian tribes. Sapeia was Northern Thrace and Asteia was Southern Thrace.
Skudrian (Thracian) soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BC. Xerxes I tomb relief.
Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak.
