Thracian kings also claimed divine descent, which they attested through their paternal ancestry or their names containing a theophoric element and ending in (), meaning "child of," referring to patrilineal descent from a deity. Furthermore, the Thracian kings were assimilated to the Hero , who in Thracian mythology was usually the son of a deity, and the hence kings claimed divine ancestry, and the mythological origin of royal dynasties was based on the attribution of a divine origin to royal power. in his "Apollonian" aspect was thus a god of kingship due to his multiple associations with gold, such as his symbolic animal the griffin, his homeland in the legendary Hyperborea, his many epithets derived from the Thracian word for gold, , and the source of treasures being the inside of the earth. Another epithet of reflecting this connection with treasures is (), derived from the Thracian word for treasure, . The etymology of royal names and the practice of ritual union with the Mother Goddess are thus evidence that the Thracian kings took over the functions of the Hero in the human realm, and the kings therefore patterned their actions on the divine Hero. The Initiator 's "Apollonian" aspect was also a deity of the initiation of the young, and his epithet , meaning "illustrious wheat," is connected to the name of Apollo in Asia Minor, (), meaning "wheat rust," and which was connected to the Germanic concept of the , meaning "rye wolf," which is the name of a rye-infecting fungus. These functions of the solar as a deity of transition are whence arise his role as an initiation "father," a function which is attested in an inscription on a silver jug from the Rogozen Treasure reading ("Cotys the son of Apollo"), as well as in Thracian names containing a theophoric element and ending in (, meaning "child of",) which referred to patrilineal descent from a deity, and was also connected to the Thracian custom of the kings claiming divine ancestry. 's warrior aspect was also connected to initiation, since he fitted the motif of the Indo-European war-god's struggle with a monstrous wolf or dog as his principal deed, with this struggle also being the theme of an initiation ritual associated with that myth. Iconography Earrings from Mesembria in the form of winged figures with solar discs over their heads likely represented the solar , and similar and