of wine from the grape, and therefore depicted the killing, dismemberment, and crushing to death of the god personifying both the grape and the wine. The Dragon-slaying myth The Hero ensured the preservation of the wordly order and the normal course of life by fighting the forces of evil, and therefore in myth he underwent an epic journey on a mythical road filled with danger, and where he encountered unexpected opponents which personified Chaos, destruction, evil, and death. At the beginning of his journey, just like , fought a three-headed snake-like dragon personifying Chaos, and was therefore in this role given the epithet of (), meaning "water dragon". This mythical combat against the monster (which was similar to the Anatolian, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan myths of the fight against the Chaos-dragon) followed the motif of the ritual fight between heroes and monsters being a test of valour, and its goal was to force the Chaos-dragon to free the waters it had stopped, to return the cattle stolen by it (representations of two dragons on each side of a bull's head on a Thracian helmet from Băiceni show that the Hero's Chaos-dragon enemy was a stealer of bulls), and to free women abducted by it, that is to ensure nature's fertility, and the continuation of humanity. This journey also represented the transition of the Thracian young Thracian warrior, from adolescence to manhood, and the transition of the Thracian prince into kingship. A series of metal appliqués from the Letnitsa Treasure fully depict the struggle of against the Chaos-dragon: on one piece is a depiction of the three-headed Chaos-dragon on another piece, a sea-nymph riding a hippocampus represents the freeing of the waters from the Chaos-dragon another piece is decorated with the image of a maiden holding in her hand a mirror, which was a symbol of marriage on another piece is a representation of the Hero receiving a bow, which was a royal insignia the last piece depicted the Hero entering in hierogamy with the Great Goddess herself while the vegetation goddess blesses the union The royal investiture scenes depicting the goddess, such as the goddess about to give a rhyton to a horseman riding towards her on the plate of the Brezovo gold ring, and the goddess walking leftwards and is followed by a horseman holding a rhyton she has just given him on the Rosovets ring, represent the Hero 's