marriage, in which the deceased chieftain, having already been deified and become an anthropodaemon, is seated at a table with food on it and holds a phiale in one hand while his other hand is tenderly placed under that of his wife, who is seated on a throne next to him. To the left of the chieftain is a tall woman wearing a long peplos and carrying a tray of fruit who approaches the couple, who is most likely the Snake-Goddess, who in the Letnitsa Treasure holds a twig over and during their hierogamy. The chieftain's gesture is similar to that of Zeus drawing Hera to him from a metope from Selinus, and represents the royal rank of the chieftain which he acquired by his union with his deified wife who has been assimilated with the goddess in the presence of the Snake-Goddess foremother. The phiale he holds in his hand was a symbol of investiture, and which therefore linked the hierogamy with the royal investiture. The veneration of the king's burial site continued after the funeral, sacrifices were offered near the tumuli on festival days. therefore, the builders made the tombs as accessible as possible, such as a pyramidal Thracian tomb near the village of Tatul where steps were carved into the rock so worshippers could climb to the top and pay homage to the members of the royal family buried there, and the Odrysian burial complex in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains below the Thracian fortress on Mount Saint Marina, where a staircase cut into the rock led straight to the tomb of the deified chieftain which was located at a considerable height. The many Thracian tombs were always built in high locations so they would face the Sun all day, hence uniting the chthonian and solar cults within themselves, and thus embodying the oneness of the king and the Hero . Statues of the dead rulers were erected atop their tumuli, and a group of sculptures representing the Hero 's boar hunt were placed at the entrance of the Thracian tomb of Mezek. Reincarnation Thracian ascetic sects who were initiated in the rites of the mystery cult, such as the Ctistae and Capnobatae, lived peaceful celibate lives without women, abstained from eating any living being, not even the animals in their flocks, and were vegetarians who subsisted only on honey, milk and cheese, because they believed in the