In
Yulia Ustinova
The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom
I found on plate 19 a horse with eight legs.
Actually it doesn't have eight legs, but two horses are painted so they look like one horse with eight legs.
http://tinyurl.com/2vk2ojf
Ustinova
pp. 147-148
on the scene to the left:
'A seated woman and a man, cither standing or mounted, are frequently represented on Bosporan gravestones (Ivanova 1951a: 30-31), but the woman is normally represented in profile or in three-quarters, and her armchair is not raised on a base. The en face attitude is unusual on Bosporan gravestones, but typical of representations of goddesses, for instance on the Merdzhany (plate 11) and the Karagodeouashkh (plate 9) plates (Ivanova 1951a: 30). This posture, combined with the depiction of the seated woman on a base, her patera, her garments, and especially her headdress resembling that of the Karagodeouashkh goddess, suggest that the figure represents not a mortal woman, but a goddess, Aphrodite Ourania, welcoming Agathous, who feasts in her presence. Thus, Agathous is met by two divinities: his deified father and Aphrodite.
Another Bosporan stele depicts in its upper register a seated woman and a horseman and in the lower register an en face female figure holding a circular object, which might be a sphere or a ritual vessel. She sits on a throne, resembling the throne of the Merdzhany goddess even in minor details (cf. Blavatskiy 1964b: 4. 33). The stele is broken, so neither the bottom of the lower relief nor an inscription is extant. However, it is likely that the figure in the lower register was intended to portray Aphrodite (Ivanova 1951a).
A fresco from the first-century AD [41] Panticapaeum vault of Anthestherios (plate 19; ADZh 170-182; pl. 51; Gaydukevich 1949: 402-405) represents the same subject: a horseman approaches a woman, silting on an armchair of exactly the same construction as the one just mentioned. The woman is shown en face, two attendants standing by her side. Near the woman a yurt is painted with great deliberation, and immediately beyond the yurt there is a tree with a gorytos hanging on it. A long spear joins the tree to the yurt. The realism of the painting (Ivanova 1953: 153) does not conceal the cultic significance of the scene, [42] representing the post mortem communion of the horseman with the goddess (Ivanova 1954: 159; Yatzenko 1995).
...
41 The vault was dated to late first century BC-early first century AD by Rostovtzev (ADZh 182), and to the first-early second century AD by Ivanova (1953. 152).'
The reason I noted the 8-legged horse was of course that I wondered what the connection was with Odin's horse Sleipnir, depicted e.g. here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tj%C3%A4ngvide_image_stone
which, surprise!, has a similar scene of a woman receiving a mounted warrior, described thus:
'The stone is decorated with several figures in an upper and a lower field, which are separated by a braided pattern that resembles valknuts. In the upper field, there is a large eight-footed horse and a small rider who is offered a drinking horn by a lady, and there are also some other figures, such as a quadruped animal and some less discernible images.[1]
The rider on his horse is usually identified with Odin on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, or a dead man who is arriving at Valhalla on Odin's horse.[1][2][3] The female figure is identified as a valkyrie.[1]
There are also alternative interpretations of the imagery. One interpretation, based upon the Volsunga saga, is that the rider is Sigurd who is riding on Grani (an offspring of Sleipnir) and that the welcoming lady is either Brynhild[4] or Grimhild who is welcoming Sigurd to the court of the Gjukungs. This story was popular during the Viking Age and is depicted on other runestones and image stones known as the Sigurd stones. It is also possible that the eight legs symbolize the high speed of the horse and that the rider is a living man who is welcomed by his wife. The man behind the lady appears to carry a bow and he may be a dead man who is hunting and the quadruped may be his dog.[1]'
I think the Thracian interpretation makes more sense than any of them. The legend/myth of a warrior being received after death by a goddess would then somehow has missed being recorded in Scandinavia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleipnir
Perhaps what was originally meant by describing someone as having a horse with eight legs was that he was able to switch to his relay horse while in motion.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/65942
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/65984
Summary:
One more link connects Odin with Thrace.
Torsten