Thracian religion
The Thracian religion refers to the mythology, ritual practices and beliefs of the Thracians, a collection of closely related ancient Indo-European peoples who inhabited eastern and southeastern Europe and northwestern Anatolia throughout antiquity and who included the Thracians proper, the Getae, the Dacians, and the Bithynians. The Thracians themselves did not leave an extensive written corpus of their mythology and rituals, but information about their beliefs is nevertheless available through epigraphic and iconographic sources, as well as through ancient Greek writings.
Origin[]
The Thracian religion, and especially its creation myth and its pantheon, were derived from the Proto-Indo-European religion.[1]
The Thracian conceptualisation of the world, which held that it was composed of the four elements (Air, Earth, Fire, Water), is attested from the early Bronze Age, around the fourth millennium BCE, and was recorded in poems and hymns originally composed in the late Bronze Age during the 2nd millennium BCE which were later passed down orally.[2] By the end of the Bronze Age, the cult of the Sun was prevalent throughout Thrace. Daily use objects and art were decorated with symbols of the Sun, and the representations of the Sun were carved into cliffs and in the rocks of the eastern Rudupa Mountains.[2][1]
The late Bronze Age was also a period during which there were considerable cultural contacts between Thrace, northern Greece and Asia Minor. This cultural contact led to significant religious exchanges, such as the importation of the belief in the Great Mother Goddess in Thrace. Accompanying the spread of the belief in the Great Mother Goddess to Thrace was the evolution of the concept of the divinisation of the mountain in the later 2nd millennium BCE and the early 1st millennium BCE, which was itself contemporaneous with the flourishing of megalithic culture in Thrace. Remains of this megalithic culture include many monuments, such as rock-cut niches of rectangular or circular of trapezoidal shape for votive gifts, platforms for sacrifices which include troughs and drainage outlets for the victims' blood, sacred steps to springs or rock sanctuaries, complexes of megalithic structures, and dolmens.[1] During the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age, the cult of the chthonic deity Zagreús (Diónūsos) also spread across the Hellespont from Anatolia into Thrace during a period of social crisis in the Balkans peninsula, and from there it spread into Greece. Although the cult of Zagreús was initially opposed by the practitioners of the local solar cults, it ultimately prevailed and became entrenched in Thrace, after which it merged with the solar cult and the Sun and chthonic deities merged into a single deity within the Thracian pantheon.[2]
The Thracians were culturally closer to the Iranian Scythians to the north of the Danube river and the peoples of Asia Minor and the Achaemenid Persians to the east of the Hellespont than to their Greek neighbours in the south. Nevertheless, with the Greek colonisation of the Aegean and Pontic shores of Thrace, cultural exchanges led to the Thracians adopting the names of Greek gods and adding them to the names of their own gods, with the Thracians giving linking the name of Apóllōn to those of Derainos (Δεραινος), Zerdēnos (Ζερδηνος),[3] and Kendrisos (Κενδρισος),[4] Hermês to that of Perpheraios (Περφεραιος), and Ártemis to those of Bendis (Βενδις) and Basileia (Βασιλεια).[2]
Cosmology[]
The Thracians, like the other ancient peoples of south-east Europe, believed universal forces worked within the world, which was itself made from the four classical elements, namely the Earth, Air, Water and Fire. These four elements were conceived of as forces or energies which were combined in the form of the mountain, which was personified as the Thracian Great Mother Goddess.[1] Therefore, the tetrad was seen as the basis of the cosmos in Thracian religion, and the number ten was seen as representing the Cosmos since it was itself composed of the numbers four, three, two, and one, according to the equation 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10.[5]
A symbolic representation of the Thracian cosmology in Thracian art is the image of a horned eagle holding a hare in its talons and a fish in its beak: the eagle represents the element of the Air and the "above," the hare represents the Earth and the "middle," and the fish represents Water and the "below".[5]
Pantheon[]
According to Hēródotos, the Thracians worshipped only three gods, whom he identified via interpretatio graeca with the Greek deities Ártemis, Diónūsos, and Árēs, who respectively held the positions of the Mother of Gods, the Father deity, and the Son of the previous two.[2] This triad recorded by Hēródotos might have reflected the tripartite division of Indo-European societies into the priestly, military and economic categories. Thus, "Árēs" represented the warrior function, "Diónūsos" was connected to the clergy, and "Ártemis" in her form as the Great Goddess was the female "transfunctional" deity who was the patron of reproduction in both nature and human society.[5]
However, the Thracologist Ivan Marazov has criticised this supposed Thracian divine triad as an artificial construction by Hēródotos to make the Thracian deities more comprehensible to his Greek audience, and has pointed out that more Thracian deities are mentioned by Hēródotos himself and are also attested archaeologically.[2] Instead, only two major deities are attested in the Thracian pantheon, the Great Goddess Bendis and the Hero God Zis, while Orpheús/Zalmoxis was a demigod.[6]
Every Thracian deity was assigned the attributes of a mounted hunter.[2]
As with most peoples of Antiquity, the kingdom of the gods in Thracian religion was patterned after the human kingdoms, and the order prevailing in the divine realm was considered as the ideal model for earthly society.[6] This realm was not seen as fully separate from the human world, however, as attested by the threat of the 's and the Kebrḗnioi's king-priest Kosíngas that he would climb a ladder to heaven to complain to the goddess about them.[2]
The Thracians did not perceive the world in terms of linear time, and therefore conceptualised their religion and myths not as histories of ancient pasts, but as occurring in the present, unlike the religious worldview of their Greek neighbours. In the Thracian religion, there was no difference between the mythical and heroic past and the present, and the heroes were believed to still be performing their valorous deeds in the present on another plane of existence in heaven which was not necessarily separate from the world of the living necessarily in an abrupt way.[2]
Bendis[]
The Thracian Great Mother of the Gods, who was the deity equated by Hēródotos with the Greek Ártemis, was the main figure of Thracian religion along with the great god Zis,[2] and she was known by many names, including:[5][2]
- Bendis (Βενδις), derived from the Indo-European root *bʰendʰ-, meaning "to bind".[5] Bendis was the name most commonly used for the Thracian Great Goddess, especially in south-western Thrace, in the valleys of the Strūmōn, Néstos and Axiós rivers, but also among the Bithunoí, who were a Thracian tribe settled in Anatolia
- Kotuttṓ
- Hipta or Hippa
- Perke, meaning "rock" or "mountain top"
Bendis was the embodiment of Heaven and Earth, the source of all life, and the ancestress of humankind,[2] and she represented the mountain, which itself personified the four classical elements from which the world was believed to be made of: her womb deep in the caves of the Earth was washed by underground Water springing from it while she rose high in a rocky peak which was hidden by the Air of heaven and lit by the Fire of lightning.[1] As the Great Goddess, Bendis was the female "transfunctional" deity who was the patron of reproduction in both nature and human society, as well as a patron deity of vegetation.[5]
The Mother Goddess, whose cult was likely of Near Eastern origin and whom the Thracians identified with the Phrygian goddess Kubeleya. The and the Kebrḗnioi assimilated Bendis with the Greek goddess Hḗra and held her as their supreme deity; a cult of "Hḗra" unconnected to that of Zeús was attested in Thrace, and a temple was dedicated to "Apóllōn" of Zḗrunthos and "Hḗra" on the Reskythian Mountain near the mouth of the Ebrus river; "Hḗra" was associated with "Apóllōn" again on one of the rhytons of the Panagyurishte Treasure, where she was depicted seated on a throne (which was a royal prerogative), with Apóllōn and Ártemis standing near her. Bendis was also known as Tēreía (Τηρεία), and she was worshipped under this name in a mountain near Lámpsakos. Under Roman rule, Bendis was identified with the Greek and Roman goddesses Ártemis and Dīāna.[2]
In Thracian mythology, Bendis personified the initial state of the world, which was at rest. The goddess then self-fertilised herself and gave birth to a first son, Zis, who represented the male principle. Through the sacred marriage of Bendis and Zis, another son, Orpheús, was born. This son personified the energies of the creation and set them free: thus, from the union of Bendis and her first son, all the potent elements of the world were fertilised, ensuring the continuation of life in the world.[1]
In the myth of the Hero Zis, once he had defeated the Chaos-dragon, he entered in hierogamy with Bendis, through which the goddess became the divine granter of royal power of the kings.[2][6]
This claim of divine descent from the Great Mother Goddess is why numerous Thracian kings' names such as Amatokos, Medokos, Medosades, and Maesades contained the terms Ama-, Me-, and Mae-, meaning "mother," referring to the mother role of Bendis. Similarly, the royal names such as Kotus, Kotulas, and Kotuson were connected to another name of the Great Goddess, Kotuttṓ. The name of the Udrusai king Tērēs I was also derived from another name of the Great Goddess, this time Tēreía, a form of the goddess worshipped in a mountain near Lámpsakos and whose name was related with that of the nymph Tereḯnē, who in Greek mythology was the goddess of the river-god Strumṓn.[6]
Since the Thracian king was identified with the Hero Zis, who had united with the Great Goddess Bendis to become king, so did the human king unite with the Mother Goddess to ensure the plentifulness of the country in an act considered indispensable for him to obtain royal power. This union between the king and the Goddess is visible in representations of the Thracian royal investiture, such as the goddess Bendis about to give a rhyton to a horseman 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, and the hierogamy scene from the Letnitsa Treasure.[6]
The dual goddess[]
Bendis had a dual aspect: she was a virgin, as well as a matron, which were the archetypal representations of the principal roles of women in archaic societies such as ancient Thrace.[5]
The virgin Bendis[]
As the virgin goddess, Bendis had a dual nature: she was a huntress, as well as the goddess of the hearth. The virgin Bendis, who was a goddess of the wilderness, was always a huntress, which was an unusual occupation for a woman whereby she occupied the realm of wilderness, which was the opposite of the domestic domain. This virgin form of Bendis, whose companion was a dog, had her own dual nature, being physically a woman, but acting like a young man during initiation, and she sometimes possessed an aggressive character, not unlike the maiden-warriors of various Indo-European mythologies, such as the Greek Amazónes, the Scythian oiorpata, the Bulgarian heroic maiden, and the Germanic valkyrja.[5]
In this form as a virgin huntress with nets, or also as a spinner, Bendis was the goddess of war and the patron deity of initiations and warriors, and the warrior-huntress, her attributes were two spears, hence her epithet dílonkhos (δίλογχος), meaning "having two spears".[5]
The virgin Bendis was also the goddess of the hearth, and therefore presided over the most "feminine" sphere: the hearth-goddess Bendis presided over the centre of things, the home, the proper, the familiar, and wealth. In this role, Bendis possessed the attributes common to the virgin hearth goddess throughout various Indo-European religions: she was bound to the circle of the hearth and never left the home, thus always being a maid but never a wife, and was associated to the snake, and, since the snake was the representation of the "below," therefore to the earth itself. The hearth-goddess also symbolised the continuity of the clan, which, by guaranteeing the legitimacy of the royal line and he continuity of power, was an important part of the Thracian royal customs. These various attributes together made of Bendis the goddess of the "autochthonic principle," that is the concept of a ruler's right to rule the land he inhabited deriving from him originating from that place, and which held a very important place in archaic societies such as in Thrace.[5]
This importance of the hearth-goddess as the embodiment of the "autochthonic principle" is reflected across various Indo-European religions in the emphasis on the hearth-goddess in the rituals through which kings would take over new territory:[5]
- according to legend, the Argive Perdíkkas I used his knife to cut a circle on the floor around the hearth of the king of Lebaíē before becoming king of Macedonia
- among the Scythians, a substitute ritual king would ride around a group of sacred objects believed to be gifts from Tapatī́ (the Scythian hearth-goddess) to mark the boundaries of his kingdom
- whenever the Macedonian king Phílippos II conquered or sought to conquer a new country, he would marry its princess, that is he would ritually unite with its local personification of Hestíā (the Greek hearth-goddess).
Such a concept of the autochthonous principle also existed in Thrace, as attested by the presence of snake-shaped hearth decorations in ancient Thrace.[5]
The matron Bendis[]
As a matron, Bendis was the protector goddess of marriage[2] and a mother goddess who appeared as a woman having experienced marriage and motherhood, and therefore was a mother who personified the earth, and the principles of life and creation out of which the autochthonic hero who was fated to be enthroned was born, as well as a peacemaker and nurturer who presented the Hero Zis with the insignia of power.[5]
When the Bithunoí honoured Zis in Spring, they imagined her as a huge woman spinning thread and nurturing pigs, likely because of the goddess's multi-faceted nature. This gigantic form of Bendis was similar to the Iranian goddess Anāhita, who was described as a mountain-sized woman in hymns.[2] The sacrificial animal of Bendis was the sow, which symbolised fertility, and also connected the Great Goddess to the Hero, who was associated with his enemy the boar.[2]
Bendis had a chthonic aspect as well, due to which Hēsúkhios compared her to Persephónē, and attested by Roman-era reliefs where she wears a crescent Moon on her hair (which identifies her with the Greek Moon-goddess Selḗnē) and holds a twig granting free passage into the underworld. The versatility of Bendis's functions is visible on a Roman-era funerary monument, on whose pediment the goddess is represented as Ártemis but wearing the Thracian Phrygian cap, and on the next pediment she is depicted as the Greek chthonic goddess Hekátē holding two torches, and finally she is depicted as Persephónē holding two torches and seated on a chariot taking her to the underworld. Bendis was thus a goddess with multifaceted qualities, with multiple functions and multiple epithets. In Roman times her many functions meant that she had many images and could be represented by the Graeco-Roman deities Ártemis, Dīāna, Persephónē, Selḗnē, Phōsphóros and Hekátē.[2]
Iconography[]
The goddess Bendis appeared in Thracian art depicted as a frontal facing isolated head in architectural decorations, often as part of an alternating motif with lotuses or palmettes, or in the centre of a symmetrically branching floral ornament. These depictions represent her role as a goddess of autochthonism, as well as a patron deity of vegetation, which is confirmed by the alternation with palmettes and floral ornaments, which meant that the goddess's head symbolically represented the Tree of Life. These connections to vegetation find parallels among Indo-Iranian peoples, such as the dream of the Median king R̥štivaigah in which a large vine that grew out of his daughter's womb covered all of Asia, and the Scythian representation of the goddess Artimpasa seated on a throne out of which a tree grows out.[5]
The goddess Bendis was also depicted in animal motifs, such as on a belt from Lovets and a jug from Rogozen, on which, respectively, palmettes standing for the goddess, and the motif of the goddess's isolated head, alternate with the figures of boars. On a skúphos from Strelcha, fifteen frontal depictions of the goddess's face are represented over a frieze where ram heads in profile and lion faces in frontal position form an alternating motif; while the goddess represented vegetation, the ram and the lion are opponents of each other in animal style art, and this motif was connected to that of two ram heads in profile on each side of a frontal lion face on horse harness appliqués from Mezek, as well as to that of two lions dismembering a dead ram above the figure of the goddess from the handle of a Thracian bronze mirror. This imagery was connected to fertility, and might have been influenced by that of the Phrygian goddess Kubeleya.[5]
In her form as the virgin-huntress, Bendis was represented with short hair, de-emphasised breasts, and armed with a bow and arrow, with this imagery being inspired by that of the Greek Ártemis. As the hearth-goddess, Bendis was represented by the snake: depictions of snakes decorated the hearth of the city of Seuthópolis, thus identifying the hearth-goddess with the serpent.[5]
The virgin Bendis was usually represented chasing prey while holding her bow in one hand and reaching towards her quiver with the other hand. In southwestern Thrace, especially around Philippi, Bendis was usually represented holding a spear and a twig, and on Lḗmnos she was depicted with two spears in the 7th century BCE. In Greece, where her cult was adopted by Athens, Bendis is depicted wearing a khitṓn, over which is an animal skin, with a Phrygian cap on her head and two spears in her hands. In Hellenistic times, Bendis is represented holding a sword on a coin of the king Nicomedes I of Bithunía.[2]
In her matron form, Bendis was represented as a woman having experienced marriage and motherhood, and was depicted with large and rounded breasts, which represented her birth-giving and infant-nurturing role, and with long hair styled into a marital braid, and wearing a long khitṓn and carrying a vase and a blossoming twig symbolizing fullness and fertility.[5]
On a Triballoí jug from the Rogozen Treasure, the virgin and matron forms of Bendis are combined: she is depicted wearing a khitṓn, which is worn by both men and women, and has shoulder-length hair and large breasts, symbolic of a matron, but is also armed with a bow and arrow, thus also designating her as a virgin. In this representation, Bendis is mounted on a lioness, implying that this imagery was influenced by that of the Phrygian goddess Kubeleya from Asia Minor, whose iconography was in turn of Mesopotamian and Elamite origin. The attributes of the goddess's combined virgin and matron depiction reflect her premarital status: due to her position as being on the threshold of a changed social position, she is therefore represented as having a dual nature, which is emphasised by her being represented again twice in mirror images on both sides of the combined virgin-matron goddess image. This representation of Bendis thus was a transitional figure whose "in-betweenness" was represented by her combined virgin-matron attributes, and by the doubling of her figure on each side.[5]
On another jug from the Rogozen Treasure, Bendis is represented on the upper frieze frontally, wearing a long tight-fitting khitṓn, her breasts are de-emphasised while her hair is short, and she grasps a dog in each hand: this imagery is derived from that of the pótnia thērôn, and represents Bendis as a virgin goddess of the wilderness. The goddess was flanked on each side by a pair of winged centaurs running towards her: these beings represented the natural world who rejected and even violated human cultural institutions like marriage, manners, the home, and individuation, and represented opposition to civilised life. Below the goddess, in the lower frieze, is depicted a bull, fallen on one knee to symbolise its acceptance to be sacrificed, and attacked by four lions or dogs. The upper and lower frieze respectively represented the female principle, depicted as the goddess, and the male principle, represented by the bull. The overall scene represents the forces of Chaos represented by the centaurs, who are creatures existing on the border between nature and culture, as having invaded the Cosmos at the end of the year, when the powers of order are depleted, and attempted to violate the virgin goddess, and by extension any potential bride. The bull is then defeated by the animal helpers of the goddess and sacrificed to save the world from Chaos. The two friezes on this jug thus depicted the mythology of the Thracian rituals of the new year and represented mythical and ritual moments of transition such as from the natural to the civilised, from the old to the new calendar cycle, and from the virginal to the matronly goddess.[5]
The Snake-Goddess[]
The Thracian pantheon had a goddess affiliated - but not identical - to the Great Goddess Bendis, and who united with Zis to become the foremother of the Thracian people. This Goddess was the Thracian reflex of the same deity who in the Scythian religion was the Snake-Legged Goddess.[7]
Iconography[]
Thracian interpretations of the Scythian Snake-Legged Goddess include her carrying a twig on a jug from the Rogozen Treasure, the caryatids of the Sveshtari tomb, a motif where her legs grow into floral volutes, and in the Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari as caryatids with feminine bodies wearing kálathos hats and khitṓn whose skirts are shaped like lotus blossoms or acanthus leaves and with pleats shaped like floral volutes which have an acanthus between them. Their disproportionally large raised hands, which either hold the volutes or are raised to appear as supporting the entablure, are similar to the goddess with her hands raised to her face depicted on a series of Thracian votive plaques. Above the caryatids, a wall painting depicts a goddess holding a crown and reaching out to an approaching horseman. The overall scene represents a Thracian nobleman's posthumous heroisation and depicts the same elements of the Great Goddess-minor goddess complex found in the relation between the Scythian Great Goddess Artimpasa and the Snake-Legged Goddess. These various depictions represent her role as a goddess of autochthonism, as well as a patron deity of vegetation.[5][7]
Thracian greaves from Vratsa and Agighiol were decorated with a female mask at the knee and with three pairs of dragons in a way that recalls the image of the Scythian Snake-Legged goddess, who also presided over the hearth. The image of the Gorgṓn Médousa was also used in the stead of the female mask on Thracian greaves, which not only identified Médousa with the Snake-Goddess, but also demonstrated her connection with vegetation: this imagery is present on pectorals from Mezek, Varbitsa, and Shipka, on an akrōtḗrion from Strelcha, and a greave from Vratsa, on which she wears an wreath of ivy, a plant symbolising the "Dionysian" aspect of the god Zis (that this greave marks only the left leg of the warrior linked him to the underworld, which was also the realm of the goddess).[5]
The Thracian equivalent of the Snake-Legged Goddess might also appear in the series of horse bridle plaques from Letnitsa. One of the plaques depicts a seated male figure (the god Zis in his role as an ancestral hero, who was Thracian equivalent of the "Scythian Heracles") with a female figure (the Thracian Great Goddess Bendis) straddling him from above, both of them explicitly engaging in sexual intercourse, and symbolising the king's acquirement of royal power through intercourse with the Great Goddess similarly to the Scythian king's obtaining of royal power through his union with Artimpasa. Behind the Great Goddess is another woman, holding a vessel in one hand and in the other one a branch which obscures the view of the hero; this figure is a vegetation goddess with an ectatic aspect, which is symbolised by the vessel she holds, which contains a sacred beverage, and whose connection to the Great Goddess is analogous to that of the Snake-Legged Goddess with Artimpasa.[7]
Zis[]
The Thracian reflex of the Indo-European sky-god Dyḗus ph₂tḗr, who was called Zi, Zis, Dis and Tis,[5] was the first son of Bendis, created by the goddess herself.[1] Zis was the main figure of Thracian religion along with the Great Mother of the Gods Bendis. [2] Zis was the personification of the male principle who had both a celestial and a chthonic aspect, which were respectively identified with the Sun and with Fire.[1] Unlike the Greek gods who each had a separate function and a clear-cut image, Zis was a universal god believed to be omnipotent who was worshipped by all the Thracian tribes, having a complex and contradictory nature, as attested by his solar, chthonic, and heroic forms: the Thracian pantheon did not have any specific deity of the Sun or of the underworld, they were instead all aspects of one and the same all-seeing and all-hearing god who was the Sun as well as the ruler of the underworld, and who protected life and health and kept the forces of evil at bay.[2]
In his role of storm- and thunder-god, Zis was given the epithet of Zbelthurdos, which means "lightning thrower" and "lightning bearer".[5][8][9] The Apsínthioi tribe worshipped Zis as a household, and therefore universal, god, under the name of Pleistṓros (Πλειστώρος).[2]
Following the Thracian practice of often adopting the names of Greek gods and using these for their own gods,[10] the various aspects of Zis were identified with and given the names of Diónūsos, Apóllōn, Asklēpiós, Árēs, Silvanus, and other Graeco-Roman gods depending on the nature of the aspect in question.[2]
The "Apollonian" Zis[]
The celestial and solar aspect of Zis, initially a separate god called Sabazios, was identified with the Greek god Apóllōn.[1] Various Thracian epithets of the solar or "Apollonian" form of Zis included Aulariokos (Αυλαριοκος),[11] Aularkēnos (Αυλαρκηνος),[11] Souregethēs (Σουρεγεθης),[12] Sitalkas (Σιταλκας), and Derainos (Δεραινος). An epithet of the god from the Roman period is Spintheēnē (Σπινθεηνη).[5]
The solar Zis was personified as a rock,[1] and to whom horses were sacred.[2] The worship of Zis's solar aspect who was identified with the Greek Apóllōn is attested in literary, epigraphic and iconographic records. According to Sophocles, the Sun was the celestial body which was most worshipped by the Thracians, and the cult of the solar deity was already well-developed in Thrace by the late Bronze Age.[5]
Zis's "Apollonian" form was seen as standing in opposition to the chthonic deities of death and the underworld in Thrace and in Asia Minor, and in both regions he was revered under the Greek epithet of Smintheús (Σμινθεύς), the "god of mice," not only due to the mouse's role in Thracian religion as the symbol of indigeneity to Thrace, but also because the mouse was also considered to incarnate the antagonist, and therefore Zis was its natural adversary.[5]
The "Dionysian" Zis[]
The chthonic and Fire aspects of Zis were initially a separate god named Zagreús who was later subsumed into the figure of Zis[1] - in his form as Zagreús, Zis was a god of fertility, of the rejuvenation of nature and the flowering of life, and he was personified as a bull, that is the ritual incarnation of the male principle, being the Thracian reflex of the same deity known to the Greeks as Diónūsos. Therefore, the Greeks identified Zagreús, and later the chthonic aspect of Zis, with their Diónūsos,[5] and they held that Diónūsos originated in Thrace because the Thracians were unrestrained drinkers.[2] The "Dionysian" Zis was the personification of wine, which in the Thracian religion was the sacred drink which brought secret knowledge and immortality, and of the plant from which wine was made, the grape, similarly to the role of the soma (सोम) among Indo-Aryan peoples, the haoma (