Thracian religion
The Thracian religion comprised 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.
Cult[edit]
Mystery cults[edit]
The Thracian mysteries were secret chthonic cults whose teachings were based on the doctrine of the immortality of the soul as preached by Orpheus/Zalmoxis.[6]
Only male warriors were allowed to become initiates and participants of the Thracian mysteries, which in this aspect made them similar to the assemblies of the secret male societies of ancient Iranian peoples. And like the Iranian mysteries, the Thracian mysteries consisted of fertility rites and the fight against the Chaos-dragon, and were centred around immortality. Similarly to Iranian mystery cults, where Yima took only the souls of the good to Paradise, Orpheus/Zalmoxis was believed to welcome only good souls but not bad souls, that is he welcomed only those who had learnt the secret of immortality through initiation in the mysteries, but not the unitiated who had not gained this privilege.[6]
History[edit]
When the Romans conquered Thrace in the 1st century CE, they destroyed the Thracians' traditional political and administrative systems, which in turn stripped Thracian religion of its social base,[6] and when the Bessi were defeated by the Roman commander Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus in 13 CE, he celebrated his victory by "chaining [the Bessi's] Ares".[2]
The Hero Zis became very popular in Thrace under Roman rule, when he was represented on thousands of votive tablets and worshipped in hundreds of shrines.[2] Roman rule introduced the use of the images of Cybele, Mithras, and Silvanus, and votive reliefs on which were depicted Graeco-Roman deities including but not limited to Zeus, Hera, Athena, Asclepius and Hygieia, and Dionysos became common. However, this syncretism was largely superficial and local Thracian beliefs and concepts remained entrenched, as attested by the popularity of the Thracian mounted hero deity. When the Roman Empire started employing Thracians in its army, these soldiers during their deployments spread the cult of the Thracian horseman deity until as far as Britannia, Germania, Italy, the Tauric Chersonese, Asia Minor and Aegyptus.[17]
The Thracian religion finally became extinct after Christianity was made the state religion of the Roman Empire. Because Thrace was close to the imperial capital of Constantinople, the Thracian worship of pagan deities, their sanctuaries and festivals became easy targets of the Roman authorities. The Thracian sanctuaries were demolished or burnt down, religious votive reliefs were destroyed, and the idols of the gods were thrown into pits to convert the Thracians to Christianity.[17]
Legacy[edit]
The religion of the Scythians was influenced by that of the Thracians after the Scythians imposed their rule on settled Thracian populations living to the north of the Black Sea when they first arrived in the region of the Pontic Steppe. Thracian fertility cults, in particular, were absorbed by the Scythian religion, and the Scythian Great Goddess, Artimpasa, who like Bendis was a mistress of animals and a power-giver, had been influenced by the Thracian Great Goddess.[7]
The Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated in Greece were a religious importation from Thrace, and according to Greek sources, their founder was a Thracian named Eumolpus.[2]
Around the late 6th century BCE, the Greek philosophical and religious movement known as Orphism arose out of a transformation of the Thracian religion. Orphism was a philosophical and religious movement within Greek intellectual and literary circles, spanning from the 6th century BCE to the 6th century CE, and philosophers influenced by Orphism ranged from Pythagoras to Plato and the Neoplatonists, throughout which its cosmogony, theogony and ethics remained distinct from the native Greek Olympian ones. However, Greek Orphism also existed as a religious sect which especially emphasised divination.[1] In Greek Orphism, the first son of Bendis was called both Apollo and Dionysus, representing his dual celestial and chthonic nature.[1] The concept of the transmigration of the soul, especially, was inherited by Greek Orphism and Pythagoreanism from Thracian Orphism.[6]
In Greece, at the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi, which was connected to Thrace through a sacred road, the most important priestly family was the Thracides (Θρακίδες, Thrakídes; Latin: Thracidae), and in the beginning in the 5th century BCE and under Thracian religious influence, a fusion of Apollo and Dionysys took place at Delphi, according to which it was believed Apollo departed to Hyperborea during winter, and in the meantime Dionysus became the lord of the sanctuary. According to Herodotus, the Delphic rites were similar to those of the Thracian Temple of Zilmisos. Moreover, the ancient Greeks believed that the mythical Hyperboreans sent offerings to Apollo's sanctuary at Delos which passed through Thrace to reach the god's sanctuary.[5][2]
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 Apollo to those of Derainos (Δεραινος, Zerdēnos (Ζερδηνος), and Kendrisos (Κενδρισος), Hermes to that of Perpheraios (Περφεραιος), and Artemis to those of Bendis and Basileia (Βασιλεια). The Greeks living in the colonies in Thrace themselves in turn would borrow these hybrid Thracian-Greek gods, such as the citizens of Ainos, who worshipped Hermes because the local Thracians worshipped a local form of Hermes-Perpheraios.[2]
In the rest of Greece as well, Apollo and Dionysus were closely associated due to influence from Thracian Orphism, and Graeco-Roman authors recorded connections between the Thracian cult of the solar Zis and the Greek cult of Apollo.[5]
The cult of the Thracian goddess Bendis was adopted by the Greek city-state of Athens in 429 BCE. The goddess was honoured during the festivities of the Bendideia, which were celebrated in the city on the 19th and 20th days of the month of Thargelion.[2]
The spread of the worship of the solar Zis/Sabazios spread among the Graeco-Romans, who represented him under the traits of the Greek supreme god Zeus until the 3rd century CE. Under Roman rule, Sabazios was primarily worshipped in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, but was introduced in the western provinces by the Roman army.[5]
The Greek myth of the Golden Fleece might have had its origin in the Thracian myth of the golden fleece.[5]
The legendary kenkhrínes (ϰεγχρίνες) snake inhabiting the islands of Aegean Thrace mentioned by the Greek poet and physician Nicander of Colophon in his poem Theriaca might have been inspired by the Thracian Chaos-dragon.[5]
According to Balkans folklore, dragons with legs are believed to be the most dangerous type of dragons, and some dragons are depicted as spotted snakes with bird heads, which might be motifs originating in depictions of the ancient Thracian Chaos-dragon.[5]
Elements of the cult of the solar Zis have survived in the folklore of the populations living on both sides of the Bosporus, and some of the cult's components are still present in some customs from Bulgaria and northern Greece.[1]
Bulgarian folklore's legend of the most dangerous of all wolves, the lame wolf Kutsulan, might have its origins in the lupine, asymmetrical, and outcast warrior-hero of the ancient Thracian religion.[5]
Carnivals in southern Europe use many masks combining human and equine features. This motif originated in the image of the dual-natured centaur as a symbol of Chaos.[5]