Thrace, in the area of today's Bulgaria, has a cosmology going back thousands of years. Tribal mythology shares a Great Goddess and Storm God. The mythical bard Orpheus originates among the scattered Thracian tribes, and music is an important part of ritual.
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Thracian religion is polytheistic with monotheistic elements. In Thracian creation lore, Bendis the Earth Mother personifies the world at rest. The goddess then self-fertilizes and gives birth to a first son, Zis, the male principle.
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Zis is the primary deity of Thrace, with Great Mother of the Gods Bendis. He has both celestial and a chthonic connections, identified with the Sun and Fire. Through the sacred marriage of Bendis and Zis, the bard Orpheus is born.
The mythical origin of Thrace is with Thrax, a son of war god Ares. Thrax is founder and patron of Thrace. In the Bronze Age the golden shield of Ares is kept in a temple at Bistonia near the Aegean.
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According to Euripides, Thrax can be an aspect of war god Ares himself. The war god is also protector of the Thracians. He's worshiped by Spartans, who sacrifice dogs to him, and the Amazons. His sacred animals are dogs and vultures; his symbols, a torch and spear.
Ares is brother to Eris, goddess of discord. It's she who tosses a golden apple in the midst of three goddesses, the catalyst which starts the Trojan War.
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Worship of Ares by the Mycenaean Greeks begins in the 13th century BCE. Some writings consider his birthplace to be Thrace, among the ferocious warrior raiders. Ares is not a popular god. A few temples and shrines exist, such as ruins and tales of Giresun Island.
The most important Thracian shrines date to the Late Bronze Age (16th - 12th centuries BCE). Many are erected at regions with previous spiritual connections, such as Belintash and Perperikon in the Rhodope Mountains.
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The name Rhodope is of Thracian origin, meaning red or ruddy river. In Greek mythology, Queen Rhodope of Thrace offends the gods. She and her husband King Haemus are turned to mountains by Hera and Zeus.
From the legendary union of Bendis and her first son Zis, all potent elements are fertilized to ensure continuance of life. Zis is represented as a horse warrior. In the origin lore of Thrace, Orpheus sets free the energies of creation.
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In Greek lore, Orpheus is son of Calliope, muse of eloquence and epic poetry, and Thracian King Oeagru. Oeagru is considered a Thracian wine-god descended from Atlas. Within this lineage, the brother of Orpheus is Linus, a gifted musician and master of eloquent speech.
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In other tales, Orpheus is among the many sons of Apollo, the diverse god of music, dance, poetry, healing and disease, divination and prophecy, archery, truth, justice, the Sun and light. Apollo gives Orpheus his first lyre.
Orpheus plays a part in the Argonautica, the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts on a quest for the Golden Fleece. When sirens try to lure the Argonauts with their sweet songs, Orpheus plays even more beautifully on his lyre, saving the men from certain doom.
The most famous story of Orpheus is that of his trip to Hades, the underworld, to rescue his beloved wife Eurydice. He charms the three-headed dog, Cerberus, who guards the gates, with his music.
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Finally he manages to impress the god and Hades lets him take Eurydice back to the world of the living - on the condition he doesn't look back as she follows him. Naturally Orpheus can't resist looking back, and sees her behind him. With a cry, she vanishes forever.
Orpheus meets a tragic end, being either torn apart by wild beasts or Maenads, female followers of the God Dionysus. Their rites can be both ecstatic and bloodthirsty. According to one version he refuses to sleep with the women, hence their murderous brutality.
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Initially, the Thracian people worship Zalmoxis, a god of life, death and mysteries; Orpheus; Cotys, the wild mother; Zis, and Bendis the earth mother. Despite their warrior nature the Thracians have a love of music and poetry, noted by later Greco-Romans.
Zalmoxis receives his name from the bearskin he wears after he's born. He may be a "dying god", who dies and become resurrected. According to Herodotus:
" ... the Getae are the bravest of the Thracians and the most just. They believe they are immortal forever living in the following sense: they think they do not die and that the one who dies joins Zalmoxis, a divine being; some call this same divine being Gebeleizis.
Gebeleizis is also known as a god of storm and lightning especially among the Thracian Getae. The Getae inhabit a small area north of the Danube. The god Zalmoxis can appear in this capacity in other regions too.
Every four years, they send a messenger to Zalmoxis, who is chosen by chance. They ask him to tell Zalmoxis what they want on that occasion. The mission is performed in the following way:
... men standing there for that purpose hold three spears; other people take the one who is sent to Zalmoxis by his hands and feet and fling him in the air on the spears. If he dies pierced, they think that the divinity is going to help them; if he does not die, it is he who is accused and they declare that he is a bad person.
And, after he has been charged, they send another one. The messenger is told the requests while he is still alive. The same Thracians, on other occasions, when he thunders and lightens, shoot with arrows up in the air against the sky and menace the divinity because they think there is no god other than their own."
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Cotys or Cotytto (Kotus or Kotuttô) is a Thracian goddess sometimes equated with Bendis. Her festival, the Cotyttia, is similar to the feast of Phrygian Cybele. It's a wild unruly celebration in the hills. Later her worship is connected to Dionysian style revels.
Worship of Cotys extends as far as Italy and Sicily. Celebrants of her festival are called baptai. Literary references include those of Aeschylus:
"Practising the holy rites of Kotyto (Cotyto) . . . One, holding in his hands the pipe, the labor of the lathe, blows forth his fingered tune, even the sound that wakes to frenzy. Another, with brass-bound cymbals, raises a clang . . . the twang shrills; the unseen, unknown, bull-voiced mimes in answer bellow fearfully, while the timbrel's echo, like that of subterranean thunder, rolls along inspiring a mighty terror."
... and Strabo:
"Also resembling these rites [the sacred rites of Rhea and Dionysos] are the Kotytian (Cotytian) and the Bendideian rites practiced among the Thrakians (Thracians), among whom the Orphic rites had their beginning.
Now the Kotys (Cotys) who is worshipped among the Edonians [a Thrakian tribe], and also the instruments used in her rites, are mentioned by Aiskhylos (Aeschylus); for he says, ‘O adorable Kotys among the Edonians, and ye who hold mountain-ranging instruments’;
" ... and he mentions immediately afterwards the attendants of Dionysos: ‘one, holding in his hands the bombyces, toilsome work of the turner's chisel, fills full the fingered melody, the call that brings on frenzy:
while another causes to resound the bronze-bound cotylae’ and again, ‘stringed instruments raise their shrill cry, and frightful mimickers from some place unseen bellow like bulls, and the semblance of drums, as of subterranean thunder, rolls along, a terrifying sound’;
" ... for these rites resemble the Phrygian rites, and it is at least not unlikely that, just as the Phrygians themselves were colonists from Thrake, so also their sacred rites were borrowed from there. Also when they identify Dionysos and the Edonian Lykourgos (Lycurgus), they hint at the homogeneity of their sacred rites."
Bendis, the Earth Mother, personifies the womb of life and death's decay. To the Greeks she is equated with divine huntress Artemis to whom the deer and bear are sacred. She's often accompanied by dancing satyrs and maenads.
Human sacrifice is also given to Bendis. To the Thracians she is an ultimate power, the beginning of all life and the end of it. Burials, offerings and sacrifice are often made in natural rock formations or caves reaching down to the depths of the earth.
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Groundwater arising in springs or lakes from the earth has special spiritual meaning. Shrines and temples are often erected at these places. In some rock walls, Thracians carve carefully shaped niches for votive offerings.
Bendida Peak on Trinity Peninsula in Antarctica is named after Bendis. The Thracian Great Goddess appears regularly on artwork of the Greco-Roman periods. The Earth Mother, Great Goddess, Earth Goddess or Creator Goddess is a fundamental theme in pagan lore.
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Horses are integral to Thracian culture and religion. A Horse Warrior God is depicted in splendor. He represents hero god Zis, sometimes portrayed as a warrior with three heads. Zis battles the Chaos dragon, and purges pestilence from the Rhodone Mountains.
Ancient Thracians believe in universal forces within the world, which is made of the four elements Earth, Air, Water and Fire. These elements are seen as forces or energies combined in the form of the mountain, personified as the Thracian Mother Goddess.
Death doesn't frighten them, as they see the soul as eternal. Either the deceased returns to Earth, or achieves greater happiness in the Afterlife. Suicide is considered a sacred act and the person gains respect. Cults form around the belief of soul transmigration.
The tetrad or group of four is considered the basis of the cosmos in Thracian religion, and the number ten represents the Cosmos itself, being composed of numbers four, three, two, and one, according to the equation 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10.
Later adopted Greek deities include Dionysos (Dionysus), Artemis, Apollo and Hermes. Among the hunters of the Calydonian boar, a creature of destruction sent by Artemis, is the Thracian Alcon, also a son of Ares. The tale takes place c. 1300 BCE.
Related to the Great Mother Goddess and deification of mountains, a megalithic culture forms in Thrace in the 2nd and first millennia BCE. Remnants include monuments, rock-cut niches of rectangular or circular of trapezoidal shape for votive gifts.
At the sacred sites, platforms for sacrifices include troughs and drainage outlets for the victims' blood. Sacred steps lead to springs or rock sanctuaries, dolmens and megalithic complexes.
Bear worship is associated with the Thracians, as it is with Germanic tribes, Slavs, Finns, the Sami, some Japanese cultures, Gallic, Celtic and British; and Dacians and Getians. The latter two are tribes of Thrace. Bear worship societies often practice bear sacrifice.
Beyond the great gods in Thracian religion are a host of nature spirits such as nymphs of the mountains and waters. Also revered are the Cabeiri, a group of divinities who promise good fortune in the afterlife, maintain justice and laws of social order.
Centaurs, men with horse bodies, inhabit the fringes of wilderness, eat raw meat and abduct women. They are forces of chaos. Sacrifice of a bull is required to maintain world harmony. In iconography centaurs may be winged.
Centaurs and nymphs also enjoy love affairs. Another animal of ritual worship and sacrifice is the ram. The Greek myth of the Golden Fleece is thought to have Thracian origins. In a legend of Thrace, a golden ram appears among the king's sheep as divine favor.
The ram is sacrificed and its golden woolly skin preserved as a royal talisman. The myth may symbolize domestication of mobile wealth and its transfer to Bendis as hearth-goddess. Bendis of the hearth is also a patron of snakes, recalling ancient Baltic lore.
The ram is closely associated with Thracian Hermes, and dwells in the middle part of the Cosmos. Ancient Greek sources attest the tale of the Golden Fleece originates in this Thracian myth.