Quotes

The oldest Thracian culture reveals itself as a synthesis of an important part of the Age of Bronze, with the Ukrainian Seminomadic tribes' contribution. The Thracians ethnogenesis took place within very large borders, between Nistru, the Northern Carpathians and the Balcanic Mountains. Herodot, in the Vth century, says that the Thracians were, after the Hindu, the most numerous people. Despite this fact, their contribution to world's political history was modest.

The same unhappy destiny seems to be shared by the religious creations of the Thracians and Geto-Dacians. The originality and the force of Thracian religiosity had been recognized rather early by the Greeks. The origin of the Dionysian movement and a significant part of the mythology regarding Orpheus were located in Thracia or Frigia by many civilizations. Like the celts, the Thracian priests and ascets did not write down their convictions. We owe the few things that we know about their mythology, religious believes and rituals to the Greeks and Latins ("interpretatio graeca and latina"). Herodot wrote down certain talks he had with the Greeks in Hellespont, and this is how we got to know the ritual of Zalmoxis and the name "Gebeleizis".

The Thracian religious inheritance, despite some inevitable changes, persisted until our days, and it is included in Romanian and Balcanic folk customs, in the same way that this happened in the case of the ancient Germans, the Celts' descendants,of the Slavics and the Baltic people.

According to Herodot, the Thracian's adored "Ares, Dionysus and Artemis" ; still, their Kings worshiped "Hermes", whose descendants they thought they were.

One can suppose the existence of the exemplary myth regarding the God of Tempest and Mother Earth, Dionysus being the fruit of this union. The Greeks were familiar with Dionysus' Thracian names: the most common were "Sabos and Sabazios". The Thracian cult of Dionysus mentions the rituals that took place during the night, in the mountains, lighted by the torches: there was a savage music in the air (noises caused by hitting bronze vessels, whistles) that made the believers shout out their joy while they were dancing a furious, whirled circular dance. These strange and exhausting dances were performed especially by the women; they had odd costumes named "bessares", probably made of animal skins (foxes, deers) and they wore cornels on their heads. They held in their hands snakes dedicated to Sabazios, knives or other sharp objects. When they were reaching the "sacred madness", they tore into pieces the chosen animals and eat them, this way being done the identification with the God; from that moment those who took part at this ritual were called "Sabos" or "Sabazios". The mystic experiences made stronger the conviction of "unio mystica", this being a way to become one with God.

For some Thracian tribes, life had no important significance, because of their faith in immortality and life after death, which made the last one a desirable event. Many authors of that time made the Tracians believes responsible for their extraordinary courage in battles.

As for "Hermes", who according to Herodot, was worshiped exclusively by the kings (meaning the military aristocracy), his identification is difficult to be done.

Zalmoxis and the immortality

The same historian says that "the Getaes are the most brave and the most fair among the Thracians". "They think they are immortal", goes on Herodot, and here is what they believe in "their conviction is that they never die, the one who stops living goes to Zalmoxis, a god also called by some others "Gebeleizis". The name of "Gebeleizis" is mentioned in literature, for the first and the last time, in the quoted lines. He appears to be a god of the Tempest, or maybe an odd god of the Sky. Herodot also says that, sometimes, when a storm was coming, the Thracians launched arrows in the air, against the sky, threatening this God, because they never accepted another God than their own, and they thought he is the one responsible for everything that happened to them.

Despite what Herodot says, it's hard to consider Zalmoxis and Gebeleizis one single God, because Zalmoxis has none of the attributes of a Tempest God. The most precious information brought up by Herodot are related to the myth and the cult of Zalmoxis.

He says that the Getaes considered themselves immortal, because "the one who stops living goes to Zalmoxis". Still, the meaning of the original word that had been used ("athanatizein") is not "to be immortal" but "to become immortal". This step towards immortality is achieved by an initiation, from this point of view Zalmoxis' cult resembling to the Greek and Elenistic Misteries.

The Greek historian also describes the specific ritual related to Zalmoxis: every four years a messenger was sent to tell the God "what they wish in different circumstances". Three lances were hold by some men with the sharp side upwards; the one who had been chosen by chance was thrown in the air, during his falling being transfixed by the three lances.

Another version of Zalmoxis' myth is given by Strabon, at the beginning of Christian Age . Zalmoxis was the pupil of Pitagora and he learned from his master, "certain things regarding the heavenly bodies".

During the 2nd century, the authority of the "Great Church" was seriously threatened by many crises, that being the moment when the first systematic theology appeared. Criticizing the heresy of gnostic sects, the Fathers ended by giving birth to orthodoxy. Basically, orthodoxy consisted in respecting the theology of the Old Testament. The gnostics were labeled as heretics because they partially or totally rejected the principles of ebraic philosophy.

You were a good Christian only if you were sharing the believes of the Old Testament.

In other words, man was virtually created as a God. "The history" is the period of time during which human beings learn to practice their liberty and how to become a saint, in fact they are doing their apprenticeship as Gods.

Saint Paul magnifies the revival guaranteed by Jesus: "If someone is in Jesus, he is a new being ". For the Fathers (Priests), orthodoxy was tightly connected with the apostolic succession. The Apostles got their knowledge directly from Jesus and passed them over to the bishops and to their successors.

"This way, dealing with a primitive, mobile Christianism, Rome succeed to statute a particular form named orthodoxy, which managed to overwhelm all the other tendencies, considered to be heretic."

An English version by Nora Parvu