After Zalmoxis was freed, he became wealthy and went back to his native country, where he taught the northern Thracians the Greek way of life based on Pythagorean ideas about immortality, vegetarianism, and so forth (see Strabo, Geography 7.3 –5). Herodotos (4.95) refers to a story told by the Greeks in the Pontic colonies (on the western shore of the Black Sea) according to which Zalmoxis was a Getic slave of the Greek Pythagoras, who lived in Samos. More recently, Cicerone Poghirc (1983) has proposed, for reasons of textual criticism, the reading Nebeleizis, meaning "god of the sky" (compare the Slavic nebo, "sky," and the Greek nephele, "cloud"). Given that Herodotus spoke about a thundering god, Wilhelm Tomaschek corrected the name to Zibeleizis, meaning "thunder sender" (compare the Lithuanian žaibas, "thunderbolt," which has no clear etymology). Russu) the theory of the chthonic character of this god, which led to the ongoing dispute over his real functions.Īccording to Herodotos ( Histories 4.94), some Getae also gave Zalmoxis the name Gebeleizis or Beleizis, which Kretschmer has related to the same Indo-European root, *g ʾhem-el- ("earth"), that he traced in Zamolxis. On this basis Paul Kretschmer compared the metathetical form Zamolxis with the Phrygian zemelen ("barbarian slave" Gr., barbaron andrapodon ), with Zemelo, the name of a Thraco-Phrygian earth goddess (compare the Greek Semele ), and with the Slavic zemlja ("earth") and thus explained Zamolxis as meaning "lord of men" (for -xis, compare the Avestan xshaya-, "lord, king"). But Porphyry also gives another explanation of the meaning of the name: "foreigner" (Gr., xenos aner ). 175) has proved that Indo-European correspondents of zalmos also mean "shield, protection," which is perfectly fitting to both a god and the highest priest. Porphyry (third century ce) explains the etymology of Zalmoxis through the Thracian word zalmos ("skin" Gr., dora ), and in supporting this thesis he offers an etiologic legend that tells of the covering of Zalmoxis at birth with a bearskin ( Life of Pythagoras 14 –15). Zamolxis is only a metathesis, frequent since Strabo (first century bce), with no parallels in Thracian onomastics. ![]() The genuine form, however, is Zalmoxis, support for which is found in such Thracian names as Zalmodegikos and Zelmutas and in numerous composites formed with -zelmis, -zelmos, and -selmios. Herodotus spells the name Salmoxis Strabo gives it as Zamolxis. The name Zalmoxis is attested by ancient authors from Herodotus and Plato (fifth-fourth centuries bce) to Diodoros of Tyre (second century ce) and Jordanes (sixth century ce). Associated both with priesthood and with kingship, he was divinized and became the object of a widespread cult among both northern and southern Thracian peoples. Whether he is a figure of legend or of history is moot, as are questions of his religious functions. ZALMOXIS was the founder, possibly legendary, of a priestly line of succession closely linked with kingship of the Getae and the Dacians, the northernmost Thracian peoples of the ancient world. ![]() At the end of his summary Photios has a short discussion of the place of the Apista in literary history. The Apista was a long work, running to 24 books, and it seems likely that a sizeable proportion of its length was devoted to paradoxographical material related to the places and peoples visited by the various narrators, but largely omitted from Photios' summary the plot itself, though both complex and episodic, does not seem capable of sustaining such length. A narrative of Derkyllis, told to Deinias, seems to be inset at this point, relating her own travels and including much Pythagorean material associated with her wonder-working companion, Astraios, which was authentic-seeming enough for Porphyrios to make use of it in his biography of Pythagoras. ![]() This told the story of an Arkadian named Deinias, who travelled the world κατ ζήτησιν στορίας, coming eventually to Thule, where he met Mantinias and Derkyllis, a brother and sister from Tyre, and struck up an erotic relationship with Derkyllis. The 166th codex of the Bibliotheke of Photios comprises a summary of a peculiar work written by one Antonius Diogenes, entitled τ πρ Θούλην πιστα.
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