Thracian religion includes the religious practices of the Thracians. Little is known about their mythology and rituals, but some of their gods are depicted in statuary or described in Greek sources.
Cults
One notable cult, attested from Thrace to Moesia and Scythia Minor, is that of the "Thracian horseman", also known as the "Thracian Heros", at Odessos attested by a Thracian name as Heros Karabazmos, a god of the underworld usually depicted on funeral statues as a horseman slaying a beast with a spear.
Deities
Known Thracian deities include:
Sabazios, the Thracian reflex of Indo-EuropeanDyeus, identified with Heros Karabazmos, the "Thracian horseman". He gained a widespread importance especially after the Roman conquest. After Christianity was adopted, the symbolism of Heros continued as representations of Saint George slaying the dragon.
Zibelthiurdos : a god recognized as similar to the Greek Zeus as a wielder of lightning and thunderbolts.
Kotys, a goddessworshipped with much revelry by Thracian tribes such as the Edonians in the festival Cotyttia. A cult of Cottyto existed in classicalAthens. According to Greek sources her priests were called baptes or "washers" because their pre-worship purification rites involved bathing. Her worship included midnight orgies . Her name is believed to have meant "war, slaughter", akin to Old NorseHöðr "war, slaughter".
Bendis was a Thracian goddess of the moon and the hunt whom the Greeks identified with Artemis, and hence with the other two aspects of formerly Minoan goddesses, Hecate and Persephone.
Zemelā is probably a cognate of the Proto-Indo-European Earth goddessDhéǵhōm, akin to Lithuanian Žemyna and LatvianZemes Māte, both of which are "Mother Earth" goddesses. Likely there has been an early Semele Goddess in proto-Slavic mythology as 'earth' to this day is "земля" in Russian, "земља" in Serbian and "земя" in Bulgarian. Also compare Phrygian 'Zemelo'.
Known Dacian theonyms include:
Zalmoxis, identified by some with the thunder-god Gebeleïzis, an important god of the Dacians and Thracians.
