Zalmoxis was a deity of the Getae and Dacians (a people of the lower Danube), mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories, written before 425 BC, wherein he writes of them: “[4.93] Before arriving at the Ister, the first people whom he (King Darius) subdued were the Getae, who believe in their immortality. The Thracians of Salmydessus, and those who dwelt above the cities of Apollonia and Mesembria - the Scyrmiadae and Nipsaeans, as they are called - gave themselves up to Darius without a struggle; but the Getae obstinately defending themselves, were forthwith enslaved, notwithstanding that they are the noblest as well as the most just of all the Thracian tribes.” (289) Herodotus Histories contains a very interesting section wherein the “human sacrifice” of people is related: “[4.94] The belief of the Getae in respect of immortality is the following. They think that they do not really die, but that when they depart this life they go to Zalmoxis, who is called also Gebeleizis by some among them. To this god every five years they send a messenger, who is chosen by lot out of the whole nation, and charged to bear him their several requests. Their mode of sending him is this. A number of them stand in order, each holding in his hand three darts; others take the man who is to be sent to Zalmoxis, and swinging him by his hands and feet, toss him into the air so that he falls upon the points of the weapons. If he is pierced and dies, they think that the god is propitious to them; but if not, they lay the fault on the messenger, who (they say) is a wicked man: and so, they choose another to send away. The messages are given while the man is still alive. This same people, when it lightens and thunders, aim their arrows at the sky, uttering threats against the god; and they do not believe that there is any god but their own.” (290) Continuing just a little further we read more: “(95) This Salmoxis I hear from the Hellenes who dwell about the Hellespont and the Pontus, was a man, and he became a slave in Samos, and was in fact a slave of Pythagoras the son of Mnesarchos. Then having become free he gained great wealth, and afterwards returned to his own land: and as the Thracians both live hardly and are rather simple-minded, this Salmoxis, being acquainted with the Ionian way of living and with manners more cultivated than the Thracians were used to see, since he had associated with Hellenes (and not only that but with Pythagoras, not the least able philosopher of the Hellenes), prepared a banqueting-hall, where he received and feasted the chief men of the tribe and instructed them meanwhile that neither he himself nor his guests nor their descendants in succession after them would die; but that they would come to a place where they would live forever and have all things good. While he was doing that which has been mentioned and was saying these things, he was making for himself meanwhile a chamber under the ground; and when his chamber was finished, he disappeared from among the Thracians and went down into the underground chamber, where he continued to live for three years: and they grieved for his loss and mourned for him as dead. Then in the fourth year he appeared to the |
Thracians, and in this way the things which Salmoxis said became credible to them. (96). Thus, they say that he did; but as to this matter and the chamber underground, I neither disbelieve it nor do I very strongly believe, but I think that this Salmoxis lived many years before Pythagoras. However, whether there ever lived a man Salmoxis, or whether he is simply a native deity of the Getai, let us bid farewell to him now.” (291) Here is a fine example of a very early association in history, 400 years before the time of Christ, when someone was being “born again” three (3), in this case years, after he disappeared or “died.” We are also given the impression that this death underwent by the Getae was not a literal death, per se, but a “death-like experience.” King Tantalus of Lydia had a son named Pelops who he sacrificed at a feast to the gods hoping to fool them. Zeus recognized this deception and cast King Tantalus into Hades and the boy was rescued by the Moirai, (the fates). The fates collected him up and placed him in a boiling cauldron of transformation from which he emerged except for his shoulder which Demeter had accidentally eaten and which was replaced with one made of ivory. (292) Dionysos was also placed into a cauldron and eaten whole or in part, according to several legends concerning the Titans. Callimachus and Euphorion cite him being boiled in a cauldron and pieces of him placed over a fire. (293) Diodorus and Clement of Alexandria wrote that pieces of him were boiled and roasted on a spit fire. (294) Arnobias said in the early 4th century, that pieces of his body were “thrown into pots that he might be cooked.” (295) Plutarch says that the Titans “tasted his blood” (296) and in the 6th century AD, Neoplatonist Olympiodorus says that they ate “his flesh.” (297) Over the course of the next couple chapters, we will return, albeit briefly, to this subject of human sacrifice in Jerusalem and Spanish colonial America. (289) Herodotus, Histories, Book IV, 93 (290) Herodotus, Histories, Book IV, 94 (291) Herodotus, Histories, Book IV, 95-96 (292) http://www.theoi.com/Heros/Pelops.html (293) Callimachus, fr. 643 Pfeiffer (= Euphorion, fr. 14 Lightfoot (294) Diodorus Siculus, 3.62.6) (Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 2.15 pp. 38, 39 Butterworth (295) Arnobius, Adversus Gentes 5.19 (p. 242) (296) Plutarch, On the Eating of Flesh 996 BC (297) The Great Mother, p. 287; Olympiodorus, In Plato Phaedon 1.3; translated by Edmonds 1999, p. 40; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreus; Briffault, The Mothers, Vol. III, p. 452, n.3 |