The Journal Of

INDO-EUROPEAN
STUDIES
VELIZAR VELKOV
Ancient Settlements i1l Thrace ........................ 194
ALEXANDER FOL
HRISTO M. DANOV
Interpraetatio Thracica . .................... . . . ...... 217
Some Characteristic Moments in Thraco-Greek Relations
During the Pre-Roman Period ......................... 231
GEORGI MIHAILOV
IVAN VENEDIKOV
Some Problems of Thraeian Mythology Qlld Religion . ......... 241
Thracian Art . ................................... . 249
J.P. MALLORY
EDGAR C. POLOME
ALFRED BAMMESBERGER
FREDERIK KORTLANDT
LEO A. CON OLL Y
TOM M.S. PRlESTLY
KENNETH SHIELDS
T.L.MARKEY
Proto-Indo-European and Kurgan Fauna II: Fish . ............ 263
Celto-Germanic Isoglosses (Revisited) . ........... . ...... 281
The Aorist Optative of a-Roots in Sanskrit . ... . ............ 299
ProtoIndo-European Verbal Syntax . .............. .. .... 307
Germanic r-Preterites ... _......................... . 325
On 'Drift'in Indo-European Gender Systems . .. . ........... 339
The Hittite First Person Singu/(:r Imperative Suffix -Iu ......... 365
English dog I Germanic hound ....................... .. 373
ERIC P. RAMP
IE *meHenot- and the Perfect Participle . ................. 379
Volume 11, Numbers 3 & 4
Fall/Winter 1983
: ihrer
: \. II.
. a ma,
-. :.:-e Ie
. oal k.

. "'1. ities
:: :5.< . 3,
., Bu
,-ian a ,

.
-.. IDas
_ .. . 1,
Sofi a.
INTERPRAETATIO THRACICA
ALEXANDER FOL
Sofia University
The Thracian culture was judged by alien, mostly Greek and Roman,
criteria for years. The author gives a seri es of examples of false inter
pretations . The revaluation of ancient Thracian culture with the help
of a more thorough study of a var iety of sources - archaeologi cal,
linguistic, epigraphic, and numismatic.
The beginning of research in the field of the history of
ancie nt Thrace was laid down before the Paris Academie des
Inscriptions et Belles Lettres by M. Cary in his report on the
Thracian and Bosphorus kings identified by their coins. (1)
The report, dated 1756, marks the starting point of the more
th an 200 year long devel opment of Thracologic research, which
enjoyed particularl y remarkable success at the end of the
19th century with the Austrian historiographic and linguisti c
school. (2)
The high esteem which the contemporary scientist bears for
his predecessors cannot suppress his discontent with the metho
dological points at issue in their works. From a theoretical
point of view, fascinated as they were by the splendour of the
Hellenic civili zation then being discovered, the scientists of the
preceding generati ons could not overcome their simplistic
notion of the "barbaric periphery" of the antique cultural
centers, in which Thrace, together with other territories in the
Mediterranean basin and Europe, was included. (3) From
a methodological point of view, they made full use of the
results from the study of the Greco-Roman antiquity, verifyi ng
through them the data on Thrace ; thus, the basic processes
of the essentially Thracian historical development, its periodi
zation, etc. - the main aspects of Thracian culture - were
judged by alien criteria. (4) After World War II the necessary
(Ii tv!. Cary, Histoire des rois de Thrace et de ceux du Bosphore Cimmerien,
eclaircie par les medailles, Paris, 1757.
(2) Cf. Chr. Danov, Criti cal o utline of the histori ography for Bulgaria in antiq
ui ty before the 9.9. 1944: 1. Annuary of the Faculty of History and Philology of
the University of Sofia, 57, 2 (1964); 8-20, 23-37 (with lit. in Bulgarian).
(3) Cf. A. Fol, The Thracological Researches in Bulgaria, in Problems of the
Bulgarian Historiography after the Second World War, Sofia, 1973: 150, with lit.
(in Bulgari an).
(4) Cf. A. Fol, General Into duction, in A. Fol. I. Marozov' s, Thrace and Thra
cians, Cassel-London (1977): 9-13.
218 JOURNAL OF INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES
conditions gradually appeared for a fundamental revaluation
of Thracian historiography. (5)
It is evident that the equal scientific value of the history of
ancient Thrace can be exactly demonstrated by the complex
method of analysis of the data obtainable from all sources.
Of course the complex method here implies primarily inter
disciplinary study, i.e. the confrontation of information ex
tracted from written sources, archaeological, linguistic, epi
graphic, and numismatic data. Generally speaking, the inter
disciplinary method of research is not a novelty in contem
porary science, although its use is comparatively late in Thra
cian studies. (6)
The complication here arises from the specific circumstance
that the Thracians left no literature. As we shall try to show
later, Thracian ideology and religion are built on the concept
of the interaction and equilibrium of the solar (Orphic) and
chthonic (Dionysian) elements. Thracian culture was oral,
impressed on the consciousness by implications of the world
doctrine. Thus Theopompus and Jorc1an tell how the Getic
notables, dressed in white, melodeclaim accompanied by a
guitar, even when conducting war negotiations. (7) The men,
who left their arms at the entrance and stepped into the sacred
hall to become the heroes of a legend, (8) look like their great
teachers, of whom we know the names of two - Orpheus and
Zalmoxis. If we assume that Pythagoras in southern Italy was
the last representative of the great teachers and the creator
of the Hellenic philosophic and literary variant of Thracian
Orphism, we will understand why he left no writings; the
assumption that the writings of Pythagoras have been lost is
based on the modern presumption that he could not do other
w1se than record his teachings. But the Orphic, bearer of an
aristocratic teaching, did not feel an inner necessity to do so.
Writing is, of course, a manifestation of ethnic self-con
sciousness and of a state building. It is evident that the large
(5) For Thrace d. A. Fol, Political History of the Thracians, Sofia (1972):
9-10, with lit. (in Bulgarian).
(6) Symposium International Sur L'ethnogen'ese des Peuples Balkaniques,
Plovdiv, IV (1969): 23-28. Cf. L'ethnogenese des peup!es balkaniques, in: Studia
Balcanica 5, Sofia, 1971.
(7) F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker I-III, Berlin-Leiden,
1954; hereinafter FGrHist. Jacoby, F. GrHist. I, 115, F: 216; Kaibe!, Athen, XIV,
24: 627 doe, Mommsen, lord. Getica 65.
(8) FGrHist. I (Con) F: 45.
INTE RPR -\
Thrac!an
ident i fie : :
to a pa . . :
Clan Cli.
mute.
thons an" -
persona,
will be dJe
of th e p
the po\er:
attrib u
nings: tlie
royal I )r
There
includes.
differen
the dis ( ! - '
to the GTe .
analysi
"Hellemc i..:c
The
conten t.>
1) \ \ hi
ones re feIT''':- :
cal fac ts pr
2) If !e
data gi\ en
hypothe e5
other;
3) If _
will carry ": .
posed to '" ::
together
ing the __
Greek and
(9) A. Fo
Hellenistic Peri;:; _
(10) Cf. \ ' . w
(in Bulgarian) .
(Il) Fol ,
INTERPRAETATID THRACICA 219
DIES
- on
Thracian nation had not attained that degree of a common
identification_ The feelings of individuals were of belonging
to a particular tribe. (9) As it is, the objective side of the Thra
-- 0 f
ex
cian culture, the one we usually call "material culture," remains
D_
mute. Even the Thracian inscriptions on stone, pottery, rhy
rees.
thons and phialae, with few exceptions - when they contain
~ er
personal names - will never be deciphered. (10) This failure
ex
will be due not alone to linguistics, but mainly to the vagueness
ept
of the phonetic and morphologic structure of the language and
. er
the poverty of its preserved vocabulary. This failure is directly
: em
attributable to the character of the Thracian ideology and
. foLl
religions, in which the inscriptions play the role of sacred
formulae, linking the solar together with the chthonic begin
~ n c e
nings; the only thing we can say about them is that they are
c., \\'
royal or sacerdo tal form ulae and oracles.
,('ept
Therefore, interdisciplinary research into Thracian antiquity
and
includes, beside the confrontation of different data from
Ira!,
different sources, one most important operation: to overcome
_Tl d-
the distortion of the actual situation in Thrace, entirely alien
3etic
to the Greek or Latin observer, and at the same time, the
by a
analysis of an sorts of data outside the actually traditional
"1en,
"Hellenic (Latin) interpretation."(ll)
.: :ed
The extension of the problem concerning the sources or
_. eat
contents of the Interpraetatio Thracica would look as follows:
. :md
1) Which sources are more useful to Thracian history, the
ones referring to calendar facts, or the ones dealing with histori
_:nor
cal facts (processes and phenomena)?
2) If the latter are more useful, then the whole system of
Lhe
data given by the sources about Thracian history will represent
,,: 1.
hypotheses advancing each other and resulting from one an
: her
~ . an
other;
3) If that is so, then any single source whatever its nature,
will carry little weight. It gains importance only when juxta
r- n
posed to others, i.e. when interdisciplinary method is applied,
together with the principle of chronologie stratigraphy (group
ing the data by epochs), and the principle of rejecting the
, i:! ) :
Greek and Roman interpretations.
-:.es ,
: , ,,,lia
(9) A. Fol, Political History 36; idem., Thrace and the Balkans in the Early
Hellenistic Period, Sofia (1975) (in Bulgarian).
(10) Cf. V. Georgiev, The Thracians and Their Language, Sofia (1977): 105-151
(in Bulgarian).
(II) Fol & Marazov, op. cit.,: II.
220
JOURNAL OF INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES
I1\TER. ;;..
1. Written sources (codes , texts, schoLiae).
The Greek and Roman authors, reporting calendar facts
of Thracian history are, on the whole, either verifiable or
acceptable. But the fragments treating historical events or
characterizing processes cannot be accepted literally. That is
why we must begin by checking the codes of the authors who
have not yet been studied for the purposes of Thracian history.
The variant readings have not been admitted in scientific
practice, for in the commented editions the Thracian personal,
local, and theoforic names stand as seen and established by
their first editors from the Greek language point of vi ew. They
were accepted by scientists after W. Tomaschek and have not
since been ch alienged.(12) The present pr(lctice is to check
the codes, est ablish the different readings, and choose the most
probable of them from the position of modern knowledge in
Thracology.
The review of the codes begins with the names of the Thra
cian tribes. Herodotus, for instance, mentions (13) that the
trib e, living uphill Apollonia (the actual Sozopol) is called
"LKvPllLaJjaL, which in the different read ings appears also as
"LKVPj.1WVOL. During the 4th century B.C., in Eudoxes, it is
called "LKVj.1VLCL<)aL.(14) Heretofore, scientists have assumed
that the word refers to the same tribe in spite of the different
renderi ngs. This would have been an easy escape, if in the same
fragment Eudoxes did not explicitly mention "LKvj.1vuioaL KaL
fEraL. Stephanus of Byzantium, in his turn, adds that in the
region of Dolionida, near Cyzicus, there is a town named
"LKUpj.1oc;.(15) As Eudoxes is a reliable geographer, the closeness
of the Skirmiadoi to the Getae could mean, that the Skirmiadoi
in question are not the ones known to Herodotus, and the
reading 'Skirmianoi' is uncertain or invented by the copyist.
Thus, we face the possibility of a more complicated localiza
tion of the trib es along the Black Sea shore.
After the correction by Romilly of Thucidydes' text about
Sitalk's expedition in 429 B.C. (the march passing, according
to the conventional readin g of the codes, through the lands
12) Cf. D. Detschew, Die thrakischen Sprachreste, Wien, 1957.
13) Her, IV: 93 (Feix).
14) Steph. Byz. 579, 12 (Meineke).
15) Steph. Byz. 579, 14.
of the :.:.
et h nor ..

le ad (
topor: ;
ti o n __
de cri. :.
res ult3 .7
such .: :
ac Clrcz:.. "
"peop: . _
Imr..:"
of doe
:.
The e.:-. : _
the
Fi nco..L!
sh ouid
i tsel r.
the hi ;
and .. e ::
In ill__
that
the c - r
eve n
Phil jp ::
locali '
sou rces _
w ten _
of the :
Bu t '0 ,
also .; :
a Byo_:
tov\'n . ',:
in ___
221
rr DIES
, facts
ole or
n- or
IS
:5 \,ho
:'[or,;".
__n,' fi c
" onal,
oed by
T hey
not
check
e m ost
_ .ge In
_ T hra
_.it t he
C1 Ued
-'-_ 0 as
It IS

t
"a me
,
KaL
[he
:-.2.1 } cd
, e ness

o... .d the
pvis t.
Liliza
-: _bout
rding
. lands
INTERPRAETATIO THRACICA
of the Agrianes, the Laeaei, and other Paeonian tribes), the
ethnonymic A'Ypw..VEr:; became highl y doubtful. Instead th ere
appeared the ethnonymic vpawi. (16) The different readings
lead to considerable consequences in Thracian et hnonymic and
toponymic stud y. Actually it would see m a probable ass ump
tion that the name 'Agrianes' mentioned by Arri an in his
description of Alexander's expedition in Thrace in 33 5 B.C.
results from a shady literary tradition. The establishment of
such a tradition in literature in this case is eas y enough, for
according to the Greek popular etymology Agrianes means
"people from th e plain" and helps the reader.
Immediatel y, however, there arises the problem of the name
of the river 'A'YPuiv17r:; (the actual Ergene, confluent of the
Marica Ri ver) together wit h the problem of the ethnonymic.
The extant hypothesis th at the mi grating o[ the Agrianes to
the east, thus gave their name to the ri ver, becomes dubi ous.
Finally, the question whether the ethnonymic of the Agrianes
should remain among the other Thracian tribal names presents
itself, as well as the problem of th e new ethnonymic map o[
the high course of the Struma River and the lands between it
and the River Vardar.
In sp eaking of Thracian toponymies, it should be mentioned
that Thracian names of localiti es still exist, as confirmed b y
the compendium o[ D. Detschev ; they are easily identifiable
even when they are hapaxes. According to Theopompus(17),
Phili p II met Cotys I in Thrace in the spring of 359 B.C. at a
locality named Onocarsis, in Thrace. The editors of the Greek
sources [or Thracian histo ry (1949) locate this meeting in
western Thrace, presuming it to lie somewhere near the border
of the two kingdoms which ran along the Struma River. (18)
But 'OvoKapa[\ is a h apax, and it is encoun tered in the codes
also as '0 vOKapoLr:;; such is the case with 'OvapLr:; = ' 0 NapLr:; ,
a Bysaltian slave in Cardi a, leader of the assault agains t the
town.(19 ) Furthermore, while -Kapa a\ is a stable component
in Thracian onomastics, ava-Iva- is not. Bu t it is entirely admissi
(16) Thuc. II, 96: 3 in : R. Weil & L. Bodina's J. de R omiliy . Paris. 1953- 1972:
LI.
(17) FGrHist 1.115, F: 31; At hen. XII,42: 53 1e-532a.
(18) Sources for the History and Geography of the Ancient Thrace and Mace
donia. Sofia, n. 62 (1949): 3 71 (in Bulgarian).
( 19) Charon in Athen. XII, 520 d-f (cf. Muller FHist Gr 1. F 9: 34). The reading
Na ris is to Kaibel.
222
JOURNAL Of INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES
ble to see in it the conupted mo - in 1l0K a-/1l0LO which is a Thra
cian onomast ic element. (20) Thus, 'OVOKapOl':: = MOKEPOO(;'PO,
in the different readings. By this process we arrive at a name of
a local ity (later Mocasura on the Via Egnatia) fac ing the actual
Chorloo.(21) Thus, Mocasura appears squarely inside the
domai n of Cotys, near his main residence Hi eron Oros (the Sa
cred Mountain). The distance between ivloscaura and Phillips's
starting point on the lovver course of the Struma Ri ver is about
400 km. along the coast. This distance coincides \vith the
statement of Theopompus about the duration of the j ourney of
the Macedonian king - he reached the place of the rendez-vous
after three days' ride on horseback.
These changes lead necess aril y to a new understanding of
the his toric situation in Thrace. And by virtue of the anal yzed
inst ances to the foll owing conclusions: First, the summed
up data of the Greek and Latin sources have created an et h
nonymic re ality. Second, this ethnonymic re alit y does not
coincide with the ethnic situation as well - because of the late
appearance of tribal names and because of the erroneous tran
scriptions. As the literature demonstrates, the act ual anal ys is
aims at discovering the localization of the genuine tribal unions
under the ethnonymics of the Thracian lands. (22) The "Thra
cian interpretat ion" approach creates a new problem: to deaJ
with the disposition of the tribes even then different in each
of the great epochs of Thracian hist ory. (23)
The problem with the codes applies also to Thracian religion.
In Herodotus, the famous Getaean king/priest/prophet Zal
maxis is qualifi ed as TE(3EA.EtSLV, a hapax in all the literature.
The epithet, or in this case, the second of the double name
of Zalmoxis is explained by Kretschmer fE!3EAE ==
= ZajJ. oA as signifying first of all "man" and second, "master,
king". (24) Asi de fro m the fact that Kretschmer's reading is
most convenient for the modern interpretation of the Thracian
(2 0) Cf. Detschew, op. cit.: 3 10, 312 f.
(21) Tab. Peut . 8, 5.
(22) A. Fo l, Ethnical and ethnonymical realit y in Thrace, in: A. FoL & T. Spiri
donov's Historical Geography of the Thracian Tribes to the III B.C., Sofia (\978):
Chap. VI. (in Bulgarian) .
(23) Cf. the outline by A. Fol , Monuments and Tribes, in : The klegalithics
in Thrace (Thrac ian Monuments I), Sofia (1976): 1630 (in Bulgarian) .
(24) Her. IV, 94. The explanation s. in Detschew's op. cit.: 100, with the lit.
Another based on Nebel eizis s. in C. Poghirc's Considerations Philologiques et linquis
tiques sur Gebeleizis, Thracia II, Sofia, (1974): 357-360.
I :\,TE
reLi !i
th e L e
T . > _
me
exp J. _:
the d::
im er.J!' . '.

:
inQ
The :-,-: .
Gel..le_T.
th eir
of p\:.... _
wa
not LI1 -:
Tha: ".
" Grcc:.
ut rn Oi :
:\c: - c
d '
lit erd... -
For i,:-: _
god
th em
di\ in> -
SilT' :':""
god

cu i t
Th13.c:
was C
(2S . ='
kov, & l. - -'--l
(26) g .
(21) .l_!'
223 INTERPRAETATIO THRACICA
_ Th ra
religion and especially for the legend of Zalmoxis, one finds in
:
the codes the different readings N
of
These variants, parti cul arl y the latter, cast doubts on Kretsch
:!CLual
mer's interpretation and suggest possibilities of a different
__ the
explanation. As in the case of ethnonymics and toponymies
:.e Sa
the different readings of the theoforic names offer t wo possible
's
in terp retations.
, lbout
When Herodotus travelled the western shore of the Pontus,
t he probably reaching Olbi a, he obtained his information concern
of ing Zalmoxis from the Ionian colonists on the Getaean coast.
The latter, having been taught that Zalm oxis impersonates the
Getaean faith in the immortalit y of th e soul, had constructed
' ;ng of
their own interpretation of his doctrine to conform with that
, ' zed
of Pythagoras'. Thus was born the Ionian story that Zalmoxis
'"1'1 . l ed
was a slave and a disciple of Pythagoras. (25) But the parallel
er h
was fallacious, for it is well-established that the Getae believed,
Co 10 t
not in the immortality of the soul, but in immortality in general.
: .. t! !ate
That is why the epithets transmitted to us, according to the
.,; , nan
"Gree k interpretations" of Zalm oxis must be accepted with
_:-..lksis
utmost care.
.l!lIOnS
Neither is the probl e m of t he texts definitely solved. As has
I'a
already been stressed, they can by no means be accepted
. I deal
literally, but must be submitted t o "Thraci an interpretations."
.. _ etch
For inst ance, according to a fragment in Herodotus, commented
on many times, the Thracians worshipped Ares, Artemis, and
- _1:510 n. Dionysos; and the kings, apart from their people - Hermes,
Z::I1 -
whose descendents they were. (26) But analysis shows that
:u re.
the Thracian pantheon remained alien to Herodotus. Thracian
:- .. ame gods were unknown to him, or els e he wrongly impersonat ed
.- -= LE ),E'
them on the basis of the insi gnia of the most popular Greek
:7'. ' (cr, divinities.
_ _ :1!:! IS
Similarly, Sophocles in "Tere us" exclaims: "Oh Helios,
!'. !'Jeim
god of the horse-loving Thracians!" (27) Helios was never
worshipped by the Thracians. Sophocles has Grecicized their
cult of the sun, in a sense natural for him. But because t he
Thracians were known as horsebreeders and their way of life
pm
was connected with war and hunting, and because in the Greek
!9i R):
. C7c.'irhics
(25) D. Popov, Thrace of the King Priests and God Kings, in: A. Foi, & r. Venedi
:-. lit.
kov, & I. Marazov, & D. Popov's Thracian Legends, Sofia (i 9 7 7): 77-82).
:.': .i Iquis
(26) Her. V, 7.
(27) Soph. Ter. fr o523 (Pearson).
224 JOURNAL OF INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES
Il\ T RP.
mythology horses were an attribute of Helios, Sophocles has
associated the two traditions_
Still more complicated is the study of those texts where
the authors do not mention either Thrace, or the Thracians,
but which can successfully be used for analysis. Thucidydes
in his "Archaeology" painting the pre-Hellenic world of Hellas
as he puts it - up to and after the Trojan war - hints at charac
teristic features of Thracian antiquity. (28)
Although he attributes some of them to the Pelasgians,
others to the Carians, those fe atures are identical with or related
to Thracian ways of life, religious practice, ritual, armament,
and settlement system. Hence, one finds the relics of the
conventionally so-called Pelasgian side of Hellas in Thrace
at the time of written history - facts which strongly support
the existence of a Thraco-pelasgi an community, on the basis of
linguistics(29) of ethnoculture. This community has left traces
in the northern part of the continent. Parallels between the
customs of the Tyrceneans and the Thraco-pelasgians (31)
and between the Thracian ways of life and the Thessalian (32)
were noted by Herodotus. (30)
The link between Thessaly and Thrace becomes more easily
perceptible on ideologic and religious grounds, the most reliable
sign of cultural kinship. According to one remarkable piece of
information found in Theopompus,(33) in earliest times the
Thessalians divided themselves into That coin
cides with Strabo, who says that the Bessoi were
and also TETpaKW/-LoL. (34) This indirect information becomes,
through the "Thracian interpretation," highly valuable with
regard to the Thracian religion, the roots of which are to
be sought in the pre-Hellenic Pelasgi an period which covers
Thessaly. Thessaly itself is directly connected \vith the Thracian
and Pelasgian encl aves to the north, in Chalcidique and at the
mouths of the rivers Struma and Vardar, as well as with the
(28) A. Fol, Greek Literary Sources of the Thracian History III, Annuary of the
Faculty of History of the University of Sofia 58, Sofia (1978) (in BUlgarian).
(29) 11'1. Sakellariou, Peuples prehelleniques d'origine Indo-Europeenne, Athens,
(1977): 28,4 7, with the lit.
(30) Her. 1,5 7: 1-3.
(31) FGrHist. I, lIS, F: 204.
(32) Ibid. f,49.
(33) Ibid. F, 208, with mentions to Hellanic us, Aristotheles, and Demosthenes.
(34) Strabo, VII fr. 58 a (Loel). The same notion in FGr.Hist. I, II 5, F: 217.
non ne:--
Rhorio::l _
basic T-'

The

the p!'c-:
time
;
throug::
ITIl tl a l e
The
int o n .:
oft ne g-
The 0- _
onh' !
have tL _
isolated :
esti ng: ": .:c
to the "- __
of e.:
sch oli:lC _
speak.:':r.
the
chi eO
to di
2. H;.s.
The
is :::
to be
chrono'
and clc..so_ ":'
for l'e--t:.. .::
problem .
The
cannot r-=
by par . ..::.
(35) O. : .
(36) .-\ r.
the
I
'
DIES
INTERPRAETATIO THRACICA
225
has northern coast of the Bay of Corinth (Delphes) and southern
Rhodopes (the temple of Dionysus). In Thessaly we find the
'here
basic Thracian elements syncreti zed in Greek mythology and
lans,
religion.
"des The quadruple division has a very old religious base. It

reflects the 4-way cycled religious conception of the world in
_:'ac-
the pre-Hellenic period which survived in Thrace up to the
time of written history. This cycle represents the goddess
nans,
mother/son-lover hierogamy =(new) son-lover. It is projected
t ed
through the religion in the cycle of self-perfection of the
:len t,
initiated (members of the secret religious Orphic societies).
t he
The initiate himself, taking the path of self-perfection, turns
.Hace
into an anthropodaemon and then into a god to become worthy
port of the goddess-mother. (35)
s:, of The study of the scholiae is still in an initial stage. To date
only some scholi ae, discovered by chance by the investigators,
. the have been subjected to scientific precedure; but these are
, (31) isolated cases. (36) Needless to say, they contain most inter
1 t32)
esting data; even more, the scholiae appear late with respect
to the author and remain part of the whole literary tradition
:':1.sily of the antiquity of a particular source. The importance of the
-':ab le scholiae is increased by the fact that they begin, generally
ce of speaking, in the late Hellenistic period. In the near future,
S {he
the texts and the scholiae will be studied in their entirety
COIl1 - chiefly by the method of chronologie stratigraphy, in order
L (T aL to discover and analyze the superimposed dat a about Thrace.
:Jes,
\'; i th
2. Historic and Archaeologic Sources
.cc t o
The interpretation of the Thracian archaeologic material
- \'ers
is much more complicated than the Hellenic and will continue
:-:. clan
to be until it is clearly accepted that the existing conventional
_: t he
chronologie and typologie schemes of the Hellenic pre-classic
2. t he
and classic art, including the fine arts and ceramics, are subjects
for re-examination, possibly reVISIOn. But that is another
problem.
the
The interpretation of the Thracian archaeologic material
.!. :.hen s, cannot be exhausted solely by the Greek interpretation, i.e.,
by parallels drawn between it and the material evidence from
(35) D. Popov, op. cit. : 92-103 .
.. tnes.
(36) An outline by Z. Lazova, Homerus and Homerus' scholiae as sources of
:: 2 17.
the Thracian History (diss. Institu te of Thracology, Sofia, 1977, in Bulgarian).
226
JOURNAL OF INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES
the circle of the Hellenic civilization. Thracian monuments
should be compared first to the Anatolian, then to the Scythian,
only last to the Hellenic: then with those which have a genetic
link with Asia Minor; m ore precisely, with monuments from
the so-called Irani an cultural circle. This is now being done. (37)
Learning the sources represents the first stage of analysis;
the second stage is a more complicated analysis of the ideo
logical and religious meaning of the objects and their semantic
phases in order to discover the concepts of the people, concern
ing the world as represented by the objects of the materi al
culture. (38)
And this attempt must be made in the speechless Thrace
of symbols. Some examples:
Thracian archaeology constantly runs across an extraordinary
fact: all known Thracian royal treasures, or rather treasures
consisting of objects with the insignia of royal authority
rhytons, phialae, amphorae, amphora-rhytons, etc. - were
found by chance at very shallow depths usually when working
the land. Such is the case of the treasures from Vulcitran,
Panaguriste, Ruse (Rousse), Letnica, etc. The consensus at
present is that the small depths at which they were found is
due to the haste of burying them, i.e. their royal owner was
hurrying to escape an invader or enemy. In my opinion, how
ever, this is mere nonsense; a tribal chief forced to escape will
before all else take with him all the gold treasure he owns if
only to pay his mercenaries; by no means will he bury it in a
Dat insecure place without a landmark.
In his Scythian logos Herodotus says (39), that the Scythian
king offered royal gifts to the Great Goddess, the Mother
earth; they lie upon her and sleep with her. In this way the king
see ks the religious mating with the Goddess-Earth-mother;
that union, the hierogamy should be assumed for the Thracian
kings too. (40) It is predictable that the rhytons, the phialae,
and other royal paraphernalia - the attributes of the investi
ture - will always be found at small depth. They are gifts to
(37) 1. Venedikov, T. Gerassimov, Th e Thracian Art, Sofia, 1973 (in Bulgarian);
idem, Dolmens (Chap. III) and Rock Tombs (Chap. IV) in: The Megalithics in Thrace:
76-127.
(38) Cf. for instance 1. Marazov, The hierogamy from Letniza, Archaeology,
XVIII, 4 (1976); 1-13 (in Bulgarian).
(39) Her. IV, 7: 2.
(40) Cf. n. 38.
G ::
au tho:-=:
the r c''':;
his ..
ph i.!. aeo _
numbe
t'L :
Soph ;: ._
Thrac:
sel fopt'o
an .t.TJ - -
cult \\ _:
Jec u
pneSl -;
wh

pay :.t.;:
as ree
:
bolic :.
kin gd ::.
GrE:- :: ..
Pange\
of the
on po_eo _
regIO n
defen !, .
were i
are C iT
The cE:'..:
idol fa
ing fro . : :
j
single ..,
the ch:!.:" _:
(41 C
(4? .i7?"
( 43 - :.
A ..\1ic'u.-.::: -.
(44 ..t. _
(45 l. -_
lithics i., :-'--; .
INTERPRAETATIO THRACICA 227
TOlES
the Goddess-mother with which she will initiate to power and
1ents
authority her son and lover. One may firmly state that where
-l h ian,
the treasures lay, there the king passed his fateful night; with
5'c netic
his own hands he has buried these treasures. That is why the
:'. from
phialae and the rhytons in Thrace are so numerous, and their
e. (37)
number will certainly increase with time.
-.uhsis;
Helios is not worshipped by the horse-loving Thracians, as
e ideo
Sophocles thought, for the solar cult is an essential trait of the
mantic
Thracian religion and particularly of the beliefs connected with
ncen1
self-perfection, i.e. the gradual transformation of man into

an anthropodaemon and god. (41) The practice of the solar
cult was for the common people; self-perfection, as a pro
Thrace
jection of the solar cult was reserved for the aristocracy (the
priestkings). Herodotus' famous fragment about the Temenidoi
r mary
who moved from Argos to Illyria and served in the court of the
'C.lSures
king, gives the best idea of that. When the king, unwilling to
on-\'
pay the three brothers for their work, foolishly gave them
- \,'ere
as recompense a spot on the floor made by a sun ray. The
'or king
youngest, Perdica, outlined the spot with his knife and sym
ran,
bolically grabbed the sunlight. Then he left and founded the
... sus at
kingdom of Macedonia. (42)
u nd is
Graffitti discovered on the rocky surfaces of a plateau in
r.er was
Pangey mountain illustrate this concept. (43) The author
1' . h ow
of the published graffitti remarks that such solar discs carried
'_.De will
on poles are to be seen even today on village feast days in the
\,'ns if
region of the Pangey. (44) On the cliffs, which form the natural
"1l ll1 a
defensive line of the Paleocastro fortress (near Topolovgrad)
were found more than 160 solar circles within 1.5 km.; some
.:thian
are convex, others concave, still others are surrounded by rays.
\Io ,her
The cliffs face east and northeast, as does the massive stone
: .. e king
idol found there. The head which surmounts the body project
:-:'.ot her;
ing from the ground resembles a solar disk. (45)
T..T3. cian
All this historic and archaeologic data cannot be dated to a
phi alae,
single period, of course, nor even to a single epoch. It gives
:- i.nyesti
the character of the Thracian solar, i.e., royal cult - the pure
:"' !rifts to
(41) Cf. n. 35.
ul rian);
(42) Her. VIII, 137.
(43) N.K. Moutsopoulos, Les graffites du Pangaion, in In Memoriam Panayotis
r in Thrace:
A. Michelis, Athens (1971): 482489, fig. 15.
(44) According to N.K. Moutsopoulos.
eo logy ,
(45) I. Venedikov, Fortress in Strandja and Sakar Mountains, in: The Mega
lithics in Thrace: 159160.
.
228 JOURNAL OF INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES
Thracian Orphism of centuries - from pre-Pythagorian times
b:Eic _
to the end of the 6th century B.C. Though later modified, the
j ( n _:
cult does not disappear throughout the entire pre-Roman
One 0_
epoch.
the
This cult inspired the production of the numerous hewn
lanG _,
niches and burial chambers in the cliffs of the eastern Rhodopes.
t ime ".
At this time, the only rock necropolei, known and documented
An:!:
are trapezoidal niches near the town Ardino and in the locality
deer
called the Deaf Stones (Gluchite camani) near Ivailovgrad,
Sr.
in the valley of the Arda River. (46) These necropolei, together
a-pe_:.o
with the burial chambers near the village of Tatul, Department
corn ::c
of Karjali, are typical Orphic centers, exposed to the sun and
dominating the environment. Similar necropolei found by

archaeological field surveys in the valley of the Arda River,
m .LI1. _
are yet to be published, (47) The shepherds of the eastern
IS lie e
Rhodopes in Greece still call such places - cliffs with niches
epoQ
and chambers - "Orphica hestia."(48)
man
At this point, we could attempt to draw parallels from the
Rmn:.on
position of actually familiar monuments and registered charac
Cree'
teristics, among them the statuette of a deer found accidentally
t ior> --"
near Sevlievo. It has been dated to the 7th century B.C. because
IS III
of its geometric shape (as the geometric style was developed in
god- .
Hellas just after the 8th century B.C. the statuette is dated by

comparison with the finest Hellenic specimens). But the geomet
Tr':"':_
ric style, or rather the style of geometrization has a long history
anrl 5
outside Hellas. The Hellenic geometric style is a development of
For : ...:> :
the Anatolian and penetrated into Europe through the Greek
Thrac .
cities along the shore of Asia Minos. Furthermore, the sculpture
Sam :!-_
discovered by James Mellaart at Catal-Huyuk (7th millennium
th e h>:
B.C.) coincides in the posture, silhouette, and horns with the
and :.r _
deer-statuette from Sevlievo. (49) This coincidence, however,
\ve
does not necessarily demand revision of the dating. The main
rs =
point is that the parallel cited above is not an isolated case. (50)
supre 7
The latest linguistic observations have shown the close relation
o f the ..::
ship between the conventionally so-called "Hi tti te" and the
Thracian linguistic regions, both lying close to Troada. Some
(46) Ibid.: 82-109.
(47) Idem, The Megalithicsin ThraceII, Sofia, 1979.
(48) According to N. K. Moutsopoulos.
(49) Cf. all the problem in Brinna Otto, Geomethrische Ornamente auf anato
lischer Keramik, Cap. IV, Mainz, 1976.
(50) The analysis by Venedikov, The Thracio.n Art,: 31.

.11 t imes
i ed, the
Roman
I S hewn
-'0 opes.
":-:1 ented
locality


}J. fl ment
' U.1 and
- _lOd by
River,
eastern
niches
:: om the
. charac

:. because
doped in
OJ. ed by
:: s eomet
history
-';ment of
Greek
, cu lpture
enmum
- .. jth the
hO\\'ever,
Th e main
l c - e. (50)
Ie :'ela tion
.. and the
: ' :L Some
l': -= :!u f ana to-
INTERPRAETATlO THRACICA 229
basic aspects of the spiritual culture in both regions are close,
if not identical - primarily, the divinities (theoforic names).
One such theoforic name of Hittite origin which passed into
the Thracian language and thence into other Indo-European
languages is the name Elia. (51) Elia is the god of heaven; in
time he received a specific impersonation, but in the Thraco
Anatolian zone he has the typical attributes. One of them is the
deer which appears in all Bulgarian popular legends dedicated to
St. Elia's day. Consequently, in its ideological and religious
aspects the geometricised statuette of the deer carries more
complex implications than those of the Hellenic world alone.
Similar problems face the scientist dealing with mass material
such as, for instance, the vow tablets with the Thracian horse
man. They first appear, although rarely, during the Hellen
istic period and become particularly abundant during Roman
epochs. (52) It is the consensus that since the Thracian horse
man is similar from an iconographic point of view to the Greco
Roman reliefs and is called, aside from the epithets, by the
Greek name Heros, he should be subject to the same interpreta
tion as the Hellenic horseman. If this "Greek interpretation"
is not attacked - especially as there are no written data on the
god-horseman - a Hellenic model entirely alien to it will be
imposed on the Thracian religion.
Traditional classic philology hardly copes with linguistics
and general historic situations incompatible with this model.
For instance, among the heavily damaged inscriptions of th e
Thraco-pelasgian temple of the Kabyrians on the island of
Samothrace one reads IN-. Without taking into consideration
the historic and archaeologic data about the Thracian religion
and the character of the Kabyrian cult on the island of which
we learn from Herodo tus, (57) strict linguistic analysis gives us
IN = Zeus. Thus one gets a general personification of a
supreme male divinity in Thrace(54) based on a rejected scheme
of th e Indo-European trinity of father-m other-child. (55) This
(51) V.N. Toporov, To the Balkan parallels of Hitt. Purulliia-, Lat. Parilia, Palilia
and others, in : Antic Balkanistics, 2 Moscow 1975: 32-38 (in Russian).
(52) M. Operman, To the chronology and classification of the monuments of the
Thracian rider from type A, Archaeology XV, 3 (1973): 1-13 (in Bulgarian).
(53) Her. II, 51: 1-2 and II, 51: 3-4.
(54) V. Georgiev, op. cit.: 143-144.
(55) A. Fo!. The symbolic tomb from Kasicene, distri c t of Sofia, Les Arts 30
(1975) fase. 3-4 : 11-13 (in Bulgarian).
230 JOURNAL OF INDOEUROPEAN STUDIES
scheme does not exist in Thracian religions anymore than
does a supreme male divinity of the type of Zeus. Such a
possibility is out of the question in the temple of the mysteri
ous Kabyrians, whose cult does not admit it, and in whose
pantheon the name of Zeus does not appear. The idea of
supremacy remains unknown in the Thracian religion. The
idea fragments from Samothrace may contain only appela
tions - epithets or exorcising formulae.
For Sophocles the horse is a companion to the solar divinity.
But in the Thracian religion with its fundamentally royal cult,
the IndoEuropean idea that the Sun ascends on a horse or in a
chariot pulled by horses is connected with the king's reincarna
tion as anthropodaemon and as son and lover of the Goddess
mother. The horse is a royal (solar) animal, taking part in the
religious and political identification of the king as priest and
god. The horse is a constant companion of the initiate, and
together with him takes part in the trials of valor (the royal
hunt) through which he ascends in rank.(56) Thus, the Thra
cian horse of the tablets is not the Hellenic Heros, but the
standard of the anthropodaemon, with different appelations
in the different parts of Thrace. These are theoforic names.
That is why the horseman appears on royal rings even before
the Hellenistic period, i.e. before the beginning of its new
iconogTaphic representation. So the iconography of the late
Hellenistic and Roman epochs now lose significance, for it
has evidently been adapted by the population as a comfort
able and practical form at the time of the syncretism. In any
case, the deer and the horse are not only solar attributes (and
royal animals) in the Orphic way. They also fulfill the connec
tion with the earth, they incorporate chthonic elements. The
cycle of reviving nature is closed at last, and man, self-perfected
through the trial of valor attains his balance. (57)
(56) Cf. n. 38.
(57) This method of Thracian interpretation will be included in its entirety in
the prepared monography "Res Gestae Tribium Thracicarum".
I ., _
gener::... .
first io :::.
and '" .
tio lls :.._
Greece '.::
mt
clan
fro m -....
ern
.-\.) -
the 5') .
appe:l.TC
pol eis . .
remar-_ . 0
played _..
Greece_
Thracl
should
the Tt-c.
(e.g. L
In -'+_