Bendis ( grc, Βένδις) was a

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

goddess associated with hunting and the moon. Goddess worship seems to have been introduced into

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...

around 430 BC.A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), BENDIDEIA
/ref> Some writers identified Bendis in Attica with the goddess Artemis, but the temple of Bendis at Piraeus which was near the temple of Artemis, clearly display that the two goddesses were distinct. She was a huntress, like Artemis, but was often accompanied by dancing satyrs and

maenad In Greek mythology, maenads (; grc, μαινάδες ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Maenads were known as Bassarids ...

s, as represented on a fifth-century red-figure stemless cup at Verona. The Greeks wrote of Bendis as one of the seven daughters of Zeus who were turned into swans who would later reappear in human forms driving a golden carriage and teaching crowds.

Worship

By a decree of the Oracle of Dodona, which required the Athenians to grant land for a shrine or temple, her cult was introduced into

by immigrant Thracian residents, and, though Thracian and Athenian processions remained separate, both cult and festival became so popular that in Plato's time () its festivities were naturalized as an official ceremonial of the city-state, called the ''Bendideia'' (Βενδίδεια). Among the events were night-time torch-races on horseback, mentioned in Plato's '' Republic'', 328:

"You haven't heard that there is to be a torchlight race this evening on horseback in honour of the Goddess?" "On horseback?" said I. "That is a new idea. Will they carry torches and pass them along to one another as they race with the horses, or how do you mean?" "That's the way of it," said Polemarchus, "and, besides, there is to be a night festival which will be worth seeing."

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saroni ...

there was a temple of the goddess which was called Bendideion (Βενδίδειον). A red-figure

skyphos A ''skyphos'' ( grc, σκύφος; plural ''skyphoi'') is a two-handled deep wine-cup on a low flanged base or none. The handles may be horizontal ear-shaped thumbholds that project from the rim (in both Corinthian and Athenian shapes), or they m ...

, now at Tübingen University, of c. 440–430, seems to commemorate the arrival of the newly authorized cult: it shows Themis (representing traditional Athenian customs) and a booted and cloaked Bendis, who wears a Thracian fox-skin cap. A small marble votive stele of Bendis, –375 BC, found at Piraeus, (pictured left) shows the goddess and her worshippers in bas-relief. The image shows that the Thracian goddess has been strongly influenced by Athenian conceptions of

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified with Sel ...

: Bendis wears a short chiton like Artemis, but with an Asiatic snug-sleeved undergarment. She is wrapped in an animal skin like Artemis and has a spear, but has a hooded Thracian mantle, fastened with a brooch. She wears high boots. In the fourth century BC terracotta figurine (pictured right) she is similarly attired and once carried a (wooden?) spear. Elsewhere in Greece, the cult of Bendis did not catch on.

Just as in all other respects the Athenians continue to be hospitable to things foreign, so also in their worship of the gods; for they welcomed so many of the foreign rites that they were ridiculed for it by comic writers; and among these were the Thracian and Phrygian rites. ( Strabo, ''Geography'' (1st century AD), 10.3.18)

The "Phrygian rites" Strabo mentioned referred to the cult of

Cybele Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya'' "Kubileya/Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian ''Kuvava''; el, Κυβέλη ''Kybele'', ''Kybebe'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forer ...

that was also welcomed to Athens in the 5th century.

Related deities

The Athenians may have blended the cult of Bendis with the equally Dionysiac Thracian revels of Kotys, mentioned by

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

and other ancient writers. Archaic female cult figures unearthed in Thrace (modern-day Bulgaria) have also been identified with Bendis. Bendida Peak on Trinity Peninsula in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

is named after the goddess.SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica
/ref>

References

Sources

"Bendis"
William Smith (ed.) '' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.'' 1. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1867.
"Bendis (Thracian goddess)"
The Editors. ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 20 Jul. 1998. Accessed 24 January 2022.

External links

''Theoi Project'', 2017. Accessed 24 January 2022. {{Authority control Culture in Classical Athens Lunar goddesses Dacian goddesses Greek goddesses Hunting goddesses Religion in ancient Athens Thracian goddesses Paleo-Balkan mythology

Worship

Related deities

References

Sources

Further reading

External links