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94.
Their belief in their immortality is as follows: they believe that they do not die, but that one who perishes goes to the deity Salmoxis, or Gebeleïzis, as some of them call him.
[2]
Once every five years they choose one of their people by lot and send him as a messenger to Salmoxis, with instructions to report their needs; and this is how they send him: three lances are held by designated men; others seize the messenger to Salmoxis by his hands and feet, and swing and toss him up on to the spear-points.
[3]
If he is killed by the toss, they believe that the god regards them with favor; but if he is not killed, they blame the messenger himself, considering him a bad man, and send another messenger in place of him. It is while the man still lives that they give him the message.
[4]
Furthermore, when there is thunder and lightning these same Thracians shoot arrows skyward as a threat to the god, believing in no other god but their own.
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
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References (20 total)
- Cross-references to this page
(5):
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), MYSTE´RIA
- Smith's Bio, Pytha'goras
- Smith's Bio, Pytha'goras
- Smith's Bio, Tyrrhe'nus
- Smith's Bio, Zalmoxis
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(3):
- Herodotus, The Histories, Hdt. 5.4
- Plato, Charmides, Plat. Charm. 156d
- Strabo, Geography, Strab. 7.3
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(12):
- LSJ, ἀνακι_ν-έω
- LSJ, ἀναπείρω
- LSJ, αἰτι-άομαι
- LSJ, διαλαμβάνω
- LSJ, ἵλαος
- LSJ, λαγχάνω
- LSJ, μετέωρος
- LSJ, πάλος
- LSJ, πείρω
- LSJ, πεντ-ετηρίς
- LSJ, ῥιπτ-έω
- LSJ, τοξ-εύω
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