Artemis Bendis, molded terracotta figurine, (Tanagra?) ca. The Tanager Genus Tangara is often misunderstood to be "Tanagra" 350 BC, (Louvre)

Bendis was a Thracian goddess of the moon and the hunt^[1] whom the Greeks identified with Artemis, and hence with the other two aspects of the former Minoan Triple Goddess, Hecate and Persephone. The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France Thrace (Тракия Trakiya or "Trakija" or Trakia, Θράκη Thráki, Trakya is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe In Greek mythology, Artemis language|Greek] ( Nominative), ( Genitive))] was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister Hecate ( Greek: Ἑκάτη, "far-shooting") Hekate ( Hekátê In Greek mythology, Persephone ( Kore or Cora) was the embodiment of the Earth's fertility at the same time that she was the Queen of the Underworld She was a huntress, like Artemis, but was accompanied by dancing satyrs and maenads on a fifth century red-figure stemless cup (at Verona). In Greek mythology, satyrs (Σάτυροι Satyroi) are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus – " Satyresses quot More than Olympian Artemis, Bendis remained a night-goddess, which linked her with Hecate.

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 Attica by immigrant Thracian residents,^[2] Planeaux offers a reconstruction of the inscription mentioninmg the first introduction, p</ref> and, though Thracian and Athenian processions remained separate, both cult and festival became so popular that in Plato's time (ca. Dodona (from Doric Greek Δωδώνα Ionic Greek: Δωδώνη - Dodone) in Epirus in northwestern Greece, was a prehistoric Attica (Αττική Attikí;) is a periphery (subdivision in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece 429-13 BCE) its festivities were naturalized as an official ceremonial of the city-state, called the Bendideia. ^[3] Among the events were nighttime 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 honor of the Goddess?” “On horseback?” said I. A republic is a State or Country that is not led by a hereditary Monarch, but in which the people (or at least a part of its people have impact on its “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. "

The 'Bendideia' also featured a solemn joint procession of Athenians and Thracians to the Goddess's sanctuary, located at the harbor of Piraeus. Piraeus (pɪˈræʊs Πειραιάς, piɾeˈas Πειραιεύς, piɾeˈefs is a city in the periphery of Attica, Greece, and a A red-figure cup (skyphos) (at Tübingen University), of ca 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.

Votive stele (British Museum)

A small marble votive stele of Bendis, ca. The British Museum is a Museum of human history and culture in London. 350-325 BCE, found at Piraeus, (British Museum, illustration, left) shows the goddess and her worshippers in bas-relief. The British Museum is a Museum of human history and culture in London. The image shows that the Thracian goddess has been strongly influenced by Athenian conceptions of Artemis: Bendis wears a short chiton like Artemis, but with an Asiatic snug-sleeved undergarment. In Greek mythology, Artemis language|Greek] ( Nominative), ( Genitive))] was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister 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 BCE terracotta figurine at the Louvre (illustration, right) she is similarly attired and once carried a (wooden?) spear.

Bendis in her Thracian cap approaches a seated Apollo. Red-figure bell-shaped krater by the Bendis Painter, ca. For the Landform crater see Crater. A krater (in Greek: κρατήρ kratēr, from the Verb κεράννυμι 380–370 BCE

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 CE), 10. Strabo ( Greek: Στράβων 63/64 BC – ca AD 24 was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher. 3. 18.

The "Phrygian rites" Strabo mentioned referred to the cult of Cybele that was also welcomed to Athens in the 5th century. Originally a Hittite and Phrygian Goddess, Cybele (Κυβέλη was a deification of the Earth Mother and was worshipped in

The Athenians may have been blending the cult of Bendis with the equally Dionysiac Thracian revels of Kotys, mentioned by Aeschylus. Aeschylus (ˈɛskɨləs or /ˈiːskɨləs/ Greek: Ασχύλος, Aischylos, 525 BC/524 BC 456 BC/455 BC was an ancient Greek Playwright Archaic female cult figures that are unearthed in Thrace or Bulgaria now tend to be identified with Bendis.

Modern followers of the Goddess have revived a cult of Bendis. A goddess is a Female Deity. Many Cultures have goddesses Often deities are part of a polytheistic system that includes several deities

Notes

External links

• Perseus Digital Library.