Тракийските беси
The Thracian Bessi

Summary/Abstract: There is an isolated mention of the name of the Bessi in the seventh book of Herodotus, in the passage devoted to the Satrae which itself is part of the description of the march of Xerxes’ army through Thrace in 480 BC. The text is enigmatic and has often been the object of deliberation; there are two main views about its interpretation, the one more often sustained being that Bessi from the Satrae were priests (or rather seers) in the sanctuary (of Dionysos); the alternative one – that the priests in the sanctuary which belonged to the Satrae were Bessi. Besides all other problems there is some uncertainty in the transmission of the name, some of the codices giving Βησσοί and others Βισσοί; the second variant has no known analogies and has been defi nitely discounted by all editors of the text. After Herodotus the name of the Satrae disappears completely from all ancient texts (with the exception of the parallel instances in Herodianus and Stephanus Byzantinus who both quote from Hecataeus), while that of the Bessi will eventually reappear in a number of communications referring to the later Hellenistic Age (the second and fi rst centuries BC), starting with Polybios and afterwards gradually becoming one of the most popular Thracian ethnonyms.

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