The Getic Messengers to Zalmoxis, the Faith in Immortality and the Death of the Widows
The Getic Messengers to Zalmoxis, the Faith in Immortality and the Death of the Widows

Summary/Abstract: The paper turns again to the well-known and extensively commented narrative by Herodotus about the faith of the Getae in their immortality, about the anthropodaimon Zalmoxis and about the periodic dispatching of a messenger to him. Attention is focused on the link between that evidence and the information in Herodotus about the killing of the beloved widow over the grave of the deceased husband among the Thracians who dwelled above the Crestonaeans, as well as with the statement by Stephanus Byzantius about a similar practice among the Getae. The evidence is analysed in the light of the universal historical phenomenon of following into death when someone is killed so as to follow someone else in the World Beyond. The analysis gives grounds to believe that traces of the ritual known as following into death in its institutional form are concealed behind the intricate story about the god/ man Zalmoxis, his cult among the Getae and their beliefs. Among the Getae it was of a markedly religious character, based on the strong faith in the supernatural/ divine existence of the dead in the World Beyond, in their influence on and direct interference in the course of life in this world and a clearly manifested cult of the ancestors.

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