The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 107
Sveshtari in Bulgaria show that the Thracians considered the goddess to be of
a chthonic nature and associated with the underworld.408
According to a key account of Diodorus, “among the Arians Zathraustes
claimed that Agathodaemon (the Good Spirit) gave him his laws, among
the people known as the Getae who represent themselves to be immortal
Zalmoxis asserted the same of their common goddess Hestia and among the
Jews Moyses referred his laws to the god who is invoked as Iao”.409
Hestia as a lawgiver resembles the notion of Egeria and the King of the Wood,
but even more important are the identical roles of the Goddess of Celestial
Fire and Jehovah. This parallel is not incidental, since in the Bible God gave the
commandments to Moses in fire.410 The teachings of Zalmoxis represent “the
rules of life laid down by an earthly king who actually received the laws from
the goddess Hestia [.. .] Zalmoxis and Hestia are connected to the state and the
development of the religious and political power of the king”.411
According to Strabo, Zalmoxis took possession of a cave in the mountains
that was inaccessible to anyone else and spent his life there, only rarely meet-
ing with other people except the king and his attendants.412 Quite similar is
the account of Ibn Fadlan regarding the Khazar khagan who did not receive
anyone save the king and the two statesmen who were next in rank (the kender
khagan and the djavshighar).413
The chthonic and celestial traits of the Great Goddess can also be found
in one of the legends of Dionysus. His mother, Semele, who was the incarna-
tion of the Earth Goddess, died at his birth “and went to the Underworld So
Dionysus descended into the realm of the dead, took away Semele and led her
to the heavens where she gained divine power and immortality”.414
408 Venedikov 1997, 351.
409 Venedikov 1995a, 199 (Diodorus. Historical Library 1.94).
410 Venedikov 1997, 349.
411 Venedikov 1997, 332.
412 Venedikov 1995a, 200–201. Strabo. Geografiia 7.3,5 in Rusinov 2008. The text of the clas-
sical writer is also quite interesting with regard to the dual kingship notion in Khazaria.
Firstly, Zalmoxis (a man from the Getae) persuaded the king to take him as a counselor,
since he could report the will of the gods. At the outset he was revered only as priest, but
afterwards he was even addressed as god. This custom still existed during the time of
Strabo (66–63 BC–circa 24 AD) and there was always a man among the Getae, who was
the counselor of the king and who was addressed as god. Gradually the caves and the
mountain where he dwelled became sacred.
413 Kovalevskii 1956, 146.
414 Venedikov 1995a, 176 and 215.