The ancient Thracians were an Indo-European tribal people who settled in that area of the Balkans whose heartland is now the modern state of Bulgaria at least 4000 years ago. Lying at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, Thracian culture reflected influences from the Scythians in the north, the Phrygians to the southeast and the Greeks to the west, yet it had its own distinct identity.

 

It was a strong rich culture but the Thracians had no written language of their own, so much of what we know about them comes from their archaeological remains, and from the Greek writers who were their contemporaries.

Apart from the tale of the legendary singer, Orpheus, whose birthplace is said to be the Rhodopi Mountains (in modern Bulgaria), the mythology and culture of the Thracians is largely unknown in the west, having been eclipsed by a Greek-centred view of early European history. Yet from the Bronze Age through to the Roman conquest, Thrace was an important power in its own right, and the ancient Greeks borrowed freely from its exotic religion and ecstatic cults.

The Thracians were a fierce powerful people ruled by tribal priest kings. They were excellent warriors renowned for their skill and bravery in battle, fighting alongside the Trojans against the Greeks in the Trojan War. They were expert horse breeders, produced fine wines and were master metalworkers, creating exquisite adornments, ritual objects and vessels in silver and gold. Ancient Greek authors describe them as high-spirited, violent, uninhibited, lusty, drunken, musical and artistic.

The Thracian pantheon centred on the great mother and goddess of wild nature known by many names: Bendis, Kotyto, Hekate or Perke, Mountain-Mother. It is likely that she encompassed influences from the strong fertility goddess cults which thrived in the Balkan lands during the earlier Neolithic (New Stone Age) and Chalcolithic (Copper Age) periods.

As great mother she initiated creation, bringing forth from herself her son, who was both the sun in the daytime and the fire god at night. She united with him in divine marriage so that the cosmic cycle could be fulfilled and fertility renewed. She was also associated with the moon and was sometimes depicted riding a doe, bow in hand with a quiver of arrows upon her back.

Dionysus, usually called Zagreus in Thrace, was the twice born son of the great goddess. He was the dark god of wine, of intoxication, excess and inspiration. He had a wild band of female followers called Maenads, and ecstatic orgiastic rites were held in his honour. Poetry, music and dance swept along with him. He was the dying and reborn god who was sacrificed in the form of a bull, his body torn into pieces and his blood spilled upon the earth. In this way he united in divine marriage with the great mother goddess, fertilising her so that he could be reborn and the annual cycle of life could be renewed.

In contrast, the cult of Orpheus was ascetic, solar-based and open only to men. Orpheus was the son of the Thracian king Oeagrus (or alternatively of the sun god Apollo) and the muse Calliope. He played the lyre and sang beautifully, and is best known in the West for his descent to the underworld to bring his beloved bride Evredika (Eurydice) back from the dead. Music as a transforming power was central to Orphic rites, and the aim was to achieve immortality.

 

The Thracians revered the forces of nature, worshipped the sun and believed in the immortality of the soul. Caves were significant as symbolic entrances to the womb of the earth. Death was not to be feared, and past and present were not separate in time, but coexisted as one. Human sacrifice was sometimes practised, including the ritual slaying of a king's favourite wife upon his death, an honour for which the king's wives apparently competed.

The Thracian Horseman, sometimes simply called Hero, was probably a god of nature and vegetation. He combined both solar and underworld aspects. He is depicted on countless votive plaques, often riding towards the tree of life with his cloak flying behind him, or spearing a boar.

After the 6th century CE the Thracians mixed with the Slavic and Bulgar peoples who settled in the area, but the subsequent Bulgarian kingdom inherited their legacy.

Bulgaria is rich in Thracian archaeological remains and the landscape is scattered with huge burial mounds enclosing Thracian tombs. Traces of Thracian myth and religion have also survived in current Bulgarian folklore and customs, such as those given below.

Koukeri are masked male dancers and mummers, who wear fantastic, often animal like masks and huge bronze cowbells round their waists. They carry sticks, which symbolise the phallus, in a spring fertility rite possibly derived from the ancient Dionysian new year festival.

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The epic hero, Krali Marko, was a real historical person who lived in the 14th century AD. He has since become overlaid with an earlier mythology that may reflect some aspects of the Thracian Horseman god, who was sometimes simply called Hero. There are many heroic songs  about Krali Marko’s adventures with his magical horse Sharkoliya. Traditionally these epic tales were told through song.

Nestinarstvo sacred fire dancing There are now only a few genuine Nestinarki/Nestinari (female/male fire dancers) left in the Strandja area of Bulgaria. They enter into a spiritual trance to dance barefoot on burning embers during the festival of St Konstantin and Elena in midsummer, in a relic of an ancient Thracian solar ritual.

Samodivi /samovili (plural): There are many tales about these wild female nymphs of the waters, woodlands and the mountains, renowned for their exquisite singing and dancing. In Bulgarian folklore they share some characteristics with the Thracian goddess Bendis. In one tale, Vida, a powerful samodiva of the Pirin mountains, rides a stag harnessed with reins of grass snakes and stirrups of serpents. She kills the beautiful male singer, Ivė (a relic of Orpheus?) with her bow and arrows, and flies up to the moon, before restoring him to life in the curative gardens of Magda samovila. In other tales, samodivi call down the moon and milk it like a cow.  In some tales they kill or take the heads of humans who cross them, reminiscent of the Maenads, the ecstatic female followers of Dionysus who tore Orpheus apart in a drunken frenzy.

Trifon Zarezan is the patron saint of vineyards. On 1st February (new calendar) or 14th February (old calendar), there is a ceremonial pruning of the vine shoots, and a wine libation is poured onto the earth. The custom is associated with a Bulgarian legend which tells how the Virgin Mary punishes Trifon by causing him to cut off his nose with his pruning shears. The custom and legend reflect elements of the Thracian cult of Dionysus, the dying and reborn god of wine.

Bulgaria’s ancient style of singing, famed throughout the world for its haunting vocals and exquisite harmonies, surely follows in the tradition of Orpheus. It is also thought that Bulgaria’s unusual uneven rhythms may derive from Thracian music.

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