The below figurine is of a Greek deity you will be familiar with, namely Artemis. But look closer and you might notice something unusual. The cap Artemis wears is a Thracian or Phrygian cap, this was an item of clothing which belonged to the neighbours of the ancient Greeks (this features in a previous article when looking at Priapus).
Bendis, Artemis and her origin.
This isn’t Artemis depicted as we often see her, this was Artemis Bendis where the Greeks associated a foreign deity with one of their own. Bendis was a Thracian deity, a goddess of the moon and the hunt. These were associations of the Greek goddess Artemis and you can now understand why they linked Bendis with her. This itself wasn’t a rare thing – the ancient Greeks sometimes understood foreign deities as their own albeit worshipped by a different name.
Artemis wasn’t new to this dynamic, if you have listened to my podcast episode with Dr Carla Ionescu you will have heard how Artemis had different associations across the Mediterranean. In fact, one of her most famous, the ‘mistress of the animals or Potnia Theron became a tattoo which I proudly sport. An interestingly feature of polytheism was that deities could be paired in such a way.
In art Bendis was sometimes depicted with a spear and dressed with animal skins. Though she was Thracian her worship was picked up elsewhere and in one major ancient Greek polis.
Bendis in Athens.
That there was a shared connection between Artemis and Bendis doesn’t automatically result in the two being paired. A cult of Bendis seems to have developed in Athens in the 440s BC. and there is a suggestion that the Oracle of Dodona was involved through an oracle it had given. By 429 BC we have a reference to it formally and a few years later it was an association which was big enough to loan Athens money. It was mentioned by Plato at the beginning of his Republic where he refers to a festival being celebrated in the Piraeus. Xenophon also commented that she had a sanctuary on the eastern side of the Piraeus.
One argument posits the idea that this cult was formalised in Athens as a response to two events. The first was the need for better relations with Thrace in the lead up to the Peloponnesian War and during it. This both helped Athens on the diplomatic front and kept the Thracians in Athens on good terms. The second event was devastating, the Athenian plague and it may have been a way to appease the gods.
Mention of the festival for Bendis included a procession for both Thracians and Athenians, an all night party (pannychis) which also occured at the Haloa. There was even a horseback race made with torches. It was celebrated on the 19th day of Thargelion (roughly May/June). The below image is a votive marble relied dating to circa 400 BC and showing Artemis Bendis with those who may have been the riders in the horse race.
Further reading.
The entry for Bendis on Theoi.com
Chatzinikolaou, KG. Artemis/Diana/Bendis (?) votive reliefs from Macedonia, aspects of its Romanization.
Planeaux, C. The Date of Bendis’ Entry into Attica
