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ZALMOXIS, or ZAMOLXIS

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 951 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ZALMOXIS, or ZAMOLXIS , a semi-mythical social and religious reformer, regarded as the only true See also:God by the Thracian See also:Getae. According to See also:Herodotus (iv. 94), the Getae, who believed in the See also:immortality of the soul, looked upon See also:death merely as going to Zalmoxis. Every five years they selected by See also:lot one of the tribesmen as a messenger to the god. The See also:man was thrown into the See also:air and caught upon the points of spears. If he did not See also:die, he was considered unfit to undertake the See also:mission and another was chosen. By the euhemeristic Hellespontine Greeks Herodotua was told that Zalmoxis was really a man, formerly a slave of See also:Pythagoras at See also:Samos, who, having obtained his freedom and amassed See also:great See also:wealth, returned to See also:Thrace, and instructed his See also:fellow-tribesmen in the doctrines of Pythagoras and the arts of See also:civilization. He taught them that they would pass at death to a certain See also:place, where they would enjoy all possible blessings for all eternity, and to convince them of this he had a subterranean chamber constructed, to which he withdrew for three years. Herodotus, who declines to commit himself as to the existence of Zalmoxis, expresses the See also:opinion that in any See also:case he must have lived See also:long before the See also:time of Pythagoras. It is probable that Zalmoxis is See also:Sabazius, the Thracian See also:Dionysus or See also:Zeus; Mnaseas of Patrae identified him with Cronus. In See also:Plato (Charmides, 158 B) he is mentioned with See also:Abaris as skilled in the arts of See also:incantation. No satisfactory See also:etymology of the name has been suggested.

End of Article: ZALMOXIS, or ZAMOLXIS

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