Relief dedicated to the Thracian goddess Bendis

Greek, about 400-375 BC
Said to be from Piraeus, the harbour quarter of Athens, Greece; Probably from the area of a sanctuary of Bendis, on the south-west slope of the Mounychia Hill

The goddess Bendis originated in Thrace, to the north of Greece. Her cult was imported into Athens around 432 BC, at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Although Athens had a long-standing relationship with Thrace, acceptance of the foreign cult into the city at this time was probably connected with Athens’ military alliance with the Odrysian Thracians, who supplied mercenaries throughout the war. A priest was democratically elected from among the Athenian citizens to preside over sacrifices and a major festival involving both Athenians and Thracians. The festival included a torch race, unusually on horseback, by night.

This relief shows two bearded and draped figures leading a troop of eight naked athletes to a representation of the goddess. She is dressed in outlandish costume, with a sleeved tunic hitched up so as to form a short skirt. An animal skin is draped over one shoulder, while an outer cloak pinned at the neck falls over her shoulders and down her back. Her legs are clad in knee-length boots, and she wears a Phrygian cap with a pointed crown. She holds a libation bowl (phiale).

The human figures are represented on a lesser scale. They wear wreaths in their hair and the leading man carries a torch. The naked athletes are probably the victors of the horse-back torch race. The bearded men are perhaps the troop’s trainer and sponsor.

BENDIS (Bendis), a Thracian divinity in whom the moon was worshipped. Hesychius (s. v. dilonchon) says, that the poet Cratinus called this goddess dilonchos, either because she had to discharge two duties, one towards heaven and the other towards the earth, or because she bore two lances, or lastly, because she had two lights, the one her own and the other derived from the sun. In Greece she was sometimes identified with Persephone, but more commonly with Artemis. (Proclus, Theolog. p. 353.) From an expression of Aristophanes, who in his comedy “The Lemnian Women” called her the megalê theos (Phot. Lex. and Hesych. s. v.), it may be inferred, that she was worshipped in Lemnos; and it was either from this island or from Thrace that her worship was introduced into Attica; for we know, that as early as the time of Plato the Bendideia were celebrated in Peiraeeus every year on the twentieth of Thargelion.