Zalmoxian Religion

The paradox of Zalmoxian religion is a debate among historians that last from the beginning of the 20th century and still continues today. Reasearches made by specialists as Nicolae Densușianu, Vasile Pârvan, Giurescu, Jean  Coman, Constantin Daicoviciu, and Mircea Eliade are still controversial and incomplete and often take a political or religious character. He was first mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories IV, 93–96.

The Zalmoxian religion would be the Getae (often named jointly with their Dacian relatives, Daco-Getae) monotheist belief in Zalmoxis, which would be the predecessor of the Christian faith in Romania and Moldova. This concept created a debate between the monotheist, the henotheist and the polytheist position. According to some authors, ancient sources do not reveal any other god of Getae-Dacians than Zalmoxis. In fact, the only author who states that Getae have only one divinity is Herodotus. Among others, Vasile Pârvan, Jean Coman, R. Pettazzon, E. Rohde and Sorin Paliga consider that Getae-Dacians religion was monotheistic.Others specialists consider it henotheistic and Zalmoxis would have been the supreme god at whose side exist minor divinities each having its function.And finally, a third group of authors believe that Getae actually had a polytheist religion, like all the other Indo-European peoples. This fact would be confirmed by Diodorus Siculus who states that the Getae worship Hestia, following the teachings of Zalmoxis.

Not all the ancient sources consider that Zalmoxis was a god. In fact, there were even some researchers in Romania, who thought Getae were actually atheists. There also have been discussions about the belief in immortality, due to Herodotus affirmation that the Getae “think that they do not really die, but that when they depart this life they go to Zalmoxis”. On the basis of that, several Orthodox authors considered this to be the proof that the ancestors of the Romanians, the Daco-Getae, had a proto-Christian belief and that, with the Christianization of Romania, they very easily were able to embrace the Christian faith.

The sending of a messenger to Zalmoxis and the fact that Getae shot arrows towards the sky made some authors believe Zalmoxis was a uranian, heavenly, god, while his journey in a cavern made others write he was a chthonic, infernal divinity.

The most consistent and perhaps also original explanation about Zalmoxis was made by Mircea Eliade who thought Getae actually had a religion based on a ritual of passage, where ritual death was symbolized by the vanishing into a cavern, and was followed by a ritual rebirth, symbolized by the process of leaving of the cavern. Zalmoxis was a constant in Mircea Eliade’s life. His most complete work treating this subject seems to be “From Zalmoxis to Genghis Khan” wrote in Paris in 1970.