v_public_serpent_dragon_beings: 71
This data as json
| rowid | entity_id | canonical_name | tradition | category | serpent_flag | primary_domains | short_note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 71 | ENT_SABAZIOS | Sabazios | Thracian | Mystery Deity | 1 | sky; thunder; mystery cult; serpent; ecstasy; protection; initiation | Thracian (and Phrygian) sky-thunder deity received into Greek and Roman mystery religion. Attested in Athens from the 5th c. BCE: Aristophanes mocks the Sabazian cult in Wasps (422 BCE) and Birds (414 BCE); Demosthenes' On the Crown (330 BCE) alludes to Sabazian initiatory rites. Herodotus 5.7 identifies the three Thracian gods as Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis — scholarship identifies the Dionysian/ecstatic position with Sabazios. In the Roman period he appears as Zeus Sabazios (syncretism with the sky-father) in votive tablets from Rome and Anatolia. The cult's characteristic emblem is the manus Sabaziana — an open hand showing the serpent, pine cone, and other divine attributes. Archibald (1998) ch. 8; Burkert (1985) pp. 179-181. |