Case file · Sacred site
Zalmoxis and the underground chamber
Herodotus (4.94–96) reports that the Getae of the lower Danube believed their god Zalmoxis had vanished into an underground chamber for three years and returned, proving that the soul is immortal.
440 BCE · 45.62, 23.31 · status: legend
The account
The Greeks of the Black Sea claimed Zalmoxis had been a slave of Pythagoras who hid underground to fake a resurrection. The Getae sent a messenger to him every five years by throwing a man onto spears. Later writers placed his sanctuary on a holy mountain, Kogaionon, often identified with the Dacian capital region of Sarmizegetusa Regia, where this entry is placed.
The sceptical view
Herodotus himself doubted the Pythagoras story; the mountain's location is unknown.