Herodotus was told by the Euhemeristic Pontic Greeks that Zalmoxis was really a man, formerly a slave(or disciple) of Pythagoras, who taught him the "sciences of the skies" at Samos. Zalmoxis was manumitted and amassed great wealth, returned to his co ...
Herodotus was told by the Euhemeristic Pontic Greeks that Zalmoxis was really a man, formerly a slave(or disciple) of Pythagoras, who taught him the "sciences of the skies" at Samos. Zalmoxis was manumitted and amassed great wealth, returned to his country and instructed his people, the Getae, about the immortality. Zenon reiterates the idea that Zalmoxis was Pythagoras' slave. However, Herodotus, who declines to commit himself as to the existence of Zalmoxis, expresses the opinion that in any case Zalmoxis must have lived long before the time of Pythagoras. According to Herodotus, at one point Zalmoxis traveled to Egypt and brought the people mystic knowledge about the immortality of the soul, teaching them that they would pass at death to a certain place where they would enjoy all possible blessings for all eternity. Zalmoxis then had a subterranean chamber constructed (other accounts say that it was a natural cave) on the holy mountain of Kogaion, to which he withdrew for three years (some other accounts considered he actually lived in Hades for these three years). After his disappearance, he was considered dead and mourned by his people, but after three years he showed himself once more to the Getae, who were thus convinced about his teachings: an episode that some considered to be a resurrection. Plato says in the Charmides dialogue that Zalmoxis was also a great physician who took a holistic approach to healing body and mind; not just the body, as was the Greek practice.
In my opinion, Zalmoxis was a great philosopher who taught that gods and nature and human being are connected like one organism. Descendants of Geto-Dacia, Romanian people inherits doctrine of Zalmoxis. For instance, the Romanian spirit is synthesized into the masterpiece of the Romanian folk, the poem <Mioriţa, A little lamb>, where a young shepherd is warned by his little white-black lamb, that his fellow shepherds plan to murder him and take his flock. The young shepherd instead of resisting, accepts his fate. This means that death is just a destiny of all of us and it is a transition to nature where we are come from, not a end of existing. Concepts of immortality taught by Zalmoxis in Geto-Dacia have something in common with an idea of the young shepherd.