Pleistoros, War-God of the Apsinthians
Thracian · deity · Classical Thrace; attested c. 479 BCE (aftermath of the Persian Wars), per Herodotus · Recorded classification
Thracian war-god of the Apsinthian tribe receiving captive sacrifice. Native theonym transmitted only in Greek (Πλείστωρος). Classified 'deity'. Almost nothing else survives; the war-god reading is inference from the sacrifice of a war-captive.
Domains
- war and battle
- human sacrifice
Powers
- receives captives in human sacrifice
- grants victory in war to those who sacrifice captives to him
Sources
- Pleistoros is a local Thracian (Apsinthian) god, interpreted as a war-god, to whom the Apsinthians offered human sacrifice; he is known almost solely from Herodotus' account of the sacrifice of the Persian Oeobazus.: Herodotus, Histories 9.119 (primary)