Vendis
was an ancient, female, lunar deity of the Thracians, who when her
worship later entered Greece, was identified with Hecate, Artemis, or
even Persephone.In Thrace, the festivals held in her honor were of an orgiastic nature and resembled those held in Phrygia in Asia Minor in honor of Savazius, who was initially worshipped in Thrace and later identified by the Greeks with Dionysus.
That is why mythology wanted Vendis to be the daughter of Savazius, because he was also a god of the underworld and had been identified with Pluto, and thus it was easy for the Greeks to identify Vendis of the Phrygians and Thracians with Persephone.
The cult of Vendis was general throughout Thrace, resembling the cult of Hecate and taking place in deep caves (Krat. Thrass. ext. 12). Especially in Amphipolis, Vendis, associated with Dionysus-Savazios, who had the form of a bull, took the form of the bull-fighting Artemis and became its patron, during the Roman conquest.
On the coins of the city of that period, Vendis appears seated on a bull, like Europa, with her veil blowing in the wind. On other coins, she is depicted crowned with a crescent moon and bearing the inscription TAUROPOLOS on her shoulders, while on the other side of the coin she stands upright, holding Hecate's torch in one hand and a spear in the other.
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