The Great Goddess-Mother and the Monster Kenchrines
The Great Goddess-Mother and the Monster Kenchrines

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the Cenchrines monster, described by Nicander, as a chthonic personification of a deity, likely a female one, due to its link to the cave of Hecate and with the Rhescynthis Hera. It is possible that Cenchrines is an archetype of the goddess, just as Python in Delphi. The bloodthirstiness is a metaphor of the sacrifices with which Cenchrines is honoured during the Dog Days. This connection with the sun conditions that one “gets sick” when bitten by it – something that might be interpreted as a transition from pre-marital to marital age. From the briefly presented ophiomorphic monsters is evident that Thracian toreutics (the greaves from Zlatinitsa-Malomir, Vratsa, and Agighiol) has preserved an image of δολιχόν τέρας with the head of a lion and griffon as a significant element of the notion of a Great Goddess. The functionality of the objects on which ophiomorphic monsters and/or snakes are depicted is connected with the royal initiation ritualism.

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