The samodivi, the fierce, enchanting nymphs of the forests and the waters who can call down the moon and ride wild deer with bow in hand, reflect some aspects of the great Thracian goddess, Bendis. The medieval hero Krali Marko is overlaid with an earlier mythology possibly extending as far back as the Thracian Horseman god who dispensed both life and death. And stories of animals that are human and humans that are animals may derive from an even earlier era.
