Bistones

Bistones (Greek: "Βίστονες") is the name of a Thracian people who dwelt between Mount Rhodopé and the Aegean Sea, beside Lake Bistonis, near Abdera[1] extending westward as far as the river Nestus.

[2] The Bistones were militant people who worshiped Ares, Dionysus or Bacchus, Minerva,[2] and Bellona.

[3] In the play Alcestis by Euripides, the mythical Heracles is on his way to the land of the Bistones in his labour for Tirynthian Eurystheus to fetch the chariot-steeds of Thracian Diomedes.

[6] From the worship of Bacchus (Dionysus) in Thrace, Bacchic women are called Bistonides.

Some traditions state that Phineus was killed by Boreas, or that he was carried off by the Harpyes into the country of the Bistones or Milchessians.