the circle of the hearth and never left the home, thus always being a maid but never a wife, and was associated to the snake, and, since the snake was the representation of the "below," therefore to the earth itself. The hearth-goddess also symbolised the continuity of the clan, which, by guaranteeing the legitimacy of the royal line and he continuity of power, was an important part of the Thracian royal customs. These various attributes together made of the goddess of the "autochthonic principle," that is the concept of a ruler's right to rule the land he inhabited deriving from him originating from that place, and which held a very important place in archaic societies such as in Thrace. This importance of the hearth-goddess as the embodiment of the "autochthonic principle" is reflected across various Indo-European religions in the emphasis on the hearth-goddess in the rituals through which kings would take over new territory: according to legend, the Argive Perdiccas I of Macedon used his knife to cut a circle on the floor around the hearth of the king of Lebaea before becoming king of Macedonia among the Scythians, a substitute ritual king would ride around a group of sacred objects believed to be gifts from (the Scythian hearth-goddess) to mark the boundaries of his kingdom whenever the Macedonian king Philip II conquered or sought to conquer a new country, he would marry its princess, that is he would ritually unite with its local personification of Hestia (the Greek hearth-goddess). Such a concept of the autochthonous principle also existed in Thrace, as attested by the presence of snake-shaped hearth decorations in ancient Thrace. The matron As a matron, was the protector goddess of marriage and a mother goddess who appeared as a woman having experienced marriage and motherhood, and therefore was a mother who personified the earth, and the principles of life and creation out of which the autochthonic hero who was fated to be enthroned was born, as well as a peacemaker and nurturer who presented the Hero with the insignia of power. When the Bithyni honoured in Spring, they imagined her as a huge woman spinning thread and nurturing pigs, likely because of the goddess's multi-faceted nature. This gigantic form of was similar to the Iranian goddess Anahita, who was described as a mountain-sized woman in hymns. The sacrificial animal of was the sow, which symbolised fertility, and