 Hesychius quotes Herodotus, using "Zalmoxis".The "-m-l-" variant is favoured by those wishing to derive the name from a conjectured Thracian word for "earth", "*zamol".Comparisons have also been made with the name of Zemelo and Žemelė, the Phrygian and Lithuanian goddess of the earth, and with the Lithuanian chthonic god Žemeliūkštis.