CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The Samothracian Gods The Samothracian mysteries, celebrated on the island of Samothrace for perhaps as many as a thousand years, were the focus of a cult which attracted worshippers from the entire Greek and Roman world. After the decline of the mysteries in the fourth century A.D., the island and its rites were almost forgotten. A Byzantine writer of uncertain date may have visited the island; he described the sanctuary and some of its features. I Cyriacus of Ancona visited the island in 1444 and recorded several important Samothracian inscriptions, some of which have since disappeared.' Until the nineteenth century, however, the only information generally available about the island and its religion was found in ancient literary sources. Consequently, the only issues scholars discussed were the identity of the Samothracian gods and the meaning of their mysteries. Scholars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, concerned with discovering the origin of religion, believed that by explaining the enigmatic identity of the Samothracian gods, they would understand Greek and Roman religion as an early form of Christianity. Preoccupied with the question of origin, they tried to establish the etymology of the word Kabeiroi, a name which ancient writers often associated with the Samothracian gods. J Creuzer 4 and Schelling' constructed various arguments to show that the Samothracian gods were a triad whose nature prefigured the Christian trinity. Barth, attempting to show a Teutonic substratum, argued for parallels between the Samothracian gods and a pair of male divinities located by Tacitus in Germany.6 Faber associated legends of the Kabeiroi with the flood story in the Bible. 7 Lobeck was the first to show that we cannot learn who or what the Samothracian gods were simply by an examination of the literary sources. 8 Because ancient writers often knew of the Samothracian gods only by hear­ say, and because the identity and nature of these gods were part of the secret of the mysteries, the evidence we have is confusing and often contradictory. Ancient writers did not know the sex of these gods, or their individual powers and attributes. They did not even know for certain how many gods there were although they always refer to them in the plural. Some writers call them Kabeiroi. Because of the use of this name, many argue that the Samothracian gods were identical with the Kabeiroi associated with mysteries elsewhere, specifically on Lemnos and at Thebes on the Greek mainland. 9 The term Kabeiroi, however, never appears at Samothrace where on inscriptions the 2 INTRODUCTION gods are called either simply Theoi or Theoi Megaloi.'o When the Samothra­ cian gods are mentioned at other sites, they are called Theoi Samothrakes, never Kabeiroi Samothrakes. 1 1

Herodotus I' and Stesimbrotos of Thasos 1 J are the earliest writers to call the gods worshipped on Samothrace Kabeiroi. The term is not used by others writing on Samothrace until Mnaseas in the Hellenistic period.J4 Hemberg argues that Herodotus is almost certainly, as is his propensity, using a familiar name for newly encountered gods on the basis of superficial similarities, and that the term Kabeiroi need not be taken as the Samothracian name for these gods. IS Stesimbrotos is likely to be doing the same thing. Stesimbrotos' state­ ment is preserved by Strabo. 1 6 Strabo also quotes an objection by Demetrios of Skepsis who does not think the term Kabeiroi was used at Samothrace because no mys(ikos logos was told there about the Kabeiroi. Clearly Demetrios, at least, did not believe that the Samothracian gods were called Kabeiroi. Whatever the case, the Samothracian gods appear to be different in func­ tion from the Kabeiroi worshipped elsewhere. Initiation into the mysteries of the Samothracian gods was thought to provide protection from storms at sea.17 The Kabeiroi on Lemnos were companions of Hephaistos and associated with metalworking and wine drinking." At Thebes there was only one Kabeiros, associated with a younger male figure called Pais. Kabeiros was similar in appearance to Dionysos. 19 Demeter Kabeiraia was worshipped near­ by.'o There were some similarities between the Theban and Lemnian Kabeiroi cults and the cult at Samothrace. Mysteries were practiced at all three sites, and in all three cults there was a concern for explaining the origins of life.' 1 The sanctuary at Thebes even shared some characteristics with the sanctuary at Samothrace. Both were located in valleys near streams and had apsidal buildings, but clearly the deities associated with each place were not identical. II It is possible that certain external similarities contributed to the identification of the Theban Kabeiros, the Lemnian Kabeiroi, and the Samothracian Theoi Megaloi, but there is no good evidence that these divinities were in origin the same or that the Samothracian gods were ever called Kabeiroi at Samothrace. Mnaseas preserves a series of names which seem to be authentic Samothra­ cian cult titles. His list includes four names: Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos, and Kasmilos. lJ The first three,. beginning with the same prefix, are inter­ preted in various ways. Because the scholiast who reports what Mnaseas said associates these names with the Eleusinian triad of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades, Karl Lehmann maintains that the central group of Samothracian deities consisted of two females and one male. l4 Burkert, attesting Varro's identification of the Great Gods with Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, concurs." Two objections can be raised. While the scholiast does seem to have had