THE SANCTUARY AND CULT OF THE GREAT GODS ON SAMOTHRACE
(preceding page) Fig. 17. The sanctuary seen from the top of the theater
Fig. 18. Samothracian bronze coin; obverse: Athena; reverse: seated Great Mother. Archaeological Museum, Samothrace
Fig. 19. Samothracian bronze coin from Samothrace; obverse: Athena; reverse: ram’s head and Hermes’ caduceus. Archaeological Museum, Samothrace
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The fame of the island emanated from this mystery cult of the Great Gods, whose rites of initiation promised protection at sea and the opportunity for moral improvement. Many heroes sought initiation in the mysteries when passing this place: the Argonauts en route to the Kolchis and the Golden Fleece, including Jason, Orpheus, and the Dioskouroi; Herakles (Diodoros), and by some accounts, Odysseus and Agamemnon, too, found success in their endeavors because the Samothracian gods appeared to them. What sticks with us in these stories is the idea that this small, rocky, and wind-swept island must have possessed a deep mythic resonance such that it could be the ancestral place of the powerful non-Greek peoples, the Trojans, and that from the same foreign stock would come a youth capable of coupling with Demeter, the great goddess of the Eleusinian mysteries. The stories are rooted in journey, both physical and metaphysical, a fitting mythological backdrop to the journey, physical and spiritual, which later pilgrims made to Samothrace to become initiated into the cult of the Great Gods. Who exactly were the Great Gods? This question remains one of our most confounding mysteries, not least because the Greeks themselves seem to have only a rather vague idea of them. To Herodotos they were the Kabeiroi. One Hellenistic source names these gods Axieros, Axiokersa, and Axiokersos, equating them with the Eleusinian triad, Demeter, Persephone, and Hades. To these a fourth is often added, Kasmilos/Kadmilos, who resembles Hermes. Ancient sources also say that the Kabeiroi are Dardanos and Aetion, or that they are Zeus and Dionysos. Only two kinds of divinities are represented with any consistency on coin images, a Kybele-like Great Mother and a Hermes through his symbols, the caduceus and the ram (fig. 19). A great female goddess with two male assistants best matches the range of evidence. At least by the Hellenistic period, a powerful connection was forged with the twin gods, the Dioskouroi, who also provide divine protection at sea (fig. 45). Even today the Sanctuary of the Great Gods1 has the unmistakable aura of sacred ground. Set on the northern shore of the island, nestled deep in a cleft at the base of Mount Agios Giorgios—spur of the great Mount Fengari, framed by three converging torrents and opening toward the sea, the Sanctuary of the Great Gods physically integrates the divine natural forces that played a fundamental role in the initiation rites called the mysteria. The Samothracian mysteries were said to be second in fame only to those at Eleusis. Initiation was available to people of all ethnicity, class, and gender. Only those who had not atoned for a blood crime were prohibited. As at Eleusis, there were two levels of initiation, myesis (the closing of the eyes, or blindness) and epopteia (viewing). Unlike Eleusis, at Samothrace the pilgrim could undergo both levels of initiation in the same visit. The rituals of initiation were held in silent trust by the community of initiated. From ancient texts we glean that the rites took place at night; that they were conducted in an archaic language; that the ithyphallic status of Hermes played a central role; that the prospective initiates likely underwent the Korybantic rite of thronosis; and that perhaps some kind of sharing of personal secrets took place. There was a search in the dark for the abducted Harmonia, and joyous dancing when she was found. The Samothracian mysteria were not restricted to a festival calendar but were held continuously during those months of April through October, when safe travel to the island was possible. The sea journey was challenging but the prospective rewards an infinite blessing, for initiation secured protection at sea and the opportunity to “become both more pious and more just and better in every respect than before” (Diod.Sic. 5.48.4– 50.1). As tokens of the ordeal, initiates received a magnetized iron ring and a purple