Cabeiri

[Carmen Elsa Irarragorri Wyland]

For other uses, see Kabeiros (disambiguation).

"Cabiri" redirects here. For other uses, see Cabiri (disambiguation).

Relief from Samothrace in theLouvre showing Agamemnon being initiated into the rites of the Cabeiri

In Greek mythology, the Cabeiri, Cabiri or Kabiri (Ancient Greek: Κάβειροι, Kábeiroi) were a group of enigmatic chthonic deities. They were worshiped in a mystery cult closely associated with that of Hephaestus, centered in the north Aegean islands of Lemnos and possibly Samothrace—at the Samothrace temple complex—and at Thebes. In their distant origins the Cabeiri and the Samothracian gods may include pre-Greek elements or other non-Greek elements, such as Hittite, Thracian, proto-Etruscan or Phrygian. The Lemnian cult was always local to Lemnos, but the Samothracian mystery cult spread rapidly throughout the Greek world during the Hellenistic period, eventually initiating Romans.

The ancient sources disagree about whether the deities of Samothrace were Cabeiri or not; and the accounts of the two cults differ in detail. But the two islands are close to each other, at the northern end of the Aegean, and the cults are at least similar, and neither fits easily into the Olympic pantheon: the Cabeiri were given a mythic genealogy as sons of Hephaestus. The accounts of the Samothracian gods, whose names were secret, differ in the number and sexes of the gods: usually between two and four, some of either sex. The number of Cabeiri also varies, with some accounts citing four (often a pair of males and a pair of females), and some even more, such as a tribe or whole race of Cabeiri, often presented as all male.

The Cabeiri were also worshiped at other sites in the vicinity, including Seuthopolis in Thrace and various sites in Asia Minor. According to Strabo, Cabeiri are most honored in Imbros and Lemnos but also in other cities too.

Etymology and origin

The Cabeiri were possibly originally Phrygian deities and protectors of sailors, who were imported into Greek ritual R. S. P. Beekes believes that their name is of non-Indo-European, pre-Greek origin.

In the past, the Semitic word kabir ("great") has been compared to Κάβειροι since at least Joseph Justus Scaliger in the sixteenth century, but nothing else seemed to point to a Semitic origin, until the idea of "great" gods expressed by the Semitic root kbrwas definitively attested for North Syria in the thirteenth century BC, in texts from Emar published by D. Arnaud in 1985–87. Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling connected the Greek word to the Hebrew חבר (khaver "friend, associate") and via this to several priest names as one attached to the Persians ("Chaverim"), linking them to the Dioskouri or priestly blacksmiths alternatively. T. J. Wackernagel produced an Indian etymology in 1907 and  in 1925 A. H. Sayce had suggested a connection to Hittite habiri ("looters", "outlaws"), but subsequent discoveries have made this implausible on phonological grounds. Dossein compares Κάβειροι to the Sumerian word kabar, "copper."

The name of the Cabeiri recalls Mount Kabeiros, a mountain in the region of Berekyntia in Asia Minor, closely associated with the Phrygian Mother Goddess. The name of Kadmilus (Καδμῖλος), or Kasmilos, one of the Cabeiri who was usually depicted as a young boy, was linked even in antiquity to camillus, an old Latin word for a boy-attendant in a cult, which is probably a loan from the Etruscan language, which may be related to Lemnian. However, according to Beekes, the name Kadmilus may be of pre-Greek origin, as seems to be the case with the name Cadmus.

Depiction in literary sources

They were most commonly depicted as two people: an old man, Axiocersus, and his son, Cadmilus. Due to the cult's secrecy, however, their exact nature and relationship with other ancient Greek and Thracian religious figures remained mysterious. As a result, the membership and roles of the Cabeiri changed significantly over time, with common variants including a female pair (Axierus and Axiocersa) and twin youths (frequently confused with Castor and Pollux) who were also worshiped as protectors of sailors.

Lemnos

The Lemnians were originally non-Greek; they were Hellenized after Miltiades conquered the island for Athens in the sixth century BC. In Lemnos the cult of the Cabeiri survived, according to archaeological evidence, through the conquest: an ancient sanctuary dedicated to the Cabeiri is identifiable by traces of inscriptions, and seems to have survived the program of Hellenization.

The geographer Strabo reported that in Lemnos, the mother (there was no father) of the Cabeiri was Kabeiro (Greek: Καβειρώ) herself, a daughter of Nereus (one of the "old men of the sea") and a goddess whom the Greeks might have called Rhea.

In general Greek myth identifies the Cabeiri as divine craftsmen, sons or grandsons of Hephaestus, who was also chiefly worshiped on Lemnos. Aeschylus wrote a play called the Cabeiri, and the fragments that survive have them as a chorus greeting the Argonauts at Lemnos. showed them as prodigious wine-drinkers, and wine jars are "the only characteristic group of finds" from the Cabeirium of Lemnos. Walter Burkert suggests a raucous, burlesque character to the mysteries of the Cabeiri and notes that an inscription at Lemnos indicates parapaizonti, the one who "jests along the way". First-fruits were offered to Zeus, Apollo, and the Cabeiri; Burkert also sees the offerings to Zeus and Apollo, father and son, as indicating an initiatory ceremony.

Samothrace

The Samothracians were also originally non-Greek, and are associated with the Trojans and the Pelasgians; they used a foreign language in the temple through Julius Caesar's time. Samothrace offered an initiatory mystery, which promised safety and prosperity to seamen. The secret of these mysteries has largely been kept; but we know that of three things about the ritual, the aspirants were asked to comment on the worst action they had ever committed.

The mysteries of Samothrace did not publish the names of their gods; and the offerings at the shrine are all inscribed to the gods or to the great gods rather than with their names. But ancient sources tell us that there were two goddesses and a god:Axieros, Axiokersa, and Axiokersos, and their servant Cadmilos or Casmilos. Karl Kerényi conjectured that Axieros was male, and the three gods were the sons of Axiokersa (Cadmilos, the youngest, was also the father of the three); Burkert disagrees.

In Classical Greek culture the mysteries of the Cabeiri at Samothrace remained popular, though little was entrusted to writing beyond a few names and bare genealogical connections. Seamen among the Greeks might invoke the Cabeiri as "great gods" in times of danger and stress. The archaic sanctuary of Samothrace was rebuilt in Greek fashion; by classical times, the Samothrace mysteries of the Cabeiri were known at Athens. Herodotus had been initiated. But at the entrance to the sanctuary, which has been thoroughly excavated, the Roman antiquary Varro learned that there had been twin pillars of brass, phallic hermae, and that in the sanctuary it was understood that the child of the Goddess, Cadmilus, was in some mystic sense also her consort. Varro also describes these twin pillars as Heaven and Earth, denying the vulgar error that they are Castor and Pollux.

Thebes in Boeotia

At Thebes in Boeotia there are more varied finds than on Lemnos; they include many little bronze votive bulls and which carry on into Roman times, when the traveler Pausanias, always alert to the history of cults, learned that it was Demeter Kabeiriia who instigated the initiation cult there in the name of Prometheus and his son Aitnaios. Walter Burkert (1985) writes, "This points to guilds of smiths analogous to the Lemnian Hephaistos." The votive dedications at Thebes are to a Kabeiros (Greek: Κάβειρος) in the singular, and childish toys like votive spinning tops for Pais suggest a manhood initiation. Copious wine was drunk, out of characteristic cups that were ritually smashed. Fat, primitive dwarves (similar to the followers of Silenus) with prominent genitalia were painted on the cups. Thebes is connected to Samothrace in myth, primarily the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia, which took place there.

Myth

In myth, the Cabeiri bear many similarities to other fabulous races, such as the Telchines of Rhodes, the Cyclopes, the Dactyls, the Korybantes, and the Kuretes. These different groups were often confused or identified with one another since many of them, like the Cyclopes and Telchines, were also associated with metallurgy.

Diodorus Siculus said of the Cabeiri that they were Idaioi dactyloi ("Idaian Dactyls"). The Idaian Dactyls were a race of divine beings associated with the Mother Goddess and with Mount Ida, a mountain in Phrygia sacred to the goddess. Hesychius of Alexandria wrote that the Cabeiri were karkinoi ("crabs", in modern Greek: "Καβούρια", kavouria). The Cabeiri as Karkinoi were apparently thought of as amphibious beings (again recalling the Telchines). They had pincers instead of hands, which they used as tongs (Greek: karkina) in metalworking.

It has been suggested by Comyns Beaumont that the Orphic mysteries may have had their origins with the Cabeiri.

http://www.ntua.gr/archtech/med/projects/telika-21-07-05/samothraki...

Kaveirian mysteries

To the ancient civilizations the mystery ceremonies are considered to be a very important occurrence, linked to the older fertility ceremonies and also the prevalence of the religious feeling. In the Greek territory and especially in the Aegean Sea the presence of the mysteries is dominant. The naval routes and the attempt to discover new materials, especially metals, contribute to the communication between places, the exchange of ideas and interaction between them. The cultural interchanges play a significant role in the forming of the mysteries. The oldest mysteries in Ancient Greece are supposed to be the Cretominoan, which affected the Kaveirian, the Dionysso-orfika and the Eleusinian. An important influence can be traced in mysteries of Egypt, whose commercial activity is highly developed

Kaveirian mysteries mostly take place in the north Aegean islands were they define a network of communication having as a center the island of Samothrace and connections with the islands of Imvros, Tenedos, Limnos and the Asia Minor. There is also a direct connection with the island of Dilos (important commercial center) from where according to the myth a ship brings the light at the end of the mysteries.

The ritual of the mysteries revolve round the worship of four goddesses, of Aksiokerou, Aksiokersa, Aksiokersos and Kadmilos (equivalent to Dimitra, Persefoni, Plouto and Ermis) and refer to a symbolic representation of the circle of life (birth-death-revival). The duration of the mysteries is 9 days and is outlined of two ceremonies: (a) the ceremony of Grate Mother, described of the holly marriage, a ritual ending with orgies, considered to be the genuine performance of the mysteries and (b) The ceremony of Kadmilos who is sacrificed to gods (sperm goes to earth), then reassured (the seed sprouts) and at the end gets married. During the mysteries the island is thrown into mourning and there is no light as an indication of sadness. A ship leaves from the island having as a destination the island of Dilos and returns with the light, declaring the end of the mysteries and the beginning of the celebration.

The initiation into the mysteries takes place only in the island of Samothrace . It is an event irrelevant to the ceremonies and individuals or groups may initiate whenever they come to the island.These ceremonies are usually carried out during night under the light of brands. As the Kaveirian mysteries serve a double aim, earth's fertility and the protection of navigators the new mystic takes as a gift an olive wreath and a red belt in order to be protected from the dangers, especially the seafaring ones.

The Place of the mysteries expands at the northern area of the island and covers a site of 50.000m 2 . The holy site does not belong to the island, but refers to the whole world. We can easily come to that conclusion considering the fact that every town sends its ambassadors, even the city of Samothrace .

The Kaveirian mysteries obtain their final form in 15th century and continuously gain a “global” range. This can be understood by the fact that Roman Emperors come to the island to be initiated into the mysteries. At the same time the most eminent Greeks, (Odysseus, Agamemnon, Iason, Orfeas, and Hercules), are considered to be initiated into the Kaveirian mysteries. The King of Macedonia, Philippos, was a mystic and met his wife Olympiada, priestess of the mysteries, in Samothrace . Later on Alexander the Great also participated in the Kaveirian ceremonies. Kaveiroi were worshiped until the end of the 4 th century a.c.

Herodotos : “Everyone who is initiated into the Kaveirian ceremonies that people of Samothrace has taken from Pelasgous and now perform, will understand what I am talking about. Samothrace in the past was populated by Pelasgous that firstly lived in Athens and from them people of Samothrace took the mysteries.”

Plutarch: “And Philippos was initiated into the mysteries of Samothrace together with Olympiada, at the time that both of them were still children.”

http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Kabeiroi.html

Greek Name

Καβειρος Καβειροι

Transliteration

Kabeiros, Kabeiroi

Latin Spelling

Cabirus, Cabeiri, Cabiri

Translation

Of Mt Kabeiros

THE KABEIROI (Cabeiri) were twin gods (daimones) who presided over the orgiastic dances of the mysteries of Samothrake (Samothrace) which were held in honor of the goddesses Demeter, Persephone, and Hekate. They were famed metal-workers, dwarfish sons of the god Hephaistos (Hephaestus), who served their father at his Lemnian forge. Like their mother Kabeiro (Cabeiro) the pair were also sea-divinities who came to the aid of sailors in distress.

According to Clement the Kabeiroi were three in number, but two of the brothers committed an act of fratricide. The pair later recovered the phallus of Zagreus who had been dismembered by the Titan-gods and established it in the shrine of the Mysteries. In the Cabiri by Aeschylus, the two gods welcomed the Argonauts to their island and initiated them in a drunken orgy.

The Kabeiroi were closely identified with a number of other korybantic daimones including the Cretan Kouretes (Curetes), the Trojan Daktyloi (Dactyls), and the Phrygian Korybantes (Corybantes).
According to some the Samothrakain Kabeiroi were a larger group of deities which included not only the sons of Hephaistos but also several Korybantic sons of the god Apollon. Both groups were portrayed as shield-clashing, dancing warriors of the orgies. Kedalion (Cedalion), the Lemnian attendant of Hephaistos, was sometimes numbered amongst the Kabeiroi. The twin gods were also identified with the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri) especially in the myth of the Argonauts.

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FAMILY OF THE CABEIRI

PARENTS

[1] HEPHAISTOS & KABEIRO (Pherecydes Frag, Strabo 10.3.21, Nonnus Dionysiaca 14.17 & 27.120)
[2] KADMILOS (Acusilaus Frag, Strabo 10.3.19)
[3] PROMETHEUS (Pausanias 9.25.5)

NAMES

[1] ALKON, EURYMEDON (Dionysiaca 14.17)
[2] ONNES (Callimachus Aetia Frag 115)
[3] AITNAIOS (Pausanias 9.25.5)

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ENCYCLOPEDIA

CABEIRI (Kabeiroi), mystic divinities who occur in various parts of the ancient world. The obscurity that hangs over them, and the contradictions respecting them in the accounts of the ancients themselves, have opened a wide field for speculation to modern writers on mythology, each of whom has been tempted to propound a theory of his own. The meaning of the name Cabeiri is quite uncertain, and has been traced to nearly all the languages of the East, and even to those of the North; but one etymology seems as plausible as another, and etymology in this instance is a real ignis fatuus to the inquirer. The character and nature of the Cabeiri are as obscure as the meaning of their name. All that we can attempt to do here is to trace and explain the various opinions of the ancients themselves, as they are presented to us in chronological succession. We chiefly follow Lobeck, who has collected all the passages of the ancients upon this subject, and who appears to us the most sober among those who have written upon it. (Aglaopham. pp. 1202-1281.) 
The earliest mention of the Cabeiri, so far as we know, was in a drama of Aeschylus, entitled Kabeiroi, in which the poet brought them into contact with the Argonauts in Lemnos. The Cabeiri promised the Argonauts plenty of Lemnian wine. (Plut. Sympos. ii. 1; Pollux, vi. 23; Bekker, Anecd. p. 115.) The opinion of Welcker (Die Aeschyl. Trilog. p. 236), who infers from Dionysius (i. 68, &c.) that the Cabeiri had been spoken of by Arctinus, has been satisfactorily refuted by Lobeck and others. From the passage of Aeschylus here alluded to, it appears that he regarded the Cabeiri as original Lemnian divinities, who had power over everything that contributed to the good of the inhabitants, and especially over the vineyards. The fruits of the field, too, seem to have been under their protection, for the Pelasgians once in a time of scarcity made vows to Zeus, Apollo, and the Cabeiri. (Myrsilus, ap. Dionys. i. 23.) Strabo in his discussion about the Curetes, Dactyls, &c. (x. p. 466), speaks of the origin of the Cabeiri, deriving his statements from ancient authorities, and from him we learn, that Acusilaus called Cadmilus a son of Cabeiro and Hephaestus, and that he made the three Cabeiri the sons, and the Cabeirian nymphs the daughters, of Cadmilus. According to Pherecydes, Apollo and Rhytia were the parents of the nine Corybantes who dwelled in Samothrace, and the three Cabeiri and the three Cabeirian nymphs were the children of Cabeira, the daughter of Proteus, by Hephaestus. Sacrifices were offered to the Corybantes as well as the Cabeiri in Lemnos and Imbros, and also in the towns of Troas. The Greek logographers, and perhaps Aeschylus too, thus considered the Cabeiri as the grandchildren of Proteus and as the sons of Hephaestus, and consequently as inferior in dignity to the great gods on account of their origin. Their inferiority is also implied in their jocose conversation with the Argonauts, and their being repeatedly mentioned along with the Curetes, Dactyls, Corybantes, and other beings of inferior rank. Herodotus (iii. 37) says, that the Cabeiri were worshiped at Memphis as the sons of Hephaestus, and that they resembled the Phoenician dwarf-gods (Pataïkoi) whom the Phoenicians fixed on the prows of their ships. As the Dioscuri were then yet unknown to the Egyptians (Herod. ii. 51), the Cabeiri cannot have been identified with them at that time. Herodotus proceeds to say, "the Athenians received their phallic Hermae from the Pelasgians, and those who are initiated in the mysteries of the Cabeiri will understand what I am saying; for the Pelasgians formerly inhabited Samothrace, and it is from them that the Samothracians received their orgies. But the Samothracians had a sacred legend about Hermes, which is explained in their mysteries. This sacred legend is perhaps no other than the one spoken of by Cicero (De Nat. Deor. iii. 22), that Hermes was the son of Coelus and Dies, and that Proserpine desired to embrace him. The same is perhaps alluded to by Propertius (ii. 2. 11), when he says, that Mercury (Hermes) had connexions with Brimo, who is probably the goddess of Pherae worshipped at Athens, Sicyon, and Argos, whom some identified with Proserpine (Persephone), and others with Hecate or Artemis. (Spanh. ad Callim. hymn. in Dian. 259.) We generally find this goddess worshiped in places which had the worship of the Cabeiri, and a Lemnian Artemis is mentioned by Galen. (De Medic. Simpl. ix. 2. p. 246, ed. Chart.) The Tyrrhenians, too, are said to have taken away the statue of Artemis at Brauron, and to have carried it to Lemnos. Aristophanes, in his "Lemnian Women," had mentioned Bendis along with the Brauronian Artemis and the great goddess, and Nonnus (Dionys. xxx. 45) states that the Cabeirus Alcon brandished Hekatês Diasôdea purson, so that we may draw the conclusion, that the Samothracians and Lemnians worshipped a goddess akin to Hecate, Artemis, Bendis, or Persephone, who had some sexual connection with Hermes, which revelation was made in the mysteries of Samothrace.
The writer next to Herodotus, who speaks about the Cabeiri, and whose statements we possess in Strabo (p. 472), though brief and obscure, is Stesimbrotus. The meaning of the passage in Strabo is, according to Lobeck, as follows: Some persons think that the Corybantes are the sons of Cronos, others that they are the sons of Zeus and Calliope, that they (the Corybantes) went to Samothrace and were the same as the beings who were there called Cabeiri. But as the doings of the Corybantes are generally known, whereas nothing is known of the Samothracian Corybantes, those persons are obliged to have recourse to saying, that the doings of the latter Corybantes are kept secret or are mystic. This opinion, however, is contested by Demetrius, who states, that nothing was revealed in the mysteries either of the deeds of the Cabeiri or of their having accompanied Rhea or of their having brought up Zeus and Dionysus. Demetrius also mentions the opinion of Stesimbrotus, that the hiera were performed in Samothrace to the Cabeiri, who derived their name from mount Cabeirus in Berecyntia. But here again opinions differed very much, for while some believed that the hiera Kabeirôn were thus called from their having been instituted and conducted by the Cabeiri, others thought that they were celebrated ill honour of the Cabeiri, and that the Cabeiri belonged to the great gods.
The Attic writers of this period offer nothing of importance concerning the Cabeiri, but they intimate that their mysteries were particularly calculated to protect the lives of the initiated. (Aristoph. Pax, 298; comp. Etymol. Gud. p. 289.) Later writers in making the same remark do not mention the name Cabeiri, but speak of the Samothracian gods generally. (Diod. iv. 43, 49; Aelian, Fragm. p. 320; Callim. Ep. 36; Lucian. Ep. 15; Plut. Marcell. 30.) There are several instances mentioned of lovers swearing by the Cabeiri in promising fidelity to one another (Juv. iii. 144; Himerius, Orat. i. 12); and Suidas (s. v. Dialamdanei) mentions a case of a girl invoking the Cabeiri as her avengers against a lover who had broken his oath. But from these oaths we can no more draw any inference as to the real character of the Cabeiri, than from the fact of their protecting the lives of the initiated; for these are features which they have in common with various other divinities. From the account which the scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius (i. 913) has borrowed from Athenion, who had written a comedy called The Samothracians(Athen. xiv. p. 661), we learn only that he spoke of two Cabeiri, Dardanus, and Jasion, whom he called sons of Zeus and Electra. They derived their name from mount Cabeirus in Phrygia, from whence they had been introduced into Samothrace.
A more ample source of information respecting the Cabeiri is opened to us in the writers of the Alexandrine period. The two scholia on Apollonius Rhodius (l. c.) contain in substance the following statement: Mnaseas mentions the names of three Cabeiri in Samothrace, viz. Axieros, Axiocersa, and Axiocersus; the first is Demeter, the second Persephone, and the third Hades. Others add a fourth, Cadmilus, who according to Dionysodorus is identical with Hermes. It thus appears these accounts agreed with that of Stesimbrotus, who reckoned the Cabeiri among the great gods, and that Mnaseas only added their names. Herodotus, as we have seen, had already connected Hermes with Persephone; the worship of the latter as connected with that of Demeter in Samothrace is attested by Artemidorus (ap. Strab. iv. p. 198); and there was also a port in Samothrace which derived its name, Demetrium, from Demeter. (Liv. xlv. 6.) According to the authors used by Dionysius (i. 68), the worship of Samothrace was introduced there from Arcadia; for according to them Dardanus, together with his brother Jasion or Jasus and his sister Harmonia, left Arcadia and went to Samothrace, taking with them the Palladium from the temple of Pallas. Cadmus, however, who appears in this tradition, is king of Samothrace: he made Dardanus his friend, and sent him to Teucer in Troas. Dardanus himself, again, is sometimes described as a Cretan (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 167), sometimes as an Asiatic (Steph. s. v. Dardanos; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 391), while Arrian (ap. Eustath. p. 351) makes him come originally from Samothrace. Respecting Dardanus' brother Jasion or Jasus, the accounts likewise differ very much; for while some writers describe him as going to Samothrace either from Parrhasia in Arcadia or from Crete, a third account (Dionys. i. 61) stated, that he was killed by lightning for having entertained improper desires for Demeter; and Arrian (l. c.) says that Jasion, being inspired by Demeter and Cora, went to Sicily and many other places, and there established the mysteries of these goddesses, for which Demeter rewarded him by yielding to his embraces, and became the mother of Parius, the founder of Paros.
All writers of this class appear to consider Dardanus as the founder of the Samothracian mysteries, and the mysteries themselves as solemnized in honour of Demeter. Another set of authorities, on the other hand, regards them as belonging to Rhea (Diod. v. 51; Schol. ad Aristid. p. 106; Strab. Esccrpt. lib. vii. p. 511, ed. Almelov.; Lucian, Dc Dea Syr. 97), and suggests the identity of the Samothracian and Phrygian mysteries. Pherecydes too, who placed the Corybantes, the companions of the great mother of the gods, in Samothrace, and Stesimbrotus who derived the Cabeiri from mount Cabeirus in Phrygia, and all those writers who describe Dardanus as the founder of the Samothracian mysteries, naturally ascribed the Samothracian mysteries to Rhea. To Demeter, on the other hand, they were ascribed by Mnaseas, Artemidorus, and even by Herodotus, since he mentions Hermes and Persephone in connexion with these mysteries, and Persephone has nothing to do with Rhea. Now, as Demeter and Rhea have many attributes in common--both are megaloi Deoi, and the festivals of each were celebrated with the same kind of enthusiasm; and as peculiar features of the one are occasionally transferred to the other (e. g. Eurip. Helen. 1304), it is not difficult to see how it might happen, that the Samothracian goddess was sometimes called Demeter and sometimes Rhea. The difficulty is, however, increased by the fact of Venus (Aphrodite) too being worshipped in Samothrace. (Plin. H. N. v. 6.) This Venus may be either the Thracian Bendis or Cybele, or may have been one of the Cabeiri themselves, for we know that Thebes possessed three ancient statues of Aphrodite, which Harmonia had taken from the ships of Cadmus, and which may have been the Pataaïkoi who resembled the Cabeiri. (Paus. ix. 16. § 2; Herod. iii. 37.) In connexion with this Aphrodite we may mention that, according to some accounts, the Phoenician Aphrodite (Astarte) had commonly the epithet chabar orchabor, an Arabic word which signifies "the great," and that Lobeck considers Astarte as identical with the Selênê Kabeiria, which name P. Ligorius saw on a gem.
There are also writers who transfer all that is said about the Samothracian gods to the Dioscuri, who were indeed different from the Cabeiri of Acusilaus, Pherecydes, and Aeschylus, but yet might easily be confounded with them; first, because the Dioscuri are also called great gods, and secondly, because they were also regarded as the protectors of persons in danger either by land or water. Hence we find that in some places where the anakes were worshipped, it was uncertain whether they were the Dioscuri or the Cabeiri. (Paus. x. 38. § 3.) Nay, even the Roman Penates were sometimes considered as identical with the Dioscuri and Cabeiri (Dionys. i. 67, &c.); and Varro thought that the Penates were carried by Dardanus from the Arcadian town Pheneos to Samothrace, and that Aeneas brought them from thence to Italy. (Macrob. Sat. iii. 4; Serv. ad Aen. i. 378, iii. 148.) But the authorities for this opinion are all of a late period. According to one set of accounts, the Samothracian gods were two male divinities of the same age, which applies to Zeus and Dionysus, or Dardanus and Jasion, but not to Demeter, Rhea, or Persephone. When people, in the course of time, had become accustomed to regard the Penates and Cabeiri as identical, and yet did not know exactly the name of each separate divinity comprised under those common names, some divinities are mentioned among the Penates who belonged to the Cabeiri, and vice versâ. Thus Servius (ad Aen. viii. 619) represents Zeus, Pallas, and Hermes as introduced from Samothrace; and, in another passage (ad Aen. iii. 264), he says that, according to the Samothracians, these three were the great gods, of whom Hermes, and perhaps Zeus also, might be reckoned among the Cabeiri. Varro (de Ling. Lat. v. 58, ed. Muller) says, that Heaven and Earth were the great Samothracian gods; while in another place (ap. August. De Civ. Dei, vii. 18) he stated, that there were three Samothracian gods, Jupiter or Heaven, Juno or Earth, and Minerva or the prototype of things,--the ideas of Plato. This is, of course, only the view Varro himself took, and not a tradition.
If we now look back upon the various statements we have gathered, for the purpose of arriving at some definite conclusion, it is manifest, that the earliest writers regard the Cabeiri as descended from inferior divinities, Proteus and Hephaestus: they have their seats on earth, in Samothrace, Lemnos, and Imbros. Those early writers cannot possibly have conceived them to be Demeter, Persephone or Rhea. It is true those early authorities are not numerous in comparison with the later ones; but Demetrius, who wrote on the subject, may have had more and very good ones, since it is with reference to him that Strabo repeats the assertion, that the Cabeiri, like the Corybantes and Curetes, were only ministers of the great gods. We may therefore suppose, that the Samothracian Cabeiri were originally such inferior beings; and as the notion of the Cabeiri was from the first not fixed and distinct, it became less so in later times; and as the ideas of mystery and Demeter came to be looked upon as inseparable, it cannot occasion surprise that the mysteries, which were next in importance to those of Eleusis, the most celebrated in antiquity, were at length completely transferred to this goddess. The opinion that the Samothracian gods were the same as the Roman Penates, seems to have arisen with those writers who endeavoured to trace every ancient Roman institution to Troy, and thence to Samothrace.
The places where the worship of the Cabeiri occurs, are chiefly Samothrace, Lemnos, and Imbros. Some writers have maintained, that the Samothracian and Lemnian Cabeiri were distinct; but the contrary is asserted by Strabo (x. p. 466). Besides the Cabeiri of these three islands, we read of Boeotian Cabeiri. Near the Neïtian gate of Thebes there was a grove of Demeter Cabeiria and Cora, which none but the initiated were allowed to enter; and at a distance of seven stadia from it there was a sanctuary of the Cabeiri. (Paus. ix. 25. § 5.) Here mysteries were celebrated, and the sanctity of the temple was great as late as the time of Pausanias. (Comp. iv. 1. § 5.) The account of Pausanias about the origin of the Boeotian Cabeiri savours of rationalism, and is, as Lobeck justly remarks, a mere fiction. It must further not be supposed that there existed any connexion between the Samothracian Cadmilus or Cadmus and the Theban Cadmus; for tradition clearly describes them as beings of different origin, race and dignity. Pausanias (ix. 22. § 5) further mentions another sanctuary of the Cabeiri, with a grove, in the Boeotian town of Anthedon; and a Boeotian Cabeirus, who possessed the power of averting dangers and increasing man's prosperity, is mentioned in an epigram of Diodorus. (Brunck, Anal. ii. p. 185.) A Macedonian Cabeirus occurs in Lactantius. (i. 15, 8; comp. Firmicus, de Error. Prof. p. 23; Clem. Alex. Protrept. p. 16.) The reverence paid by the Macedonians to the Cabeiri may be inferred from the fact of Philip and Olympias being initiated in the Samothracian mysteries, and of Alexander erecting altars to the Cabeiri at the close of his Eastern expedition. (Plut. Alex. 2; Philostr. de Vit. Apollon. ii. 43.) The Pergamenian Cabeiri are mentioned by Pausanias (i. 4. § 6), and those of Berytus by Sanchoniathon (ap. Euseb. Praep. Evang. p. 31) and Damascius. (Vit. Isidor. cclii. 573.) Respecting the mysteries of the Cabeiri in general, see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Kabeiria; Lobeck, Aglaoph. p. 1281, &c. For the various opinions concerning the nature of the Cabeiri, see Creuzer, Symbol. ii. p. 302, &c.; Schelling,Ueber die Götter von Samothrake, Stuttgard, 1815; Welcker, Aeschyl. Trilog.; Klausen, Aeneas u. die Penat.

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

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NAMES OF THE CABEIRI

Greek Name

Αιτναιος

Οννης

Τωννης

Ευρυμεδων

Αλκων

Transliteration

Aitnaios

Onnês

Tônnês

Eurymedôn

Alkôn

Latin Spelling

Aetnaeus

Onnes

Tonnes

Eurymedon

Alcon

Translation

Of Mt Aetna ?

Purchaser

This-One ?

Many-Devices

Strong-One

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CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Aeschylus, Cabiri (lost play) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :
This drama [i.e. the play Cabiri], named for its Chorus, represents the earliest known appearance of these gods in Greek literature. Weir Smyth (L.C.L. volume) summarises evidence of the play: "Athenaeus, Deipnosophists 10. 33. 428F, declares that it was Aeschylus who first introduced drunken people to the sight of the spectators of ‘tragedy’; and that this evil eminence was displayed in his Cabiri, in which play he represented Jason and his companions as drunk. Fragment 49 would seem to refer to the hospitable reception of the Argonauts by the Cabiri, who furnished them with an abundance of wine upon their landing at Lemnos, the first stopping-place of the Argo on its eastward voyage. The introduction of a drunken orgy has caused many scholars to regard the play as satyric rather than tragic. Whether pure tragedy may thus relax its gravity is a question that has been raised also in connexion with the Ostologoi of Aeschylus and the Sundeipnoi of Sophocles. The Scholiast on Pindar, Pythian 4. 303, states that the names of the heroes of the Argonautic expedition were set forth in the Kabeiroi."

Aeschylus, Fragment 49 Cabiri (from Plutarch, Table Talk 2. 1. 7. 632F) (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :
"[The Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) address the Argonauts :] ‘We shall make the house to be scant of vinegar.’" [I.e. the gods jest that they will exhaust all the wine in their drinking and be forced to resort to vinegar.]"

Herodotus, Histories 2. 51. 1 ff (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :
"The ithyphallic (erect phallus) images of Hermes [the Hermai]; the production of these came from the Pelasgians [of Thessalia (Thessaly)], from whom the Athenians were the first Greeks to take it, and then handed it on to others . . . Whoever has been initiated into the rites of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri), which the Samothrakians learned from the Pelasgians and now practice, understands what my meaning is. Samothrake (Samothrace) was formerly inhabited by those Pelasgians who came to live among the Athenians, and it is from them that the Samothrakians take their rites. The Athenians, then, were the first Greeks to make ithyphallic images of Hermes, and they did this because the Pelasgians taught them. The Pelasgians told a certain sacred tale about this, which is set forth in the Samothrakian Mysteries."
[Cf. Clement Exhortations below for the "mystery" of the Kabeiroi and the sacred phallus.]

Herodotus, Histories 3. 72. 1 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :
"Thus too [the Persian invader Kambyses (Cambyses)] he entered the temple of Hephaistos (Hephaestus) [i.e. the Egyptian god Ptah] and jeered at the image there . . . I will describe it for anyone who has not seen these figures: it is the likeness of a dwarf. Also he entered the temple of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) [i.e. Egyptian gods idenitified with the Kabeiroi], into which no one may enter save the priest; the images here he even burnt, with bitter mockery. These also are like the images of Hephaistos [Ptah], and are said to be his sons."
N.B. The Greeks identified the Kabeiroi with certain dwarfish sons of the Egyptian god Ptah. Presumably these were the divinities who recovered the phallus of Osiris after he had been slain and dismembered by Set. The Kabeiroi played the same role in the myth of Zagreus--recovering the god's virilia after he had been torn apart by the Titanes.

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 916 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :
"They [the Argonauts] beached this ship at Samothrake (Samothrace) . . . He [Orpheus] wished them, by holy initiation, to learn something of the secret rites, and so sail on with greater confidence across the formidable sea. Of the rites I say no more, pausing only to salute the isle itself and the Powers [the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] that dwell in it, to whom belong the mysteries of which we must not sing."

Callimachus, Aetia Fragment 115 (trans. Trypanis) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :
"And they [the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] grew up secretly by the furnaces of Hephaistos (Hephaestus) [on Lemnos], learning the art of the hammer . . ((lacuna)) Onnes now . . ((lacuna)) iron shields which they themselves forged on the anvils of Hephaistos."

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 43. 1 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :
"There came on a great storm [in the north Aegean] and the chieftains [the Argonauts] had given up hope of being saved, when Orpheus, they say, who was the only one on ship-board who had ever been initiated in the Mysteries of the deities of Samothrake (Samothrace) [i.e. the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)], offered to these deities prayers for their salvation. And immediately the wind died down and two stars fell over the heads of the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri), and the whole company was amazed at the marvel which had taken place and concluded that they had been rescued from their perils by an act of providence of the gods. For this reason, the story of this reversal of fortune for the Argonauts has been handed down to succeeding generations, and sailors when caught in storms always direct their prayers to the deities of Samothrake and attribute the appearance of the two stars to the epiphany of the Dioskouroi."

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 48. 6 : 
"[The Argonauts] had already reached the middle of the Pontic Sea when the ran into a storm which put them in the greatest peril. But when Orpheus . . . offered up prayers to the deities of Samothrake [i.e. the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)], the winds ceased and there appeared near the ship Glaukos (Glaucus) the Sea-God, as he is called . . . and he counselled them, accordingly, that so soon as they touched their lands they should pray their vows to the gods [the Kabeiroi] through the intervention of whom they had twice already been saved."

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 49. 8 : 
"The Argonauts, they say, set forth from the Troad and arrived at Samothrake, where they again paid their vows to the great gods [the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] and dedicated in the sacred precinct the bowls which are preserved there even to this day."

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 48. 2 - 6 :
"Zeus desired that the other of his two sons [Iasion of Samothrake (Samothrace), brother of Dardanos] might also attain honour, and so he instructed him in the initiatory rites of the Mysteries [of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) of Samothrake], which had existed on the island since ancient times but was at that time, so to speak, put in his hands; it is not lawful, however, for any but the initiated to hear about the Mysteries. And Iasion is reputed to have been the first to initiate strangers into them and by this means to bring the initiatory rite to high esteem.
After this Kadmos (Cadmus), the son of Agenor, came in the course of his quest for Europe (Europa) [his sister abducted by Zeus] to the Samothrakians, and after participating in the initiation [into the mysteries of Samothrake] he married Harmonia, who was the sister of Iasion and not, as the Greeks recount in their mythologies, the daughter of Ares . . .
Now the details of the initiatory rite [of the Mysteries] are guarded among the matters not to be divulged and are communicated to the initiates alone; but the fame has travelled wide of how these gods [the Kabeiroi] appear to mankind and bring unexpected aid to those initiates of their who call upon them in the midst of perils. The claim is also made that men who have taken part in the mysteries become both more pious and more just and better in every respect than they were before. And this is the reason, we are told, why the most famous both of the ancient heroes and of the demi-gods were eagerly desirous to taking part in the initiatory rite; and in fact Jason and the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri), and Herakles (Heracles) and Orpheus as well, after their initiation attained success in all the campaigns they undertook, because these gods appeared to them."

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 64. 3 : 
"But some historians, and Ephoros is one of them, record that the Daktyloi Idaioi (Idaean Dactys) [here meaning the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) or Korybantes (Corybantes)] were in fact born on the Mt Ida which is in Phrygia and passed over to Europe together with Mygdon; and since they were wizards (gonta), they practised charms and initiatory rites and mysteries, and in the course of a sojourn in Samothrake (Samothrace) they [as Kabeiroi or Korybantes] amazed the natives of that island not a little by their skill in such matters. And it was at this time, we are further told, that Orpheus, who was endowed with an exceptional gift of poesy and song, also became a pupil of theirs, and he was subsequently the first to introduce initiatory rites and mysteries to the Greeks."

Strabo, Geography 7 Fragment 47 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : 
"Iasion and Dardanos (Dardanus), two brothers, used to live in Samothrake (Samothrace). But when Iasion was struck by a thunderbolt because of his sin against Demeter, Dardanos sailed away from Samothrake, went and took up his abode at the foot of Mount Ida, calling the city Dardania, and taught the Trojans the Samothrakian Mysteries."

Strabo, Geography 7 Fragment 50 : 
"Many writers have identified the gods that are worshipped in Samothrake with the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri), though they cannot say who the Kabeiroi themselves are, just as the Kyrbantes and Korybantes (Corybantes), and likewise the Kouretes (Curetes) and the Daktyloi Idaioi (Idaean Dactyls), are identified with them."

Strabo, Geography 10. 3. 7 - 9 :
"Some represent the Korybantes (Corybantes), the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri), the Daktyloi Idaioi (Idaean Dactyls), and the Telkhines (Telchines) as identical with the Kouretes (Curetes), others represent them as all kinsmen of one another and differentiate only certain small matters in which they differ in respect to one another; but, roughly speaking and in general, they represent them, one and all, as a kind of inspired people and as subject to Bacchic frenzy, and, in the guise of ministers, as inspiring terror at the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, accompanied by uproar and noise and cymbals and drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry; and consequently these rites are in a way regarded as having a common relationship, I mean these and those of the Samothrakians [the Kabeiroi] and those in Lemnos and in several other places, because the divine ministers are called the same. However, every investigation of this kind pertains to theology, and is not foreign to the speculation of the philosopher . . . 
But I must now investigate how it comes about that so many names have been used of one and the same thing [the daimones called Kouretes, Korybantes and Kabeiroi], and the theological element contained in their history. Now this is common both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to perform their sacred rites in connection with the relaxation of a festival, these rites being performed sometimes with religious frenzy, sometimes without it; sometimes with music, sometimes not; and sometimes in secret, sometimes openly. And it is in accordance with the dictates of nature that this should be so, for, in the first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and, secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and, thirdly, the secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived by our human senses; and, fourthly, music, which includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the delight it affords and by its artistic beauty, brings us in touch with the divine, and this for the following reason; for although it has been well said that human beings then act most like the gods when they are doing good to others, yet one might better say, when they are happy; and such happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing philosophy, and engaging in music."

Strabo, Geography 10. 3. 15 : 
"They [the poets] also invented some of the names by which to designate the ministers, choral dancers, and attendants upon the sacred rites [of Rhea and Dionysos], I mean Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) and Korybantes (Corybantes) and Panes and Satyroi (Satyrs) and Tityroi."

Strabo, Geography 10. 3. 19 - 21 :
"(1) Others say that the Korybantes (Corybantes) were sons of Zeus and Kalliope (Calliope) and were identical with the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri), and that these went off to Samothrake (Samothrace), which in earlier times was called Melite, and that their rites were mystical.
(2) But though the Skepsian [Demetrius of Scepsis, grammarian C2nd B.C.], who compiled these myths, does not accept the last statement, on the ground that no mystic story of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) is told in Samothrake, still he cites also the opinion of Stesimbrotos the Thasian [writer C5th B.C.] that the sacred rites in Samothrake were performed in honor of the Kabeiroi: and the Skepsian says that they were called Kabeiroi after the mountain Kabeiros (Cabeirus) in Berekyntia (Berecynthia) [in Mysia].
(3) Some, however, believe that the Kouretes (Curetes) were the same as the Korybantes and were ministers of Hekate (Hecate).
(4) But the Skepsian again states, in opposition to the words of Euripides, that the rites of Rhea were not sanctioned or in vogue in Krete, but only in Phrygia and the Troad, and that those who say otherwise are dealing in myths rather than in history, though perhaps the identity of the place-names contributed to their making this mistake. For instance, Ida is not only a Trojan, but also a Kretan (Cretan), mountain; and Dikte (Dicte) is a place in Skepsia [in the Troad] and also a mountain in Krete (Crete); and Pytna, after which the city Hierapytna [in Krete] was named, is a peak of [Trojan] Ida. And there is a Hippokorona (Hippocorona) in the territory of Adramyttion [in the Troad] and a Hippokoronion in Krete. And Samonion is the eastern promontory of the island and a plain in the territory of Neandria and in that of the Alexandreians.
(5) Akousilaüs (Acusilaus) [mythographer C5th B.C.], the Argive, calls Kadmilos (Cadmilus) the son of Kabeiro (Cabeiro) and Hephaistos (Hephaestus), and Kadmilos the father of three Kabeiroi (Cabeiri), and these the fathers of the Nymphai (Nymphs) called Kabeirides (Cabeirides).
(6) Pherekydes (Pherecydes) [another mythographer C5th B.C.] says that nine Kyrbantes (Corybantes) were sprung from Apollon and Rhetia, and that they took up their abode in Samothrake; and that three Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) and three Nymphai called Kabeirides were the children of Kabeiro, the daughter of Proteus, and Hephaistos, and that sacred rites were instituted in honor of each triad.
(7) Now it has so happened that the Kabeiroi are most honored in Imbros and Lemnos, but they are also honored in separate cities of the Troad; their names, however, are kept secret. Herodotos [historian C5th B.C.] says that there were temples of the Kabeiroi in Memphis, as also of Hephaistos [i.e. the Egyptian god Ptah and his sons], but that Kambyses (Cambyses) destroyed them. The places where these deities were worshipped are uninhabited, both the Korybanteion in Hamaxitia in the territory now belonging to the Alexandreians near Sminthion, and Korybissa (Corybissa) in Skepsia in the neighborhood of the river Eurëeis and of the village which bears the same name and also of the winter torrent Aethalöeis.'"

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 1. 7 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Methapos (Methapus) was an Athenian by birth, an expert in the mysteries and founder of all kinds of rites. It was he who established the Mysteries of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) at Thebes."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 22. 5 :
"Just about the centre of Anthedon [in Boiotia] is a sanctuary of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri), with a grove around it, near which is a temple of Demeter and her daughter, with images of white marble."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 25. 5 - 26. 1 :
"[In the town of Thebes in Boiotia] you come to a grove of Demeter Kabeiraia (Cabeiraea) and Kore (Core) [Persephone]. The initiated are permitted to enter it. The sanctuary of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) is some seven stades distant from this grove. I must ask the curious to forgive me if I keep silence as to who the Kabeiroi are, and what is the nature of the ritual performed in honour of them and of the Meter (Mother). But there is nothing to prevent my declaring to all what the Thebans say was the origin of the ritual. They say that once there was in this place a city, with inhabitants called Kabeiroi; and that Demeter came to know Prometheus, one of the Kabeiroi, and Aitnaios (Aetnaeus) his son, and entrusted something to their keeping [probably the phallus of the dismembered god Zagreus]. What was entrusted to them, and what happened to it, seemed to me a sin to put into writing, but at any rate the rites are a gift of Demeter to the Kabeiroi.
At the time of the invasion of the Epigonoi (Epigoni) and the taking of Thebes, the Kabeiroi were expelled from their homes by the Argives and the rites for a while ceased to be performed. But they go on to say that afterwards Pelarge, the daughter of Potneius, and Isthmiades her husband established the Mysteries here to begin with, but transferred them to the place called Alexiaros. But because Pelarge conducted the initiation outside the ancient borders, Telondes returned again to Kabeiraia (Cabeiraea). Various honours were to be established for Pelarge by Telondes in accordance with an oracle from Dodona, one being the sacrifice of a pregnant victim.
The wrath of the Kabeiroi no man may placate, as has been proved on many occasions. For certain private people dared to perform in Naupaktos (Naupactus) the ritual as it was done in Thebes, and soon afterwards justice overtook them. Then, again, certain men of the army of Xerxes [the historical Persian general] left behind with Mardonios in Boiotia entered the sanctuary of the Kabeiroi, perhaps in the hope of great wealth, but rather, I suspect, to show their contempt of its gods; all these immediately were struck with madness, and flung themselves to their deaths into the sea or from the tops of precipices. Again, when Alexandros [i.e. Alexander the Great, the historical Macedonian leader] after his victory wasted with fire all the Thebaid, including Thebes itself, some men from Makedonia entered the sanctuary of the Kabeiroi, as it was in enemy territory, and were destroyed by thunder and lightning from heaven. So sacred this sanctuary has been from the beginning."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 38. 7 :
"The Amphisians [of Lokris (Locris)] also celebrate Mysteries in honour of the Boy Kings (anaktes paides), as they are called. Their accounts as to who of the gods the Boy Kings are do not agree; some say they are the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri), and others, who pretend to have fuller knowledge, hold them to be the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)."

Clement, Exhortation to the Greeks 2. 16 (trans. Butterworth) (Greek Christian writer C2nd A.D.) :
[The early Christian writer Clement divulges the secret mythos of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) of the Samothrakian (Samothracian) Mysteries :]
"If you would like a vision of the Korybantian Orgies (orgia Korybanton) also, this is the story. Two of the Korybantes (Corybantes) [i.e. the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] slew a third one, who was their brother, covered the head of the corpse with a purple cloak, and then wreathed and buried it, bearing it upon a brazen shield to the skirts of Olympos (Olympus). Here we see what the Mysteries (mysteria) are, in one word, murders and burials! The priests of these Mysteries, whom such as are interested in them call ‘Anaktotelestes’ (Presidents of the Princes' rites), add a portent to the dismal tale. They forbid wild celery, root and all, to be placed on the table, for they actually believe that wild celery grows out of the blood that flowed from the murdered brother . . . . 
The Korybantes (Corybantes) are also called by the name Kabeiroi, which proclaims the Rite of the Kabeiroi (teletes Kabeirikes). For this very pair of fratricides got possession of the chest in which the virilia of Dionysos [i.e. the phallus of the god Zagreus who was dismembered by the Titanes] were deposited, and brought it to Tyrrhenia [i.e. Lemnos], traders in glorious wares! There they sojourned, being exiles, and communicated their precious teaching of peity, the virilia and the chest, to Tyrrhenoi (Tyrrhenians) for purposes of worship. For this reason, not unnaturally some wish to call Dionysos Attis, because he was mutilated."

Orphic Hymn 31 to the Curetes (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) :
"Hymn to the Kouretes (Curetes). Leaping Kouretes, who with dancing feet and circling measures armed footsteps beat: shoe bosoms Bacchanalian furies firer, who move in rhythm to the sounding lyre: who traces deaf when lightly leaping tread, arm-bearers, strong defenders, rulers dread: famed deities the guards (of Persephone) preserving rites mysterious and divine: come, and benevolent this hymn attend, and with glad mind the herdsman's life defend."

Orphic Hymn 38 to the Curetes : 
"To the Kouretes (Curetes) [here the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) of Samothrake], Fumigation from Frankincense. Brass-beating Kouretes, ministers of Ares, who wear his arms the instruments of wars; whose blessed frames, heaven, earth, and sea compose, and from whose breath all animals arose: who dwell in Samothrake's sacred ground, defending mortals through the sea profound. Deathless Kouretes, by your power alone, the greatest mystic rites to men at first were shown. Who shake old Okeanos (Oceanus) thundering to the sky, and stubborn oaks with branches waving high. 'Tis yours in glittering arms the earth to beat, with lightly leaping, rapid, sounding feet; then every beast the noise terrific flies, and the loud tumult wanders through the skies. The dust your feet excites, with matchless force flies to the clouds amidst their whirling course; and every flower of variegated hue grows in the dancing motion formed by you; immortal Daimones (Spirits), to your powers consigned, the task to nourish and destroy mankind, when rushing furious with loud tumult dire, overwhelmed, they perish in your dreadful ire; and live replenished with the balmy air, the food of life, committed to your care. When shook by you, the seas with wild uproar, wide-spreading, and profoundly whirling, roar. The concave heavens with echo's voice resound, when leaves with rustling noise bestrew the ground. Kouretes, Korybantes (Corybantes), ruling kings, whose praise the land of Samothrake sings; great Zeus' assessors; whose immortal breath sustains the soul, and wafts her back from death; aerial-formed, who in Olympos shine the heavenly Twins [Dioskouroi (Dioscuri)] all-lucid and divine; blowing, serene, from whom abundance springs, nurses of seasons, fruit-producing kings."

Orphic Hymn 39 to Corybas : 
"To Korybas (Corybas), Fumigation from Frankincense. The mighty ruler of this earthly ball for ever flowing, to these rites I call; martial and blest, unseen by mortal sight, preventing fears, and pleased with gloomy night: hence fancy's terrors are by thee allayed, all-various king, who lovest the desert shade. Each of thy brothers killing, blood is thine, twofold Kourete (Curete), many-formed, divine. By thee transmuted, Deo's [Demeter's] body pure became a Drakon's (Dragon's) savage and obscure: avert they anger, hear me when I pray, and, by fixed date, drive fancy's fears away."

Aelian, On Animals 15. 23 (trans. Scholfield) (Greek natural history C2nd A.D.) :
"They say that the pilot-fish is sacred not only to Poseidon but is also beloved of the gods of Samothrake [the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)]."

Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2. 431 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) :
"[The Argonauts sail towards the isle of Samothrake (Samothrace) :] Electra's island grows larger, guarding the secret of the Thracian rites [of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) and other gods]; for here dwells the great and terrible god, and here are ordained penalties for an unguarded tongue. No storm sent by Jove [Zeus] ever dares to beat with its billows upon this land; of his own will the god makes fierce his waves, what time he would forbid faithless sailors to touch his shores. But Thyotes the priest meets the Minyae [Argonauts] and bids them welcome to the land and to the temples, revealing their Mysteries to his guests. Thus much, Samothrace, has the poet proclaimed thee to the nations and the light of day; there stay, and let us keep our reverence for holy Mysteries. The Minyae, rejoicing in the new light of the sun and full of their heavenly visions, seat themselves upon the thwarts [and depart from the island]."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 3. 61 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Already the bird of morning was cutting the air with loud cries [on the island of Samothrake]; already the helmeted bands of desert-haunting Korybantes (Corybantes) [or Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] were beating on their shields in the Knossian (Cnossian) dance, and leaping with rhythmic steps, and the oxhides thudded under the blows of the iron as they whirled them about in rivalry, while the double pipe made music, and quickened the dancers with its rollicking tune in time to the bounding steps. Aye, and the trees whispered, the rocks boomed, the forests held jubilee with their intelligent movings and shakings, and the Dryades did sing. Packs of bears joined the dance, skipping and wheeling face to face; lions with a roar from emulous throats mimicked the triumphant cry of the priests of the Kabeiroi, sane in their madness; the revelling pipes rang out a tune to honour of Hekate, divine friend of dogs, those single pipes, which the horn-polisher's art invented in Kronos' (Cronus') days.
The noisy Korybantes (Corybantes) with their ringing din awoke Kadmos (Cadmus) early in the morning; the Sidonian seamen also with one accord, hearing the never-silent oxhide at dawn, rose from their rattling pebbly pallets and left the brine-beaten back of the shore."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 4. 184 ff : 
"Grottoes of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) and Korybantian cliffs [on the island of Samothrake]."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 17 ff : 
"[When Rheia summoned the daimones to join the army of Dionysos for a campaign against the Indians :] First from the firepeak rock of Lemnos the two Kabeiroi (Cabeiri) in arms answered the stormy call answered the stormy call beside the mystic torch of Samos [Samothrake], two sons of Hephaistos (Hephaestus) whom Thrakian Kabeiro (Cabeiro) had borne to the heavenly smith, Alkon (Alcon) and Eurymedon well skilled at the forge, who bore their mother's tribal name."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 17. 192 ff : 
"[During the Indian War of Dionysos :] Orontes [an Indian chief] dashed hot upon the front ranks, reaping a harvest in both kinds [men and women]. Not one of all the wide front durst abide the adverse onset of so mighty a champion--not bold fiery Eurymedon, not Alkon (Alcon) his kinsman [the two Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)]."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 24. 77 ff : 
"[When the Indian River Hydaspes tried to drown the army of Dionysos :] Hephaistos (Hephaestus) took care of his sons the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri), and caught up both, like a flying firebrand."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 27. 120 ff : 
"[The Indian Deriades addresses his troops :] ‘Let Lemnian Kabeiro (Cabeiro) unveiled lament the death of her two sons; let sooty Hephaistos (Hephaestus) throw down his tongs, and see the destroyer of his race sitting in the car of the Kabeiro (Cabeiri)i, see Deriades driving the bronzefoot horses!’"

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 27. 325 ff : 
"[Zeus encourages Hephaistos (Hephaestus) to help Dionysos during the Indian War :] ‘Do you sit still, Hephaistos, and will not you save your children? Lift your accustomed torch to defend the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri); turn your eye and see your ancient bride, your Kabeiro (Cabeiro), reproaching you in love for her sons.’"

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 29. 193 ff : 
"[During Dionysos' war with the Indians :] Two firestrong citizens of Samothrake [the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] also ran wild, sons of Lemnian Kabeiro (Cabeiro); their eyes flashed out their own natural sparks, which came from the red smoky flame of their father Hephaistos (Hephaestus). They rode in a car of adamant; a pair of colts beat the dust with rattling hooves of brass, and they sent out a dry whinnying from their throats. These father Hephaistos had made with his inimitable art, breathing defiant fire between their teeth, like the pair of brazenfooted bulls which he made for Aietes (Aeetes) the redoubtable ruler of the Kolkhians (Colchians), with hot collars and burning pole. Eurymedon [one of the Kabeiroi] drove and guided the fiery mouths of the ironfoot steeds with a fiery bridle; in his right hand he held a Lemnian spear made on his father's anvil, and by his wellmade thigh hung a flashing sword--if a man picked up a small stone in his fingertips and struck it against the fire-grained surface of the sharp blade, sparks flashed of themselves from the steel. Alkon (Alcon) grasped a fiery bolt in one hand, and swung about a festal torch of Hekate (Hecate) from his own country."

Nonnus, Dionsyiaca 30. 42 ff : 
"[During the Indian War of Dionysos :] The prodigious [Indian chief] Morrheus attacked the warriors of Bromios [Dionysos]. He wounded [the Kabeiros (Cabeirus)] Eurymedon, cut through the groin with his blood-stained spear: the mad point ran through the thigh and tore the skin from the fat of the flesh; collapsing he fell on his knee to the ground. Mailclad Alkon (Alcon) [the other Kabeiros] did not neglect his brother's fall; but lifting spear and round buckler he made for the fallen man, and covered the warrior well, holding the shield tower-like over his body, and thrusting right and left his unresting spear, brother protecting brother against the foe. He stradled across the wounded man, as a lion over his cubs, shouting loud and letting out mad Korybantic cries from his lips. When Morrheus saw him moving with neat steps about his brother, defending the fallen Kabeiros, the monster went raging like Typhon and attacked both brothers, that Kabeiro (Cabeiro) might shed her tears for two dead sons, slain in one day with one spear. And now he would have dealt equal destruction to both, but Eurymedon called upon his Lemnian father [Hephaistos (Hephaestus)] with voice that gasped and strained from his mouth : ‘O Father, firebreathing lord of our laborious art! Grant me the boon once earned, when Deo [Demeter] of the threshing-floor alone seized threecliff Sikelia (Sicily), as sightingprize for Persephoneia hidden there, and knocked over your windblown bellows in the west and your wide forge and gripping tongs: but I defended my father and scared her off, protecting your anvil. You owe it to me that the air is black and hot with your Sikelian sparks! Then save your son I pray, whom savage Morrheus has wounded!’
At these words fiery Hephaistos leapt down from heaven, and sent a flame leaping and fluttering with many tongues about his son, whirling in his hand a shoot of fire. About Morrheus' neck the flame crawled and curled itself as if it knew what it was doing, and rolled round his throat a necklace of fireblazing constraint; the blazing throat once encircled, it rand down with a springing movement to the end of his toes, and wove a plait of fiery threads over the warrior's foot, and there firmly fixt the earth scattered its dancing spars--the helmet caught fire and his head was hot enough! And now he would have fallen flat, struck with the fiery shot, had not Deriades' [river-god] father Hydaspes come to the rescue. For he sat watching the battle high on a rock, his full-form having a false guise of human shape. He poured a quenching stream and saved the man's life, cooling the hot blast from the firebeaten face, brushing off the ashes and dirt from the helmet. Then he caught up Morrheus wrapt in a darksome cloud, covered and hid his limbs in a livid mist; that the firebearing Crookshank [Hephaistos] might not destroy him with his blazing shower of deadly Lemnian flame; that old Hydaspes, the tender-hearted father, might not see another goodson of Deriades perish after the first, and lament the death of Morrheus along with Orontes. But firebearing Hephaistos drove away all the warriors who stood round the just-wounded boy. Then lifting his son on his shoulder he took him out of the fray and rested him against an oaktree hard by; he spread simples upon the wounded groin, and saved him alive his after his collapse."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 30. 135 ff : 
"[During the Indian War of Dionsysos :] Madly he [the Indian Tektaphos] pursued the army of Lyaios (Lyaeus) [Dionysos] and [slew several Satyroi (Satyrs)] . . . and indeed he would have killed a crowd of Bakkhai (Bacchae) besides; but quickfoot Eurymedon [one of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] saw him and rushed up, shaking his Korybantian (Corybantian) twibill against him. He smashed his forehead and clove his head."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 43. 307 ff : 
"[A Bassarid] whose home was in the Samothrakian cavern of the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri), skipt about the peaks of Lebanon crooning the barbarous notes of Korybantian tune."

Suidas s.v. Zerynthia (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"Zerinthian cave, where they used to sacrifice dogs. There the mysteries of the Korybantes (Corybantes) [i.e. the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] and of Hekate (Hecate) took place."

Suidas s.v. All' ei tis humôn en Samothraikei memuemenos esti : 
"All' ei tis humôn en Samothraikei memuemenos esti (But if there is someone among you initiated in Samothrake (Samothrace), now is a fine time to pray that both feet of the pursuer be put out of joint): In Samothrake there were certain initiation-rites, which they supposed efficacious as a charm against certain dangers. In that place were also the mysteries of the Korybantes (Corybantes) [i.e. the Kabeiroi (Cabeiri)] and those of Hekate (Hecate) and the Zerinthian cave, where they sacrificed dogs. The initiates supposed that these things save [them] from terrors and from storms. The bone-socket of the pursuer to be ‘be put out of joint’ means to ‘be distorted and dislocated.’ The way forward becomes an obstacle to him, so that he can no longer turn back."

---

SOURCES

GREEK

• Aeschylus, Fragments - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.
• Herodotus, Histories - Greek History C5th B.C.
• Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd B.C.
• Callimachus, Fragments - Greek Poetry C3rd B.C.
• Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History - Greek History C1st B.C.
• Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
• The Orphic Hymns - Greek Hymns C3rd B.C. - C2nd A.D.
• Aelian, On Animals - Greek Natural History C2nd - 3rd A.D.
• Clement, Exhortation to the Greeks - Christian Scholar C2nd A.D.
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.

ROMAN

• Valerius Flaccus, The Argonautica - Latin Epic C1st A.D.

BYZANTINE

• Suidas, The Suda - Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.

OTHER SOURCES

Other references not currently quoted here: Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1.23.5.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.

 

Cabeiri, evil pygmies of fire

[Carmen Elsa Irarragorri Wyland]