Scattered about the Aegean, particularly in its northern half, were a number of sanctuaries devoted to groups of deities who were the guardians of mysteries. These deities are sometimes known as the Megaloi Theoi (Great Gods) and sometimes as the Kabeiroi, a name related to the Semitic kabir, “mighty.” Like the Kouretes and Korybantes who surround Meter, the Kabeiroi are sometimes portrayed as subordinate to a goddess or a divine pair, ministers or servants of more powerful deities whose names are only for the ears of initiates. Yet they are potent cult figures in their own right, and they seem to function as intermediaries between the human and the divine. In origin, these deities were non-Greek, but they were rapidly accepted by Greek worshipers, and their mysteries were developed and administered using Greek models.
Though its material remains are venerable, dating to the late seventh century, the Kabeiric cult in the territory of Thebes was surely imported from the northeastern Aegean. Located about 6 km west of Thebes, the sanctuary site was apparently selected because of its natural features: a small stream bisected the area, a hillside served as a natural amphitheater, and a rock formation on the hill seems to have provided a focus for the cult. The resident deities included a mother goddess, her consort, and two attendant Kabiroi (to use the local spelling), an elder and a younger. We know little about the identity and nature of the first pair, who must have been the subject of the secret mysteries. Within a circular cult building (tholos) dating to the fifth century, excavators found a clay tub buried with its rim slightly protruding from the ground, and inscribed “of the Husband.” A hole pierced in the bottom shows that it was intended for liquid offerings, which drained into the earth, and the sequestering of this basin inside the tholos suggests that these offerings were secret. Far more accessible were the Kabiroi themselves, who were the recipients of many of the inscribed gifts left in the sanctuary. Prominent among these were bull figurines, first of bronze and later of terracotta. The site also yielded an unusually large number of glass beads, more than at any other Greek sanctuary. Many of the colorful beads have dots or bumps, which represent apotropaic eyes.6 They may have been gifts for the goddess, or perhaps strings of beads played a role in the rituals. The architecture of the Kabirion was not extensively developed during the Archaic and Classical periods, in spite of its great popularity: it consisted of the theatral area, some sacrificial pits, and a number of modest tholoi, as well as a rectangular building that housed symposiasts.
The Theban Kabirion is best known for a special type of figured vase that was custom made for the sanctuary. The so-called Kabirion ware is decorated with scenes of activity at the sanctuary and was produced from the fifth to the third centuries. The abundant drinking vessels left at the Kabirion show that symposia attended by elite men were an important activity in the sixth century, even before the figured wares appeared. That these symposia had a pederastic focus is suggested by the hundreds of terracottas of boys and youths, which are contemporary with the drinking cups. Participation in the worship, however, was by no means restricted to males. Some dedications were made by women, and vases show family groups participating in sacrifices and other activities which took place both before and after initiation. Initiates wear distinctive ribbons and leafy twigs in their hair. One of the most puzzling features of these scenes is that many individuals are shown with body types and facial features that the Greeks associated with the mythical race of Pygmies. This may reflect the influence of Greek comedy, or some aspect of the cult, such as costumed performances. Another suggestion, supported by Herodotus (3.37), is that the cult images of the Kabiroi themselves had a pygmoid appearance; still, the iconography of the Theban Kabiroi was never fixed. On one vase the senior of the two, labeled Kabiros (Lord), closely resembles Dionysos as he reclines at a symposium, while the junior, Pais (Boy), takes the role of a cupbearer. Another vase shows the elder as Hermes and the younger as Pan.7
Several other Kabeiric shrines are mentioned by late authors or revealed in inscriptions. The cult at Lemnos is perhaps the oldest, though its custodians through the Archaic period were so-called Pelasgians, a non-Greek people. Only in the late sixth or early fifth century was the island formally colonized
Figure 13.1 Skuphos from the Theban Kabirion showing initiates, fifth century.
Athens, National Archaeological Museum. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
By the Athenians, who already had in their mother city a thriving cult of the island’s most important deity, Hephaistos. The fifth-century historian Acusilaus (FGrH 2 F 20) says that Hephaistos produced a son Kamillos with a goddess named Kabeiro. Kamillos in turn fathered the three Kabeiroi and they the three Kabeirid nymphs. The attributes of the Kabeiroi were the smith’s hammer and tongs, and the goddess whom they attended was called Lemnos or Megale Theos (Great Goddess). The sanctuary is situated northeast of the capital city Hephaistia. The plentiful inscriptions found there, some as early as the fifth century, give a picture of a Hellenized mystery cult with its staff of priests and financial officers, though the native language persisted and was surely used in the rites. Early versions of the cult probably also existed at Imbros and in the Troad, which were part of the same cultural sphere.8
Initiation into the mysteries of Samothrace was said to bestow protection from drowning at sea, and the island with its sanctuary quickly gained a Panhellenic reputation during the Archaic and Classical periods. Filled with votive monuments and tablets presented by grateful survivors, it drew the scorn of the atheist Diagoras of Melos, who remarked that the number of votives would be much greater if all those who did not survive had made dedications.9 Meticulous excavation of the sanctuary revealed that its first archaeologically visible operations were roughly contemporary with the settlement of the island by Greeks in the seventh century.
Herodotus (2.51) and other sources refer to the Samothracian gods as Kabeiroi, but inscriptions found on the island speak only of Megaloi Theoi (Great Gods) or Theoi (Gods). A Hellenistic historian revealed the secret names of these gods, which are manifestly non-Greek: Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos, and Kasmilos (who is comparable to Lemnian Kamillos).10 The four have been identified respectively as Demeter, Persephone, Hades, and Hermes, though it is not certain whether Axieros is male or female. As for the content of the mysteries, sources speak of statues with erect phalloi at the sanctuary and Herodotus connects these with the sacred story told to initiates.11 Initiates wore rings of magnetized iron, which were most likely associated with a lodestone in the sanctuary, and the uncanny power of magnetism may have had a role in the mysteries as well. As at Thebes, the focal points of the early sanctuary were a theatral area and natural rock formations, used by the Samothracians as altars. Although the Samothracian mysteries were familiar to Classical Athenians, it is not clear how far their fame had spread by the fifth century. Few structures or artifacts in the sanctuary can be firmly assigned to the Archaic or Classical periods (a sixth-century dining room, previously identified as “the Hall of Votive Gifts,” appears to be one). Only in early Hellenistic times did the Samothracian mysteries become a major source of revenue for the islanders.12
LATECOMER AND REGIONAL DEITIES Ammon
Just as Greek colonists installed the gods of their mother cities in their new homes, they also adopted the cults of indigenous peoples and systematically exported them, in Hellenized form, back to Greece. A good example is the cult of Ammon, which the colonists in Kyrene enthusiastically promoted in Greece. The god Ammon was the result of the blending of Amun-Ra, the main god of Egyptian Thebes, with an indigenous Libyan deity. Because this god was supreme in the pantheon, the Greeks identified him with Zeus. Like Amun-Ra, Ammon was an oracular deity whose responses were determined by the movements of his image, carried in a palanquin on the backs of priests.
During the sixth century, Ammon’s oracle in the isolated desert oasis of Siwa began to gain an international reputation, and by about 500, the citizens of Kyrene had struck coins bearing the head of a horned Zeus Ammon, and raised a magnificent temple, comparable in size to the temple of Zeus at Olympia.13 Most instances of Greek interest in Ammon can be traced back to the colonists of Kyrene. They dedicated monuments of Ammon at Delphi and Olympia, and the elite athletes of the city commissioned Pindar to compose victory odes that acknowledged Ammon’s guardianship of the city and its territory. Pindar (Pyth. 9.53) calls Kyrene “the finest garden of Zeus,” and in his masterpiece, the fourth Pythian ode (14-16), Medeia prophesies that Libya “will be planted with the root of illustrious cities at the foundations of Zeus Ammon.” Pindar also expressed his personal devotion to Ammon in a hymn, now lost, and dedicated a statue of the god in his hometown of Thebes.14
The Spartans maintained close ties with the Dorian colonists of Kyrene and thus felt a strong affinity for the oracle in the Archaic and Classical periods.15 According to tradition, Zeus Ammon held the Spartans in high regard, and prophesied that they would colonize Libya. The Spartan general Lysander had a dream vision of Zeus Ammon that caused him to abandon the siege of Aphytis, and he most likely visited Siwa more than once. Temples of Ammon were established at an unknown date in Sparta and its port town of Gythion. To judge from contemporary references in the work of Aristophanes, Euripides, and Herodotus, fifth-century Athenians were also familiar with Ammon, though not as quick to adopt his cult.16 Plutarch (Vit. Cim. 18) tells how the general Kimon, who not coincidentally was a man of pro-Spartan sentiments, attempted to consult the god in 451 during his last campaign in Cyprus. The story goes that he sent a delegation with a secret inquiry, but fell ill and died while the men were traveling. When they arrived at Siwa, the oracle told them their long journey was needless, “for Kimon is already with me.” By the early fourth century there is epigraphic evidence of the Athenian state’s interest in Ammon, including records of gold sent to
Siwa on behalf of the Athenian people. Its military situation forced Athens to seek alternatives to Delphi during this period, among which Dodona and the oracle of Ammon were favored. Of course the most famous petitioner was Alexander the Great, whose consultation in 331 gave rise to a popular tradition that he was the son of Zeus Ammon.17
World History
