I have previously written about my experience as a young man meeting an old shepherd on Samothrace, and the spiritual impact it had on me.
This morning I was digging through some old photo slides I took back then of the “Sanctuary of the Great Gods”, and to my delight I found some forgotten hand written notes I took at the time while visiting the very small but excellent museum at the Sanctuary, and over meals in the taverna trawling my way through Karl Lehmann’s excellent guide to the excavations. I spent three days on Samothrace; one climbing Mount Fengari to claim my stone; the other two exploring the ruins of the Sanctuary. I only saw one other during that time, and it was a great wonder that the museum remained open. Inside my copy of Lehmann’s guide is the 200 drachma entrance ticket from the government ministry of culture, and I probably paid a similar amount for the guide – I felt like I was doing my bit at the time in keeping the Mysteries going.
Anyway, I digress with fond memories, here are my notes from nearly 35 years ago.
– Performed in antiquity (at least 1,000 BC)
– Symbol of the Great Gods is a circle containing either a dash, or a dot followed by an “E”.
– Axieros is the Great Mother, the Demeter of the Greeks, and the Cybele of the Phrygians. She is symbolised and embodied by the rock of the earth, in particular the porphyry rock native to Samothrace. In later times she was also associated with Zerynthia (Hecate) and Aphrodite Zerynthia (3-breasted idol) who represented certain aspects of her nature. Hathor, Isis, Nepthys? Three Mother Lettters?
– Axiokersos appears as a bearded man (Hades of the Greeks)
– Axiokersa appears as a young goddess with thin headgear (Persephone of the Greeks and Eleusis)
– Kadmilos was the consort of Axieros and was an ithyphallic god. He was the Hermes of the Greeks. His sacred animal was the ram, and his staff, the Kerykeion, was associated with the winged staff of Hermes
– The Kerykeion was incised on the inscribed stelae from the Anaktoron (the ‘House of the Lords’) and is placed between two snakes, which symbolised two attendant demons or Kabeiroi, their symbols being snakes and stars.
– The Kebeiroi were later depicted as nude ithyphallic youths raising their hands in an old gesture of epiphany. They represent the opposites in Zoroastrianism, twin Pillars of the Tree of Life and the Twin Serpents of Egypt.
– They may have been representative of the pre-greek heroic founders of the Mysteries – Dardanos and Aetion.
– On the mainland opposite (Thrace) the following tale was told: There were three brothers, the Korybantes, two of which slew the third. They wrapped his head in a purple cloth (initiates of the Samothrace Mysteries wore a purple scarf around their waist so as to protect them on their travels) and buried it under Mount Olympus.
– Dardanos and Aetion were identified with two of the three Korybantes. What of the third? Kadmilos, the son of the Great Mother but also the great and mysterious Korybas, father of the Kabeiroi.
– Kadmilos as both the son and father, wedded to the Great Mother.
– It is said that the son’s relationship to the mother is a secret, as is the identity of the father of the Kabeiroi.
– Kadmilos as a type of unifying principle, the noble middle way, the aerial spirit.
– Herodotus (an initiate of the Samothracian Mysteries) said that the Mystae (initiates) learned to understand the deeper significance of Kadmilos.
– Initiates were shown interpretations of the legends and symbols (sacred drama), but also they were witness to the abdution of the fertility goddess by the underworld god and of the ritual marriage of Kadmilos with his mother (in the Temenos as of late 4th C BC, but build on old sacrificial site).
– Of the initiation rites themselves, they were not restricted by sex, age or social status – even slaves were Initiated.
– Two degrees of initiation; the Myesis and the Epopteia. Both could be taken in the same day but that the Epopteia was performed as an exception rather than the rule.
– Initiation took place at night by by the light of torches and lamps.
– Each initiate received a lamp, bowl and cup with the sigil of the Great Gods engraved on them.
– Preparations took place in the Anaktoron.
– Initiates probably lead through central door and some action took place in the SE corner (early period involved a lustration rite, in later periods a libation over rock).
– Probably in final moment initiates were placed on a wooden circular Dias opposite the main door, and ritual dances performed around them.
– After the Myesis the initiate was led to the Nth chamber where they stepped up to one of two doors giving access to the inner sanctum.
– Here they must have performed some ritual action and been shown some sacred symbol.
– The higher degree of Epopteia (“revelation”) took place in the Hieron.
– Two large torches flanked either side of the entrance. It is here it is thought the initiate underwent a preliminary ritual in which he confessed his sins and obtained some kind of purification if such was obtainable.
– Near the entrance a purification and libation took place and a sacrifice on the central altar.
– The initiate was then seated at the rear of the chamber, there to see a revelation with their own eyes.
– Here the Hierophant entered into the apse and emerged standing on a special stone (bema) reciting a liturgy behind the curtains that separated the apse from the hall.
The photo accompanying this post is that of the famous (in the art world) Winged Victory or Nike, plundered from the Sanctuary of the Great Gods and on display in the Musee Du Louvre in 2004.
Kasmillos
