Editing Cabeiri

{{Short description|Greek divinities}}
{{Redirect|Cabiri}}
[[File:Relief Samothrace Louvre Ma697.jpg|thumb|right|[[Agamemnon]], [[Talthybius]] and Epeius, relief from [[Samothrace]], ca. 560 BC, [[Louvre]]]]
In [[Greek mythology]], the '''Cabeiri''' or '''Cabiri''' {{IPAc-en|k|ə|'|b|aɪ|r|iː}}<ref>{{MW|Cabiri}}</ref> ({{langx|grc|Κάβειροι}}, ''Kábeiroi''), also transliterated '''Kabeiri''' or '''Kabiri''',<ref>''Kabiri'' is the transliteration used in John Raffan's translation of [[Walter Burkert]], ''Greek Religion'' (Harvard University Press, 1985).</ref> were a group of enigmatic [[chthonic]] deities. They were worshipped 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, Greece|Thebes]].<ref>*{{cite web|first=Harry Thurston|last=Peck|title=Cabeiria|work=Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities|year=1898|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:id=cabeiria-harpers|publisher=Tufts University: Perseus Project|access-date=2008-01-21}}</ref> In their distant origins the Cabeiri and the Samothracian gods may include pre-Greek elements,<ref>Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 1985, VI.1.3: '"the secret of the mysteries is rendered more enigmatic by the addition of a non-Greek, pre-Greek element, which is also hinted at in the [[Kaukones|Kaukon]] tradition of [[Andania]]" (a ''[[polis]]'' in [[Messenia]]).</ref> or other non-Greek elements, such as [[Thracians|Thracian]], [[Tyrrhenians|Tyrrhenian]], [[Pelasgian]],<ref>"The inhabitants of Lemnos were called ''Tyrsenoi'' by the Greeks, and thus identified with the Etruscans, or alternatively with the Pelasgians." (Burkert 1985, ''eo. loc.'').</ref> [[Phrygians|Phrygian]] or [[Hittites|Hittite]]. The [[Lemnian language|Lemnian]] cult was always local to Lemnos, but the Samothracian mystery cult spread rapidly throughout the Greek world during the [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] period, eventually initiating [[Ancient Rome|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 gods|Olympic pantheon]]: the Cabeiri were given a mythic genealogy as sons of Hephaestus and [[Cabeiro]].<ref>[[Acusilaus]], fr. 20; [[Pherecydes of Athens|Pherecydes]] fr. 48; and [[Herodotus]] 3..37 are noted by Burkert.</ref> 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.<ref>Burkert, pp 281-84</ref>

The Cabeiri were also worshipped at other sites in the vicinity, including [[Seuthopolis]] in [[Thrace]] and various sites in [[Asia Minor]]. One of these is posited to be [[Thessalonica (theme)|Thessalonica]] and possibly was the cult of mysteries of which [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] warns against in [[Epistles to the Thessalonians (disambiguation)|his letters]] to the church there.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Edson |first=Charles |date=1948 |title=Cults of Thessalonica (Macedonica III) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1508109 |journal=The Harvard Theological Review |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=153–204 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000019441 |jstor=1508109 |issn=0017-8160|url-access=subscription }}</ref> According to [[Strabo]], Cabeiri are most honored in [[Imbros]] and [[Lemnos]] but also in other cities too.<ref>[[Strabo]], Geography.</ref>

==Etymology and origin==

=== Etymology ===
In the past, the [[Semitic languages|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 ''kbr'' was definitively attested for North Syria in the thirteenth century BCE, in texts from [[Emar]] published by D.&nbsp;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.<ref>Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling: ''Ueber die Gottheiten von Samothrace''. Stuttgart and Tübingen (Cotta) 1815, p.&nbsp;110 sqq. ([https://archive.org/stream/ueberdiegottheit01sche#page/110/mode/2up online text]).</ref> T.&nbsp;J. Wackernagel in 1907 proposed a connection with the [[Sanskrit|Sanskrit God]] ''[[Kubera|Kubera/Kuvera]]'' which means "the ill-shaped one".<ref>Noted by Walter Burkert, ''The Orientalizing revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age'' (1992, p 2 note 3).</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dasen |first=Veronique |url= |title=Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt and Greece |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=195 |language=en}}</ref> in 1925 [[A. H. Sayce]] had suggested a connection to [[Hittite language|Hittite]] ''[[Habiru|habiri]]'' ("looters", "outlaws"), but subsequent discoveries have made this implausible on phonological grounds. Dossein compares Κάβειροι to the [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] word ''kabar'', "[[copper]]."<ref>Buckert, ''Greek Religion'' (1985), p. 282 and notes on page 457.</ref> A connection with the Greek word ''Kaio'' ({{Langx|el|Καίω|lit=burn}}) has also been suggested, considering the nature of the Cabeiri as [[Demon|demons]] of volcanic fire;<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Decharme |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nU9msl7p2vMC&pg=PA263 |title=Mythologie de la Grèce antique |date=1884 |publisher=Garnier Frères |pages=263 |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Psilopoulos |first=Dionysious |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p1GqEAAAQBAJ |title=Goddess Mystery Cults and the Miracle of Minyan Prehistoric Greece: The Path of the Serpent |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-9119-6 |pages=126 |language=en}}</ref> this was suggested by [[Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker]] and [[Louis Ferdinand Alfred Maury]].<ref name=":1" /> [[Strabo]] wrote that the Cabeiri were named "after the mountain Kabeiros in Berekynthia".<ref name=":0" /> [[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]] believes that their name is of non-Indo-European, [[pre-Greek]] origin.<ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]]. "The Origin of the Kabeiroi" ''Mnemosyne''. Vol. 57, Fasc. 4 (2004: 465–477); ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 612.</ref> 

The name of the ''Cabeiri'' recalls Mount Kabeiros, a mountain in the region of Berekyntia in Asia Minor, closely associated with the [[Phrygia]]n [[mother goddess|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 [[classical antiquity|antiquity]] to ''Camillus'', an old [[Latin]] word for a boy-attendant in a cult, likely a loan from the [[Etruscan language]],{{Citation needed|date=October 2007}} which may be related to Lemnian.<ref>The Aegean relations of the Etruscan language are denied  at some length by [[Massimo Pallottino]], in ''The Etruscans'' (tr. 1975) and elsewhere.</ref> However, according to Beekes, the name ''Kadmilus'' may be of pre-Greek origin, as seems to be the case with the name ''[[Cadmus]]''.<ref>R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, pp. 613–4.</ref>

=== Origin ===
The origins of the Cabeiri are unknown. [[Jacob Wackernagel]] posited that they were possibly originally [[Phrygians|Phrygian]] or [[Thracians|Thracian]] deities and protectors of [[sailor]]s, who were imported into Greek ritual.<ref>[[Jacob Wackernagel|Wackernagel, Jacob]]. (1907) ''Zeitschrift fir vergleichende Sprrachforschung'', XLI, 1907, pp. 317f</ref><ref>"The secret of the mysteries is rendered more enigmatic by the addition of a non-Greek, pre-Greek element" (Burkert 1985:281). Burkert does not intend to suggest that the pre-Greek component was ''added''.</ref> According to ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica|Encyclopedia Britannica]]'', the deities may have been [[Pelasgians|Pelasgian]] or [[Phrygian mythology|Phrygian]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cabeiri |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cabeiri |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> It is not known who brought these deities to Greece, but it was probably a group of [[Greeks]], perhaps only a family which settled on the countryside of Thebes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schachter |first=Albert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=de6CAgAAQBAJ |title=Greek Mysteries: The Archaeology of Ancient Greek Secret Cults |date=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-53616-0 |editor-last=Cosmopoulos |editor-first=Michael B. |editor-link=Michael Cosmopoulos |edition= |pages=112 |language=en |chapter=Evolution of a Mystery Cult: The Theban Kabiroi}}</ref>

==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 [[Thrace|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). Roman antiquarians identified the Cabeiri with the three Capitoline deities or with the [[Di Penates]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=916}}

==Lemnos==
The Lemnians were originally non-Greek; they were [[Hellenized]] after [[Miltiades the Younger|Miltiades]] conquered the island for Athens in the sixth century BCE. 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 process of Hellenization. [[Walter Burkert]] records that wine jars are "the only characteristic group of finds" from the Cabeirium of Lemnos and that the Cabeirium was the location for initiation into an ancient mystery cult.<ref>Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', p. 281</ref> However, due to the secret nature of [[mystery cults]] in the ancient world little survives to indicate what was involved in these initiation ceremonies; indeed, Hugh Bowden notes that on the basis of our evidence we do not know what happened at Lemnos beyond the fact of initiation, and that "we have no descriptions and nothing on which even to base speculation".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bowden|first1=Hugh|title=Mystery Cults of the Ancient World|date=2010|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691146386|page=56}}</ref> However, according to the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]], Lemnos held an annual festival of the Cabeiri, lasting nine days, during which all the fires were extinguished and fire brought from [[Delos]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=916}}

The geographer [[Strabo]] reported (Geogr. 10,3,21) that in Lemnos, the mother (there was no father) of the Cabeiri was '''Kabeiro''' ([[Ancient Greek|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 (mythology)|Rhea]].

In general Greek myth identifies the Cabeiri as divine craftsmen, sons or grandsons of [[Hephaestus]], who was also chiefly worshipped on Lemnos. [[Aeschylus]] wrote a tragedy called ''[[The Kabeiroi]]'', which apparently featured the deities as a chorus greeting the [[Argonauts]] at Lemnos and the Argonauts' initiation into the cult of the Cabeiri.

==Samothrace==
The [[Samothrace|Samothracians]] were also originally non-Greek, and are associated with the [[Troy|Trojans]] and the [[Pelasgians]]; they used a foreign language in the temple through [[Julius Caesar]]'s time.<ref>Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' 282, citing [[Diodorus]], 5.47.3, which says that their own language is still used in religion.</ref> 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 the worst action they had ever committed.{{clarify|date=June 2014}}<!--The second half of this sentence is not clear.-->

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<ref>Chisholm 1911:916 and Kerenyi 1951:87 note 210 credit a [[scholium]] on [[Apollonius of Rhodes]]' ''[[Argonautica]]'' i.916, for the connection of the four names  of divinities recorded at Samothrace— Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos and Kadmilos — with [[Demeter]], [[Persephone]], [[Hades]] and [[Hermes]] respectively.</ref> 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.<ref>Kerényi, ''Gods of Greece'' 1951:86-7; Burkert ''Greek Religion'' 1985:283 and notes.</ref>

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 [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]] learned that there had been twin pillars of brass, phallic [[herma]]e, 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]].{{cn|date=September 2023}}

==Thebes in Boeotia==
[[File:Kabeiric black-figure skyphos, NAMA 424, 191381.jpg|thumb|Dwarves are often depicted on Kabeiric pottery from Boeotia]]
At [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] in [[Boeotia]] there are more varied finds than on Lemnos; they include many little bronze votive [[bull (mythology)|bulls]] and which carry on into Roman times, when the traveller [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], always alert to the history of [[cult (religion)|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 (mythology)|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 [[dactyl (mythology)|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 [[dactyl (mythology)|Dactyls]]"). The Idaian Dactyls were a race of divine beings associated with the [[mother goddess|Mother Goddess]] and with [[Mount Ida]], a mountain in [[Phrygia]] sacred to the goddess. [[Hesychius of Alexandria]] wrote that the Cabeiri were ''karkinoi'' ("[[crab]]s"). 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.

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
*[[Walter Burkert|Burkert, Walter]] (1985). ''Greek Religion'', Sect. VI.1.3 "The Kabeiroi and Samothrace",Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|0-674-36281-0}}.
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Cabeiri|volume=4|pages=916–917}} This contains more details, as understood at the time, of the Lemnos and Samothrace cults and references some 19th-century archeological discoveries.
*Ferguson, John (1970). ''The Religions of the Roman Empire'' (pp.&nbsp;122&ndash;123). London: Thames and Hudson. {{ISBN|0-8014-9311-0}}.
*Hammond, N.G.L. & Scullard, H.H. (Eds.) (1970). ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (p.&nbsp;186). Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-869117-3}}.
*[[Karl Kerenyi|Kerenyi, Karl]] (1951). ''Gods of the Greeks''. Thames & Hudson. {{ISBN|0-500-27048-1}}.
*[[Bernard Evslin]]. ''Gods, Demigods and Demons: A Handbook of Greek Mythology''. {{ISBN|978-1-84511-321-6}}.
*The Odd Fellows Improved Manual, A.B Grosh 1871 p.&nbsp;91
* [[Richard Noll]], ''Mysteria: Jung and the Ancient Mysteries'' (unpublished page proofs, 1994) [https://www.academia.edu/6698999/Mysteria_Jung_and_the_Ancient_Mysteries_1994_uncorrected_page_proofs_of_a_book_cancelled_prior_to_publication_due_to_objections_by_the_Jung_family_]
*Albert Schachter, "Evolutions of a Mystery Cult: The Theban Kabiroi", in ''Greek Mysteries: The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults'', ed. Michael B. Cosmopoulos. London–NY: Routledge, 2003, pp.&nbsp;112–142. {{ISBN|0-415-24873-6}}.

==External links==
*{{Commonscatinline|Kabeiroi (Cabeiri, Cabiri, Great Gods)}}

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[[Category:Ancient Greek religion]]
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[[Category:Ancient Samothrace]]
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[[Category:Hellenistic deities]]
[[Category:Children of Hephaestus]]
[[Category:Chthonic beings]]
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