Editing Cabeiri (section)

==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}}