It is celebrated throughout the world of Ancient Greece for its Mystery religion, a Chthonic cult which was no less renowned than that of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Numerous famous people were initiates, including: the historian Herodotus - one of very few authors to have left behind a few clues to the nature of the mysteries, the Spartan leader Lysander, and numerous Athenians - the cult is mentioned by Plato and Aristophanes.

A period of spectacular development occurred during the Hellenistic period, when it became, after the investiture of Phillip II, a type of Macedonian national sanctuary where the successors to Alexander the Great vied to outdo each other's munificence. It remained an important cult site through the end of the Roman period - the emperor Hadrian visited, and the writer Varro described part of the mysteries - before fading from history towards the end of Late Antiquity.

The identity and nature of the deities venerated at the sanctuary remains largely enigmatic, in large part because it was taboo to pronounce their names. Literary sources from antiquity refer to them under the collective appellation of "Cabeiri" (Greek: Κάβειροι, Kabeiroi), while they carry the simpler epithet of Gods or Great Gods (Μεγάλοι Θεοί/Megaloi Theoi) on inscriptions found on the site.

The Pantheon of the Great Gods consists of numerous chthonic deities, primarily predating the arrival of Greek colonists on the island in the 7th century BC, and congregating around one central figure - the Great Mother.

The Great Mother, a goddess often depicted on Samothracian coinage as a seated woman, with a lion at her side. Her original secret name was Axiéros.

She is associated with the Anatolian Great Mother, the Phrygian Cybele, and the Trojan Mother Goddess of Mount Ida. The Greeks associated her equally with the fertility goddess Demeter.

Great Mother - Samothrace temple complex

Samothrace temple complex - Index