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During this era the belief arose that the search for
the missing maiden, followed by her marriage to the god
of the underworld, represented the marriage of Cadmos
and Harmony.
The frieze (see photo below) on which the Temenos is
indicated may be an allusion to this marriage. Around
200 BC a Dionysian competition was added to the
festival, facilitated by the construction of a theatre
(site plan number 10) opposite the great altar (site
plan number 11).
According to local myth, it is in this era that the
city of Samothrace honoured a poet of Iasos in Caria for
having composed the tragedy Dardanos and having effected
other acts of good will around the island, the city, and
the sanctuary.
Numerous votive offerings were made at the sanctuary,
which were placed in a building made for the purpose
next to the great altar (site plan number 12).
Offerings could be statues of bronze, marble or clay,
weapons, vases, etc. However, due to Samothraces
location on busy maritime routes the cult was
particularly popular and numerous often very modest
offerings found their way there: excavations have turned
up seashells and fish hooks offered by mariners or
fishermen who were likely thanking the divinities for
having protected them from the dangers of the sea.
A unique feature of the Samothracean mystery cult was
its openness: as compared to the Eleusinian mysteries,
the initiation had no prerequisites for age, gender,
status or nationality.
Everyone, men and women, adults and children, Greeks
and non-Greeks, the free, the indentured, or the
enslaved could participate. Nor was the initiation
confined to a specific date and the initiate could on
the same day attain two successive degrees of the
mystery. The only condition, in fact, was to be present
in the sanctuary.
The first stage of the initiation was the myčsis (μύησις).
A sacred account and special symbols were revealed to
the mystes (μύστης); that is to say the initiate. In
this fashion, Herodotus was given a revelation
concerning the significance of phallic images of Hermes-Kadmylos.
Eleusius - Samothrace temple complex
Samothrace temple complex - Index |
