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CABEIRL

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 917 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CABEIRL in See also:

Greek See also:mythology, a See also:group of See also:minor deities, of whose See also:character and See also:worship nothing certain is known. Their See also:chief seats of worship were the islands of See also:Lemnos, See also:Imbros and See also:Samothrace, the See also:coast of Troas, Thessalia and See also:Boeotia. The name appears to be of Phoenician origin, signifying the " See also:great " gods, and the Cabeiri seem to have been deities of the See also:sea who protected sailors and See also:navigation, as such often identified with the Dioscuri, the See also:symbol of their presence being St Elmo's See also:fire. Originally the Cabeiri were two in number, an older identified with See also:Hephaestus (or See also:Dionysus), and a younger identified with See also:Hermes, who in the Samothracian mysteries was called Cadmilus or Casmilus. Their cult at an See also:early date was See also:united with that of See also:Demeter and Kore, with the result that two pairs of Cabeiri appeared, Hephaestus and Demeter, and Cadmilus and Kore. According to Mnaseas' (quoted by the scholiast on See also:Apollonius Rhodius 917) they were four in number: Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos, Casmilus. It is there stated that Axieros is Demeter; Axiokersa, Persephone ; Axiokersos, Hades; and Casmilus, Hermes. The substitution of Hades for Hephaestus is due to the fact that Hades was regarded as the See also:husband of Persephone. Cabeiro, who is mentioned in the logographers Acusilaus and Pherecydes as the wife of Hephaestus, is identical with Demeter, who indeed is expressly called KaOeipLa in See also:Thebes. See also:Roman antiquarians identified the Cabeiri with the three Capitoline deities or with the See also:Penates. In Lemnos an See also:annual festival of the Cabeiri was held, lasting nine days, during which all the fires were extinguished and fire brought from See also:Delos. From this fact and from the statement of See also:Strabo x. p.

473, that the See also:

father of the Cabeiri was See also:Camillus, a son of Hephaestus, the Cabeiri have been thought to be, like the See also:Corybantes, See also:Curetes and Dactyli, demons of volcanic fire. But this view is not now generally held. In Lemnos they fostered the See also:vine and fruits of the See also:field, and from their connexion with Hermes in Samothrace it would also seem that they promoted the fruitfulness of See also:cattle. By far the most important seat of their worship was Samothrace. Here, as early as the 5th See also:century B. c., their mysteries, possibly under Athenian See also:influence, attracted great See also:attention, and See also:initiation was looked upon as a See also:general safeguard against all misfortune. But it was in the See also:period after the See also:death of See also:Alexander the Great that their cult reached its height. See also:Demetrius Poliorcetes, See also:Lysimachus and See also:Arsinoe regarded the Cabeiri with especial favour, and initiation was sought, not only by large See also:numbers of pilgrims, but by persons of distinction. Initiation included also an See also:asylum or See also:refuge within the strong walls of Samothrace, for which purpose it was used among others by Arsinoe, who, to show her gratitude, afterwards caused a See also:monument to be erected there, the ruins of which were explored in ' A grammarian of Patrae in See also:Achaea (or See also:Patara in See also:Lycia), See also:pupil of Eratosthenes (275–195 a.c.), and author of a periplus and a collection of Delphic oracles. 1874 by an See also:Austrian archaeological expedition. In 1888 interesting details as to the Boeotian cult of the Cabeiri were obtained by the excavations of their See also:temple in the neighbourhood of Thebes, conducted by the See also:German archaeological See also:institute. The two male deities worshipped were Cabeiros and a boy: the Cabeiros resembles Dionysus, being represented on vases as lying on a See also:couch, his See also:head surrounded with a See also:garland of See also:ivy, a drinking See also:cup in his right See also:hand; and accompanied by See also:maenads and See also:satyrs. The boy is probably his cup-See also:bearer.

The Cabeiri were held in even greater esteem by the See also:

Romans, who regarded themselves as descendants of the Trojans, whose ancestor See also:Dardanus (himself identified in heroic See also:legend with one of the Cabeiri) came from Samothrace. The See also:identification of the three Capitoline deities with the Penates, and of these with the Cabeiri, tended to increase this feeling. See C. A. See also:Lobeck, Aglaophamus (1829); F. G. See also:Welcker, See also:Die Aeschylische Trilogie and die Kabirenweihe zu Lemnos (1824) ; J. P. Rossignol, See also:Les Metaux dans l'antiquite (1863), discussing the gods of Samothrace (the Dactyli, the Cabeiri, the Corybantes, the Curetes, and the Telchines) as workers in See also:metal, and the religious origin of metallurgy; O. Rubensohn, Die Mysterienheiligtumer in See also:Eleusis and Samothrake (1892); W. H. See also:Roscher, Lexikon der Mythologie (s.v.

" Megaloi Theoi "); L. See also:

Preller, Griechische Mythologie (4th ed., appendix) ; and the See also:article by F. See also:Lenormant in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire See also:des Antiquites.

End of Article: CABEIRL

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