Samothrace and the sanctuary of the Great Gods

In the northern Aegean, facing the coast of Thrace, the island of Samothrace rises from the sea with the bulk of Mount Fengari, over fifteen hundred metres high. According to the Iliad, Poseidon watched the Trojan War from that summit. At the foot of the mountain, in a valley cut by streams, stood one of the great mystery sanctuaries of the ancient world, dedicated to the Great Gods. After Eleusis, no Greek initiatory cult enjoyed such fame.

Gods without names

The deities of Samothrace were called simply Theoi Megaloi, the Great Gods, and their proper names were wrapped in secrecy. Ancient authors identified them in various ways, sometimes with the Kabeiroi, sometimes with the Dioscuri, and the sources mention a mother goddess, a pair of underworld deities and lesser male figures. Herodotus, in the fifth century BC, alludes to the mysteries of the Kabeiroi practised on the island, without revealing their content.

The sanctuary probably preserved the use of a pre-Hellenic language in its rites, as shown by inscriptions in Greek letters but in a non-Greek language. This suggests that the cult went back to the island's Thracian population, before the arrival of Greek colonists, and that it was later adopted and transformed without losing its oldest roots. The sanctuary did not belong to a single city, but was open to visitors from the whole Greek world and beyond.

Initiation and its two degrees

Unlike Eleusis, at Samothrace initiation could take place at any time during the sailing season, and it was not reserved for Greeks. The sources distinguish two degrees: the myesis, initiation proper, and the epopteia, a higher level. The buildings devoted to the two moments have been identified in the sanctuary, along with an area for ritual dances and a theatre.

Tradition records many famous figures among the initiates. Plutarch tells that Philip II of Macedon met the young Olympias, future mother of Alexander the Great, on the island when both were initiated there. The same author reports an anecdote about the Spartan Lysander: invited by a priest to confess the gravest wrong of his life, he is said to have asked whether it was the priest or the gods who wished to know. The Great Gods were believed to protect initiates from the dangers of the sea.

From the Nike to modern excavations

The sanctuary was enriched by the Hellenistic rulers. Arsinoe II, Queen of Egypt, had the Arsinoeion built, the largest circular building in the Greek world. In 1863 the French consul Charles Champoiseau discovered, on the hill above the theatre, the fragments of a winged statue of Victory, once set on a base shaped like the prow of a ship. It is the famous Winged Victory of Samothrace, now in the Louvre, at the top of the Daru staircase.

Since 1938 systematic excavations have been conducted by American archaeologists of New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, begun by Karl Lehmann, in collaboration with the Greek authorities. The island's museum holds a copy of the Nike and many finds from the sanctuary. Visiting Samothrace still means entering a harsh and secluded landscape, which helps one understand the fascination of secrecy for ancient seafarers.