ABSTRACT
The KABEIROI were more important, even if the Greek world was hardly acquainted with them until the time of Athenian greatness. They were worshipped primarily in the northern Aegean region, especially on Lemnos, but also had notable Boeotian cults at Thebes and at Anthedon on the eastern coast. Their name is of uncertain meaning and origin; although it has long been argued that it may have been derived from a Semitic word, qabir, meaning mighty (which accords very well with their Greek titles as the theoi megaloi or dunatai, the great or mighty gods), there is nothing provably Semitic about their ritual or the history of their cult. It may perhaps have originated in Asia Minor. Be that as it may, they presided over an ancient mystery-cult whose content and rituals are largely unrecorded. They were often identified with another group of gods who presided over a mystery-cult in the northern Aegean, the GODS OF SAMOTHRACE (who were left unnamed in connection with their cult). These latter gods were supposed to protect initiates from all manner of dangers, especially those of the sea. Their effectiveness in this regard was attested by the many votive offerings that were set up at Samothrace by seafarers who had escaped disaster (although Diogenes observed that there would have been many more of them if they were also set up by the people who were not saved82). In myth, the Argonauts were initiated at Samothrace before sailing into unknown waters (see p. 384); and in historical times, the Samothracian mysteries became widely favoured during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, coming to be regarded as second only to those at Eleusis. There is no indication that the Samothracian mysteries and those of the Kabeiroi provided initiates with better expectations for the afterlife as did those at Eleusis.
