MYSTERIUM

THE SAMOTHRACIAN MYSTERIES

"These customs, then, and others besides, which I shall indicate, were taken by the Greeks from
the Egyptians. It was not so with the ithyphallic images of Hermes; the production of these
came from the Pelasgians, from whom the Athenians were the first Greeks to take it, and then
handed it on to others… The Athenians, then, were the first Greeks to make ithyphallic images
of Hermes, and they did this because the Pelasgians taught them. The Pelasgians told a certain
sacred tale about this, which is set forth in the Samothracian mysteries." (Herodotus - Histories
2.51)

This archaic sacred myth, according to Clement of Alexandria, was the phallus of
Bacchus/Dionysus which was brought to Lemnos and this rite was celebrated by the Cabeiri.
These entities were the ministers to the deified phallus and performed ritualistic orgiastic
performances in its honour.

"Those Corybantes also they call Cabiric; and the ceremony itself they announce as the Cabiric
mystery. For those two identical fratricides, having abstracted the box in which the phallus of
Bacchus was deposited, took it to Etruria - dealers in honourable wares truly. They lived there as
exiles, employing themselves in communicating to precious teaching of their superstition, and
presenting phallic symbols and the box for the Tyrrhenians to worship."1

Zagreus was a deity associated with the Orphic Mysteries but the myth of his dismemberment
by the Titans was fused with those surrounding Dionysus/Bacchus and Osiris. The phallus of this
deity was recovered by the Cabeiri and enshrined in a cave on the island of Samothrace. This
sacred myth became the central inspiration of the Samothracian Mysteries.

Herodotus describes the Cabeiri as being formed in the shape of pygmies and being related to
Hephaestus. They were therefore associated with the forging of metals and were the denizens
of the labyrinthine subtrata from which the ores were mined.

"Cambyses committed many such mad acts against the Persians and his allies; he stayed at
Memphis, and there opened ancient coffins and examined the dead bodies. Thus too he
entered the temple of Hephaestus and jeered at the image there. This image of Hephaestus is
most like the Phoenician Pataici, which the Phoenicians carry on the prows of their triremes. I
will describe it for anyone who has not seen these figures; it is the likeness of a dwarf. Also he
entered the temple of the Cabeiri, into which no one may enter save the priest; the images here
he even burnt, with bitter mockery. These also are like the images of Hephaestus, and are said
to be his sons."2

These pygmies or dwarfish-formed deities had apotropaic powers and also were phallic in
nature. Depictions show their oversized phalli that dominate their diminutive bodies and define
them as phallic entities. The rituals are described by Strabo as being equivalent to those of the
Dionysian satyrs that engage in a "Bacchic frenzy." The Cabeiri perform a type of war-dance to
the accompaniment of the noise of cymbals, drums, flutes and chanted exhortations. This
frenzy can be deduced as informing the spirit of the Samothracian Mysteries.

"... those accounts which, although they are called Curetan History and History of the Curetes...
are more like the accounts of the Satyri, Sileni, Bacchae, and Tityri; for the Curetes, like these,
are called genii or ministers of gods by those who have handed down to us the Cretan and
Phrygian traditions, which are interwoven with certain sacred rites, some mystical, the others
connected in part with the rearing of the child Zeus in Crete and in part with the orgies in
honour of the mother of the gods which are celebrated in Phrygia and in the region of the
Trojan Ida… they represent them, one and all, as a kind of inspired people and as subject to
Bacchic frenzy…"3
Depictions of orgiastic rituals that are related to the Samothracian Mysteries can be seen in
images that have been excavated from Pompeii. In the House of the Physician/Doctor a
depiction of pygmies engaged in an orgy is presented as a voyeuristic spectacle.

The oil lamps excavated from Pompeii/Herculaneum extend the theme of phallic pygmies into a
sculptured form. In some examples these pygmies are involved in a dance that matches the
description of the war-dance described by Strabo. These entities with their monstrous phalli
engage in a war-like dance with the potential aim of creating an ecstatic Bacchic state.

This establishes a visual image of the mysteries that confirms their central phallic character. In
the words of Strabo the revellers are "subject to Bacchic frenzy, and, in the guise of ministers, as
inspiring terror at the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, accompanied by
uproar and noise and cymbals and drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry; and
consequently these rites are in a way regarded as having a common relationship, I mean these
and those of the Samothracians and those in Lemnos and in several other places, because the
divine ministers are called the same."4

Another depiction from Pompeii creates a vision of the pygmies engaged in Nilotic orgiastic
celebrations. The Nile is identified by the inclusion of hippopotami and crocodiles alongside the
copulating pygmies. The paintings of orgiastic pygmies from Pompeii are therefore linked to the
mysteries in Egypt. The dismemberment of Osiris is related to that of Zagreus/Dionysus/Bacchus
and this supports the text of Clement of Alexandria that posits the severed phallus as being at
the centre of the Samothracian Mysteries.

The image of the phallus relates back to Osiris and his death and resurrection. After the
slaughter of Osiris the body was hacked into multiple parts and scattered. Plutarch explains why
the phallus became the object of veneration. "Of the parts of Osiris’s body the only one which
Isis did not find was the male member… But Isis made a replica of the member to take its place,
and consecrated the phallus, in honour of which the Egyptians even at the present day
celebrate a festival."5

In the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii the images are interpreted as illustrating a Dionysian
ceremony and potentially referring to the Eleusinian Mysteries. The revelation of the mysteries
revolves around the unveiling of the phallus. Also revealed is the mystica vannus, the
winnowing fan or basket, that formed part of the Eleusinian Mysteries. This separated the corn
from the chaff and functioned as a metaphor for the capture of human seed.
"It was from producing this separation, that the universal Bacchus, or double Apollo, the creator
and destroyer, whose essence was fire, was also called the purifier, by a metaphor taken from
the winnow, which purified the corn from the dust and chaff, as fire purified the soul from its
terrestrial pollutions. Hence this instrument is called by Virgil the mystic winnow of Bacchus." 6

The unveiling of the phallus is the central depiction at the end of the series of images in the Villa
of the Mysteries. The generating and purifying power of the sun is contained in the body of the
phallus. Plutarch states that everywhere the Egyptians worshipped the phallus of Osiris and that
this veneration was associated with the power of the sun. "Everywhere they point out statues of
Osiris in human form of the ithyphallic type, on account of his creative and fostering power; and
they clothe his statues in a flame-coloured garment, since they regard the body of the Sun as a
visible manifestation of the perceptible substance of the power for good."7

Fire is emblematic of the sun and infuses the form of the phallus. The path of the sun starts with
its resurrection at the beginning of every day and its decline into a state of repose at the end.
The shape-shifting nature of the phallus held a magical fascination for humans from the earliest
dawn of their existence. This was related to the procreative power of the sun.

"In the sacred hymns of Osiris they call upon him who is hidden in the arms of the Sun… On the
waning of the month Phaophi they conduct the birthday of the Staff of the Sun following upon
the autumnal equinox, and by this they declare, as it were, that he is in need of support and
strength, since he becomes lacking in warmth and light, and undergoes decline, and is carried
away from us to one side."8

One form of representation of this magical staff or wand was the caduceus which was carried by
Hermes/Mercury. Around the caduceus were entwined two writhing or copulating snakes or
serpents. These writhing snakes/serpents wrap around the central phallic shaft or wand. The
two mirrored snakes therefore represent the concept of polarity.

"That under the form of Mercury (Hermes) the Sun is really worshipped is evident also from the
Caduceus which the Egyptians have fashioned in the shape of two dragons (asps), male and
female joined together, and consecrated to Mercury. These serpents in the middle parts of their
volume are tied together in the knot called the Knot of Hercules; whilst their upper parts
bending backwards in a circle, by pressing their mouths together as if kissing complete the
circumference of the circle; and their tails are carried back to touch the staff of the Caduceus;
and adorn the latter with wings springing out of the same part of the staff."9
The snake was revered both for its ability to signal resurrection by shedding its skin but also
because of its ability, especially manifested in the cobra, to rear up in the manner of an
engorged phallus. In addition it was evident that this cold-blooded reptile was infused and
energized by the power of the sun. The wings also express the ability of the snakes and the
implied phallus to rise erect. They thus symbolize the concept of resurrection.

Outside the gate of the temple complex in Samothrace stood two male statues in bronze. There
are strong indications that these were phallic in nature. Herodotus connects the mysteries,
especially in their phallic aspect, to Hermes. The caduceus is composed of two copulating
snakes on either side of the staff that mirror each other and symbolize polar opposites.

"This is, he says, the great and ineffable mystery of the Samothracians, which is allowable, he
says, for us only who are initiated to know. For the Samothracians expressly hand down, in the
mysteries that are celebrated among them, that (same) Adam as the primal man. And habitually
there stand in the temple of the Samothracians two images of naked men, having both hands
stretched aloft towards heaven, and their pudenda erecta, as with the statue of Mercury
(Hermes) on Mount Cyllene. And the aforesaid images are figures of the primal man, and of the
spiritual one that is born again, in every respect of the same substance with that man." 10

According to Pausanias the image of Hermes that was worshipped on Mount Cyllene and is
referenced by Hippolytus above was the pure form of a phallus. "In Cyllene is a sanctuary of
Asclepius, and one of Aphrodite. But the image of Hermes, most devoutly worshipped by the
inhabitants, is merely the male member upright on the pedestal."11

An original source for the contention that there were two phallic statues at the gates of the
temple in Samothrace is a rare surviving text by Varro. He describes them as virilis which in the
context of the proceeding text on the nature of semen does imply that they were phallic. The
two male statues are described as male and female. This would seem impossible unless the
modern terms of positive or negative polarity are understood as the basis for this male/female
duality. Like the caduceus with the two mirrored snakes the two male statues form a positive
and negative polarity at the gate.

"For Earth and Sky, as the mysteries of the Samothracians teach, are Great Gods, and these
whom I have mentioned under many names, are not those Great Gods whom Samothrace
represents by two male statues of bronze which set up before the city-gates (ante portas statuit
duas virilis species aeneas dei magni), nor are they, as the populace thinks, the Samothracian
gods, who are really Castor and Pollux; but these are a male and a female, these are those
whom the Books of the Augurs mention in writing as potent deities for what the Samothracians
call powerful gods."12

Varro states that these great gods which he describes as powerful and potent represent the
duality of heaven and earth. The sky or sun is male and fertilizes the earth which is female and
moist. "Therefore the conditions of procreation are two: fire and water. Thus these are used at
the threshold in weddings, because there is union here, and fire is male, which the semen is in
the other case, and the water is the female, because the embryo develops from her moisture,
and the force that brings their vinctio binding is Venus love."13

The phallus in its manifestation as the "Staff of the Sun" and infused with the generating fire of
the sun contained magical powers. The word fascinate derives from the Latin fascinum and
fascinus. The related Latin verb fascinare means to use the power of the fascinus and the
meaning is therefore to practise magic or to enchant and bewitch and contains the concept of
warding off the evil eye. The Vestal Virgins tended the cult of the Fasinus, the sacred image of
the phallus that secured the safety of the state, the Sacra Romana.

According to legend the birth of Romulus and Remus and consequently the founding of Rome is
caused by a fiery phallus. The phantom phallus of fire appears in the hearth of Tarchetius and is
understood to be the phallus of Mars. This deified phallus impregnates a virgin who gives birth
to Romulus and Remus who are then cast off on the river to be discovered and suckled by a
wolf.

"... they say that Tarchetius, king of the Albans, who was most lawless and cruel, was visited
with a strange phantom in his house, namely, a phallus rising out of the hearth and remaining
there many days. Now there was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany, from which there was brought
to Tarchetius a response that a virgin must have intercourse with this phantom, and she should
bear a son most illustrious for his valour, and of surpassing good fortune and strength." 14

Plutarch also describes another version of this myth in which a Vestal virgin gives birth to twins.
The myth therefore incorporates the fire that is famously tended by the Vestals. These sacred
flames in the temple of the Vestals symbolize the hearth of Rome itself. The fiery phallus of the
deity protects the city and wards off evil. In the words of Plutarch the phallus of fire confers
"surpassing good fortune and strength."

The image of the fire of the hearth extends to the forges operated by Hephaestus and his
dwarfish disciples. Archaeological evidence links these myths to magnetized iron rings that have
been found on Samothrace which are undeniably connected to the mysteries.
Iron rings appear to have been a central feature of the cult and probably became souvenirs
upon initiation. In addition the advanced metallurgy of the island is shown by the reported
invention of a new type of gilding that was applied to iron rings. They were known as
"Samothracian rings" and Pliny speaks of them.

"At the present day, too, the very slaves even, incase their iron rings with gold (while other
articles belonging to them, they decorate with pure gold), a licence which first originated in the
Isle of Samothrace, as the name given to the invention clearly shows."15

The magnetic power of the lodestone is well documented in antiquity. Numerous references to
the phenomenon when combined with the archaeological evidence of the magnetized iron rings
enable an understanding of the concepts behind the Samothracian Mysteries. It appears that
the rings were strung in a chain with only magnetic power as the binding force. This magical
chain can be imagined as a prototype of the initiation.

According to Plato, in the words of Socrates, this magnetic attraction was "... a divine power,
which moves you like that in the stone which Euripides named a magnet, but most people call
Heraclea stone. For this stone not only attracts iron rings, but also imparts to them a power
whereby they in turn are able to do the very same thing as the stone, and attract other rings; so
that sometimes there is formed quite a long chain of bits of iron and rings, suspended one from
another; and they all depend for this power on that one stone. In the same manner also the
Muse inspires men herself, and then by means of these inspired persons the inspiration spreads
to others, and holds them in a connected chain."16

Lucretius makes explicitly clear that these texts are referring to the Samothracian Mysteries. He
describes brazen bowls that hold iron filings which are excited by the action of the lodestone
beneath the bowl. The brazen bowls therefore perform the same symbolic function as the
winnowing fan in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

"Those Samothracian iron rings leap up,

And iron filings in the brazen bowls
Seethe furiously, when underneath was set
The magnet stone."17

This force is expressed by Pliny as animating the iron rings and propelling them to leap towards
the magnetic stone as if they possessed hands and feet. "What is there in existence more inert
than a piece of rigid stone? And yet, behold! Nature has here endowed stone with both sense
and hands. What is there more stubborn than hard iron? Nature has, in this instance, bestowed
upon it both feet and intelligence. It allows itself, in fact, to be attached by the magnet, and,
itself a metal which subdues all other elements, it precipitates itself towards the source of an
influence at once mysterious and unseen. The moment the metal comes near it, it springs
towards the magnet, and, as it clasps it, is held fast in the magnet’s embraces." 18

Lucretius compares the force being exerted on the iron filings to a "tide." This demonstrates an
awareness that magnetic forces can exert a powerful attracting force equivalent to the
gravitational pull of the moon on the tides.

"In these affairs

Marvel thou not that from this stone the tide
Prevails…
That there the tide streams through without a break…"19

There is also a developing awareness of the atomic structures that are affected by these forces.
The mysterious and unseen forces are seen to exert an attraction on the interior atoms of the
seemingly inert objects.

"Therefore, when iron (which lies between the two)

Hath taken in some atoms of the brass,
Then do the streams of that Magnesian rock
Move iron by their smitings."20

Magnetic attraction is likened to a sexual force that propels semen from the body. This force is
unseen but drives the semen so that it "spews forth from itself."

"With its own current against the iron’s fabric

To dash and beat; by means whereof it spews
Forth from itself…"21

This is also equivalent to the force that is exerted by the gods on humans driving the
participants in the mysteries into various ecstatic states. There is a similar equivalence to the
forces that drive the lyric poets to create works that are inspired by the pull of the gods. Plato
compares this momentum to the forces that lie within the magnetic stone. These unseen forces
drive the souls of both the bacchants and the poets.
"... just as the Corybantian worshippers do not dance when in their senses, so the lyric poets do
not indite those fine songs in their senses, but when they have started on the melody and
rhythm they begin to be frantic, and it is under possession - as the bacchants are possessed, and
not in their senses, when they draw honey and milk from the rivers - that the soul of the lyric
poets does the same thing, by their own report."22

The concept that iron was the fiery semen of the gods is evident in the mysteries of Egypt. One
of the most revered items in the tomb of Tutankhamun, as defined by its placement in relation
to the body, was an iron dagger. The blade of this dagger was crafted from iron that had come
from a meteorite.

Meteorites that were found on earth were believed to be mediums between the gods and
humans and contained the living gods. The stones were thus animated by the spirits of the gods
and functioned as a type of extraterrestrial relic that contained magical powers. They were
termed baetyls, a Semitic word, that expressed the concept that the stone was the house of the
god.

A coin from Emesa clearly shows the conical Baetyl of El-Gabal. Herodian says that the shrine
containing the sacred conical stone was dedicated to the sun god and was worshipped under
the Phoenician name of El-Gabal. A great temple was erected to this god and lavishly decorated
in gold and silver.

"No statue made by man in the likeness of the god stands in this temple, as in Greek and Roman
temples, the temple does, however, contain a huge black stone with a pointed end and round
base in the shape of a cone. The Phoenicians solemnly maintain that this stone came from Zeus;
pointing out certain small figures in relief, they assert that it is an unwraught image of the sun,
for naturally this is what they wish to see."23

In reference to the shrine of Astarte at Byblos, and her cult there, Philo of Byblos states that
"Astarte set the head of a bull upon her head as a mark of royalty; and in travelling round the
world she found a star that had fallen from the sky, which she took up and consecrated in the
holy island of Tyre. And the Phoenicians say that Astarte is Aphrodite."24

Aphrodite was represented by a black conical stone that was believed to be animated by the
spirit of the goddess. The black baetyl was believed to be a meteorite that had come from the
stars and to be a gift from the gods. Thus the baetyl was the body of the star that enclosed the
spirit of the deity.
Uranus, the god of the vault of the heavens, sent the meteorites or baetyls to seed the earth.
Urania, the daughter of Uranus, also symbolized the heavens and by extension these sacred
stones. She was combined with Aphrodite to form a deity that encapsulated the qualities of the
fallen stars.

Aphrodite Urania was worshipped across Asia Minor and the sanctuary on Cyprus was one of
the most celebrated in antiquity. The Phoenicians identified her with their own Baalath or
Astarte. "If two deities were thus fused in one, we may suppose that they were both varieties of
that great goddess of motherhood and fertility whose worship appears to have spread all over
Western Asia from a very early time. The supposition is confirmed as well by the archaic shape
of her image as by the licentious character of her rites; for both that shape and those rites were
shared by her with other Asiatic deities."25

Varro alludes that this goddess was worshipped in Samothrace by referring to her myth in close
textual proximity to the section describing the Samothracian statues. He also states that the
goddess was born from fiery seed that fell from the sky. "The poets, in that they say the fiery
seed fell from the Sky into the sea and Venus (Aphrodite) was born from the foam-masses,
through the conjunction of fire and moisture, are indicating that the vis force which they have is
that of Venus. Those born of this vis have what is called vita life..."26

The use of the expression "foam-masses" clearly indicates that Varro is speaking of the myth
recited by Hesiod about the birth of Aphrodite Urania. In this vision the stars become the semen
of the gods filling the night sky with a shining heavenly foam. Aphrodite Urania emerged from
the foam surrounding the severed genitals of Uranus. According to Hesiod this seminal foam
formed the heavenly body of the goddess.

"And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the
surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time; and a white foam spread around
them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden… Her gods and men call Aphrodite
and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam…" 27

Aphrodite Urania was therefore an archaic deity that represented a period when the deities
were closely associated with the meteorites that seeded the earth. The myth that Hesiod is
relating is very ancient and is believed to have been inspired by myths associated with the deity
Anu.

In the creation myth of Hephaestus and Athena the semen from the gods in the heavens
impregnates the earth (Gaia) below. Hephaestus ejaculates his fiery semen over Athena who
casts it down upon earth, so impregnating it. Human life is therefore formed by the Demiurge,
Hephaestus or Vulcan, moulding his creations from the fiery heat. "She (Athena) founded your
city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your
race…"28

This fiery semen can be seen as the meteorites that fall to earth. Lightning fulfils the same
purpose by being the fiery phallus of the gods as it strikes the earth and by extension the
goddess. The creative action of the gods therefore replicates the sexual actions of humans on
earth.

The place or building that was struck by lightning thrown by the god assumed a sacred status.
Lightning was a manifestation of heavenly phenomena that included meteorite strikes. Pliny
places meteorites (baetyli) and stones that have been struck by lightning in the same magical
category.

"Sotacus mentions also two other varieties of ceraunia, one black and the other red; and he
says that they resemble axes in shape. Those which are black and round, he says, are looked
upon as sacred, and by their assistance cities and fleets are attacked and taken: the name given
to them is baetyli, those of an elongated form being known as cerauniae. They make out also
that there is another kind, rarely to be met with, and much in request for the practises of magic,
it never being found in any place but one that has been struck by lightning." 29

The idea that a stone that was struck by lightning could accrue magical powers seemed until
recently an ancient superstition. But this magical quality now lies at the forefront of scientific
research. Magnetite naturally exhibits a low level of magnetism but the high level of magnetic
polarity in rare examples was unexplained. New scientific research has revealed that a lightning
strike on magnetite creates a powerful magnetic field that magnetizes the stone giving it a
potent magnetic polarity.

Given the strong magnetic polarity that is attested by ancient texts documenting the
Samothracian Mysteries it appears that this was the type of stone that was used. The magnetic
stone or lodestone of Samothrace was therefore a magnetite rock that had been struck by
lightning. Varro refers to the "potent" deities that determined the mysteries. "... these are those
whom the Books of the Augurs mention in writing as potent deities, for what the Samothracians
call powerful gods."30

Some of the baetyls were carved to make them more anthropomorphic. The cult object at
Ephesus was believed to have been carved from a meteorite. The Nabataeans similarly carved
baetyls to emphasize certain cult features. The magnetic stone of the Samothracians could
likewise have assumed a phallic shape either through design or imagination. A phallic object
that had been struck by lightning, thus acquiring magical magnetic powers, would have been a
potent invocation of the phallus of the gods.

"Ignis fire is named from gnasci to be born, because from it there is birth, and everything which
is born the fire enkindles; therefore it is hot, just as he who dies loses the fire and becomes
cold. From the fire’s vis ac violentia force and violence, now in greater measure, Vulcan
(Hephaestus) was named. From the fact that fire on account of its brightness fulget flashes,
come fulgur lightning flash and fulmen thunderbolt, and what has been called fulmine ictum hit
by a thunderbolt is called fulguritum." (Varro - On the Latin Language 5.70)

"Dionysus: I, the son of Zeus, have come to this land of the Thebans - Dionysus, whom once
Semele, Kadmos' daughter, bore, delivered by a lightning-bearing flame." (Euripides - Bacchae
1)

1. Clement of Alexandria - Exhortation to the Heathen 2

2. Herodotus - Histories 3.37
3. Strabo - Geography 10.3.7-9
4. Ibid. 10.3.8-9
5. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 18
6. Richard Payne Knight - A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
7. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 51
8. Ibid. 52
9. Macrobius
10. Hippolytus - Refutation of All Heresies 5
11. Pausanias - Description of Greece 6.26.5
12. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.58
13. Ibid. 61
14. Plutarch - The Life of Romulus 2
15. Pliny - Natural History 33.6
16. Plato - Ion 533
17. Lucretius - De Rerum Natura 6
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Plato - Ion 534
23. Herodian - History of the Roman Empire 5.3:4-5
24. Philo of Byblos
25. James Frazer - The Golden Bough
26. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.63
27. Hesiod - Theogony 176-180
28. Plato - Timaeus 23
29. Pliny - Natural History 37.51
30. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.58