Saturday, January 27, 2007

The Nart Epos

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THE FOUNTAIN-HEAD OF CIRCASSIAN MYTHOLOGY

The Nart Sagas are arguably the most essential ingredient of Circassian Culture, to which they are what Greek mythology is to Western Civilization. Though much less known than their Greek counterparts, the Nart epic tales are no less developed. The heroism, sagacity, guile and ferocity of the Nart demi-gods are more than matches to those of the Greek Pantheon. The Nart Epos is potentially the rallying cry for Circassian cultural renaissance.


The legends of the Narts have been recently collected and published by Circassian scholars who are cognizant of the role that these might play in effecting the desired revival. Also the orally transmitted music has been written down. Western scholars, such as the late Georges Dumezil and more recently professor John Colarusso of McMaster University in Toronto, Canada, did much research on the subject and have published many tomes on it. However, more work still needs to be done to disseminate them. This is my humble contribution.

The principal protagonists of the Epos encapsulate the characteristics most cherished by the ancient Circassians and Abkhaz (Adige and Apswe, respectively). Satanay, the mother of all the Narts, was born of a lovely flower which still bears her name. Her beauty was legendary. She was sought after by all the notable Narts for marriage. The story of the birth of Sosriqwe bears witness to the uncontrollable effect she had on men. As she sat on her haunches doing the laundry by the river, the cow-herd, Zhemix'we, who was tending his bevy on the other side of the river, seeing her uncovered curvaceous limbs, was unable to hold back his semen (nafsi) as it was ejected across the river on the stone beside her. The stone later engendered Sosriqwe. She was also famous for her inventiveness. She discovered wine-making and gave the Narts their first taste of the elixir. She was the epitome of wisdom and sagacity. The Narts turned to her for council and advice in times of national calamities, and she was able to avert many disasters that could have annihilated the Nart nation.

Despite Sosriqwe's puny stature and dark complexion, he proved to be the most cunning and resourceful amongst the Narts. The story of how he fetched fire is a graphic illustration of his quick-wit and wile. Although many Narts surpassed him in physical strength and military acumen, they always held him in great esteem and respect. The fact that he led them back after fetching fire is a good testimony to that effect.

There were many other Narts, the most famous of whom were: X'imishch, Beterez, Nisren-Zchach'e, Lashin, Yimis, Sibil-Shiy, Sosim, Zchindu-Zchach'e, Areq-Shu, Tote-Resh, Ashe, Ashe-Mez, Wazir-Megh. Each one of these embodied unique qualities besides the common Nart characteristics. All are worthy of being admitted to the Nart Hall-of-Fame.





Bibliography of the Nart Epos
and North Caucasian Mythology
(In Western European Languages)
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  29. OSSETIC (NARTA). H. W. BAILEY. PP. 236-67 IN TRADITIONS OF HEROIC AND EPIC POETRY. VoL. 1: THE TRADITIONS. A. T. HATTO (Ed.). PUBLICATIONS OF THE MODERN HUMANITIES RESEARCH ASSOCIATION, 9. LONDON: THE MODERN HUMANITIES RESEARCH ASSOCIATION, 1980. {"A FIVE-PART INTRODUCTION TO THE NARTA TALES OF THE CAUCASUS WHICH DISCUSSES THE RETENTION IN THE MODERN OSSETIC TALES OF CERTAIN ARCHAIC LINGUISTIC FEATURES. PART I PROVIDES BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE TALES AND THE GENEALOGIES OF THE FIVE FAMILIES UPON WHICH THE TALES ARE CENTRED. PART II DISCUSSES THE TRANSMISSION OF THE TALES (ORAL AND WRITTEN) AND THE MODE OF PERFORMANCE. PART III RELATES THE TALES TO THE SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF OSSETIC CULTURE. PART IV IS A DISCUSSION AND EXPLANATION OF THE MYTHICAL WORLD OF THE NARTA. PART V TREATS THE AESTHETIC ASPECTS OF NARTA PERFORMANCE, INCLUDING FOLKLORE ELEMENTS, FORMULISM, AND THE PRESERVATION OF ARCHAIC ELEMENTS OF DICTION."}
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  33. REVUE DE L'HISTOIRE DES RELIGIONS (RHR), CXXV, 1942-43, PP. 110-111, 116-117, 118.
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  39. THE GODS AND GODDESSES OF OLD EUROPE 7000 TO 3500 B.C. MARIJA GIMBUTAS. LONDON: THAMES AND HUDSON, 1974.
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  41. THE HOLY GRAIL, THE CAULDRON OF ANNWN, AND THE NARTY-AMONGA, A FURTHER NOTE ON THE SARMATIAN CONNECTION [JOURNAL OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE, 92, 1979, PP. 326-33], C. SCOTT LITTLETON.
  42. THE NART SAGAS OF THE CIRCASSIANS, BY PROF. JOHN COLARUSSO, IN THE SERIES "MYTHOS", PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY: PRINCETON UNIVERSTY PRESS, 1998. (366 PAGES). GO TO PROF. COLARUSSO'S HOME PAGE.
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  47. "VOLKER DER KOLCHIS". ASPEKTE IHRER MYTHOLOGIE. WOLFGANG FEURSTEIN. IN CAUCASOLOGIE ET MYTHOLOGIE COMPAREE. CATHERINE PARIS (Ed.). PARIS, 1992.


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Thursday, January 25, 2007

TRADITIONAL RELIGION IN AFRICA : THE VODUN PHENOMENON IN BENIN

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INTRODUCTION

If it can be said that homo faber preceded homo sapiens, both these stages of humanity were borne by homo religiosus, an essential feature of man since the arousal of his consciousness. Indeed the religious phenomenon is not limited to a cult or an established link with the transcendent, but springs from the awareness of finiteness which gives rise to the need for the transcendent. Consequently, all men are religious, even if some are more religious than others, and the manifestations of human religiosity are numerous and owe much to the cultures of which they are the soul.

In the specific case of the cultures of South Benin (West Africa), whose religious soul I wish briefly to present here, it appears that this is to be found in a convergent way in the phenomenon of Vodun. Most of the peoples of South Benin have very similar if not identical cultural roots, and almost the same historical origin. This is why the religious phenomenon in this geographical region is manifested most fully in Vodun (or Orisha, with the Nago or Yoruba peoples).

Vodun designates a venerated and adored divinity. It also defines the whole social, psychological and supernatural structure surrounding this popular sort of religiosity. Indeed, Vodun permeates everything. Before Christianity, one could see how all the social fabric, starting with the family, was imbued by it. This reality justifies the fact that the first missionaries in our region were not dealing with areligious human beings. The difficulties they encountered, conversions made without deep cultural roots and their tendency to throw local culture and cults into the same dustbin of "deviltry", leads us today to reflect anew on the Vodun phenomenon which continues and constitutes a challenge to the New Evangelisation.

We will start by presenting it through a phenomenological approach. Then a brief explanation of what Vodun actually consists of will precede a critical appreciation of its functionality. Lastly we shall stress the need today to evangelise culture through a better rediscovery of its true identity.

PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH

DIVINITY AS CONCEIVED BY THE AJA-FON

Mawu, the Supreme God

The South Bénin cultural area of the Fon, Gun, Mina and Ewe peoples is characterized by a similar conception of divinity: belief in the existence of God is general. This God, recognized as the Supreme Being, as Transcendent, is referred to by the term Mawu. According to the testimony of Fr. Paul Falcon "everyone professes the existence of a Supreme Being who created ‘the trees and the ropes’, a Fon idiomatic expression which means everything that exists… This Supreme Being is called Mawu". That God is the creator of the universe, of mankind and of all that exists is generally accepted. And this notion of God existed among these peoples before the arrival of the great monotheistic religions (Christianity, Islam). With the Fon, for example, this god Mawu is also named Sêgbo lisa, Dada Sêgbo, Sêmêdo or Gbêdoto depending on whether one is stressing the creation (Mawu, Dada-Sêgbo), the principle of being (Sêmêdo) or life (Gbêdoto).

But if there is no doubt at all about the Supreme God Mawu in the mentality of these peoples, where do the very popular practices of Vodun come from? To answer this question means showing the existing relationship between Mawu and Vodun.

The relationship between Mawu and Vodun

The absolute transcendence attributed to Mawu does not allow one to conceive of his relationship of immanence with humanity. Yet the human spirit needs a relationship of salvific proximity, of easy access to the Supreme Being. And since creatures manifest the Creator, man finds sacred forces in certain phenomena or situations that are beyond his understanding. It is through this vision of the world that Vodun emerges.

For the people of South Benin, Mawu is good, but he does not concern himself directly with man; he is omnipotent but has delegated his power to the Vodun(s). Hence the Vodun(s), recognized as Mawu’s creatures, according to the Fon expression "Mawu wê do Vodun lê", are Mawu’s representatives among men, signs of the divinity’s immanence in response to the spiritual desires of mankind. In this sense, Vodun designates all that is sacred, all power coming from the invisible world to influence the world of the living, everything that is mysterious. For this reason, it is explicitly distinct from Mawu. But we find that there is no actual worship of the latter in the tradition, except certain spontaneous prayers or references such as "Mawu na blo" (God will act), "Kpê Mawu ton" (may God decide thus) used on different occasions. The Vodun(s) receive the worship because of their proximity to man compared to Mawu. Divine qualities are attributed to them, characterised as the spirits they are considered to be above all natural laws. All these attributes are the work of Mawu. Examining the internal dynamics of the Vodun pantheon will give a clearer idea of the dependent relationship the Vodun(s) have with Mawu.

Types of Vodun

It would be a vain enterprise to claim to enumerate the types of Vodun or to classify them exhaustively. Mgr. Robert Sastre tried to tackle the question in Les Vodun dans la vie culturelle, sociale et politique du Sud-Dahomey. Honorat Aguessy did the same thing in Cultures Vodun, Manifestations – Migrations – Métamorphoses (Afrique, Caraïbes, Amériques). With this important background, in our approach we will focus on the mystical origin of the Vodun(s) as proposed by Fr. Mêdéwalé Jacob Agossou in Gbêto et Gbêdoto.

Firstly, the Vodun(s) are considered as the sons of Mawu, God the Creator. Here are the seven most important of these:

Sakpata: This is the eldest son of Mawu to whom the earth was entrusted: "Ayi Vodun", the Vodun of the earth. His power is feared and terrifying. His attributes are the arm of smallpox, scissors, a chain and black, white and red spots. Sakpata has many sons, including the Vodun of leprosy (Ada Tangni), and of incurable sores (sinji aglosumato).

Xêvioso (or Xêbioso): This is the Vodun of the sky (Jivodun) who manifests himself in thunder and lightning. He is Mawu’s second son and is considered a Vodun of justice who punishes thieves, liars, criminals and evil-doers. His attibutes are the thunderbolt, the double axe, the ram, the colour red and fire. Xêvioso has several sons including Sogbo, Aklobè, Avlékété.

Agbe: This is the Vodun of the sea (Tovodun). He is also known as Hu. He is represented by a serpent, a symbol of everything that gives life. One of his powerful children is Dan Toxosu who manifests himself in the birth of monster babies.

Gu: This is the Vodun of iron and war. He gives man his different technologies. He is the Vodun who does not accept complicity with evil. Therefore he is capable of killing all accomplices in acts of infamy if he is appealed to. This is expressed by the Fon saying "da gu do".

Agê: This fifth son of Mawu is the Vodun of agriculture and the forests. He reigns over animals and birds.

Jo: This Vodun is characterized by invisibility. He is the Vodun of the air.

Lêgba: This is Mawu’s youngest son. He received no endowments at all because all had already been shared out among his elders. He is jealous, and it is he who loosens the rigid structure of the pantheon. He is the Vodun of the unpredictable, of what cannot be assigned to any other and he is characterised by daily tragedies; all that is beyond good and evil.

Alongside Mawu’s sons, one finds other Vodun(s) that are protectors of equally important clans. These are the Toxwyo: eponymous deified ancestors. They maintain a link between the invisible world and human beings in their daily lives.

From the above, we can classify the Vodun(s) as follows:

Inter-ethnic Vodun(s) linked to natural phenomena: Jivodun: Xêvioso; Ayivodun: Sakpata; Tovodun: Agbe.

Inter-ethnic Vodun(s) linked to historical-mythical persons: Lêgba, Gu.

Ethnic Vodun(s): Akovodun (Agasu for the Houégbajavi of Abomey). The Toxwyo are in this category.

Modern Vodun(s): These Vodun(s) are mainly from Ghana. They are Goro who protects against witchcraft, and Koku, the Vodun of the occult powers of violence.

After these investigations, it seems important to ask the question: so what exactly is Vodun?

It can be said that the Vodun(s) constitute a special class of Mawu’s living creatures. They are above mankind, but they are not "God". Let us recognise, together with Fr. Barthélemy Adoukonou and all the others, that defining Vodun is not an easy task, even for Vodun adepts. Fon expressions like: "Vodun gongon", "Vodun d’ablu" (Vodun is deep, Vodun is obscure) say it all. This is why, as Mgr. Robert Sastre said, we must refer to the social and cultural context which gives rise to Vodun in order to grasp what Vodun really is.

THE "THEODICY" OF VODUN AND ITS SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS

In view of what has been said above, certain questions arise: due to the practical implications which illustrate its manifestations, can Vodun be assimilated with fetishism, or even outright naturalism? What relationships does it establish between the practising individual and his entire cosmic, social and spiritual environment?

Vodun: naturalism, fetishism or animism?

These may be naturalist, fetishist and animist expressions and manifestations, but the basic vision to retain is that… The argument for naturalism and fetishism in Vodun rests on some epiphenomena of its practice: the Voduns are related to different concrete elements of the universe and are materialised through specific objects to which devotional cults are rendered and sacrifices are offered (mounds of earth, metal bars, tree trunks…). Nothing would prevent us from seeing in this from the outset an attribution of soul and powers to common objects which, as a result, acquire a preponderant and terrifying importance. This begs the question: is the Vodun a person? Is it worth something in the absence of man above and beneath it? One answer to this question might be that Vodun is nothing but an ethical and religious structure set up to serve authority in society. But this is just a limited view of the Vodun reality.

Certain people erroneously equate Vodun with fetish. Indeed, some would see the Vodun cult as a coarse idolatry of material objects or as a cult of matter, without any consideration of its rich functionality which we shall illustrate below. Furthermore, it should be noted that these mistaken views are due to ethnological approaches to the Vodun phenomenon which refrain from articulating its uniquely physical, cosmic and social function in religious mediation. It is true that "Mê wê no ylo do Vodun b’ê non nyin Vodun" (it is because man calls it Vodun that it is Vodun). But rather than seeing in it a power generated by the complex interaction of senses, intentions, gestures and spoken words, it is far more a question of the anthropological support which places Vodun in a symbolic system where it owes its performance to the necessary mediation of the physical, and therefore of matter in general. It would thus be more correct to translate "Mê wê no ylo do Vodun b’ê non nyin Vodun" as: A personal attitude of recognition and acceptance is required for the sacred to become symbol. Vodun evokes the mystery and what pertains to the divine. In this way the suspicion is removed, at least as regards the essence, even if it remains in the somewhat deviant manifestations of the Vodun phenomenon. The network of relationships of which Vodun is a symbol is yet another proof of this.

Vodun and Gbe (life/world): Cosmogony

The word "gbê" which means "life", also means "the universe". It is this second meaning that we focus on here. The created universe in its cosmic deployment is not foreign to the deployment of Vodun. In the concrete expressions of the latter, there is a Vodun of the earth (Sakpata), a Vodun of the sky (Xêvioso), a Vodun of the sea (Agbé) and Vodun(s)representing the ancestors (Toxwyo), as we have seen. Indeed, all the elements of the universe are involved in the Vodun phenomenon. It is not that the mind-set of South Benin imagination conceives of a Vodun cosmogenesis: Vodun is thus neither the generator nor the creator of the universe. But its link to everything in nature is one of mediation and of the protection of man. In fact, its link with "Gbê" only finds its meaning through its link with "Gbêto" (man).

Vodun and Gbeto (Man): Anthropology

The religiosity manifest in man through the Vodun phenomenon makes him a subject who places himself at the service of its symbolism. And while serving it, he makes use of it in return. Furthermore, what men call Vodun, is the unknowable, mystery, the ineffable when it comes to natural elements; it is the extraordinary, the hero, the unbeatable, the powerful when it is a question of human beings. Before the name Vodun is given to them, they are referred to as "nu mê sên" (venerable thing; worthy of adoration). This gives rise to the cults and their impacts. After objectively identifying the Vodun, man becomes its subject. Henceforth, not a single aspect of his life escapes his object of adoration and veneration. The , messenger of the Vodun(s), intervenes while a child is still in his mother’s womb, to identify his destiny and, if need be, to avert it. Similarly, throughout all the stages of life, from birth, and through the different existential situations, the Vodun faithful will feel enfolded in the omnipresence of Vodun, and will constantly benefit from the watchful and protective eye of the Pantheon, with all the consequences of this solicitude. But curiously and paradoxically, Vodun does not "accompany" a faithful in death, to the beyond. At the funeral of a Vodun adept, a rite exists to remove the spirit of the Vodun of which he is the "spouse", so as to leave him to his fate. Here there are perhaps two meanings that are important to note. Firstly, the Vodun takes care of the living and not of the dead; secondly, Vodun is essentially an intermediary between man and God the Creator, to whom he simply delivers him when he dies.

As a principle of mediation for man, Vodun also plays an important role in the organisation of human society.

Religious initiation and educational plan in the context of Vodun

Àgbasa-yiyi: "access to the living room" and discovering the joto

The Àgabasa-yiyi is of capital importance in the lives of Fon men. It is the first of a series of three rites of initiation to the through which the Fon pass. Of the three, Àgabasa-yiyi is fundamentally the most important one through which everyone must pass. Young girls and boys can be initiated to the second degree of , but only men can reach the third degree of initiation. Initiation, as Fr B. Adoukonou points out, "represents one of the essential means invented by Africans to transmit in a lively and existential way what for lack of a better expression we shall call the fundamental parameters of life. These three initiations to the Fá are in religious terms of a type that is intermediate between a purely profane initiation to history… and a consecration to Vodun which can go as far as a crisis of possession". The Àgabasa-yiyi ceremony has no rigorously fixed date. It never takes place before at least three lunar months after birth.

The purpose of Àgabasa-yiyi is to introduce the child to the family community in the "living room" (Agbasa) of the representative of the eponymous Ancestor. It is the rite of the integration of a child or of several children of the same generation within the family community including the deceased members, the living and the Spirits which protect the family. The consultation of the by the Bokonon, "Diviner-Healer", reveals the child’s Joto, in other words, the Vodun, "divinity" or the Mêxo (Ancestor; sometimes deified) who, in him, is "sent" to the family by the Great Sê. The Joto is a "reference to a protective force. It is… a dynamic element which intervenes in the constitution of the individual’s personality". The Joto is the Ancestor whose vital influx animates the child. He is referred to as Sê-Joto or Sê mêkokanto (Sê gatherer of the earth of the human body); he who presents to the Creator-God the clay out of which has been fashioned the body of the newcomer to the Land of Life (Gbê Tomê). He is the force, the vital and spiritual energy, which models and directs the existence of the person; hence the title (Protector) that is given to him. The Joto is "Father of the coming into existence", the direct collaborator of Mawu in the generation of the child.

Once the Joto is known, he is given a welcome: "Sê doo nú wè" (You are welcome, O sê!), and as his "other self" and under protection, he is welcomed through the rite of Jono Kpikpé (encounter, welcome of the stranger, the guest). In principle, the child does not receive the name of his Joto. He can however be addressed by this name from time to time in order to remind him of it. This name can sometimes prevail if the person concerned is one day called and consecrated to the cult of his Joto. "In such cases, the name becomes a real name in religion. It is formally forbidden, under severe penalties, for the individual to be called by another name".

Despite the terminological ambiguities inevitably encountered in the formulation of the term Joto, any idea of reincarnation should be absolutely discarded: the child is not the reincarnation of his Joto Ancestor. The Fon religious belief holds that the individual is immortal. When a person dies and enters the Yêsùnyimê (world of the Spirits, metaphysical world), the individual goes back to Sêgbo (the Great Sê), in other words, to his origins, his original state. In his role as Joto, it is he who places his hand on the head of the candidate to life (Alodotanumêto) "to take him in a way under his protective shadow". There is no reincarnation in the proper sense, but a transmission of the personality. The individual soul of the Joto does not become incarnate in his protégé, but the Joto transmits to the latter "his sociological part, his status and his role". A proof of this is that several persons living at the same time can have and indeed most often do have the same Joto.

The Sê-mekokanto (the ancestor who gathered the clay with which the body of the new-born child has been fashioned) imprints on the child his social personality, what he has become "through his social and active commitment in the historical process" which "he embodied in his lifetime and which is maintained by the group that will educate the new-born child in accordance with the master" ( … ) "The social personality, the active commitment and the historical conscience that the ancestor hands down to his descendent constitute a psychological heritage which gives meaning to his life and coincides with the above-mentioned directives. The protector ancestor comes to materialise the right to safeguard and maintain life as well as that to act in such a way that it flourishes and develops fully. In this way the Sê-mekokanto (the protector ancestor) ensures the growth of the family life of which he was the first or one of the first important links…".

The Joto is sometimes assisted in his task by another Ancestor or Divine Spirit, acting as an auxiliary Joto or companion to the first one. This arrangement is fully consistent with the link-strengthening process, a reality that is viewed by the Fon as an inalienable value.

To identify the Joto, one first needs to have determined the which reveals it. is the name given to the signs or figures that are meaningful within the divination system of the Fá. These are the series of signs that serve to reveal the Joto’s self. Henceforth the revealing and the Joto constitute two components inseparable from each other and intrinsic in the personal, social and religious destiny of the individual, as well as in his project of fulfilment. While Joto is the individual’s typological reference, is "the sought and welcomed will of a Desired Third Party" (Sêgbo) coming as an epiphany, i.e. manifested by the Joto. is the "word of the oracle", the voice of the Supreme Being on each person who comes into existence. As the voice of , is also the way that traces and indicates for man. Because, "the world is without measure, but we cannot live without measure", thus speaks angoulevan. is the word of life given and entrusted temporarily to parents as a measure of guidance for the one who has just made his entry into the land of life (Gbêtomê) and into the world of men (Gbêtolê mê). He traces the path he is to follow, in other words he establishes the ordinances or laws (Sù) according to which he will have to avoid death-bearing acts both for himself and for others, and acts detrimental to the community’s integrity. Until a child reaches the age of reason, it is the mother who respects the ordinances of his . In general, mothers take upon themselves the responsibility and the concern to follow these ordinances for the rest of their lives, for and with their offspring, even when they are adult. By this gesture, they demonstrate that the life preserved in a family member is a gain in vitality for all and that everyone must co-operate in maintaining it.

Through the Àgbasi-yiyi rite, the Fon individual is recognised as a true member of his family, since his link with the ancestors, mystical foundations of the family, is determined by it. Through his Joto, his integration among the living members of the family is reinforced all the more by his being tied to the deceased members. The Agbasa rite has two dimensions: while the possession of a Joto confers a social status on a person, the determination of his , "Word of the oracle on his power of fulfilment", recognises his individual character. Thus there is reciprocal interaction between social status and the status of the individual.

Those who have not been through the rite of Àgbasi-yiyi have neither personal nor community status: "no word of the oracle supports them in life" (E do du é ji à). If these points of reference, the Joto and the , are not known by their families, they remain strangers, men without roots. Hence the anxious question of a Fon faced with another who shows a habitual behavioural imbalance: E ka yi àgbasa n’i à? "has the rite of Àgbasi-yiyi been accomplished for him?". The same question is often asked spontaneously as regards the ceremony of SunkÚnkÚn, E ka kosun n’i à? "Has the rite of Sunkunkun been accomplished for him?" It is said of a person whose behaviour raises such questions that his spirit is not at rest: "Ayi ton huhwê à; ayi ton j’ayi à"; the spirit is agitated. This agitation is a manifestation of an inner, social and religious lack of harmony. It is considered that it cannot be otherwise, because neither this person nor the others have a knowledge of the sublime will of the "Great Sê" which gives meaning to his life, the "word of the oracle" which governs and directs the individual’s life.

Listening to history and tales strengthens the character of the young; their moral formation, largely based on examples received, combines the imitation of elders, particularly Ancestors (history) with that of heroes (tales).

Religious education

Common initiation

An education which does not assume moral and religious values as essential is not an education of quality. Religious conviction gives meaning to behaviour and moral choices. Fon religious education, according to Mgr. A.T. Sanon, leads the individual to "sense the invisible through the visible and concrete":

- Nu kplon mê o, (moral) education,

e no zé do we place it on

Numêsênlê sin ali nu: the path of "the-beings-to-be-adored"

(divinities and ancestors):

Vodun lé do lè a Vodun has ordered such and such a thing

Sakpata gbê do Sakpata has forbidden

E ma wa nu le o. such a thing to be done.

Numêsênlê wê e so It is mainly "the-beings-to-be-adored"

Do nukon taùn that we have put forward

Bo do kplon nù vilê na to educate the children.

At the heart of the Fon man there is a religious "fear" which, at the moment of moral action takes the form of a deep conviction: it is the E-gblé-ma-kú (may-I-die-if-it-goes-wrong: the determination to succeed) which we find in our elders. This adamant conviction has fundamentally contributed to keeping the peace in society. No compromises would be tolerated, whoever the perpetrator might be.

The young Fon is faced with his religious responsibilities as soon as he reaches the age of Do so kan nu (12 or 13). His parents teach him to know his Joto and his : "Dù le wê jo wê, bo nù le vê wè" (you are born under such and such a "sign", you are under the protection of such and such a "Dù", and it is ill-fated for you to do such and such or to eat such and such). Until this point, he has been allowed not to observe the ordinances of his Dù, given his young age. His mother acted on his behalf. Henceforth, it is up to him to respect these ordinances, even if his mother continues to do so for him. Life is maintained by individuals for one another, but everyone must maintain it if it is to be preserved and increased. If it is true that we walk for each other, it is also true that each one walks for himself. Only this way will all attain the fullness of life.

Agoo-ma-yi-sogwé is the stage that marks late adolescence (around the age of twenty). At this time the second initiation to the Fá takes place, known as Fá-sinsên (adoration of the Fá) or Fá-yi-yi (reception of the Fá). At this stage in their lives, boys and girls are generally in a growth crisis. It is said that a youth is "disturbed" by the Fá. He or she must "receive" and "adore" the Fá, in other words, "in a public religious act, conform his or her will to that of the Supreme Being of whom the Fá is the messenger (Fá Gbêwêndoto). Youthful freedom struggling for self-control must utter the most profound ‘yes’ to the will of God (Gbê) in order to become stronger". The consultation of the Fá reveals the "sign" (Dù) under which the boys or girls present themselves. This will be the Dù (word of the oracle) of their adolescence. For each one and with each one, the Bokonon (diviner-healer) removes the Adrà, in other words he offers the sacrifice that clears their path (i.e. their lives) of obstacles, accidents and misfortunes (Adrà). They are given the Fá and they receive it: it is the word of Mawu-Gbêdoto (God) for each one as he definitively leaves "childhood" to enter adult life.

The third initiation to the is reserved for male candidates alone. They accede to it as adults. It is the door, although a narrow one, to the secrets of the Fá divination system. It is called Fá-titê (consultation of the Fá), a rite through which the (son of Fá) "receives the revelation of the whole of his destiny". The candidate is no longer only the one for whom the consultation is made, but also the one who consults for himself. Needless to say, given the esoteric character of this initiation compared to the previous ones, non-initiates and women are not even admitted as spectators. The ceremony takes place in the Fázun (the wood, bush or forest of the Fá). As a master-initiator the candidate has a Bokonon. With hands joined containing a "hand" of sacred nuts, he prays three times to Mawu-Gbêdoto (God the Creator) for him to send the Fávi’s Joto, in other words the one who presented God with the clay that served to create the Fávi alongside his protégé. Then under the protection of his Joto, the Fávi manipulates the Fágbo (great Fá with 36 nuts) to extract the partial figures of the (sign of the oracle) which he writes on the ground as they come out. Once the sign is formed, the Jogbana (the assistant to the Bokonon in the ceremony) reads it aloud. He then gathers up the earth where the Dù inscription is written and places it in a cloth sack. This constitutes the Kpoli of the Fávi: it is the visible sign of the spiritual principle that is in man, i.e. the visible sign of .

Another consultation is held to ensure that the sign which emerged is for the good of the Fávi. A positive answer from the Fá is greeted with joy and satisfaction by everyone. A negative answer leads to an offering of sacrifices to cast off (death), Azon (illness), Hwê (guilt and legal summons), Hên (poverty, wretchedness). At the end of this sacrifice of exorcism, the Fávi takes a ritual bath in flowing water. The Fávi’s hair, nails, a piece of his loin-cloth and everything that in him that symbolises impurity are buried in the sacred wood. Everyone then returns to the house of the Bokonon, the "spiritual Father" of the Fávi.

"If the esoteric meaning of the signs is not readable for the casual consultant, it is for the Fávi, at least in part, once he emerges from the Fázun (sacred wood). Indeed before he leaves, the diviner summarily reveals the qualities of the sign found during the consultation. Later, a more substantial explanation is given to him in the house, first by the colleagues of the initiator, then by the man himself".

Throughout the initiation period, the Fávi is not allowed to have sex: he is in a period of close and special relationship with the sacred. Sexual continence disposes the candidate to preserving all his vital energy for the benefit of his encounter with the "divine power"; it enables the sacred energy to operate effectively on the candidate, free of any hindrance. The lifting of the sex ban happens on the third day after he has returned from the Fázun (the wood of the Fá). It happens after a futher consultation of the Fá to make sure that the Fávi’s came for his good. After this consultation and the lifting of the sex ban, the Bokonon makes recommendations to the Fávi:

"This is a sort of tradition in the constitution of his new state. There is a stress on the meaning of the sense of brotherhood there should be with all the other Fávi and on the respect and attachment there should be for the spiritual father and all the other Bokonons".

Finally the Fávi is clothed in a brand new white loin-cloth, then he goes home with his Fá. He is a full initiate as regards the order of the stages reserved to common man. Henceforth, he knows "the meaning of life" and the meaning of his own life, he "knows" his personal destiny.

The "Novitiate" of the vodunsi: "School of life"

The very day a child enters the Hun-kpamè or Vodun-Kpamê (Vodun enclosure), i.e. Vodun convent, the Vodun (Divinity) takes possession of the child, girl or boy, who has chosen it. He or she is therefore Vodunsi ipso facto and, for three months, will be Kajèkaji (a gourd who increases the number of gourds): a neophyte. What we call "novitiate" is therefore the process by which they will be made to become in fact what they already are mystically.

The neophytes are supervised by the xwégan (head of house), the Kangan (master of the rope) in charge of discipline, then there are the Hunso and the Nagbo who are "novice" master and mistress respectively. The Hunkpamê (the convent) is a harsh school of renunciation and endurance. Within it, the elect are initiated to the cult of their "spouse", the Vodun to whom they are consecrated for their whole life. Initiation to the Vodun is a particularly important moment that deeply marks the life of the individual. Its aim is gradually to lead the profane from non-existence to their existence as sacred persons; the novice undergoes a series of separations which are each a death to the previous profane life. Before anything else, the Vodunsi must make a solemn vow of absolute discretion as regards what they have seen and heard or will see and hear in the convent. Any Vodunsi who cannot keep quiet about what is to remain secret and act with the veneration that is due to the sacred object he carries on his head will be a traitor. Failure to observe the rules of initiation, of consecration and of proper behaviour in the profane environment is an infidelity and a threat to the authority, not of men, but of the Divinity. One exposes oneself by this to the unpleasant effects of his anger. Those guilty of it can only make amends by paying a large fine and acceding to the rites of Flá (conjuration) and Wùslasla (purification).

In the pedagogy of initiation, the neophyte is required to prove his capacity for endurance in the formation trials; these formation trials are themselves a condensed form of the trials of life. Training through trials, which is already a characteristic of the Fon educational system in general, finds its strongest expression in the Hunkpamê. Discipline and tenacity are essential, and corporal punishment serves to develop these. In this respect it can be said "the body records knowledge". Each Vodunsi "stores up in his body, the soil in which the initiatory word is sown by means of gestures, attitudes, rhythms and, if need be, flagellation": the teacher’s words and gestures must be memorised and reproduced exactly by the students. The pedagogy of initiation involves the transmission of words and gestures, which requires action both by the group of initiators and by that of the "initiands". "Mind, heart and body work together to build the total man".

Apart from learning the Vodun language, cultural chants and dances, to satisfy the material needs of the convent and the Hunnon (Vodun high priest) the young "must devote themselves at fixed times to working in the fields and manual tasks: making baskets, mats and raffia cloth…which are then sold in the local markets by the convent servants". There is no "dolce far niente" in the initiation period; laziness is to be hated like the plague; "Kajêkaji mo no do hwemê mlon" they say: "the neophyte does not take siestas".

The Vodunsi, male or female, must show maturity and be serious in matters of religion. In this way they are to contribute to the balance and order, social, cultural and religious integrity of their community and people. Before returning to the world of non-initiates, after their consecration and initiation, among other recommendations they are urged to cultivate a sense of brotherhood with all the other Vodunsi, to respect the Vodun and to feel responsible for the land of their Ancestors. The ceremony of the giving of sand to the ex-Kajêkaji is significant in this respect:

"About fifteen years after I was Kajêkaji, the Vodunun gathered all the Vodunsi of my year and told us that he was going to lock us up in a retreat ("xwe mi do xo"). We had been told to utter a strident shout ("gbo") all the way from our houses to the Vodunon. He put a little earth in our left hand. With this gesture of offering earth, he said: "Danxome ko tonye die emi so do alomê nu hwi ma nu e jê ayi gbede o" (Here is the earth of the Danxomê which I place in your hands, let it never fall!)"

Vodun: from Hennu (family) to To (country): sociology

Hênnu designates the family, reduced or extended, the first unit of social organisation. It is a blood-line community, united by a single ancestor, with food or moral prohibitions, family Vodun cults and divinities to which the family is loyal. is a grouping of several families or several xwè (parental enclosures). As in the family, it too has a hierarchy of prohibitions (Tosu), prescribed sacred practices (sin), protector Vodun(s) (Tovodun) and priests dedicated to the cult. Here, more than at the family level, the reciprocal influence of political and religious authority is apparent. More often than not, it is Vodun that prevails in the consecration of customary chiefs. And generally the Vodun oracles are also irrevocable: hence the fear they inspire and which provides for an easier take-over control of social phenomena. In this way, in traditional society, a social category without its Vodun(s) is fragile and bound to disappear. It should be noted here that quite apart from the ethnic or inter-ethnic Vodun(s), most Vodun(s) are all the more efficient when they are of foreign origin, in other words, imported.

In actual fact, in view of these examples of the functional role of Vodun, we can but admit the instrumental dimension of the phenomenon: Vodun(s) are not ends in themselves, they all lead to a same end.

Vodun and monotheism

By identifying Vodun as an idolatrous fetishism or a superstitious animism, certain ethnologists came to the conclusion that the Vodun cult is the perfect illustration of polytheism. This is perhaps true with reference to the Pantheon of Greek gods. But with every analogy explored and keeping things in proportion, even the unknown god to which a temple in Athens was dedicated in the times of the Apostle Paul does not have the same value as the Mawu of South Benin to whom no cult is rendered and who is even invoked by all the priests of all the Vodun(s). In fact, the Vodun phenomenon has a single objective although it has a multiplicity of expressions and manifestations. It is the expression of homo religiosus through a given culture. In the collective imagination of our people, the cult rendered to the divinities known as Vodun(s) is a short-cut to the True God whose revelation is as yet lacking; ultimately, it is to this God that all worship is given, he who alone is worthy of being adored. Indeed, in this same view, it is the Great God who created all men and all these Vodun(s), and gave them to men as intermediaries. Even if there has been a certain attempt at inculturation by seeing these intermediaries as stepping stones to the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the unique mediator between God and man, it must be noted the terms of this comparison are disproportionate: Christ being the beyond of the models.

It clearly follows to speak of polytheism in the context of Vodun is hardly correct. Rather, it appears to be polyhedral monotheism which highlights an active relationship with the cosmos, nature, phenomena and deceased human beings, in contrast with a direct relationship with God. Neither can one say absolutely that we are in the presence of a pantheist (God in everything), it is rather pan-in-theist (everything in God). This stage is not far removed from the Christian belief in a single God. But this is nothing more than an apology of Vodun which would not be naïve and fallacious if Vodun were limited to this positive substance which characterises it.

CRITICAL APPROACH TO THE VODUN FUNCTIONALITY

Vodun, in spite of its functional ramifications that we have just discovered and its ethical value that we shall proceed to demonstrate, also has some regrettable sides. We shall simply mention the two principal ones.

From the sacred to violence

Seeing certain Vodun practices on the cultural and moral (behavioural) levels, one might be led to define it as the dictatorship of the sacred. Generally, in traditional religions, the sacred is what overcomes us and imposes itself upon us, that to which we ultimately entrust our forces and freedoms for it to protect us and ensure our happiness. In this sense we understand how sovereigns of kingdoms are not far from the sacred, in other words from being deified. In the case of Vodun, the sacred assumes an even more terrifying dimension. A certain Vodun can seek vengeance. Another may kill. Yet another may require human sacrifice… The man who has succeeded in enslaving himself to a Vodun and mustered the necessary popular credit for this, can finally take any liberty. One easily forgets that it is a man speaking in the name of the divinity. Sacred violence thus becomes normal, especially to the extent that exemplary reprisals are often ordered to dissuade those who might be tempted to ask the reason why. This violence manifests itself as much at the level of the austerity of the Vodun convent mystique as at the level of the occult practices that are its adjuncts. It is even manifest simply on the level of Vodun cultural and folkloric demonstrations. In the face of this violence human freedom is totally without defence. It is enough for fate to designate individuals for them to be forced into the convent. With the coming of Christianity, the Church authorities had to fight intensely with the Vodun heads of convents in cases where catechumens were kidnapped. In comparison with these cases of physical violence, the occult dimension of Vodun is even more frightening.

Vodun and magic sorcery

With the functionality of Vodun described above, one might say that it is simply a naturalist religion. However, the whole power of the phenomenon is based on two meta-rational realities: magic and sorcery. It is these that confer upon it its power, the viability of its hierarchical structures and its credit with the people. It is a complex universe which one cannot penetrate and emerge from unscathed. What is even worse is the malefic use that is made of its power. The key words are (charm) and Azé (sorcery). The former is supposed to protect from evil spells. But whoever knows how to make the antidote has also known the poison… Thus the can also be cast on someone as an evil spell: é do bo’é. As for Azé, it seems that there must also be a protective sorcery called white sorcery. But there is nothing more dangerous than this inextricable world where evil takes the shape of good and imposes a code of conduct. It is precisely this connivance between Vodun and these esoteric circles of harm that always make a deep inculturation difficult, given that in Vodun the cult aspects are amply mixed with cultural ones.

DISTINGUISHING THE CULT FROM THE CULTURAL, A SINE QUA NON CONDITION FOR ANY ATTEMPT AT INCULTURATION

In the cultural area of South Benin, which is the area I am addressing in my discourse, the deep influence of the religious phenomenon on the social, economic and political structures is undeniable. The present time is solidly rooted in the time of the venerated ancestors; events, almost in their minute detail, are explained, understood and lived in a certain continuity with the will of the Vodun. The pharmacopoeia constitutes a major force of the convents. Each family, each son or each large socio-geographic entity (the To) has its special Vodun which imposes itself as the primary area for the quest for existential meaning. Wisdom has as its base the fear of Vodun. Economic life receives the aid expected from the Vodun. "The art of arts, in other words politics, is marked by the Vodun reality". From these various data collected at source, one might infer that the Vodun religion imbues the social fabric to the point that worship may supplant culture.

Such a deduction is much more theoretical than real. Vodun does not absorb all that is cultural. There is a strong tendency for religion to replace culture. What does recur is that the cult appropriates cultural elements. The religious cult can claim for itself as meaningful signs (acts, gestures, words…) those by which man shows his relationship of communion with the transcendent. In Vodun, this is a specific act of devotion and religiosity. The essential acts of worship in the Vodun religion are sacrifices (of propitiation or thanksgiving), offerings and prayers. Communion meals and annual purification rites complete the vast range of forms of ritual worship. The cult’s impact on cultural life goes through the moral prohibitions and prescriptions which emanate specifically from Vodun (Vodun-sù). This necessary distinction between the cult and the culture is the unavoidable condition for sincere dialogue between this culture and Christianity, so as to start a process of inculturation. But this precise definition in no way seeks to insinuate that the religion as a whole is a negative, coarse idolatry.

If the truth is to be told, it must be recognised that the shortcomings, failures and deviations of Vodun (charms, magic, sorcery, fetishism…) exploit the senses, the useful, in a quest for power. There is an unwarranted substitution of symbols, signs for the pure material nature of the sign. This leads to superstitious and magical attitudes, widespread infusion of wickedness and terror in Vodun practices. Hence the perplexity and scepticism when faced with a Vodun that promotes a certain morality. In the Hênnu, the Ako (lineage) and the To, Vodun constitutes an element of social cohesion. The regular ceremonies of each social entity’s particular Vodun provide great moments of brotherhood in action. The followers of the same Vodun are bound by this Vodun’s specific prohibitions and legal prescriptions. The Vodun rules establish a life of solidarity among these individuals: quarrels between followers of the same Vodun are generally settled at the convent or at the Vodunun’s house. In addition, Vodun tolerates no transgression of its prohibitions. This maintains among sincere Vodun adepts a permanent culture of fidelity. The total commitment of ex-Vodun adepts who have converted to Christianity is a proof of this. Finally, it should be noted that if Vodun does not oppose the rules of life known as Gbêsu, it accepts them implicitly. These Gbêsu hold the destruction of life and the betrayal of friends in abomination. The features to be focused on therefore, are the values of fraternity, solidarity, communion and religious fidelity, without forgetting the social prohibitions to which Vodun implicitly give credit.

CONCLUSION

To conclude this brief communication on the traditional Vodun religion of Benin, I must point out that it was not possible to say everything, even on essential aspects. However, in spite of all the excesses to its discredit, Vodun in its purity remains a fertile ground for evangelisation. As a cultural phenomenon, it could offer numerous values to be Christianised. But the gordian knot remains the difficulty of setting it on the Paschal way. To empty Vodun of its magic and sorcery would be beneficial for the people of Benin. For the time being, this seems an utopian enterprise, today more than in the past.

Indeed, the seventeen years of Marxist-Leninist policies in Benin, 1972-1989, with anti-religious campaigns and witch-hunts, had contributed to diminishing the importance and reducing the influence of Vodun. But with the coming of democratic renewal since 1990, Vodun has regained vitality. From 28 May to 1 June 1991, a symposium of the great leaders of the Vodun cults was held with the aim of restoring a certain degree of legal recognition for this traditional religion. In 1993, a great international Vodun festival was organised and held in Benin: "Ouidah 92". Its effect was to foster its renewal. In the same year, Pope John Paul II’s visit and his highly media-enhanced meeting with Vodun leaders were taken by many Vodun followers, not as a sign of dialogue, but as the indication that the Church at last recognises that the Vodun cult has its place. This combination of circumstances means that in Benin Vodun is currently organising and structuring itself more and more as a traditional religion, with a national feast (10 January) and a national hierarchy. In sum, to reach out to these Vodun adepts, the Church will no longer be able to use only the Bible and Holy Water, but above all will need dialogue.






By Barthélemy ZINZINDOHOUE



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The Kabeiroi

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CABEIRI (Kabeiroi), mystic divinities who occur in various parts of the ancient world. The obscurity that hangs over them, and the contradictions respecting them in the accounts of the ancients themselves, have opened a wide field for speculation to modern writers on mythology, each of whom has been tempted to propound a theory of his own. The meaning of the name Cabeiri is quite uncertain, and has been traced to nearly all the languages of the East, and even to those of the North; but one etymology seems as plausible as another, and etymology in this instance is a real ignis fatuus to the inquirer. The character and nature of the Cabeiri are as obscure as the meaning of their name. All that we can attempt to do here is to trace and explain the various opinions of the ancients themselves, as they are presented to us in chronological succession. We chiefly follow Lobeck, who has collected all the passages of the ancients upon this subject, and who appears to us the most sober among those who have written upon it. (Aglaopham. pp. 1202-1281.)

The earliest mention of the Cabeiri, so far as we know, was in a drama of Aeschylus, entitled Kabeiroi, in which the poet brought them into contact with the Argonauts in Lemnos. The Cabeiri promised the Argonauts plenty of Lemnian wine. (Plut. Sympos. ii. 1; Pollux, vi. 23; Bekker, Anecd. p. 115.) The opinion of Welcker (Die Aeschyl. Trilog. p. 236), who infers from Dionysius (i. 68, &c.) that the Cabeiri had been spoken of by Arctinus, has been satisfactorily refuted by Lobeck and others. From the passage of Aeschylus here alluded to, it appears that he regarded the Cabeiri as original Lemnian divinities, who had power over everything that contributed to the good of the inhabitants, and especially over the vineyards. The fruits of the field, too, seem to have been under their protection, for the Pelasgians once in a time of scarcity made vows to Zeus, Apollo, and the Cabeiri. (Myrsilus, ap. Dionys. i. 23.) Strabo in his discussion about the Curetes, Dactyls, &c. (x. p. 466), speaks of the origin of the Cabeiri, deriving his statements from ancient authorities, and from him we learn, that Acusilaus called Camillus a son of Cabeiro and Hephaestus, and that he made the three Cabeiri the sons, and the Cabeirian nymphs the daughters, of Camillus. According to Pherecydes, Apollo and Rhytia were the parents of the nine Corybantes who dwelled in Samothrace, and the three Cabeiri and the three Cabeirian nymphs were the children of Cabeira, the daughter of Proteus, by Hephaestus. Sacrifices were offered to the Corybantes as well as the Cabeiri in Lemnos and Imbros, and also in the towns of Troas. The Greek logographers, and perhaps Aeschylus too, thus considered the Cabeiri as the grandchildren of Proteus and as the sons of Hephaestus, and consequently as inferior in dignity to the great gods on account of their origin. Their inferiority is also implied in their jocose conversation with the Argonauts, and their being repeatedly mentioned along with the Curetes, Dactyls, Corybantes, and other beings of inferior rank. Herodotus (iii. 37) says, that the Cabeiri were worshipped at Memphis as the sons of Hephaestus, and that they resembled the Phoenician dwarf-gods (Pataïkoi) whom the Phoenicians fixed on the prows of their ships. As the Dioscuri were then yet unknown to the Egyptians (Herod. ii. 51), the Cabeiri cannot have been identified with them at that time. Herodotus proceeds to say, "the Athenians received their phallic Hermae from the Pelasgians, and those who are initiated in the mysteries of the Cabeiri will understand what I am saying; for the Pelasgians formerly inhabited Samothrace, and it is from them that the Samothracians received their orgies. But the Samothracians had a sacred legend about Hermes, which is explained in their mysteries." This sacred legend is perhaps no other than the one spoken of by Cicero (De Nat. Deor. iii. 22), that Hermes was the son of Coelus and Dies, and that Proserpine desired to embrace him. The same is perhaps alluded to by Propertius (ii. 2. 11), when he says, that Mercury (Hermes) had connexions with Brimo, who is probably the goddess of Pherae worshipped at Athens, Sicyon, and Argos, whom some identified with Proserpine (Persephone), and others with Hecate or Artemis. (Spanh. ad Callim. hymn. in Dian. 259.) We generally find this goddess worshipped in places which had the worship of the Cabeiri, and a Lemnian Artemis is mentioned by Galen. (De Medic. Simpl. ix. 2. p. 246, ed. Chart.) The Tyrrhenians, too, are said to have taken away the statue of Artemis at Brauron, and to have carried it to Lemnos. Aristophanes, in his " Lemnian Women," had mentioned Bendis along with the Brauronian Artemis and the great goddess, and Nonnus (Dionys. xxx. 45) states that the Cabeirus Alcon brandished Hekatês Diasôdea purson, so that we may draw the conclusion, that the Samothracians and Lemnians worshipped a goddess akin to Hecate, Artemis, Bendis, or Persephone, who had some sexual connexion with Hermes, which revelation was made in the mysteries of Samothrace.

The writer next to Herodotus, who speaks about the Cabeiri, and whose statements we possess in Strabo (p. 472), though brief and obscure, is Stesimbrotus. The meaning of the passage in Strabo is, according to Lobeck, as follows: Some persons think that the Corybantes are the sons of Cronos, others that they are the sons of Zeus and Calliope, that they (the Corybantes) went to Samothrace and were the same as the beings who were there called Cabeiri. But as the doings of the Corybantes are generally known, whereas nothing is known of the Samothracian Corybantes, those persons are obliged to have recourse to saying, that the doings of the latter Corybantes are kept secret or are mystic. This opinion, however, is contested by Demetrius, who states, that nothing was revealed in the mysteries either of the deeds of the Cabeiri or of their having accompanied Rhea or of their having brought up Zeus and Dionysus. Demetrius also mentions the opinion of Stesimbrotus, that the hiera were performed in Samothrace to the Cabeiri, who derived their name from mount Cabeirus in Berecyntia. But here again opinions differed very much, for while some believed that the hiera Kabeirôn were thus called from their having been instituted and conducted by the Cabeiri, others thought that they were celebrated ill honour of the Cabeiri, and that the Cabeiri belonged to the great gods.

The Attic writers of this period offer nothing of importance concerning the Cabeiri, but they intimate that their mysteries were particularly calculated to protect the lives of the initiated. (Aristoph. Pax, 298; comp. Etymol. Gud. p. 289.) Later writers in making the same remark do not mention the name Cabeiri, but speak of the Samothracian gods generally. (Diod. iv. 43, 49; Aelian, Fragm. p. 320; Callim. Ep. 36; Lucian. Ep. 15; Plut. Marcell. 30.) There are several instances mentioned of lo vers swearing by the Cabeiri in promising fidelity to one another (Juv. iii. 144; Himerius, Orat. i. 12); and Suidas (s. v. Dialamdanei) mentions a case of a girl invoking the Cabeiri as her avengers against a lover who had broken his oath. But from these oaths we can no more draw any inference as to the real character of the Cabeiri, than from the fact of their protecting the lives of the initiated; for these are features which they have in common with various other divinities. From the account which the scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius (i. 913) has borrowed from Athenion, who had written a comedy called The Samothracians (Athen. xiv. p. 661), we learn only that he spoke of two Cabeiri, Dardanus, and Jasion, whom he called sons of Zeus and Electra. They derived their name from mount Cabeirus in Phrygia, from whence they had been introduced into Samothrace.

A more ample source of information respecting the Cabeiri is opened to us in the writers of the Alexandrine period. The two scholia on Apollonius Rhodius (l. c.) contain in substance the following statement: Mnaseas mentions the names of three Cabeiri in Samothrace, viz. Axieros, Axiocersa, and Axiocersus; the first is Demeter, the second Persephone, and the third Hades. Others add a fourth, Cadmilus, who according to Dionysothat dorus is identical with Hermes. It thus appears these accounts agreed with that of Stesimbrotus, who reckoned the Cabeiri among the great gods, and that Mnaseas only added their names. Herodotus, as we have seen, had already connected Hermes with Persephone; the worship of the latter as connected with that of Demeter in Samothrace is attested by Artemidorus (ap. Strab. iv. p. 198); and there was also a port in Samothrace which derived its name, Demetrium, from Demeter. (Liv. xlv. 6.) According to the authors used by Dionysius (i. 68), the worship of Samothrace was introduced there from Arcadia; for according to them Dardanus, together with his brother Jasion or Jasus and his sister Harmonia, left Arcadia and went to Samothrace, taking with them the Palever, ladium from the temple of Pallas. Cadmus, however, who appears in this tradition, is king of Samothrace: he made Dardanus his friend, and sent him to Teucer in Troas. Dardanus himself, again, is sometimes described as a Cretan (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 167), sometimes as an Asiatic (Steph. s. v. Dardanos; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 391), while Arrian (ap. Eustath. p. 351) makes him come originally from Samothrace. Respecting Dardanus' brother Jasion or Jasus, the accounts likewise differ very much; for while some writers describe him as going to Samothrace either from Parrhasia in Arcadia or from Crete, a third account (Dionys. i. 61) stated, that he was killed by lightning for having entertained improper desires for Demeter; and Arrian (l. c.) says that Jasion, being inspired by Demeter and Cora, went to Sicily and many other places, and there established the mysteries of these goddesses, for which Demeter rewarded him by yielding to his embraces, and became the mother of Parius, the founder of Paros.

All writers of this class appear to consider Dardanus as the founder of the Samothracian mysteries, and the mysteries themselves as solemnized in honour of Demeter. Another set of authorities, on the other hand, regards them as belonging to Rhea (Diod. v. 51; Schol. ad Aristid. p. 106; Strab. Esccrpt. lib. vii. p. 511, ed. Almelov.; Lucian, Dc Dea Syr. 97), and suggests the identity of the Samothracian and Phrygian mysteries. Pherecydes too, who placed the Corybantes, the companions of the great mother of the gods, in Samothrace, and Stesimbrotus who derived the Cabeiri from mount Cabeirus in Phrygia, and all those writers who describe Dardanus as the founder of the Samothracian mysteries, naturally ascribed the Samothracian mysteries to Rhea. To Demeter, on the other hand, they were ascribed by Mnaseas, Artemidorus, and even by Herodotus, since he mentions Hermes and Persephone in connexion with these mysteries, and Persephone has nothing to do with Rhea. Now, as Demeter and Rhea have many attributes in common -- both are megaloi Deoi, and the festivals of each were celebrated with the same kind of enthusiasm; and as peculiar features of the one are occasionally transferred to the other (e. g. Eurip. Helen. 1304), it is not difficult to see how it might happen, that the Samothracian goddess was sometimes called Demeter and sometimes Rhea. The difficulty is, however, increased by the fact of Venus (Aphrodite) too being worshipped in Samothrace. (Plin. H. N. v. 6.) This Venus may be either the Thracian Bendis or Cybele, or may have been one of the Cabeiri themselves, for we know that Thebes possessed three ancient statues of Aphrodite, which Harmonia had taken from the ships of Cadmus, and which may have been the Pataaïkoi who resembled the Cabeiri. (Paus. ix. 16. § 2; Herod. iii. 37.) In connexion with this Aphrodite we may mention that, according to some accounts, the Phoenician Aphrodite (Astarte) had commonly the epithet chabar or chabor, an Arabic word which signifies "the great," and that Lobeck considers Astarte as identical with the Selênê Kabeiria, which name P. Ligorius saw on a gem.

There are also writers who transfer all that is said about the Samothracian gods to the Dioscuri, who were indeed different from the Cabeiri of Acusilaus, Pherecydes, and Aeschylus, but yet might easily be confounded with them; first, because the Dioscuri are also called great gods, and secondly, because they were also regarded as the protectors of persons in danger either by land or water. Hence we find that in some places where the anakes were worshipped, it was uncertain whether they were the Dioscuri or the Cabeiri. (Paus. x. 38. § 3.) Nay, even the Roman Penates were sometimes considered as identical with the Dioscuri and Cabeiri (Dionys. i. 67, &c.); and Varro thought that the Penates were carried by Dardanus from the Arcadian town Pheneos to Samothrace, [p. 523] and that Aeneas brought them from thence to Italy. (Macrob. Sat. iii. 4; Serv. ad Aen. i. 378, iii. 148.) But the authorities for this opinion are all of a late period. According to one set of accounts, the Samothracian gods were two male divinities of the same age, which applies to Zeus and Dionysus, or Dardanus and Jasion, but not to Demeter, Rhea, or Persephone. When people, in the course of time, had become accustomed to regard the Penates and Cabeiri as identical, and yet did not know exactly the name of each separate divinity comprised under those common names, some divinities are mentioned among the Penates who belonged to the Cabeiri, and vice versâ. Thus Servius (ad Aen. viii. 619) represents Zeus, Pallas, and Hermes as introduced from Samothrace; and, in another passage (ad Aen. iii. 264), he says that, according to the Samothracians, these three were the great gods, of whom Hermes, and perhaps Zeus also, might be reckoned among the Cabeiri. Varro (de Ling. Lat. v. 58, ed. Muller) says, that Heaven and Earth were the great Samothracian gods; while in another place (ap. August. De Civ. Dei, vii. 18) he stated, that there were three Samothracian gods, Jupiter or Heaven, Juno or Earth, and Minerva or the prototype of things,--the ideas of Plato. This is, of course, only the view Varro himself took, and not a tradition.

If we now look back upon the various statements we have gathered, for the purpose of arriving at some definite conclusion, it is manifest, that the earliest writers regard the Cabeiri as descended from inferior divinities, Proteus and Hephaestus: they have their seats on earth, in Samothrace, Lemnos, and Imbros. Those early writers cannot possibly have conceived them to be Demeter, Persephone or Rhea. It is true those early authorities are not numerous in comparison with the later ones; but Demetrius, who wrote on the subject, may have had more and very good ones, since it is with reference to him that Strabo repeats the assertion, that the Cabeiri, like the Corybantes and Curetes, were only ministers of the great gods. We may therefore suppose, that the Samothracian Cabeiri were originally such inferior beings; and as the notion of the Cabeiri was from the first not fixed and distinct, it became less so in later times; and as the ideas of mystery and Demeter came to be looked upon as inseparable, it cannot occasion surprise that the mysteries, which were next in importance to those of Eleusis, the most celebrated in antiquity, were at length completely transferred to this goddess. The opinion that the Samothracian gods were the same as the Roman Penates, seems to have arisen with those writers who endeavoured to trace every ancient Roman institution to Troy, and thence to Samothrace.

The places where the worship of the Cabeiri occurs, are chiefly Samothrace, Lemnos, and Imbros. Some writers have maintained, that the Samothracian and Lemnian Cabeiri were distinct; but the contrary is asserted by Strabo (x. p. 466). Besides the Cabeiri of these three islands, we read of Boeotian Cabeiri. Near the Neïtian gate of Thebes there was a grove of Demeter Cabeiria and Cora, which none but the initiated were allowed to enter; and at a distance of seven stadia from it there was a sanctuary of the Cabeiri. (Paus. ix. 25. § 5.) Here mysteries were celebrated, and the sanctity of the temple was great as late as the time of Pausanias. (Comp. iv. 1. § 5.) The account of Pausanias about the origin of the Boeotian Cabeiri savours of rationalism, and is, as Lobeck justly remarks, a mere fiction. It must further not be supposed that there existed any connexion between the Samothracian Cadmilus or Cadmus and the Theban Cadmus; for tradition clearly describes them as beings of different origin, race and dignity. Pausanias (ix. 22. § 5) further mentions another sanctuary of the Cabeiri, with a grove, in the Boeotian town of Anthedon; and a Boeotian Cabeirus, who possessed the power of averting dangers and increasing man's prosperity, is mentioned in an epigram of Diodorus. (Brunck, Anal. ii. p. 185.) A Macedonian Cabeirus occurs in Lactantius. (i. 15, 8; comp. Firmicus, de Error. Prof. p. 23; Clem. Alex. Protrept. p. 16.) The reverence paid by the Macedonians to the Cabeiri may be inferred from the fact of Philip and Olympias being initiated in the Samothracian mysteries, and of Alexander erecting altars to the Cabeiri at the close of his Eastern expedition. (Plut. Alex. 2; Philostr. de Vit. Apollon. ii. 43.) The Pergamenian Cabeiri are mentioned by Pausanias (i. 4. § 6), and those of Berytus by Sanchoniathon (ap. Euseb. Praep. Evang. p. 31) and Damascius. (Vit. Isidor. cclii. 573.) Respecting the mysteries of the Cabeiri in general, see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Kabeiria; Lobeck, Aglaoph. p. 1281, &c. For the various opinions concerning the nature of the Cabeiri, see Creuzer, Symbol. ii. p. 302, &c.; Schelling, Ueber die Götter von Samothrake, Stuttgard, 1815; Welcker, Aeschyl. Trilog.; Klausen, Aeneas u. die Penat.

EURY′MEDON (Euruêedôn). A Cabeirus, a son of Hephaestus and Cabeiro, and a brother of Alcon. (Nonn. Dionys. xiv. 22; Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 21.)


Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. C19th
Classics Encyclopedia.




THE KABEIROI OF LEMNOS

"And they [the Kabeiroi] grew up secretly by the furnaces of Hephaistos [on Lemnos], learning the art of the hammer … Onnes now … iron shields which they themselves forged on the anvils of Hephaistos." - Callimachus, Aetia Frag 115

"Akusilaüs, the Argive, calls Kadmilos the son of Kabeiro and Hephaistos, and Kadmilos the father of three Kabeiroi, and these the fathers of the Nymphai called Kabeirides.'" - Strabo, Geography 10.3.19-21

"These rites are in a way regarded as having a common relationship ... those of the Samothrakians [the Kabeiroi] and those in Lemnos and in several other places." - Strabo, Geography 10.3.7

"First from the firepeak rock of Lemnos the two Kabeiroi ... beside the mystic torch of Samos [Samothrake], two sons of Hephaistos whom Thrakian Kabeiro had borne to the heavenly smith, Alkon and Eurymedon well skilled at the forge, who bore their mother’s tribal name." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14.17



THE KABEIROI OF SAMOTHRAKE

"The ithyphallic (erect phallus) images of Hermes [the Hermai]; the production of these came from the Pelasgians [of Thessalia], from whom the Athenians were the first Greeks to take it, and then handed it on to others ..... Whoever has been initiated into the rites of the Kabeiroi, which the Samothrakians learned from the Pelasgians and now practice, understands what my meaning is [the Kabeiroi gods were the keepers of a sacred phallus]. Samothrake was formerly inhabited by those Pelasgians who came to live among the Athenians, and it is from them that the Samothrakians take their rites. 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 Samothrakian Mysteries." - Herodotus, Histories 2.51

"[Clement an early Christian reveals the secret story of the Kabeirian Mysteries:] If you would like a vision of the Orgia Korybanton also, this is the story. Two of the Korybantes [Kabeiroi] slew a third one, who was their brother, covered the head of the corpse with a purple cloak, and then wreathed and buried it, bearing it upon a brazen shield to the skirts of Olympos. Here we see what the Mysteria are, in one word, murders and burials! The priests of these Mysteria, whom such as are interested in them call ‘Anaktotelestes’ (Presidents of the Princes’ rites), add a portent to the dismal tale. They forbid wild celery, root and all, to be placed on the table, for they actually believe that wild celery grows out of the blood that flowed from the murdered brother ... The Korybantes are also called by the name Kabeiroi, which proclaims the Teletes Kabeirikes (Rite of the Kabeiroi). For this very pair of fratricides got possession of the chest in which the virilia of Dionysos [Zagreus who was dismembered by the Titanes] were deposited, and brought it to Tyrrhenia, traders in glorious wares! There they sojourned, being exiles, and communicated their precious teaching of peity, the virilia and the chest, to Tyrrhenoi for purposes of worship. For this reason, not unnaturally some wish to call Dionysos Attis, because he was mutilated." - Clement, Exhortation to the Greeks 2.16

"To Korybas ... Each of thy brothers killing, blood is thine, twofold Kourete, many-formed, divine. By thee transmuted, Deo’s [Demeter’s] body pure became a Drakon’s savage and obscure." - Orphic Hymn 39 to Corybas

"(1) Others say that the Korybantes were sons of Zeus and Kalliope and were identical with the Kabeiroi, and that these went off to Samothrake, which in earlier times was called Melite, and that their rites were mystical.
(2) But though the Skepsian, who compiled these myths, does not accept the last statement, on the ground that no mystic story of the Kabeiroi is told in Samothrake, still he cites also the opinion of Stesimbrotos the Thasian that the sacred rites in Samothrake were performed in honor of the Kabeiroi: and the Skepsian says that they were called Kabeiroi after the mountain Kabeiros in Berekynthia [in Mysia] ...
(3) Akusilaüs, the Argive, calls Kadmilos the son of Kabeiro and Hephaistos, and Kadmilos the father of three Kabeiroi, and these the fathers of the Nymphai called Kabeirides.
(4) Pherekydes says that nine Kyrbantes were sprung from Apollon and Rhetia, and that they took up their abode in Samothrake; and that three Kabeiroi and three Nymphai called Kabeirides were the children of Kabeiro, the daughter of Proteus, and Hephaistos, and that sacred rites were instituted in honor of each triad.
(5) Now it has so happened that the Kabeiroi are most honored in Imbros and Lemnos, but they are also honored in separate cities of the Troad; their names, however, are kept secret. Herodotos says that there were temples of the Kabeiroi in Memphis, as also of Hephaistos [actually of Egyptian Ptah and his sons], but that Kambyses destroyed them. The places where these deities were worshipped are uninhabited, both the Korybanteion in Hamaxitia in the territory now belonging to the Alexandreians near Sminthion, and Korybissa in Skepsia in the neighborhood of the river Eurëeis and of the village which bears the same name and also of the winter torrent Aethalöeis.'" - Strabo, Geography 10.3.19-21

"Many writers have identified the gods that are worshipped in Samothrake with the Kabeiroi, though they cannot say who the Kabeiroi themselves are, just as the Kyrbantes and Korybantes, and likewise the Kouretes and the Idaean Daktylo Idaioii, are identified with them." - Strabo, Geography Bk 7 Frag 50

"Some, however, believe that the Kouretes were the same as the Korybantes and were ministers of Hekate [the Kabeiroi were ministers of Hekate in Samothrake]." - Strabo, Geography 10.3.20

"Iasion and Dardanos, two brothers, used to live in Samothrake. But when Iasion was struck by a thunderbolt because of his sin against Demeter, Dardanos sailed away from Samothrake, went and took up his abode at the foot of Mount Ida, calling the city Dardania, and taught the Trojans the Samothrakian Mysteries." - Strabo, Geography Bk 7 Frag 47

"Some represent the Korybantes, the Kabeiroi, the Idaian Daktyloi, and the Telkhines as identical with the Kouretes, others represent them as all kinsmen of one another and differentiate only certain small matters in which they differ in respect to one another; but, roughly speaking and in general, they represent them, one and all, as a kind of inspired people and as subject to Bakkhic 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 Samothrakians [the Kabeiroi] and those in Lemnos and in several other places, because the divine ministers are called the same. However, every investigation of this kind pertains to theology, and is not foreign to the speculation of the philosopher." - Strabo, Geography 10.3.7

"But I must now investigate how it comes about that so many names have been used of one and the same thing [the Daimones called Kouretes, Korybantes & Kabeiroi], and the theological element contained in their history. Now this is common both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to perform their sacred rites in connection with the relaxation of a festival, these rites being performed sometimes with religious frenzy, sometimes without it; sometimes with music, sometimes not; and sometimes in secret, sometimes openly. And it is in accordance with the dictates of nature that this should be so, for, in the first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and, secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and, thirdly, the secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived by our human senses; and, fourthly, music, which includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the delight it affords and by its artistic beauty, brings us in touch with the divine, and this for the following reason; for although it has been well said that human beings then act most like the gods when they are doing good to others, yet one might better say, when they are happy; and such happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing philosophy, and engaging in music." - Strabo, Geography 10.3.9

"They [the poets] also invented some of the names by which to designate the ministers, choral dancers, and attendants upon the sacred rites [of Rhea & Dionysos], I mean Kabeiroi and Korybantes and Panes and Satyroi and Tityroi." - Strabo, Geography10.3.15

"They [the Argonauts] beached this ship at Samothrake … He [Orpheus] wished them, by holy initiation, to learn something of the secret rites, and so sail on with greater confidence across the formidable sea. Of the rites I say no more, pausing only to salute the isle itself and the Powers [the Kabeiroi] that dwell in it, to whom belong the mysteries of which we must not sing." - Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.916

"Zeus desired that the other of his two sons [Iasion of Samothrake, brother of Dardanos] might also attain honour, and so he instructed him in the initiatory rites of the Mysteries [of the Kabeiroi of Samothrake], which had existed on the island since ancient times but was at that time, so to speak, put in his hands; it is not lawful, however, for any but the initiated to hear about the mysteries. And Iasion is reputed to have been the first to initiate strangers into them and by this means to bring the initiatory rite to high esteem.
After this Kadmos, the son of Agenor, came in the course of his quest for Europe [his sister abducted by Zeus] to the Samothrakians, and after participating in the initiation [into the mysteries of Samothrake] he married Harmonia, who was the sister of Iasion and not, as the Greeks recount in their mythologies, the daughter of Ares ...
Now the details of the initiatory rite [of the Mysteries] are guarded among the matters not to be divulged and are communicated to the initiates alone; but the fame has travelled wide of how these gods [the Kabeiroi] appear to mankind and bring unexpected aid to those initiates of their who call upon them in the midst of perils. The claim is also made that men who have taken part in the mysteries become both more pious and more just and better in every respect than they were before. And this is the reason, we are told, why the most famous both of the ancient heroes and of the demi-gods were eagerly desirous to taking part in the initiatory rite; and in fact Jason and the Dioskouroi, and Herakles and Orpheus as well, after their initiation attained success in all the campaigns they undertook, because these gods appeared to them." - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.48.2

"But some historians, and Ephoros is one of them, record that the Daktyloi Idaioi [Kabeiroi or Korybantes] were in fact born on the Mt Ide which is in Phrygia and passed over to Europe together with Mygdon; and since they were wizards (gonta), they practised charms and initiatory rites and mysteries, and in the course of a sojourn in Samothrake they [as Kabeiroi or Korybantes] amazed the natives of that island not a little by their skill in such matters. And it was at this time, we are further told, that Orpheus, who was endowed with an exceptional gift of poesy and song, also became a pupil of theirs, and he was subsequently the first to introduce initiatory rites and mysteries to the Greeks." - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.64.3

"There came on a great storm and the chieftains [Argonauts] had given up hope of being saved, when Orpheus, they say, who was the only one on ship-board who had ever been initiated in the Mysteries of the deities of Samothrake [the Kabeiroi], offered to these deities prayers for their salvation. And immediately the wind died down and two stars fell over the heads of the Dioskouroi, and the whole company was amazed at the marvel which had taken place and concluded that they had been rescued from their perils by an act of providence of the gods. For this reason, the story of this reversal of fortune for the Argonauts has been handed down to succeeding generations, and sailors when caught in storms always direct their prayers to the deities of Samothrake and attribute the appearance of the two stars to the epiphany of the Dioskouroi." - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.43.1

"[The Argonauts] had already reached the middle of the Pontic Sea when the ran into a storm which put them in the greatest peril. But when Orpheus … offered up prayers to the deities of Samothrake [the Kabeiroi], the winds ceased and there appeared near the ship Glaukos the Sea-God, as he is called ... and he counselled them, accordingly, that so soon as they touched their lands they should pray their vows to the gods [the Kabeiroi] through the intervention of whom they had twice already been saved." - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.48.6

"The Argonauts, they say, set forth from the Troad and arrived at Samothrake, where they again paid their vows to the great gods [the Kabeiroi] and dedicated in the sacred precinct the bowls which are preserved there even to this day." - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.49.8

"They say that the pilot-fish is sacred not only to Poseidon but is also beloved of the gods of Samothrake [the Kabeiroi]." - Aelian, On Animals 15.23

"Electra’s island [Samothrake] grows larger [as the Argonauts sail towards the island], guarding the secret of the Thracian rites [of the Kabeiroi and other gods]; for here dwells the great and terrible god, and here are ordained penalties for an unguarded tongue. No storm sent by Jove [Zeus] ever dares to beat with its billows upon this land; of his own will the god makes fierce his waves, what time he would forbid faithless sailors to touch his shores. But Thyotes the priest meets the Minyae [Argonauts] and bids them welcome to the land and to the temples, revealing their Mysteries to his guests. Thus much, Samothrace, has the poet proclaimed thee to the nations and the light of day; there stay, and let us keep our reverence for holy Mysteries. The Minyae, rejoicing in the new light of the sun and full of their heavenly visions, seat themselves upon the thwarts [and depart from the island]." - Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2.431

"Already the bird of morning was cutting the air with loud cries [on the island of Samothrake]; already the helmeted bands of desert-haunting Korybantes [or Kabeiroi] were beating on their shields in the Knossian dance, and leaping with rhythmic steps, and the oxhides thudded under the blows of the iron as they whirled them about in rivalry, while the double pipe made music, and quickened the dancers with its rollicking tune in time to the bounding steps. Aye, and the trees whispered, the rocks boomed, the forests held jubilee with their intelligent movings and shakings, and the Dryades did sing. Packs of bears joined the dance, skipping and wheeling face to face; lions with a roar from emulous throats mimicked the triumphant cry of the priests of the Kabeiroi, sane in their madness; the revelling pipes rang out a tune to honour of Hekate, divine friend of dogs, those single pipes, which the horn-polisher’s art invented in Kronos’s days.
The noisy Korybantes with their ringing din awoke Kadmos early in the morning; the Sidonian seamen also with one accord, hearing the never-silent oxhide at dawn, rose from their rattling pebbly pallets and left the brine-beaten back of the shore." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 3.61

"Grottoes of the Kabeiroi and Korybantian cliffs [on the island of Samothrake]." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 4.184

"Zerinthian cave, where they used to sacrifice dogs. There the mysteries of the Korybantes and of Hekate took place." - Suidas "Zerynthia"

"All' ei tis humôn en Samothraikei memuemenos esti (But if there is someone among you initiated in Samothrake, now is a fine time to pray that both feet of the pursuer be put out of joint): In Samothrake there were certain initiation-rites, which they supposed efficacious as a charm against certain dangers. In that place were also the mysteries of the Korybantes and those of Hekate and the Zerinthian cave, where they sacrificed dogs. The initiates supposed that these things save [them] from terrors and from storms. The bone-socket of the pursuer to be 'be put out of joint' means to 'be distorted and dislocated'. The way forward becomes an obstacle to him, so that he can no longer turn back." - Suidas "All' ei tis humôn en Samothraikei memuemenos esti"


THE KABEIROI OF THEBES

"Methapos was an Athenian by birth, an expert in the mysteries and founder of all kinds of rites. It was he who established the Mysteries of the Kabeiroi at Thebes." - Pausanias, Guide to Greece 4.1.5-9

"Just about the centre of Anthedon [in Boiotia] is a sanctuary of the Kabeiroi, with a grove around it, near which is a temple of Demeter and her daughter, with images of white marble.” - Pausanias, Guide to Greece 9.22.5

"[In Thebes, Boiotia] you come to a grove of Demeter Kabeiraia and Kore. The initiated are permitted to enter it. The sanctuary of the Kabeiroi is some seven stades distant from this grove. I must ask the curious to forgive me if I keep silence as to who the Kabeiroi are, and what is the nature of the ritual performed in honour of them and of the Meter (Mother). But there is nothing to prevent my declaring to all what the Thebans say was the origin of the ritual. They say that once there was in this place a city, with inhabitants called Kabeiroi; and that Demeter came to know Prometheos, one of the Kabeiroi, and Aitnaios his son, and entrusted something to their keeping [presumably the sacred phallus of Iasion, Attis or Zagreus]. What was entrusted to them, and what happened to it, seemed to me a sin to put into writing, but at any rate the rites are a gift of Demeter to the Kabeiroi. At the time of the invasion of the Epigonoi and the taking of Thebes, the Kabeiroi were expelled from their homes by the Argives and the rites for a while ceased to be performed. But they go on to say that afterwards Pelarge, the daughter of Potneius, and Isthmiades her husband established the Mysteries here to begin with, but transferred them to the place called Alexiaros. But because Pelarge conducted the initiation outside the ancient borders, Telondes returned again to Kabeiraia. Various honours were to be established for Pelarge by Telondes in accordance with an oracle from Dodona, one being the sacrifice of a pregnant victim. The wrath of the Kabeiroi no man may placate, as has been proved on many occasions. For certain private people dared to perform in Napuaktos the ritual as it was done in Thebes, and soon afterwards justice overtook them. Then, again, certain men of the army of Xerxes left behind with Mardonios in Boiotia entered the sanctuary of the Kabeiroi, perhaps in the hope of great wealth, but rather, I suspect, to show their contempt of its gods; all these immediately were struck with madness, and flung themselves to their deaths into the sea or from the tops of precipices. Again, when Alexandros after his victory wasted with fire all the Thebaid, including Thebes itself, some men from Makedonia entered the sanctuary of the Kabeiroi, as it was in enemy territory, and were destroyed by thunder and lightning from heaven. So sacred this sanctuary has been from the beginning." - Pausanias, Guide to Greece 9.25.5



THE KABEIROI OF LOKRIS

"The Amphisians [of Lokris] also celebrate Mysteries in honour of the Boy Kings (Anaktes paides), as they are called. Their accounts as to who of the gods the Boy Kings are do not agree; some say they are the Dioskouroi, and others, who pretend to have fuller knowledge, hold them to be the Kabeiroi." - Pausanias, Guide to Greece 10.38.7


HYMNS TO THE SAMOTHRAKIAN GODS

The Orphic Hymns are addressed to the gods of the Mysteries of Samothrake, guardians of Persephone, both Korybantes (Kouretes) and Kabeiroi.

"Hymn to the Kouretes. Leaping Kouretes, who with dancing feet and circling measures armed footsteps beat: shoe bosoms Bakkhanalian furies firer, who move in rhythm to the sounding lyre: who traces deaf when lightly leaping tread, arm-bearers, strong defenders, rulers dread: famed deities the guards (of Persephone) preserving rites mysterious and divine: come, and benevolent this hymn attend, and with glad mind the herdsman’s life defend." - Orphic Hymn 31 to the Curetes

"To the Kouretes [or rather the Kabeiroi of Samothrake], Fumigation from Frankincense. Brass-beating Kouretes, ministers of Ares, who wear his arms the instruments of wars; whose blessed frames, heaven, earth, and sea compose, and from whose breath all animals arose: who dwell in Samothrake’s sacred ground, defending mortals through the sea profound. Deathless Kouretes, by your power alone, the greatest mystic rites to men at first were shown. Who shake old Okeanos thundering to the sky, and stubborn oaks with branches waving high. ‘Tis yours in glittering arms the earth to beat, with lightly leaping, rapid, sounding feet; then every beast the noise terrific flies, and the loud tumult wanders through the skies. The dust your feet excites, with matchless force flies to the clouds amidst their whirling course; and every flower of variegated hue grows in the dancing motion formed by you; immortal Daimones, to your powers consigned, the task to nourish and destroy mankind, when rushing furious with loud tumult dire, overwhelmed, they perish in your dreadful ire; and live replenished with the balmy air, the food of life, committed to your care. When shook by you, the seas with wild uproar, wide-spreading, and profoundly whirling, roar. The concave heavens with echo’s voice resound, when leaves with rustling noise bestrew the ground. Kouretes, Korybantes, ruling kings, whose praise the land of Samothrake sings; great Zeus’ assessors; whose immortal breath sustains the soul, and wafts her back from death; aerial-formed, who in Olympos shine the heavenly Twins [Dioskouroi] all-lucid and divine; blowing, serene, from whom abundance springs, nurses of seasons, fruit-producing kings." - Orphic Hymn 38 to the Curetes

"To Korybas, Fumigation from Frankincense. The mighty ruler of this earthly ball for ever flowing, to these rites I call; martial and blest, unseen by mortal sight, preventing fears, and pleased with gloomy night: hence fancy’s terrors are by thee allayed, all-various king, who lovest the desert shade. Each of thy brothers killing, blood is thine, twofold Kourete, many-formed, divine. By thee transmuted, Deo’s [Demeter’s] body pure became a Drakon’s savage and obscure: avert they anger, hear me when I pray, and, by fixed date, drive fancy’s fears away." - Orphic Hymn 39 to Corybas



KABEIROI & THE INDIAN WAR OF DIONYSOS

"First from the firepeak rock of Lemnos the two Kabeiroi in arms answered the stormy call [of Rheia summoning gods to join Dionysos in his war against the Indians] answered the stormy call beside the mystic torch of Samos [Samothrake], two sons of Hephaistos whom Thrakian Kabeiro had borne to the heavenly smith, Alkon and Eurymedon well skilled at the forge, who bore their mother’s tribal name." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14.17

"Orontes [the Indian chief in the war with Dionysos] dashed hot upon the front ranks, reaping a harvest in both kinds [men and women]. Not one of all the wide front durst abide the adverse onset of so mighty a champion – not bold fiery Eurymedon, not Alkon his kinsman." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 17.192

"Hephaistos took care of his sons the Kabeiroi [when the Indian River Hydaspes tried to drown them and the rest of the army of Dionysos], and caught up both, like a flying firebrand." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 24.77

"[Deriades to his Indian troops:] ‘Let Lemnian Kabeiro unveiled lament the death of her two sons; let sooty Hephaistos throw down his tongs, and see the destroyer of his race sitting in the car of the Kabeiroi, see Deriades driving the bronzefoot horses!" - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 27.120

"[Zeus to Hephaistos:] ‘Do you sit still, Hephaistos, and will not you save your children? Lift your accustomed torch to defend the Kabeiroi; turn your eye and see your ancient bride, your Kabeiro, reproaching you in love for her sons." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 27.325

"Two firestrong citizens of Samothrake [the Kabeiroi] also ran wild [in Dionysos’ war with the Indians], sons of Lemnian Kabeiro; their eyes flashed out their own natural sparks, which came from the red smoky flame of their father Hephaistos. They rode in a car of adamant; a pair of colts beat the dust with rattling hooves of brass, and they sent out a dry whinnying from their throats. These father Hephaistos had made with his inimitable art, breathing defiant fire between their teeth, like the pair of brazenfooted bulls which he made for Aietes the redoubtable ruler of the Kolkhianxs, with hot collars and burning pole. Eurymedon [one of the Kabeiroi] drove and guided the fiery mouths of the ironfoot steeds with a fiery bridle; in his right hand he held a Lemnian spear made on his father’s anvil, and by his wellmade thigh hung a flashing sword - if a man picked up a small stone in his fingertips and struck it against the fire-grained surface of the sharp blade, sparks flashed of themselves from the steel. Alkon grasped a fiery bolt in one hand, and swung about a festal torch of Hekate from his own country [Hekate and the Kabeiroi were both gods of the Samothrakian Mysteries]." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 29.193

"The prodigious [Indian chief] Morrheus attacked the warriors of Bromios [Dionysos]. He wounded Eurymedon, cut through the groin with his blood-stained spear: the mad point ran through the thigh and tore the skin from the fat of the flesh; collapsing he fell on his knee to the ground. Mailclad Alkon did not neglect his brother’s fall; but lifting spear and round buckler he made for the fallen man, and covered the warrior well, holding the shield tower-like over his body, and thrusting right and left his unresting spear, brother protecting brother against the foe. He stradled across the wounded man, as a lion over his cubs, shouting loud and letting out mad Korybantic cries from his lips. When Morrheus saw him moving with neat steps about his brother, defending the fallen Kabeiros, the monster went raging like Typhon and attacked both brothers, that Kabeiro might shed her tears for two dead sons, slain in one day with one spear. And now he would have dealt equal destruction to both, but Eurymedon called upon his Lemnian father [Hephaistos] with voice that gasped and strained from his mouth:
‘O Father, firebreathing lord of our laborious art! Grant me the boon once earned, when Deo [Demeter] of the threshing-floor alone seized threecliff Sikelia (Sicily), as sightingprize for Persephoneia hidden there, and knocked over your windblown bellows in the west and your wide forge and gripping tongs: but I defended my father and scared her off, protecting your anvil. You owe it to me that the air is black and hot with your Sikelian sparks! Then save your son I pray, whom savage Morrheus has wounded!’
At these words fiery Hephaistos leapt down from heaven, and sent a flame leaping and fluttering with many tongues about his son, whirling in his hand a shoot of fire. About Morrheus’ neck the flame crawled and curled itself as if it knew what it was doing, and rolled round his throat a necklace of fireblazing constraint; the blazing throat once encircled, it rand down with a springing movement to the end of his toes, and wove a plait of fiery threads over the warrior’s foot, and there firmly fixt the earth scattered its dancing spars – the helmet caught fire and his head was hot enough! And now he would have fallen flat, struck with the fiery shot, had not Deriades’ [river-god] father Hydaspes come to the rescue. For he sat watching the battle high on a rock, his full-form having a false guise of human shape. He poured a quenching stream and saved the man’s life, cooling the hot blast from the firebeaten face, brushing off the ashes and dirt from the helmet. Then he caught up Morrheus wrapt in a darksome cloud, covered and hid his limbs in a livid mist; that the firebearing Crookshank [Hephaistos] might not destroy him with his blazing shower of deadly Lemnian flame; that old Hydaspes, the tender-hearted father, might not see another goodson of Deriades perish after the first, and lament the death of Morrheus along with Orontes.
But firebearing Hephaistos drove away all the warriors who stood round the just-wounded boy. Then lifting his son on his shoulder he took him out of the fray and rested him against an oaktree hard by; he spread simples upon the wounded groin, and saved him alive his after his collapse." - Nonnus, Dionsyiaca 30.42

"Madly he [the Indian Tektaphos] pursued the army of Lyaios [Dionysos] and [slew several Satyroi] ... and indeed he would have killed a crowd of Bakkhai besides; but quickfoot [Kabeiros] Eurymedon saw him and rushed up, shaking his Korybantian twibill against him. He smashed his forehead and clove his head." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 30.135

"[A Bassaris] whose home was in the Samothrakian cavern of the Kabeiroi, skipt about the peaks of Lebanon crooning the barbarous notes of Korybantian tune." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 43.307


IDENTIFIED WITH EGYPTIAN GODS

The Kabeiroi were identified with the Egyptian sons of Ptah.

"Thus too [the Persian invader Kambyses] he entered the temple of Hephaistos [the Egyptian god Ptah] and jeered at the image there ... 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 Kabeiroi [Egyptian gods idenitified with the Kabeiroi], 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 Hephaistos [Ptah], and are said to be his sons." - Herodotus, Histories 3.37.2



Sources

  • Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd BC
  • The Orphic Hymns - Greek Hymns BC
  • Callimachus, Fragments - Greek C3rd BC
  • Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st BC - C1st AD
  • Herodotus, Histories - Greek History C5th BC
  • Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd AD
  • Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History - Greek History C1st BC
  • Aelian, On Animals - Greek Natural History C2nd - C3rd AD
  • Valerius Flaccus, The Argonautica - Latin Epic C1st AD
  • Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th AD
  • Clement, Exhortation to the Greeks - Christian Scholar C2nd AD
  • Suidas - Byzantine Lexicographer C10th AD


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