Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/539

Rh CABEIRI. Usury and .nj,'ainst Usurers, of which a Latin trans- lation was published by J. Pontanus togetlier with Cababilas' life of Christ. The Greek original of this oration appeared at Augiist. Vindel. 1595 by D. Ilocschcl, and was afterwards published in a more correct form, together with the oration of Kpiphanius on the burial of Christ, by S. Simo- iiides, Sanioscii, 1604, 4to. The many other ora- tions and theological works of Nicolaus Cabasilas, which have not yet been printed, are enumerated in Fabric. Bill. Graec. x. p. 25. &c.; comp. Whar- ton's Appendix to Cave's UisU Lit. i. p. 44. ed. Lon- don. [L. S.] CABEIRI (Ka§6ipot), mystic divinities who oc- cur in various parts of the ancient world. The obscurity that hangs over them, and the contradic- tions respecting them in the accounts of the an- cients themselves, have opened a wide field for speculation to modem 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 anothei, 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 ns 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. {A>/laopham. pp. 1 SO^— 1 281.) The earliest mention of the Cabeiri, so far as Ave know, was in a drama of Aeschylus, entitled Ka- €(ipoi, in which the poet brought them into con- tact with tlie Argonauts in Lenmos. The Cabeiri promised the Argonauts plenty of Lemnian wine. (Plut. Si/mpos. ii. 1; Pollux, vi. 23; Bekker, Anccd. p. 115.) The opinion of Welcker {Die Acschyl. 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 Lcninian divinities, who had power over everything that contributed to the good of the inhabitants, and especially over the vineyards. The fniits 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 Carjciri. (Myrsilus, ap. DioMjs. 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 pa- milius a son of Cabeiro and Hephaestus, and that he made the three Cabeiri the sons, and the Ca- boirian nymphs the daughters, of Camillas. Ac- cording to Pherecydes, Apollo and Rhytia were the parents of the nine Corybantes who dwelled in Samothrace, and the three Cabeiri and the three Cabcirian nymphs were the children of Cabeira, the daughter of Proteus, by Hephaestus. Sacrifices were offered to the Corj'bantes as well as the Cabeiri in Lemnos and Imbros, and also in the towns of Troas, The Greek logographers, and per- haps Aeschylus too, thus considered the Cabeiri as the grandchildren of Proteus and as the sons of CABEIRI. 521 Hephaestus, and consequently as inferior in dignity to the great gods on account of their origin. Tiicir inferiority is also implied in their jocose conversa- tion with the Argonauts, and their being repeatedly mentioned along with the Curetes, Dactyls, Cory- bantes, and other beings of inferior rank. Hero- dotus (iii. 37) says, that the Cabeiri were worshipped at Memphis as the sons of Hephaestus, and that they resembled the Phoenician dwarf- gods (Ila- Ta'iKoi) 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 Athe- nians received their phallic Hermae from the Pelasgians, and those who are initiated in the mysteries of the Cabeiri will imderstand what I am saying ; for the Pelasgians formerly inhabited Samothrace, and it is from them that the Samo- thracians received their orgies. But the Samothra- cians 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 (Z)e Nat. Deoi J), 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. 1 1 ), when he says, that Mercury (Hermes) had connexions withBrimo, who is probably the goddess of Pherae worshipped at Athens, Sicyon, and Argos, whom some identi- fied with Proserpine (Persephone), and others with Hecate or Artemis. (Spanh. ad Callim. hymn, in Dian. 259.) We generally find this goddess wor- shipped in places which had the worship of the Cabeiri, and a Lemnian Artemis is mentioned by Galen. (Z>e Medic. Sinipl. 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 {Dioiiys. xxx. 45) states that the Cabeirus Alcon brandished 'E/ccittjs diaadnhia TTvpaSv, so that we may draw the conclusion, that the Samothracians and Lemnians worshipped a goddess akin to Hecate, Artemis, Bendis, or Per- sephone, who had some sexual connexion with Hermes, which revelation was made in the mys- teries 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 Sa- mothrace and were the same as the beings who were there called Cabeiri. But as the doings of the Corybantes are generally known, whereas no- thing is known of the Samothracian Corybantes, those persons are obliged to have recourse to saying, that the doings of the latter Corj'bantes 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 o^Mnion of Stesimbro- tus, that the if pa were performed in Samothrace to the Cabeiri, who derived their name from mount