Initiation and offerings
Hall D contains votives and material from the buildings of the mystery cult in the central valley of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, especially the Hall of Choral Dancers and the Hieron. The Western Hill, with its sheltering/dining facilities for visitors/initiates, and its dedicatory monuments, is also presented. The Stoa and various dining rooms belong to the former; the Neorion and the Nike Precinct are among the latter. Selected finds from the Nike Monument over the last decades are exhibited here for the first time. Finally, there is a reference to the pre-Hellenic past of the cult in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods.
Initiation at Samothrace
The central ritual of the mysteries was initiation. At Samothrace first-time participants in the ritual were called mystai, μύσται in Greek, a nominal form from the verb μύω, meaning “to close,” with respect to one’s eyes. Thus, mystai were blindfolded, in contrast to the epoptai (ἐπόπται), “viewers,” taking part in the ritual for the second time. The process of participating as a mystes was called myesis (μύησις). The term myesis, however, also meant a purificatory rite performed prior to initiation proper; at Samothrace this preliminary myesis took the form of the rite of thronosis. The mysteries took place at night, and involved a frightening, deathlike experience. In the Samothracian mysteries, the initiates saw a sacred light at the climax of the rite. It is believed that the ceremony celebrated the union of a man and a woman, expressed in myth by the wedding of Kadmos and Harmonia. Recent research has connected myesis and epopteia with the building known as the Hall of Choral Dancers.
Objects involved in the initiation ceremonies
Iron rings had a special magical importance in the Samothracian cult. What made the rings important was the fact that they were magnetized, affirming the bond between the Great Gods and the initiates. The profusion of clay lamps, some of them incised with the magical initial of the Great Gods, Θ, others stamped with a monogram, ΘΕ, suggests that at some point in the ceremonies every initiate carried a lamp. Excavations have also furnished ample evidence of banqueting in the Sanctuary. Τhe most customary form of a drinking vessel was the kantharos, often incised with the magical initial of the Gods. In the Hellenistic period, simple conical bowls with a Θ incised in the center before firing were very common.
Thracians and Greeks
The Greek presence on Samothrace dates back to the 7th century BC, when there are indications of Aeolian Greeks coming to the island, probably from the Troad. The distinctive painted pottery known as G 2-3 ware and two Aeolisms in an inscription from the city of Samothrace are arguments in favor of this hypothesis. However, the evidence documents an Ionian settlement of the island by settlers who came from Samos in the first half of the 6th century BC. In any case, the populace the Greeks found here was Thracian. The well-known group of ceramic inscriptions from the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, which date from the 6th to the 1st century BC, is thought to illustrate the peaceful coexistence of the pre-Greek Thracian populace with the Greek settlers. Seventy-five of these, as well as one on the handle of a bronze utensil, and a limestone stele are inscribed with Greek characters but using a non-Greek language, probably that referred to by Diodorus Siculus: “the autochthonous inhabitants used an ancient language which was peculiar to them and of which many words are preserved to this day in the ritual and their sacrifices.”
This was the language used by the Thracians in Samothrace before the Greek settlement. These Thracian inscriptions date from the 6th to the late 4th/early 3rd century BC and it is probable that the old dialect could have been used as a liturgical lingua sacra in religious rites, but it had already ceased to be a living language by the end of the 4th century BC.
The Greek ceramic inscriptions cover a period which extends from the 4th to the 1st century BC. Most of the non-Greek inscriptions are simple designations of divine ownership or dedications. As for the stone inscription, it may well be a list of names, like the numerous later lists of initiates and theoroi on Greek inscriptions. The majority of the Greek ceramic inscriptions show merely the initial Θ or the two first letters ΘΕ of the word ΘΕΩΝ, being also designations of divine ownership.
The Hall of Choral Dancers, its frieze and the reconstruction of the entablature of its southeast corner
The Thasian marble Hall of Choral Dancers is the largest and earliest of the Sanctuary’s marble buildings, possibly donated (ca. 340 BC) by Philip II of Macedon. At the northwest of the building, an elegant, deep, columnar Ionic porch with a recessed central section gave access to two oblong rectangular aisles.
The frieze surrounding the entire building shows a procession of dancing young women. The dancers wear ceremonial costumes and are arranged in facing pairs holding each other by their wrists. The dancers are depicted in a series of groups, each consisting of a musician followed by dancers. The musicians are dancing and moving forward, leading the dancers to the sound of their instruments (the kithara, the aulos, and the tympanum).
The reconstruction of the entablature of the southeast corner of the building consists, from bottom up, of a triple-banded architrave (modern marble copy), the frieze, the dentil course, and the cornice-gutter (geison-sima) carved in one block. The corner frieze block is preserved in its entire length: nine dancing young women move to the right on the long (east) side, and three more move to the right on the short (south) side. On the long side, eight dancers are led by a musician playing a kithara. Above the frieze lies the corner dentil block with four dentils. Above comes the well preserved corner roofing block. The lateral sima was decorated with sculptured rinceaux, including flowers, buds, and spiral tendrils, flanking lion’s head water spouts. Finally, the rectangular base of the southeast corner akroterion was put in place.
Τhe Hieron
The Hieron takes its current name from a prohibitory inscription, “The uninitiated may not enter the Hieron or the sacred space ” (ἀμύητον μὴ εἰσιέναι εἰς τὸ ἱερόν); its last excavators, P. and K. Lehmann concluded that the Hieron was used for the second stage of initiation, the epopteia. However, the building could be associated with the cult of the Great Gods – Kabeiroi. As for the ritual enacted within it, the lateral benches within the cella could point to banquets and symposia, while the drain in the northwest corner of the cella may relate to purification rites.
The main body of the Hieron belongs to the first quarter of the 3rd century BC. The porch and the pronaos, along with their attendant sculptures, were completed in the second half of the 3rd century BC, while the Hellenistic akroterial sculpture is dated to the 2nd century BC. The building features a Doric double colonnade of six columns separated by two additional columns, one on each side, before the long cella. The tiled roof was enhanced with akroteria, in the form of floral motifs at the apex and sculpted figures of Nike, the goddess of victory, in the corners (Hall A). Both pediments contained figural sculptures, the north in the round and the south in relief. The marble ceiling of the porch and the pronaos had marble coffers, the lids of which in the pronaos were decorated with sculptured reliefs, including figures of prancing centaurs. Shortly before the center of the cella there was an eschara (sacrificial hearth).
The Western Hill
The area of the Western Hill includes the structures to the west of the central ravine, clustered into four topographic units:
1. Τhe Stoa plateau, with the Nike Precinct and the Theater
The Nike of Samothrace crowned the highest point of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. The Theater connected the central valley with the Stoa plateau. The Stoa (mid-3rd cent. BC) functioned in close relationship with the Theater, the Nike Monument, and the dining facilities. It faces east, and had a Doric prostyle facade of 35 Doric columns and an internal central colonnade of 16 Ionic columns. The terrace east of the Stoa served for the display of commemorative and votive monuments.
2. Τhe monuments on the intermediate terrace
The Neorion (second quarter of 3rd cent. BC) was designed to house a small warship (a hemiolis or a lembos) dedicated to the Great Gods probably by Antigonos Gonatas. The Hestiatorion (mid-3rd cent. BC) served for feasting and drinking associated with the initiation rites.
3. Τhe monuments on the lower northern slope
The Milesian Banquet Hall (second half of 3rd cent. BC) was donated by a woman from Miletus. This building, like the Neorion, reflects Macedonian architectural practice.
4. Τhe dining and cult facilities east of the Stoa
The narrow strip of land that runs between the Central Ravine and the ridge of the Western Hill played a significant role in the experience of the initiate. This area, which includes mainly dining rooms, was in continuous use from the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD.
