Dear Friends of ancient mythology! Besides the well-known greek gods and the great Mother Goddesses of the Orient there is a number of smaller deities which regularly appear in plural. Here is a list of them which certainly is not complete: Kabirs Korybantes Kuretes Telchines Daktyloi Dioskuroi Anaktes or Gerginoi. Until now their meaning is not completely kown especially because their names often are confused. Here I want to talk about the Kabirs. Here I have 2 coins: Coin #1: Macedonia, Thessalonica, pseudo-autonomous, 3rd century, time of Septimius Severus AE 20, 6g, 19.93mm, 45° Obv.: ΘECCAΛO - NIKH Tyche, draped and turreted, veiled, r. Rev.: KAB - EIPOC Kabir in short work clothes and wearing Phrygian bonnet, standing frontal, head l., holding in raised l. hand hammer, in r. hand rhyton Ref..: SNG Copenhagen 387; Touratsoglou Emission VI, Group K (Septimius Severus), 10 (obv. same die), 8 (rev. same die), 2 ex. known rare, good VF, nice green patina Pedigree: ex Colosseum Note: This type was struck from Domitian to Valerian/Gallienus. The legend and the breaks show, that this coin belongs to the time of Septimius Severus. Rhyton is a drinking vessel in the shape of a horn. See note at end of this article. Coin #2: Macedonia, Thessalonika, Elagabal, AD 218-222 AE 22, 6.08g, 22.45g, 45° Obv.: AV K M AVP ANT - ΩNINOC EV[C] Laureate head r. Rev.: QECCAΛO - NIKEΩN Kabir in short work clothes stg. frontal, head l., holding rhyton in l. hand and hammer in raised r. hand; at both sides a small column with an elephant tusk on top. Ref.: AMNG III, 53 ( 1 ex., London) very rare, VF, dark green patina Note: The "horn-like symbol" often added to the Thessalian Kabir on imperial coins is not, as was previously assumed, in any particular connection with the cult of this deity, but is an elephant's tooth, which we also find as a consecration gift in Serapis, Isis, Astarte or Atargatis (Gaebler, AMNG III) The Kabirs are often seen on coins of Thessalia. In Thessalia they were hold for guardian gods. Banduri suggests that the reason of the remarkable accumulation of their depiction in Thessalia maybe the fact that a Gothic siege of Thessalonica was repelled by the help of the Kabirs. The ancient reports of the cult of Samothrace sadly are inconsistent and only difficult to interpret. One reason is the purposeful privacy and restriction of religious subjects and rites to the adepted and initiated to the mysteries, otherwise the mixture of pre-hellenic religious beliefs with those of the greek which during the centuries were interpreted in most various ways. The best-known is the equalization of the Kabirs with the gods of Samothrace. But Kabirs surely was not the cult name of the Samothracian deitis which were called Megaloi Theoi, the Great Gods. The following description mainly came from the site 'Das schwarze Netz': The Kabirs (Lat. Cabiri, Greek Kabeiroi, Hebr. kabbirim = the Great) are a group of gods of both gender or godlike people of primitive times. They were hold for guardians of the sailors and navigation which saved the shipwrecked and in this function were called Megaloi Theoi (= the Great Gods). Their cult is assumed to be originated in Asia Minor (look at the Phrygian bonnet!) and then via Samothrace reaching Greece. As place of birth the mountain Kabeiros in Berekynthia is suggested (Kerenyi, 70). The Kabeiroi should be offsprings of Hephaistos and Kabira, a daughter of Proteus, but sometimes they were seen as much older: They could be confronted to the Olympics like the Titans and so be the ancestors of men (Pausanias 9.25.6, cited by Kerenyi, 65f.). They stood in the centre of the mystery cult of Samothrace where the worshipped Demeter was called Kabiria (as in Boiotia too). Some Kabirs are known by name: Axieros, Axiokersos or Axiokersa. The first part of these names is a cultic invocation, Greek axios means 'dignified'. In the secret language of the Kabirs these three names are assumed to be the names of three diifferent deities. So Axierios means Demeter, Axiokersa Persephone and Axiokerses is Hades (Hederich, 496f.). Axiothera (dignified goddess) is the name of a figure which sometimes appears as wife of Prometheus. This puts the Titan Prometheus to the proximity of the Kabirs. Another element that the Kabirs share with the Titans is a primordial sacrilege. Orphic poetry (Onomakritos, 6th century BC) told of the murder of the young Dionysos by the Titans (s. Zagreus) and a similar myth is told of a fratricide of the Kabirs. The elder Kabirs should have killed the youngest and pulled off his head. So a main subject of the mystery cults was the purgation of this primordial sacrilege. The Kabirion sanctuary near Thebes is said to be founded by an autochthon named Prometheus and his son Aitnaios to whom Demeter has brought her mysteries (Pausanias 9.25.6). This Aitnaios is said to be no other than Hephaistos (from the volcano Etna in Sicily), from which the Kabirs referring to others should be originated. Therefore they often are depicted like Hephaistos himself with hammer and tongs. Their ancestor then was the Titan Prometheus as it is suggested by their cult in Athens where they have had a joint altar, or in Lemnos where in a similar constellation Kadmilos stood by Prometheus the elder. In Samothrace the Dioscuri Kastor and Polyneikes were worshipped as Kabirs. Kabeiros was a guardian god of the Macedonians too, the Kabeirides were nymphs which were assumed to be sisters or daughters of the Kabirs. The Kabirs were mixed with many others, besides the Titans with the Curetes, the Dactyles or the Penates Dii. The idols of Laban should be the Kabirs too. The Kabirs appear in Goethe's Faust II too. From Goethe Rudolf Steiner has taken them in his Anthroposophy and has inflated them to a symbol of mankind. So today the Kabirs are drifted away into esoteric fields like a quick Google search could proof. The attached pic shows the remains of the sanctuary of Kabirs in Samothrace. The famous 'Nike of Samothrace' was found nearby. Note: The rhyton is a drinking vessel in the shape of a horn, often in the form of an animal protome. Usually one-handled, it was used to pour out libations. It probably came from the Near East, but was also in use in Greece. The Kabirs are regularly depicted with them. The picture shows a rhyton from the time of the Achaemenids.. Vessel terminating in the forepart of a fantastic leonine creature, c.5th century BC. from meisterdrucke.de Sources: (1) Pausanias, Voyages (2) Der kleine Pauly (3) Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (4) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliche Griechische Mythologie (5) Karl Kerenyi, Griechische Mythologie Online Sources: http://alex.eled.duth.gr/Samothrace/Samothracem/Ggods.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabeiroi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabeiri http://www.sungaya.de/schwarz/index.htm Best regards
Informative write-up, @Jochen1, which complements my thread about Kabeiros from last month. I have three coins depicting Kabeiros, all from Thessalonica: Time of Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161. Pseudo-autonomous Æ 21.4 mm, 8.48 g, 11 h. Macedonia, Thessalonica. Obv: ΘΕCCΑΛΟ-ΝΙΚΕѠΝ, turreted and draped bust of Tyche, right. Rev: KABI-POC, Kabeiros standing left, holding rhyton and hammer, star in left field. Refs: RPC IV.1 3486 (temporary); SNG Cop 384; SNG ANS 812 var. (no star on reverse; same obv. die); BMC 5.113-14, 47-49; cf Sear 4820; Touratsoglou p.329, 30. Notes: Ex-ArtCoins Roma, Asta 4, lot 96, 5 Dec 2011. Julia Mamaea, AD 226-235 Roman provincial Æ 24.7 mm, 10.46 gm Macedonia, Thessalonica, AD 226-235 Obv: ΙΟVΛΙΑ ΜΑΜΑΙΑ ΑVΓ, diademed and draped bust, right Rev: ΘΕCCΑΛΟΝΙΚΕΩΝ, Kabeiros standing facing, head left, holding rhyton and hammer. Refs: Similar to SGI 3409; Varbanov 4484. Gordian III, AD 238-244. Roman provincial Æ 27 mm, 11.3g, 12h. Macedon, Thessalonica, AD 238-244. Obv: AVT K M ANTΩNIOC ΓΟΡΔIANOC, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Rev: ΘЄCCAΛΟΝΙ-ΚЄΩΝ ΝЄΩΚΟ-ΡΩΝ, distyle temple containing Kabeiros standing facing, head left, between two urns containing palm, holding rhyton and hammer. Refs: RPC VII.2, — (unassigned; ID 59017); Touratsoglou 145; Price & Trell 132; Varbanov 4583 var.; Moushmov 6827. Notes: Ex-ArtCoins Roma, Asta 4, lot 303, 5 Dec 2011.
THE UNIQUE PORTRAIT TETRADRACHM OF EUMENES II Author(s): Robert A. Bauslaugh Source: Museum Notes (American Numismatic Society), Vol. 27 (1982), pp. 39-51 Published by: American Numismatic Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43573649 The view of the "Syros" tetradrachms is most convincing when viewed not as referring to the Island of Syros but as part of the title of the Kyberoi-as by meadows in "the great transformation" etc. The appearance of the 2nd Eumenes portrait coin ( need photo-somebody) via Bank leu May 1983 but with the kyberoi being crowned with stars a la discouri shows that they were related divinities and confused and conflated. The Syros Kyberoi/Dioscuri The Obverse is Demeter.
I have a Kabeiros on this sestertius-sized Caracalla coin of Thessalonica. Also Caracalla is depicted wearing scale armor, which is kind of unusual.
. Theoi Kabeiroi Syrioi. This intriguing coinage, generally attributed to the small Cycladic island of Syros, was probably one of the largest wreath issues, a fact disguised by its relatively poor survival rate. Nicolet-Pierre and Amandry have observed twelve obverse dies among seventeen specimens, numbers that suggest an original size somewhere between 24 and 47 obverse dies.32 The attribution to Syros is unlikely to be correct. Instead we are dealing with a coinage issued in the name of gods,33 the mint of which is not explicitly stated, but will undoubtedly have been clear to issuers and initial recipients. Once more, the absence of such a substantial coinage from the Gaziantep hoard suggests that it must postdate 143 BC. From the Gaziantep Hoard CHX
The Lanz Numismatik 2013 Eumenes ll portrait obverse with Kyberoi reverse-a die match for the Bank Leu 1983 coin. Notice that the Kyberoi on this example are surmounted by stars,just like the Dioscuri. Thus was the BM example's other reverse a mistake by omitting them or is this die engraver more learned or confused?
From a kind respondent on Forum Ancient Coins discussion Here is an article by Marie-Christine Marcellesi, "Power and coinage - The portrait tetradrachms of Eumenes II", where these tetradrachms are depicted and discussed: https://ecsi.bokorder.se/Download.aspx?id=14182&name=power-and-coinage-the-portrait-t.pdf
