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<p>[QUOTE="Jochen1, post: 5004132, member: 103829"]Dear Friends of ancient mythology!</p><p><br /></p><p>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:</p><p>Kabirs</p><p>Korybantes</p><p>Kuretes</p><p>Telchines</p><p>Daktyloi</p><p>Dioskuroi</p><p>Anaktes or</p><p>Gerginoi.</p><p><br /></p><p>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:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Coin #1:</b></p><p>Macedonia, Thessalonica, pseudo-autonomous, 3rd century, time of Septimius Severus</p><p>AE 20, 6g, 19.93mm, 45°</p><p>Obv.: ΘECCAΛO - NIKH</p><p>Tyche, draped and turreted, veiled, r.</p><p>Rev.: KAB - EIPOC</p><p>Kabir in short work clothes and wearing Phrygian bonnet, standing frontal, head l.,</p><p>holding in raised l. hand hammer, in r. hand rhyton</p><p>Ref..: SNG Copenhagen 387; Touratsoglou Emission VI, Group K (Septimius Severus), 10 (obv. same die), 8 (rev. same die), 2 ex. known</p><p>rare, good VF, nice green patina</p><p>Pedigree:</p><p>ex Colosseum</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1200922[/ATTACH]</p><p><b> Note:</b></p><p>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.</p><p>Rhyton is a drinking vessel in the shape of a horn. See note at end of this article.</p><p><br /></p><p><b> Coin #2:</b></p><p>Macedonia, Thessalonika, Elagabal, AD 218-222</p><p>AE 22, 6.08g, 22.45g, 45°</p><p>Obv.: AV K M AVP ANT - ΩNINOC EV[C]</p><p>Laureate head r.</p><p>Rev.: QECCAΛO - NIKEΩN</p><p>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.</p><p>Ref.: AMNG III, 53 ( 1 ex., London)</p><p>very rare, VF, dark green patina</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1200923[/ATTACH]</p><p><b> Note:</b></p><p>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)</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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 <i>Megaloi Theoi</i>, the Great Gods.</p><p><br /></p><p>The following description mainly came from the site 'Das schwarze Netz':</p><p>The Kabirs (Lat. <i>Cabiri</i>, Greek <i>Kabeiroi</i>, Hebr. <i>kabbirim</i> = 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 <i>Megaloi Theoi </i>(= 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).</p><p><br /></p><p>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).</p><p><br /></p><p>Some Kabirs are known by name: Axieros, Axiokersos or Axiokersa. The first part of these names is a cultic invocation, Greek <i>axios</i> 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1200924[/ATTACH]</p><p>The attached pic shows the remains of the sanctuary of Kabirs in Samothrace. The famous <i>'Nike of Samothrace'</i> was found nearby.</p><p><br /></p><p><b> Note:</b></p><p>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.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1200925[/ATTACH]</p><p> from meisterdrucke.de</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sources:</b></p><p>(1) Pausanias, Voyages</p><p>(2) Der kleine Pauly</p><p>(3) Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology</p><p>(4) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliche Griechische Mythologie</p><p>(5) Karl Kerenyi, Griechische Mythologie</p><p><br /></p><p><b> Online Sources:</b></p><p><a href="http://alex.eled.duth.gr/Samothrace/Samothracem/Ggods.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://alex.eled.duth.gr/Samothrace/Samothracem/Ggods.htm" rel="nofollow">http://alex.eled.duth.gr/Samothrace/Samothracem/Ggods.htm</a></p><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabeiroi" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabeiroi" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabeiroi</a></p><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabeiri" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabeiri" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabeiri</a></p><p><a href="http://www.sungaya.de/schwarz/index.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.sungaya.de/schwarz/index.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.sungaya.de/schwarz/index.htm</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Best regards[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Jochen1, post: 5004132, member: 103829"]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: [B]Coin #1:[/B] 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 [ATTACH=full]1200922[/ATTACH] [B] Note:[/B] 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. [B] Coin #2:[/B] 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 [ATTACH=full]1200923[/ATTACH] [B] Note:[/B] 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 [I]Megaloi Theoi[/I], the Great Gods. The following description mainly came from the site 'Das schwarze Netz': The Kabirs (Lat. [I]Cabiri[/I], Greek [I]Kabeiroi[/I], Hebr. [I]kabbirim[/I] = 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 [I]Megaloi Theoi [/I](= 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 [I]axios[/I] 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. [ATTACH=full]1200924[/ATTACH] The attached pic shows the remains of the sanctuary of Kabirs in Samothrace. The famous [I]'Nike of Samothrace'[/I] was found nearby. [B] Note:[/B] 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. [ATTACH=full]1200925[/ATTACH] from meisterdrucke.de [B]Sources:[/B] (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 [B] Online Sources:[/B] [URL]http://alex.eled.duth.gr/Samothrace/Samothracem/Ggods.htm[/URL] [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabeiroi[/URL] [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabeiri[/URL] [URL]http://www.sungaya.de/schwarz/index.htm[/URL] Best regards[/QUOTE]
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