SAMOTHRACE
(Σαμοθρᾴκη), Greece.
A mountainous island in the NE Aegean famous in antiquity for
its Sanctuary of the Great Gods. Sporadic finds indicate
that it was inhabited in the Neolithic Age, and pottery
dating from the Bronze Age has been found at Kariotes
to the E of the later Greek city. The island was settled
ca. 700 B.C. by Greek-speaking colonists whose Aeolic
dialect suggests that they came from NW Anatolia or
Lesbos. They mingled with the local population, whose
Thracian tongue is documented as the ritual language
of the cult as late as the Augustan age. The archaic city,
as yet little explored, was protected by an impressive city
wall. A naval power owning territory on the Thracian
coast, it became part of the Attic empire in the 5th c.
As its power waned, the fame of the sanctuary outside
its walls grew, culminating in the Hellenistic and early
Imperial ages. Under the patronage of the royal Macedonian house and the Diadochs, the venerable sanctuary
was embellished with splendid buildings that remained in
use until the cult ceased in the late 4th c. A.D. In the 6th
c. it was destroyed by an earthquake. But small Christian
churches dot the island and, like the 10th c. fortification
built in the sanctuary of spoils from its destroyed buildings, attest its continuing habitation.
The Great Gods of the Samothracian mysteries included a central divinity of pre-Greek origin, a Great
Mother (called Axieros in the native tongue, Demeter
in Greek), her spouse (Kadmilos, Hermes), and attendant demons (the Kabeiroi, Dioskouroi) as well as the
Greek Hades and Persephone (locally known as Axiokersos and Axiokersa). Their nocturnal rites were available
to men and women, freemen and slaves, unlike the related rites at Eleusis. Initiation took place in two degrees, the myesis and the epopteia, the latter not required but, if taken, preceded by an obligatory rite of
confession. It was not restricted to the annual festival
but obtainable at any time. The Great Gods were special
patrons of those at sea. Through their mysteries the
initiate gained protection, moral improvement, and probably the hope of immortality. Although the initiation halls were accessible only to initiates, the sanctuary was otherwise open to all visitors.
It lies to the W of the ancient city, is framed by two
streams at its E and W, and cut at its center by a third.
The earliest monument, a rock altar to the Great Mother,
antedates the Greek settlers. In the 7th c. it was incorporated in the N part of a double precinct beneath the
later anaktoron, sacristy, and Rotunda of Arsinoe, the
S section receiving a bothros for libations to the Greeks'
underworld gods. Another rock altar outside the precinct
and remnants of a small sanctuary below the later temenos date from this period. In the 6th c. a rock altar possibly dedicated to Hekate was added to this area and further to the S, within and near the later temenos, additional altars and escharai were built. In the debris from
the sacrificial meals at one such place, quantities of fine
wheel-made local pottery of the 7th c. were found along
with handmade ware. Within the later Altar Court, a
great rock altar arose and, adjacent to it, a rectangular
lesche, a Hall of Votive Gifts to judge by its contents,
was constructed of small limestone blocks and wooden
ties. Its Doric colonnaded facade faced the central river.
The first halls of initiation were probably built at this
time. The present anaktoron, a rectangular building for
the myesis, evidently succeeded a hall of similar size,
traces of which are preserved to its W. Built of stuccoed
polygonal masonry over the part of the earlier double
precinct farther N, the anaktoron contains two rooms,
the larger entered through doors on its long W side; the
smaller and higher, at its rear, accessible only to initiates,
who entered it through internal doors. Installations in the
larger chamber (a bothros in the SE corner, a wooden
circular platform, a grandstand along two walls) reflect
the initiatory rites. Spanned by wooden beams resting on
piers engaged to its long walls, the anaktoron is the
earliest example of the Samothracian taste for clear
spans of exceptional size (10.58 m). A small building
to its S served as a sacristy. Traces of the first epopteion,
an apsidal building for initiation into the higher degree
of the mysteries, are visible in the apse of its Hellenistic
successor, the Hieron, as are those of an intermediate
early Classical epopteion.
About 340, an area long occupied by altars and
escharai was enclosed within a rectangular precinct preceded by a terrace. At its NE corner, where a road
descending from the E hill led down into the sanctuary,
a propylon was built. An Ionic porch with projecting
wings preceded its door wall, its columns distinguished
by an ornamental necking, its coffered ceiling carved
with male and female heads shown in frontal, three-quarter, and profile views. Its entablature, the earliest
example of the later standard combination of dentils
with a sculptured frieze, also shows the first extensive
use of the archaistic style for architectural sculpture: a
figural frieze probably alluding to the venerable ceremonies performed within the precinct. The design of both the building and its sculptures may be attributed to Skopas.
This first marble building in the sanctuary was followed by a series of splendid structures largely built of
Thasian marble. The Altar Court, dedicated ca. 340-330 by Arrhidaios, half-brother and successor of Alexander the Great, succeeded the rock altar beside the Hall of
Votive Gifts. The Doric colonnade of this unroofed
enclosure also faced the river. Within it, steps now led
to a marble altar. The Doric Hieron was built ca. 325
to replace the early Classical epopteion. Its rectangular
cella lined with lateral benches ended in a raised abaton,
a segmental apse covered by a tentlike wooden roof.
The painted stucco walls of the cella imitated its outer
drafted-margin masonry beneath a wooden coffered ceiling and trussed roof (clear span 10.72 m). Candidates
for the epopteia entered the Hieron through its front
door; epoptai, through lateral doors. A lustral drain near
the entrance, an eschara, and the curtained abaton were
centers of ritual action. The deep, hexastyle prostyle
porch was not completed until 150-125 B.C. when it received a sculptured coffered ceiling (centaurs, grapes) and
the building was adorned with pedimental sculptures
and akroteria at both ends (front: the Nurturing of
Aëtion; rear: relief busts of the Samothracian Gods;
central: floral akroteria; lateral: Nikai pouring libations).
Damaged by an earthquake, the rear akroteria were replaced in the early Imperial age. Toward A.D. 200, the
cella was remodeled when the Kriobolia and Taurobolia
of the Great Mother were added to the cult, necessitating enlargement of the main door and the introduction of parapets before the benches. A pair of monumental torches stood at the corners of the porch. A third
torch flanked by a pair of stepping stones outside the
cella was the scene of the rite of confession preliminary
to the epopteia.
Between 323 and 316, another hexastyle prostyle Done
building was erected over a Classical predecessor. Standing on the E hill, near the entrance to the sanctuary, it
was a gift of Philip Arrhidaios and Alexander IV. A
shallow Ionic porch abutting its rear wall overlooked
the paved stepped ramp leading downhill toward the
Temenos. Its coffered ceiling was carved with floral
motifs. In front of the Doric facade stood an altar or
monument. Below it lay a paved circular area ca. 9 m in
diameter. Encircled by rows of concentric steps of Classical date, it may have had a central altar. Statues, monuments, and inscriptions framed this area.
Between 289 and 281, the rotunda dedicated to the
Great Gods by Arsinoe rose over the old double precinct. Built for sacrificial purposes, it is ca. 20 m in diameter. Its plain marble drum was surmounted by a gallery, Doric on the exterior, Corinthian on the interior,
decorated with a parapet of sculptured bucrania and
paterai. Its conical roof crowned by a hollow finial may
have been screened on the interior by a wooden dome.
Inside and at its periphery, there were altars and shafts
for libation. Construction of the rotunda led to removal
of the sacristy, which was now rebuilt against the anaktoron. Marble benches, lamps, and stelai recording initiations inserted into its stuccoed polygonal walls attest its use. Like other buildings in the sanctuary, it shows traces
of Late Roman repair.
The Propylon of Ptolemy II erected between 285 and
281 gave access to the sanctuary from the city. On both
sides of its door wall there was a deep hexastyle porch,
Ionic on the outer city side, Corinthian on the inner
sanctuary side. This is the first documented use of the
latter order as an exterior structural member in Greek
architecture. Bucrania alternate with rosettes on its
sculptured frieze. A marble forecourt preceded the Ionic
porch; another may have lain before the ramp leading
down to the circular area on the E hill. The river bounding the sanctuary on the E originally passed through the
cut-stone barrel vault running diagonally through the
propylon's foundation. In the wake of an earthquake,
probably in the 2d c. A.D., it assumed its present course
to the W of the building. A wooden bridge now led across
the river from the propylon to the higher barren area
above the buried Classical circular structure. Neither it
nor the royal dedication on the hill was replaced.
A stuccoed limestone Doric stoa built on the W hill
overlooking the sanctuary in the 3d c. provided shelter
for visitors. Two-aisled and ca. 106 m long, its inner
order was Ionic. Its painted stuccoed walls were incised
with lists of initiates. Probably its rear wall was pierced
by doors giving access to a broad area where a two-roomed structure was built against the stoa in the 4th c.
A.D. A line of monuments stood to the E of the columnar
facade above the terraced hillside where structures, probably for ritual dining, were successively built from the
4th c. B.C. to Late Roman times. A Hellenistic niche of
pseudo-Mycenaean style may have represented the tomb
of a Samothracian hero. to the S, the outline of the
theater built ca. 200 B.C. appears. The white limestone and
red porphyry seats of the cavea faced the Altar Court
which served as its skene. Above the theater stood the
Victory of Samothrace, part of a ship-fountain of the same
period framed by an enclosure of retaining walls. The
rectangular precinct is divided into an upper basin in
which the prow of the vessel stood and a lower reflecting
basin from which natural boulders emerge and water
was drawn.
North of the stoa, the W hill is largely occupied by
a 10th c. Byzantine fortification built of spoils from the
sanctuary. Beneath it lie the foundations of a large
unfinished building of the early Hellenistic age; to its
W a row of three treasury-like late Hellenistic buildings
once stood; to its E, a marble building with an Ionic
porch that led into the central of three rooms. Dedicated
by a Milesian lady in the 3d c., it, like other structures
on the W hill, is still under investigation.
Beyond the S limits of the sanctuary lies the S Necropolis, the most extensive of the several burial grounds
hitherto explored. Its tombs range from the archaic period to the 2d c. A.D. and reveal the use of both cremation and inhumation. The rich finds from the necropolis including ceramics, terracottas, glass, jewelry, and other
objects are exhibited in the Museum at the entrance to the site.
Finds made since 1938 as well as the restored entablatures of several buildings may be seen in the five galleries
and courtyard of this museum. Objects found by earlier
expeditions, especially sculpture and architectural members, were taken to the Louvre, the Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna, the Archaeological Museums of Istanbul and the Archaeological Seminar of the Charles University, Prague.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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The Literary
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The
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P. W. LEHMANN