CABEIRI, an important group of deities, perhaps of Phrygian origin, worshipped over a large part of Asia Minor, on the islands near by, particularly Lemnos and Samothrace, and in Macedonia and northern and cen tral Greece, especially Boeotia. (itaj3ECpoc, in Boeotian 1tm3tpoc, is commonly identified with Phoen. Qabirim, "mighty ones," cf. their common Gr. and Lat. appellation "great gods"; but this is seriously doubted by several scholars, who take it to be an An atolian word of unknown mean ing) . They were underworld powers of fertility, perhaps origi nally indefinite in number; in classical times there appear to have been two male deities, Axiocersus and his son and attendant Cadmilus or Casmilus, and a less important female pair, Axierus and Axiocensa (meaning of names unknown). These were variously identified by the Greeks with gods of their own pantheon (Hephaestus, Dionysus, Demeter and Kore, the Dioscuri, etc.) . The cult included wor ship of the power of fertility, symbolized by the male organ of generation ; there were also, as usual in mysteries such as these were, rites of purification, which seem ultimately at least to have included insistence on moral purity; also initiation, presumably into the favour and intimacy of the gods. An obscure legend pre served by ecclesiastical writers says that there were three male Cabeiri, of whom two killed and beheaded the third.
They are often called the Samothracian gods, from the fame of their cult at Samothrace. There, as early as the 5th century B.C., their mysteries attracted great attention, and initiation was looked upon as a general safeguard against all misfortune, particularly against shipwreck. But it was in the period after the death of Alexander the Great that their cult reached its height, and initia tion was sought, not only by large numbers of pilgrims, but by per sons of distinction. The island possessed the right of asylum or sanctuary, for which purpose it was used by Arsinoe, wife and sister of Ptolemy Ceraunus, who, to show her gratitude. afterwards caused a monument to be erected there, the ruins of which were ex plored in 1874 by an Austrian archaeological expedition. In 1888 interesting details as to the Boeotian cult of the Cabeiri were obtained by the excavations of their temple in the neighbour hood of Thebes, conducted by the German archaeological insti tute. The two male deities wor shipped were Cabeirus and a boy (probably Axiocersus and Cad milus). The Cabeirus resembles Dionysus. The Cabeiri were held in even greater esteem by the Romans, who, claiming Trojan descent, identified them with the Penates publici (see PENATES).
See Preller-Robert, i. p. 847 ff.; W. H. Roscher, Lexikon der Mythologie (s.v.) "Megalio Theoi" ; F. Lenormant in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquites; O. Kern in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. "Kabeiros and Kabeiroi."