All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in February 2021.
Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller
- Samothrace(coats of arms at a gate of the fortress of Metelino)
The peak of Samothrace was the station
of Poseidon, from which he regarded the combats of
the Greeks and Trojans.
Henry Fanshawe Tozer - The islands of the Aegean Sea. Published 1890, but Tozer began his travels in 1874
You may wish to see a page with a map of the Northern Aegean Sea.
View of the island from north-west (for a view from south-east see a page on Imbro); (inset) the Gattilusio castle (it is placed above the site of the castle, which is near the remains of the Sanctuary to the Great Gods)
An impressive object
revealed itself toward the north, as soon as we had
cleared the westernmost point of Imbros. This was
the grand mass of Samothrace, which stood up from
the sea like one great mountain broken into several
peaks, with flecks of snow lying in the rifts of its
steep ridges. (..) The sky was clear, but the wind blew strongly from
the south-west, and it was exactly in that quarter
that the island, here twenty miles distant, rose from
the water, like a sea-girt castle frowning defiance. (..) I conferred with
the captain, a burly good-humoured Greek, as to the
place where I should be landed. He had not himself visited Samothrace, and was unacquainted with
its coast, in fact, no steamers ever touch there,
and during the winter very few sailing vessels. Tozer
Samothrace owes its name to the inhabitants of Samos, a larger island near the Asian coast, who colonized it in the VIIth century BC. The island did not have a good harbour and it did not play a major role in Greek history until it was conquered by King Philip II of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great, in the IVth century BC.
An existing sanctuary to the Kabeiri (very powerful gods of the underworld) which did not belong to the traditional Greek Pantheon, then became the shrine of the Macedonian nation. It was located on the northern coast of the island which faces the mainland.
Approaching the Hieron (sanctuary)
The schoolmaster was thoroughly conversant
with the excavations that had been made, since he
was on the spot at the time, and was personally
acquainted with those who took part in them. (..) The first excavations on this site were made in
1863 by a French explorer, M. Champoiseau; and
his labours were rewarded by the discovery of the
statue of Nike, which is now one of the glories of
the Louvre. Three years later much more extensive
investigations were undertaken by MM. Deville and
Coquart, of the French School of Athens. (..) But the great work of all, by
means of which the whole of the ruins were laid
bare, and the character of the various buildings was
finally determined, was carried out under the
auspices of the Austrian government by Professor
Conze and his colleagues, MM. Hauser, Niemann
and Benndorf, in the course of two expeditions in
1873 and 1875. (..) The remains consist of two parts, the city and the sanctuary,
for the latter was not included within the walls. The
city, which was of triangular form and covered a very
extensive area, had a northern aspect, and occupied
a steep position between a jutting spur of the mountains and the sea. At the summit, which is a mass
of rocks, there is no definite acropolis; indeed, the
nature of the ground formed of itself a sufficient
defence. Tozer
The history of the first excavations explains why the museums of Paris and Vienna house so many works of art from Samothrace.
Sanctuary of the Great Gods: view of the Hieron and of ancillary facilities (a great altar and a building for displaying votive offerings) seen from very near the site where the statue of Nike aka Winged Victory was found (it is shown in the image used as background for this page)
We may now proceed to the sanctuary, which was
situated westward of the city, outside the walls.
But before investigating the buildings which it contained, a word should be said with regard to the
worship of which it was the home. There is no need
for us to discuss the various theories which have
been held on the subject of the Samothracian gods:
so much I may say, that to me it seems most
probable that they were pre-Hellenic divinities
and were adopted and assimilated by the
Greeks. (..) Even in ancient times great differences of opinion
existed as to which of the Hellenic deities corresponded to the Great Gods of Samothrace. This
ambiguity would naturally be fostered by the mysterious character of the worship, the secrets of which
were only communicated to the initiated; and this
secrecy, in turn, was more easily maintained from
the island which was its centre being so difficult of
access. (..) In the southern portion of the area of the sanctuary stood a
large Doric temple, which, to judge from the fragments that remain, must have been a very handsome
edifice. The material of which it was constructed
was white marble, though the foundations, like those
of all the buildings in this sanctuary, are of the
rough stone of the country. Its architecture shows
that it was erected in the early period of the
Ptolemies, who were the greatest benefactors of this
shrine. This was the later temple of the Cabeiri.
To the north of this, and standing at a considerable
angle to it, was the older temple of those deities,
which was smaller than the other, and, though very
little of the superstructure remains from which to judge, must have been much ruder. (..)
That they were dedicated to the Cabeiri is shown,
partly by their being the only temples in this sanctuary, and partly by a remarkable feature which was
discovered in both of them. This was an opening
in the floor, communicating with the earth below,
which is known from the analogy of other temples
in which this peculiarity occurs, to have been used
for offerings to the deities of the nether world, among
whom the Cabeiri were reckoned. The Hieron had the appearance of a Greek temple, but it had columns only on the front and its wide cell ended with an apse, which was meant to symbolize a cave, the access to the underworld gods. The Cabeiri were thought to save sailors from shipwrecks. Tozer
Similar to Eleusi access to the sanctuary was reserved to the initiates and according to Plutarch
King Philip attended the initiatory ceremonies when he was a youth. A nine-day festival, took place in summer, when the lack of a proper harbour did not prevent access to the island.
Ephesos Museum in Vienna: architectural elements and statues which decorated the Hieron
Here, until a few
years ago, were several inscriptions relating to the
pilgrims who visited the neighbouring shrine. It
would be foolish to lament the removal of such
monuments to the museums of Europe; and in the
present instance, though there was no fear of injury
from the hands of the inhabitants, yet the votive
tablets were not in their original position, and could
therefore be carried off without scruple. Still, the
traveller may be allowed to regret that he cannot
inspect them. Tozer
Cicero (De Natura Deorum - III:89) reports the following anecdote about votive tablets: When Diagoras of Melos was at Samothrace, he visited the sanctuary of the Great Gods who were chiefly honoured as the rescuers of sailors in distress. On this occasion a friend asked him: "You who believe that the gods do not care about human affairs, do you not see from the vast quantity of painted
votive tablets how many men have been delivered from the violence of the storm through their prayers and vows and have reached the harbour safely?" "That" replied Diagoras, "is because the men who were shipwrecked and died at sea are not painted anywhere." (as reported by F. T. Van Straten in a conference on Gifts for the Gods in the Ancient World).
The initiation rites at Samothrace had less requirements than those at Eleusi and could be completed
in all their parts in one single visit to the site; changes made to the Hieron after the Roman conquest (IInd century BC)
indicate that the final ceremony was preceded by the killing of animals and that the blood of the victims was
poured on the head of the initiate; at that time probably the sanctuary was dedicated to Cybele, a goddess of Anatolia, who was worshipped also by the Romans as Magna Mater, Great Mother (see a Roman temple to Zeus and Cybele at Aizani).
Sanctuary of the Great Gods: the Arsinoéion, the largest tholos (circular temple/building) in ancient Greece; in the foreground a stone with a fragment of the dedication
Northward again from the older temple are the
ruins of a circular building, the foundations of which are visible throughout half their circuit, thirteen
courses remaining on the western side. The original
shape, which is clearly seen in these, is traceable
also in the curved outline of some of the marble
blocks that lie in ruin above. On one is a fragmentary inscription, from which we learn
that the edifice was dedicated to the Great Gods by
a daughter of one of the Ptolemies. It was originally
suggested by M. Deville, and his view is now
generally accepted, that this lady was Arsinoe, the
daughter of Ptolemy Soter, who took refuge in
Samothrace from the violence of Ptolemy Keraunos,
the murderer of her sons. Hence the building is
now known as the Arsinoeum. What use it was
intended to serve is not clear, but, though it was
dedicated to the Cabeiri, it does not seem to have
been a temple. Tozer
The majority of the buildings date to the period which followed the Macedonian conquest; the Diadochi, the generals, relatives and friends of Alexander the Great who established kingdoms in the vast territories he conquered, contributed to the expansion of the sanctuary; Arsinoe II (ca 316-268 BC) was the wife of Lysimachus, who ruled over Thrace; she later on married her own brother Ptolemy and became Queen of Egypt; she built near the Herion a circular hall for the meetings of the sanctuary priests with the envoys of kings and independent towns for the organization of the yearly festival.
Louvre Museum in Paris: reconstruction of the Arsinoéion and reliefs which decorated it
Other stones are
ornamented with figures of bulls' heads Tozer
In addition to the Macedonians, the sanctuary acquired importance also among the Greeks and it is thought that the statue of Nike was a gift from Rhodes to celebrate a naval victory.
Ephesos Museum in Vienna: reconstruction of the Arsinoéion and reliefs which decorated it
In 168 BC Perseus, the last Macedonian king, after having been defeated by the Romans at Pidna, escaped to Samothrace where he was arrested and brought to Rome to be paraded in the triumphal procession.
Sanctuary of the Great Gods: Stoà (portico)
Towards the south, in a corresponding position to the two temples, is the basement of an extensive structure, very long in proportion to its breadth, which appears to have been a Stoa; (..) The Nike of the Louvre occupied a commanding site to the south- east of the Stoa. Tozer
The village, which is the only inhabited place in
the island, stands at a height of several hundred feet
above the sea, the ascent to it, though gradual, is
long. Its appearance, when it suddenly comes in
view close at hand, is very striking. It lies at the foot of two conspicuous peaks of red and grey granite, while on
one side stands forth a mass of ochre-coloured rock,
crowned by the broken towers of a Genoese castle.
The uppermost of the towers, which is also the tallest gives evidence of
having been built of Hellenic materials by the fragments of friezes and fluted columns of white marble
which are embedded in it. The mediaeval castle was erected by the Gatilusi,
whom we have already heard of in the other islands
of the northern sea. Tozer
The sanctuary and the island fell into oblivion in the IVth century AD; the inhabitants abandoned the settlements along the coast which were subject to pirate raids and sought refuge inland where a small village shows evidence of having been fortified.
In ca 1415 Byzantine Emperor Manuel II assigned the islands of Samothrace and Thassos
to the Gattilusio, a Genoese family who already controlled Metelino,
a large island near the Asian coast of the Aegean Sea. In 1431-1433 the Gattilusio built a small castle with material
from the ancient town; it had three towers, the largest one included a cistern and three stories with wooden floors.
The castle was in visual contact with another one on Thassos and it probably had the purpose to detect enemy ships early and to alert the garrison of Thassos, a more important island with a good harbour.
The two main towers
The family of the Gatilusi are
a typical specimen of the stout-hearted, hard-handed
merchant-princes of the West, whose influence prevailed in these seas for two centuries and a half after
the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204. The
founder of their fortunes, Francesco Gatilusio, was
cruizing about the Aegean with two war-ships on the
look-out for some lucrative enterprise, when John V.
Palaeologus engaged his services. By his assistance
that emperor gained his throne, which had been
usurped by Cantacuzene, and he rewarded him in 1355
with the hand of his sister Maria, and with the
principality of Lesbos as her dowry. In the course of time the islands of
Lemnos, Thasos and Samothrace, and the town of
Enos on the coast of Thrace, were added to the
dominions of the Gatilusi. They ultimately became
tributary to the Turks, but retained their possessions
until they were deprived of them by Mahomet II. At the time of the first conquest of the island by the
Turks, indeed, in 1457, the island must have been
almost denuded of its people, for we are told that the
wealthy inhabitants were taken to Constantinople,
the youngest and healthiest were sold as slaves, and
only the poorest remained behind to till the soil. Tozer
Samothrace remained an Ottoman possession until 1912.
Other pages of this section:
Metelino
Aivali/Cunda
Metimno (Molyvos)
Thassos
Other pages/sections which might be of interest to you:
