Gods so secret it was forbidden to say their names
On the island of Samothrace in the northern Aegean stood one of the great sanctuaries of the Greek world, celebrated everywhere for its mysteries. The gods themselves were the secret. It was taboo to speak their names, so inscriptions call them only the Great Gods and ancient writers the Kabeiroi: underworld powers older than the Greeks who settled the island in the 7th century BC, gathered round a Great Mother whose original, secret name was Axieros. Her power was felt in veins of magnetic iron, and initiates wore rings made from it to know one another; some have been found in the graves nearby. Herodotus was an initiate, and one of the very few writers to leave clues about what went on, and so was the Spartan commander Lysander. Anyone could worship in the sanctuary, but the buildings of the mysteries were for initiates alone. Each summer the great festival drew envoys from across Greece to a sacred play of a divine wedding. Plato and Aristophanes both mention it.
Samothrace, Evros, Greece
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Other places on the map within a couple of hours of here.
