Hermes, Kyllene, Samothrace, and the Sea

Authors from Herodotus to Hippolytus confirm a range of roles for Hermes in the mysteries of the Great Gods of Samothrace, as psychopomp, mystagogue, divine servant, or bridegroom. A connection with the most distinctive promise of the rites—safety in travel at sea—arises through those texts which reference Hermes of Kyllene as the iconographic type of the Samothracian god. Celebrations of this Hermes arrived on the slopes of Mt. Saos along with the first Greek settlers; the archaic wooden ithyphallic xoanon is a visual sign capable of embodying Priapus as well as Hermes. Northeastern Aegean traditions commemorate the god as a hardy swimmer, able to save himself and protect mortal mariners. The Kyllenian type Hermes of Samothrace is one among many elements in the ritual vocabulary of maritime safety through which the island articulated its control over the sea.