Ancient literary sources attest to the existence on the Greek island of Samothrace of a city, a cave, and a goddess with the nickname of Zerynthia; as well as to the existence on the mainland coast opposite the island of a temple dedicated to a god with the nickname of Zerynthios. These epithets, probably of pre-Hellenic origin, could well have been Thracian, given that the Thracians inhabited both the island and the coast opposite it before being colonized by the Greeks during the 7th century BCE.
Because Lycophron referred to the goddess Zerynthia of Samothrace as “queen of Strymon” and “goddess of Pherae”, and most ancient authors affirm this, Zerynthia may have been a Thracian deity later assimilated with the Greek goddesses Hecate and/or Aphrodite. However, we know nothing about the cave where this goddess was worshipped, except that her secret rites or “Mysteries” were celebrated there and that dogs were sacrificed in her honour. We do not even know its approximate location; only that the “divine” Zerynthus was in the place “where the rocks are thronged with torchbearing mystics of the Maid.” This statement by Nonnus of Panopolis leads us to imagine its location around Paleopolis, where the ancient polis and the mystery sanctuary dedicated to the Great Gods are located. However, some old cartographic maps conflict with this theory, placing these divine city and cave on the island’s eastern coast, rather than the northern coast where Paleopolis lies. That is why the main objective of my paper will be to present an investigation, called Zerynthia Project, whose aim is trying to locate these city and cave on the Samothracian insular land, as well as to find out what characteristics defined the goddess Zerynthia through a multidisciplinary lens, combining ancient literary sources, archaeological evidence, and old cartographic maps.

First Author: Marta López Aleixandre

Keywords:
Samothrace
Zerynthia
Cult
Cave
Dog