CABIRI. — Minor Greek deities, according to some of Phoenician origin, according to others Phrygian. Their nature is debated: sea gods protecting in storms, gods of fertility, or chthonic deities; recent excavations of the Cabiric sanctuaries at Thebes and Samothrace show that the C. had a chthonic nature here.
In Greece, the sanctuaries of Samothrace (v. SAMOTHRACE, MYSTERIES OF), Thebes, and Lemnos (the latter, recently excavated, seems to date back to the 8th–7th century B.C.) were of great importance; in Asia Minor, those of Pergamon and Miletus, which some consider older than the Greek ones. The cult and names of the C. vary from one center to another; at Thebes, there are also Orphic influences. The C. were assimilated by the Greeks to the Corybantes (v.) and the Dioscuri and linked to Hephaestus; by the Romans, to Dardanus and Aeneas, to the Penates, to Jupiter, Minerva, and Mercury, to the Capitoline triad.