CABIRI. - Minor Greek divinities, according to some of Phoenician origin, according to others Phrygian. Their nature is debated: gods of the sea who protect in storms, gods of fertility, or chthonic divinities; recent excavations of the Cabirian sanctuaries of Thebes and Samothrace show that the C. had a chthonic nature there.
In Greece the sanctuaries of Samothrace (v. SAMOTRACIA, MISTERI di), Thebes, and Lemnos were of great importance (the latter, recently excavated, appears to date back to the 8th-7th century B.C.); in Asia Minor, those of Pergamum and Miletus, which some consider older than the Greek ones. The cult and names of the C. vary from one centre to another; at Thebes there are also Orphic influences. The C. were assimilated Corybantes (v.) and the Dioscuri, and associated with Hephaestus; by the Romans, with Dardanus and Aeneas, the Penates, Jupiter, Minerva, and Mercury, and the Capitoline triad.