Daimones in the Thracian Sea: Mysteries, Iron, and Metaphors

Abstract

The daimones associated with the mystery cult of Samothrace have been interpreted as the distant memory of prehistoric smiths or dismissed from investigation altogether because of their absence from the epigraphic record. Anthropological models of metaphor formation offer a more nuanced approach to understanding their functions in the cult. The daimones’ ethnicity suggests a response to cultural interactions and economic production in the region; their metallurgical skills provided a key metaphor articulating a range of concepts which defined the rites, including secrecy, regional identity, and cosmological speculation.

Smelting Metals, Enacting Rituals. The Interplay of Religious Symbolisms and Metallurgical Practices in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean

“…Although speculative, this is certainly an element of great interest: the origin of semi-gods placed along known sea routes connecting Mainland Greece with Cyprus, Crete, Anatolia, and the Balkan region might very well reflect the known importance of these regions for trade exchange, in general, and metal procurement in the specific 7 . On the other hand, the ethnic affiliation of these daimones, and the actual role played by metallurgy in local cults and rites, are more nuanced than admitted by some scholars, advising caution in the interpretation of their presence as a direct reflection of religious symbolism attached to metallurgical production in these regions (Blakely 2012). Regarding medical knowledge, the power of daimones appears to be linked strictly to metals and their properties.…”

The Promise of Prosperity: Visions of the Future in Timor-Leste

“…(Cohen 2015: 10) Similarly, in relation to metals, their transgressive and risky qualities, the prescriptions for and prohibitions against their use, are documented in literature from the ancient Greeks to accounts of metallurgy and ritual in recent Africa (cf. Blakely 2006Blakely , 2012Barndon 2012;Haaland et al 2002). Below, I will examine the ways in which stone, reconfigured as metal, has challenged -and continues to challenge -the collaboration between humans and lithic matter in the Baucau/Viqueque region of Timor-Leste.…”