In Greek mythology, the Cabeiri (Cabiri, Kabeiroi, or Kabiri; Ancient Greek:Κάβειροι) were a group of

enigmatic chthonic deities. They were worshiped in amystery cult closely associated with that of Hephaestus,

centered in the north Aegean islands of Lemnos and possibly Samothrace—at the Samothrace temple complex—and

at Thebes. In their distant origins the Cabeiri and the Samothracian gods may include pre-Greek elements, or other

non-Greek elements, such asHittite, Thracian, proto-Etruscan or Phrygian. The Lemnian cult was always local to

Lemnos, but the Samothracian mystery cult spread rapidly throughout the Greek world during the Hellenistic period,

eventually initiating Romans.

The ancient sources disagree about whether the deities of Samothrace were Cabeiri or not; and the accounts of the

two cults differ in detail. But the two islands are close to each other, at the northern end of the Aegean, and the cults

are at least similar, and neither fits easily into the Olympic pantheon: the Cabeiri were given a mythic genealogy as

sons of Hephaestus. The accounts of the Samothracian gods, whose names were secret, differ in the number and

sexes of the gods: usually between two and four, some of either sex. The number of Cabeiri also varies, with some

accounts citing four (often a pair of males and a pair of females), and some even more, such as a tribe or whole race

of Cabeiri, often presented as all male.