of self-improvement as well, and accordingly the men of the Thracian nobility, completely unarmed and wearing only white linen and gold pins in their hair, climbed rock-steps of the sacred mountain from the cave-womb of to the summit to praise the rising . The mysteries of the Cabeiri The mysteries of the Cabeiri, which were a variant of the Orphic mystery cult adopted by the Greeks, took the form of a hieros gamos between the god () and the goddess (), or the priest and the priestess, out of which was born a mysterial child (Orpheus). This sacred marriage is represented in a jug-rhyton from the Borovo Treasure: on its upper frieze the domination of wild Nature is depicted in the form of sileni drinking wine or swinging on boughs, and satyrs pursuing maenads who are themselves intoxicated by the smell of the blood of killed animals and dancing in trance the lower frieze instead represents civilisation and order in the form of measured dancing to the music of the flute, figures of the child Eros mixing wine with water, and the union of the god and goddess in marriage, thus subsuming their instincts in culturally-appropriate decency The mysteries of the Cabeiri on the island of Lemnos were performed in the dialect of the Thracian language spoken by the Sintians tribe. A sanctuary to the Cabeiri was built in palace of the Odrysian king Seuthes III in his capital city of Seuthopolis. The initiation ritual The initiation ritual into the mystery of the Cabeiri on Samothrace consisted of the aspiring initiate pouring blood over his naked body, after which he washed himself and dressed. Then he would enter into a long windowless hall whose walls were lined with benches where the other initiates were already seated and waiting for the new initiate. The initiate would then step on a wooden platform in the centre of the hall. while a priest spoke in the liturgical "sacred Thracian dialect" of the sanctuary to describe the sacred unions of the Mother Goddess. Those present who understood the priest's words responded with an Orphic oath and vowed to keep secret the knowledge of how the gods created the world and set it in motion. After the oath, each of the new initiates received a red belt and a magnetite bracelet respectively representing the blood and the womb of . The mysteries of The initiates