SECRET RITES OF SAMOTHRACE

Reimagining the experience of initiation into an ancient Greek mystery cult

- Benjamin Leonard

DURING THE DAY, the rocky island of Samothrace in the northern Aegean Sea is often veiled by clouds. Wind sweeps across the landscape, and the turbulent waters remain, as they were in antiquity, dangerous for seafarers. When the clouds clear at night, however, the peak of Mount Fengari at the island’s center, which reaches a mile into the sky, becomes visible. From the vantage point of the peak, Homer relates in the