A veil of mystery wreathes the island of Samothrace or the island of Aeolus, as it was called in antiquity. Here, according to mythology, lived the Kabeiri, monstrous creatures, which were called in general "Great Gods", since the use of their individual names was avoided out of fear. These are the children or the grandchildren of Hephaestus and Kabeiro, three sons-the Kabeiri- and three daughters- the Kabeirian nymphs. However, it seems that in Samothrace were worshipped four Gods (two female with names Axieros and Axiokera and two male, Axiokersos and Kasmilos, who were later identified with Demeter and Persephone and Hades and Mercury respectively) by the Kabeiria Mysteries in the sanctuary of the Great Gods, which is preserved to our days. According to Herodotus, who was initiated into the Kabeiria Mysteries, the Kabeiri were gods of the Pelasgians, the ancestors of the Greek nation. The worship of Kabeiri is connected with that of Mother Nature and fertility; while the figuration of Kabeirian vessels depicting Kabeiros lying in a wine-drinking poise, like Dionysus, denotes the comparable relation to the Dionysian worship. The most distinctive myth concerning the Kabeiri is likely that of the Argonauts, who passed by Samothrace to reach Troy. During the journey, they encountered rough seas, and Orpheus, the only one of the Argonauts who had taken part in the mystical rites of Samothrace, prayed to the Great Gods and immediately the winds simmered down, while two stars appeared above the heads of the Dioscuri, as an answer from the Gods. The island is also referred in Homer's Iliad, where the God of the sea, Poseidon, watches the Trojan War "from the highest peak of the forested Samothrace" (Homer's Iliad, N lines 10-19). Last but not least, it is said that the parents of Alexander the Great, Philip II and Olympias, met for the first time in the Kabeiria Mysteries and that the arrest of the grand commander also took place there.