"Coming by land from Libya under the leadership of Queen Myrina, the Amazons swept through Asia Minor to the coast, and thence proceeded to conquer some of the Aegean Islands..." Karl Lehmann - Archaeologist

"After that, while subduing some of the rest of the islands, she was caught in a storm, and after she offered up prayers for her safety to the Mother of the gods, she was carried to one of the uninhabitated islands; this island, in obedience to a vision which she beheld in her dreams, she made sacred to this godess, and set up altars there and offered magnificent sacrifices. She also gave it the name Samothrace, which means, when translated into Greek 'sacred island'.

"After the Amazons had returned to the continent, the myth relates, the Mother of the gods, well pleased with the island, settled on it certain other people, and also her own sons, who are known by the name of Corybantes. Who their father was is handed down in their initiation as a matter not to be divulged; and she taught the mysteries which are now celebrated on the island, and ordained by law that the sacred area should enjoy the right of sanctuary."Translated from the original Greek as written down by Diodorus Sicilus in 1 B.C

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By William Angelos
Copyright: Hellenic Electronic Center

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