Guide of Eastern Macedonia & Thrace

The mythological tradition in the area of Kavala is mainly associated with two figures of the ancient world, Dionysus and Orpheus.
According to mythology, the oracle of Dionysus was located at Mount Pangaion. At this place, a woman known as Promantis divined and the god’s priests, or Prophetevontes, delivered the oracles to the faithful. It is also said that the Dionysian theatre companies were gathered at the slopes of the mountain to perform the ceremonies, or “mysteries”, dedicated to the god of wine.
The tragic story of king Lycurgus is also connected with Mount Pangaion and Dionysus. According to a tradition, the king fought the worship of Dionysus and threatened his life; then Zeus blinded the king who finally died into a cave of Pangaion, killed by Dionysus. According to another tradition, the god drove Lycurgus insane, leading him to slaughter his child thinking he was pruning a vine. Then, the king was devoured by wild horses after he had been tied on the mountain by his own subjects, the Edonians, in order to regain the fertility of the earth.
Mount Pangaion is also related to the mythical figure of Orpheus who was famous for his music, singing and playing the kithara (an ancient Greek music instrument). According to the mythological tradition, Orpheus disdained the Dionysian mysteries and as a consequence, Dionysus ordered the Bacchae to tear him to pieces and to dispel his members at Mount Pangaion. After that, the Muses collected these members and bury them. Another tradition has it that Orpheus was killed by the women of the Thracians, prompt by Aphrodite. According to another version, Orpheus was thunderstruck by Zeus because his teaching revealed occult truths to men.