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| Background | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ancient Oriental and Greco-Roman deity, known by a variety of local names; the name Cybele or Cybebe predominates in Greek and Roman literature from about the 5th century BC onward. Her full official Roman name was Mater Deum Magna Idaea (Great Idaean Mother of the Gods). | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Great Pagan Goddess Cybele (Kybele - cave dweller) would, through a transformation by the Greeks, be confused with and eventually known as the Sibyls. The Great Goddess of Asia Minor is the oldest true Goddess known, predating the Goddesses of the Sumerian and Egyptians by at least 5,000 years. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
A figurine found at Çatal Hüyük, dating to 8,000 year ago, depicts the Mother Goddess squatting in the process of giving birth while flanked by two leopards. In later centuries, the leopards would be changed to lions--the metamorphosed Atalanta and Hippomenes, though leopards were considered to be female lions by the ancients. Her worship was originally combined with that of the Bull of Heaven, which is also prominently displayed at Çatal Hüyük. |
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| Legends agree in locating the rise of the worship of the Great Mother in the general area of Phrygia in Asia Minor (now in west-central Turkey), and during classical times her cult centre was at Pessinus, located on the slopes of Mount Dindymus, or Agdistis (hence her names Dindymene and Agdistis). The existence, however, of many similar non-Phrygian deities indicates that she was merely the Phrygian form of the nature deity of all Asia Minor. From Asia Minor her cult spread first to Greek territory. The Greeks always saw in the Great Mother a resemblance to their own goddess Rhea and finally identified the two completely. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| During Hannibal's invasion of Italy in 204 BC, the Romans followed a Sibylline prophecy that the enemy could be expelled and conquered if the "Idaean Mother" were brought to Rome, together with her sacred symbol, a massive meteorite stone reputed to have fallen from the heavens. Her identification by the Romans with the goddesses Maia, Ops, Rhea, Tellus, and Ceres contributed to the establishment of her worship on a firm footing. By the end of the Roman Republic it had attained prominence, and under the empire it became one of the most important cults in the Roman world. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The great mother goddess Cybele was taken from Pergamos to Rome in 204 B.C. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cybele was received with full honors by the leading citizens of Rome. The Roman Pontifex Maximus welcomed her and she became the great MAGNA MATER or "holy" mother of Rome: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
"When Cybele made her entrance in Rome she was the goddess who, coming from the old country, was to grant victory to the new. So it is hardy surprising that she was first temporarily housed in the temple of Victoria. In the very same year the construction of a temple was entrusted to the censors M. Livius Salinator and C. Claudius Nero. After 13 years—the long period was certainly due to the difficulties of those days— the building was dedicated by the praetor M. Junius Brutus on 10 April 191 B.C. The new excavations by Pietro Romanelli in 1951 showed that there is scarcely anything left of this building (pl. 31). The anniversary of the inauguration of this temple was celebrated annually." (Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis, p. 41.) |
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| In all of her aspects, Roman, Greek, and Oriental, the Great Mother was characterized by essentially the same qualities. Most prominent among them was her universal motherhood. She was the great parent not only of gods but also of human beings and beasts. She was called the Mountain Mother, and special emphasis was placed on her maternity over wild nature; this was manifested by the orgiastic character of her worship. Her mythical attendants, the Corybantes, were wild, half-demonic beings. Her priests, the galli, castrated themselves on entering her service. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The self-mutilation was justified by the myth that her lover, the fertility god Attis, had emasculated himself under a pine tree, where he bled to death. At Cybele's annual festival (March 15-27), a pine tree was cut and brought to her shrine, where it was honoured as a god and adorned with violets considered to have sprung from the blood of Attis. On March 24, the "Day of Blood," her chief priest, the archigallus, drew blood from his arms and offered it to her to the music of cymbals, drums, and flutes, while the lower clergy whirled madly and slashed themselves to bespatter the altar and the sacred pine with their blood. On March 27 the silver statue of the goddess, with the sacred stone set in its head, was borne in procession and bathed in the Almo, a tributary of the Tiber River. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Religious structure | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In each temple of the Goddess the High Priestess had the greatest status followed by the Archigalli. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Immediately subordinate in status were the ordinary priestesses. The lowest in status were the Galloi. |
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| Continuation of Cybele worship at restored Phrygianium, Vatican Hill | |||||||||||||||||||||||
The shrine of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, from which numerous inscribed altars come, was situated in an unidentified place near the Vatican Basilica. It had to be closed following the measures taken by the emperor Theodosius against pagan cults in 391 and 392. Among the numerous inscribed altars found there is this altar dedicated to Cybele and Attis, with the sacred pine of Attis, a bull and a ram, a souvenir of the sacrifices made, together with various cult objects. The precise date of its dedication is inscribed on it: 19 July 374 AD. |
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