Spring Equinox :: Deity of the Sabbat :: Kybele
The veneration of Kybele is known from 1500 BCE, though it is likely that her cult was far older, and continued through the
Mediterranean world until the conversion of Christianity in approximately 400 CE. She may have been derived from the Semitic
Gebaliah, goddess of Gebal, but it was at the city of Pessinus in Phrygia on the fertile, hilly uplands of central Asia that
Kybele developed into the Queen and Mistress of her people. She was the earth goddess, goddess of mountains, caverns and
wild nature, giver of fertility, healer and bringer of disease. She gave oracles, protected her people in war and conferred
immortality on her devotees.
Her cult appeared in Lydia at an early date and had arrived in Greece by the 5th century BCE where she was early associated with the Greek earth goddess Demeter. Except for places in the northwest Peloponnese and in the port of Piraeus, Kybele’s cult was thoroughly Hellenized and she was given a family lineage equal to her import as a deity. Her parents are given as Uranus (sky) and Gaea (earth), making her the sister of the Titans and older than the Olympic deities. (Her parents are alternately listed as Meion and Dindyme.) By Gordius, king of Phrygia, she is the mother of King Midas, who by the power of his golden touch illustrated both the wealth his mother offered and what could happen when one became too greedy. In Thrace, she was considered the mother of Dionysus, the festive god of vegetation and wine by her consort Attis.
The great Zeus is said to have become infatuated with Kybele as she slept on Agdo, the natural rock from which the world was created. Zeus approached her but she refused him because she loved another. Since he couldn’t impregnate the goddess, he impregnated the rock Agdo which produced Agdistis who was born with both male and female organs and horrified the other gods. Liber, a fertility god used a strong hair rope to tie Agdistis’ foot to his phallus while the monstrous being slept. When Agdistis awoke and attempted to break free, he castrated himself and his blood poured out, fertilizing the earth. It is thought by some sources that Agdistis, now fully female, grew up to be the goddess Kybele.
The theme of castration also figures prominently in the legend of Kybele and her great love Attis (Atys), god of vegetation. Attis was the son of Nana, the Akkadian mother goddess who was impregnated with the god when an almond ( alternately a pomegranate seed) that had grown from the severed genitals of Agdistis fell between her breasts. Attis and Kybele together were responsible for the fertility of the fields and animals and were so deeply connected that they agreed to love only each other. Attis, however, could not hold up his end of the bargain and while Kybele was away, he wed the daughter of the river god Sangarius. When Kybele discovered her lover’s betrayal, she caused him to go insane and as a result he castrated himself. As the god lay dying, his blood flowed freely causing violets to spring up from the ground. After Kybele discovered his body, she turned him into a pine tree and sat beneath it to mourn her loss. While she mourned, she neglected her duties as a goddess and the fields went barren and animals refused to mate. Zeus saw the distraught goddess and promised her that the tree she had created from her lover’s body would remain ever green. Alternate versions of the story say that when Zeus saw the devoted love between the two fertility deities, he was enraged with jealousy and sent wild boars to attack the god and tear him to pieces. To compensate the goddess for his actions, Zeus turned Attis into an evergreen tree.
Little is known of the Hellenistic rites in honor of Kybele. In private cults and at Piraeus, the port of Athens where Attis
was also honored, her rites remained similar to those practiced in her homeland. Ecstatic states inducing prophetic rapture
and insensibility to pain were characteristic of her worship and the preserved Hellenized formulae includes a ritual meal,
the processional carrying of the kernos, a vessel used to receive the genitals of sacrificed bull, and a descent into the
pastos, an underground chamber. What took place in the pastos is unknown; possibly rites of initiation or rites intended to
confer immortality on the devotee. Immortality was not thought of as everlasting life, but as a return to and union with
the earth mother after death. In later times, when Kybele and Attis became celestial deities, he associated with the sun
and she with the stars, the soul was thought to return to the skies to be reunited with its source.
Kybele’s worshipped reached the Romans via the Greeks and through trade and war with her homeland of Anatolia and cult centers throughout the Mediterranean. A temple in her honor called the Temple of Victories was constructed on Palatine hill in Rome and Oriental priests were brought in to honor the goddess. These priests, called galloi or galli, were castrated and performed rites throughout the year but her primary festival occurred in the spring to lull the goddess from her mourning so she could return her attention to fertility. The Roman spring festival began on March 15 with the procession of reed bearers and a sacrifice for crops. This was followed by a week of fasting and purification rituals, then the festival proper began on March 22 with the bringing of a pine tree, a symbol of Attis, into the temple of Kybele. March 24th was the tristia, the Day of Blood, a day of mourning to commemorate Attis’ castration and death. Joy returned on the following day, when the Hilaria was held with banquets, dancing and singing to please the goddess. After a day’s rest, the festival closed with the ritual cleansing of the image of Kybele in the Almo.
In approximately 204 CE, a prophecy was fulfilled when the black stone that had symbolized the goddess in her homeland was brought from Pessinus to Rome to be installed in the Temple of the Victories as Cybele Magna Mater. The prophecy had stated that if the Great Mother was brought to Rome the armies of the invader Hannibal would be defeated. Through their campaigns, the Romans carried the cult of Kybele into Gaul where it was readily accepted and the goddess can be identified with Bona Dea, goddess of the earth, fertility and battle. In Northern Africa, Kybele was accepted by agrarian societies and held in special reverence by women who made offerings and appealed to the goddess to give them children. Kybele’s rites continued in Rome and its territories until the end of the Roman Empire. A ritual brought from Asia Minor was enacted often with the blessing of the emperor. In this ritual, a devotee entered a ditch and a bull or ram, symbolic of Attis, was sacrificed above. Through this ritual blood bath, blessings and possibly immortality were granted to the devotee.
Many depictions of the goddess remain from her thousands of years of worship, in this artwork there are clues to her
functions and personality. In the earliest examples, created when she was still thought of primarily as a goddess of
mountains and wild lands, she is shown bare-breasted, clutching snakes in either hand, standing atop a mountain that is
flanked by twin lions. Classical sculpture shows her enthroned in a naiskos (shrine) wearing a mural crown or calathos
(basket), carrying a libation bowl and drum with her sacred lions at her side. The mural crown acknowledges the goddess in
her warrior aspect and as a founder of cities while the basket signifies her connection to the bounty of the fields. Her
sacred lions recall her connection to the wild, untamable side of nature. In other sculptures, created in both classical
and modern times, a martial Kybele drives a chariot pulled by either panthers or lions. In marble reliefs and in paintings
created by modern artists, the goddess can be seen joyously drumming while leading a retinue of dancers known as the
Korybantes, whom the poet Ovid called “people born of rainwater”. The Great Mother Goddess of Anatolia continues to inspire
worship, reverence and art today, just as she did thousands of years ago.
Kybele's Many Names
Agdistis
Berecyntia (Gaul)
Dindymene
Dindymus
Cybebe
Cybele
Cybelle
Kabele
Kybele
Ma
Magna Mater (Roman)
Mater Turrita (Roman)
Ops
Rhea
Continue to Spring Equinox :: Variant Names & Celebrations
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