FREE ESSAY ON CYBELE

CYBELE

CYBELE
Cybele, officially known as Mater Deum Magna Idea (Great Idean Mother of the Gods). The
Great Mother was especially prominent in the art of the empire. She usually appears with
a mural crown and veil, seated on a throne or in a chariot, and accompanied by two lions.
Cybele was the Phrygian form of the nature deity of all Asia Minor, she was a universal
mother, parent not only of the gods but also 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 alter and the sacred pine with their blood.