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The Great Mother from Asia Minor to Rome

April 2, 2008 at 6:52 am by mahud

My contribution for the Mythology Synchroblog on the theme of Motherhood. For more posts see below.

Sections

1. The Anatolian Mother
2. Cybele in Greece
3. Magna Mater in Rome
4. Magna Mater’s Spring Festival (15th and 27th March)
5. The Taurobolium in the Magna Mater Cult

The Anatolian Mother

Both the Greek and Roman worship of the Great Mother derives from Anatolia/Asia Minor (Turkey). Her name appears in inscriptions at Phrygia upon numerous doorway facades that have been carved out of cliff faces. She is called Matar (equivalent to Greek Meter and Roman Mater). Another inscription reads Matar Kubileya (Kubileya corresponding with Kybele/Cybele). The name Kybele also corresponds with Kubaba a Hittite goddess, who was the guardian of the city of Carchemesh located on the Euphrates river, depicted enthroned beneath a lion. If we go back further into Anatolian prehistory to Catalhoyuk (8000 B.C), we can also compare the figurine of a large female sitting upon a throne flanked by either Lions or leopards. Cybele is also often depicted enthroned with lion/s. Greek colonists of Asia Minor began to worship the Great Mother and during the Greek Archaic period (around 7th Century B.C.) Cybele was worshipped in Greece.

Cybele in Greece

The Greeks identified Cybele with Rhea, the mother of the Olympian Gods. Cybele was known as the mother of both the Gods Meter theon and Men. Among many other epithets she was also known as ‘Mountain Mother’ Meter oreie and ‘Idaean Mother,’ pointing back to her origins in Asia Minor. In the Homeric Hymn (14) To the Mother of the Gods, it is said that she enjoys hearing the sound of rattles and tympanums and the mountains and forest valleys echo with the roaring of lions and the crying of wolves. Walter Burkert writes:

Meter is celebrated with wild, rousing music which can even lead to ecstasy…. Her advent is accompanied by the shrill sound of the flute, the dull thudding of drums (tympana) and the ringing of small brass cymbals (kymbala). Receptive devotees are carried into ecstasy and possessed by the goddess. In mythical imagination, the wild beasts of prey, leopards and lions especially, join in her procession.

Burkert, Walter, 1985, ‘Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical’, p.178 (Blackwell Publishing)

The ecstatic celebration of the goddess Cybele was synchronized with the worship of Dionysus in the 5th century B.C. Both Pindar and Euripides emphasized the similarity between their modes of worship. In the Bacchae, the chorus proclaim,

O happy he! who to his joy is initiated in heavenly mysteries and leads a holy life, joining heart and soul in Bacchic revelry upon the hills, purified from every sin; observing the rites of Cybele, the mighty mother, and brandishing the thyrsus, with ivy-wreathed head, he worships Dionysus. Go forth, go forth, ye Bacchanals, bring home the Bromian god Dionysus, child of a god, from the mountains of Phrygia to the spacious streets of Hellas, bring home the Bromian god!

Bacchae (Sacred Texts)

Magna Mater in Rome

In 205 B.C., a delegation of Romans were sent to Asia minor to Bring the Great Mother Magna Mater back to Rome, as directed by the Sybilline Books (and confirmed by the oracle at Delphi), in an attempt to finally defeat Hannibal in the second Punic (Carthaginian) War. Pessinus, the King of Pergamum, allowed them to remove the black Stone (the sacred image of the Great Mother) from her centre of worship in Pessinus, and in 204 B.C., The goddess arrived in the Roman port of Ostia, where she was welcomed by p. Scipio Nasica (the Best man,) as directed by the Sybilline Books and Delphi, and a group of matrons, including Claudia Quinta. The image of the goddess was carried to the Palatine and installed in the Temple of the Goddess Victory. A Temple for Magna Mater was commissioned, and thirteen years later, was completed (191 B.C). The Megalensia a festival in honour of Magna Mater was celebrated annually between the 4th April (the date of the goddess’ arrival in Rome) and the 10th April (date of the dedication of Magna Mater’s temple). The institution of the Phrygian Goddess also included her own native priesthood, including the effeminate priest class known as galli, who participated in self-mutilation (including self-castration) on top of the the ecstatic worship found in Greece, mirroring the myth of Anatolion Cybele’s son and consort Attis, who emasculated himself (None of these more extreme practices, including the figure of Attis, were a part of the worship of Cybele in Greece.). Native born citizens of Rome were forbidden to join the Galli. Also, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who wrote during the reign of Augustus, records,

..the praetors perform sacrifices and celebrated games in her honour every year according to the Roman customs, but the priest and priestess of the goddess are Phrygians, and it is they who carry her image in procession through the city, begging alms in her name according to their custom, and wearing figures upon their breasts and striking their timbrels while their followers play tunes upon their flutes in honour of the Mother of the Gods. But by a law and decree of the senate no native Roman walks in procession through the city arrayed in a parti-coloured robe, begging alms or escorted by flute-players, or worships the god with the Phrygian ceremonies.

Roman Antiquities 2.19.3-5

In the 1st century A.D., these restrictions were abolished by Claudius and a spring festival in honour of Magna Mater (and Attis) was included (and extended during the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161)) in the Roman Calendar.

Magna Mater’s Spring Festival (15th and 27th March)

Canna intrat: day 1 (15th)

Reeds carried by ‘reed-bearers’ (cannophori) were brought to Magna Mater’s temple. A six year old bull was sacrificed by the high Priest and Priestess. (Also the Ides of March).

Arbor intrat: day 8 (22nd)

A pine tree (symbolic of Cybele’s son Attis) was cut down by the guild of dendrophori (’tree-bearers’) and then placed in the temple. It was stood upright and decorated. Afterward, there were days of mourning for the dead Attis.

Dies sanguinis/Sanguem (Day of Blood): day 10 (24th)

the galli cut themselves and danced ecstatically, sprinkling their blood on the goddess’ image, while novices (probably restricted to those initiated into the galli) castrated themselves. Attis was buried in his grave during the sacred night and new members were initiated into the galli at sunrise.

Hilaria (Day of Joy): day 11 (25th)

Celebration of the light of day overcoming the darkness of night at spring equinox. This was followed on day 12 with a ‘Day of Rest’ Requetio.

Lavatio: day 13 (27th)

The image of the Goddess was taken down and washed in the Almo river.

In On Roman Time (1990, p.165, University of California Press), Michele Renee Salzman provides a table (based on D. Fishwick’s reconstruction [1967]) of the spring festival days (15th March-28th March) of Magna Mater and Attis in the Roman Calendar. According to this reconstruction Arbor intrat (22th March), Sanguem (24th March), and Lavatio were introduced by Claudius; Canna Intrat (15th March) was introduced during the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161 A.D.), and Hilaria (25th March), Requetio (26th March), Initium Caiani/Gaiani (28th March) were introduced either by Antoninus Pius or afterward.

The Taurobolium in the Magna Mater Cult

The sacrifice of a bull, called the Taurobolium (and its cheaper alternative, the sacrifice of a ram (Criobolium)), was practiced during the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D., as attested in numerous inscriptions. It was performed on behalf of the emperor (or the empire as a whole), as well as individuals and single communities to ward off disaster. The Christian Poet Prudentius (claiming to be an eye witness), describes the taurobolium in the Peristephanon. In his account a priest wearing a golden crown goes down into a pit, which is covered by a wooden grill. A bull decorated with garlands and gold is walked onto the platform grill and slaughtered with a spear. The Bull’s blood drains through the planks covering the priest below. After the bull has died, the carcass is taken away. The priest arises from the pit, soaked in the blood of the bull. He is greeted by the worshippers who bow down to him as a divinity reborn. From the 4th century A.D., the taurobolium also functioned as an mystery-initiatory rite. In this capacity the initiate went down into a pit in a symbolic death. The blood of the bull, sacrificed from above, poured over the initiate symbolic of a rebirth. The rebirth lasted for a period of twenty (and 10) years, after which time the sacrifice needed to be repeated. In one instance, according to an altar inscription from 376 A.D., the rebirth was said to be eternal. According to two variants of a mystery liturgy recorded by Clement of Alexandria and Firmicus Maternus, after initiation, the initiate affirms his or her new status during a sacred meal and eats and drinks from the drum and cymbal, functioning as a plate and cup, both being sacred to the Great Mother.

Check out everyone’s posts…

• Paleothea the Ancient Goddess: Motherhood, the Sychroblog
• Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism: A [Divine] Mother in Israel: Shekhina, Metrona, Imma
• Symbolic Meanings: Symbols of Motherhood: A Bird’s Eye View
• Between Old and New Moons: The Great Mother from Asia Minor to Rome
• Aquila ka Hecate: Motherhood
• FULL CIRCLE: The Great Mother Goddess: Motherhood, the Syncroblog
• Mythphile: Demeter and Persephone
• Religion Think: On the Goddesses of Canaan: A Short Essay

Enjoy!

Previous Mythology Synchroblog: Landscapes

1. Chanting the Landscape

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