| Kybele was the daughter of the Phrygian sky-god and earth-mother. She was born as a hermaphrodite named Agdistis who was castrated by the gods to become the goddess Kybele. Dionysus was a latter form of Attis. Concerning Attis, Pausanius writes: “The local [Phrygian] legend about him [Attis] being this. Zeus [i.e. the Phrygian sky-god identified with Zeus], it is said, let fall in his sleep seed upon the ground, which in course of time sent up a Daimon, with two sexual organs, male and female. They call the daimon Agdistis [Kybele]. But the gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ. There grew up from it an almond-tree (some accounts report a pomegranate tree) with its fruit ripe, and a daughter of the river Saggarios (Sangarius), they say, took the fruit and laid it in her bosom, when it at once disappeared, but she was with child. A boy [Attis] was born.” (43) As he grew up, he became so beautiful that Kybele fell in love with him and as he was getting married to the King’s daughter a marriage song was being sung when Kybele appeared and Attis went mad and tore off his own genitals. It’s also likely that the almond replaced the pomegranate because the priests of Kybele used to carry pomegranates, (44) in the earlier legend. Of course, this pomegranate is a symbol for the mushroom, but removing it twice away from its original meaning further occults the entire matter. Especially since, in this particular myth, the pomegranate would make a red association with the pine tree, which would lead much more easily to the realization that it was the A. muscaria, and also the apple in the Garden of Eden. Take notice also, how the spilled seed on the ground, grew up the mushroom deity, as we see in many other myths. Pines were the favorite tree of Kybele. In Ovid’s, Metamorphosis, we read: “Pines, high-girdled, in a leafy crest, the favourite of the Gods’ Great Mother (Grata Deum Matri) [i.e. Cybele], since in this tree Attis Cybeleius (of Cybele) doffed his human shape and stiffened in its trunk.” (45) Also, from Metamorphosis, we read: “The Genetrix Sanctum Deum (holy Mother of the Gods) remembering that on Ida's peaks those pines were felled, made clashing cymbals fill the air and shrilling fifes.” (46) So, now, what we are reading about is sacred pines that were cut down, the pines of Kybele. The patriarchs may or may not have had plans to rid the world of the A. muscaria via cutting down large birch trees, but they certainly had a hand in cutting them down to sail around the world and go to war. What we find out here is that they were using the sacred trees to make wood for ships and that was the major assault on the goddess, via nature. In Virgil’s Aeneid, we read the words of Kybele herself: “There was a pine-forest a delight to me for many years a grove on the summit of the mountain, where they brought offerings, dark with blackened firs and maple trunks. I gave these gladly to the Trojan youth, since he lacked a fleet: now, troubled, anxious fear torments me. Relieve my fears, and let your mother by her prayers ensure they are not destroyed, shattered by voyaging or violent storm: let their origin on our mountain be of aid to them.” (47) |
In the next section by Ovid, in Fasti, we read that countless axes cut down the Phrygian mother’s trees: “Rome traces its origin to Phrygian ancestors. Straightway unnumbered axes fell those pinewoods which had supplied the pious Phrygian with timber in his flight: a thousand hands assemble, and the Mother of the Gods is lodged in a hollow ship painted in encaustic colours. She is borne in perfect safety across the waters of her son and comes to the long strait named after the sister of Phrixus.” In Plutarch’s Life of Julius Caesar, we read about the orphic rites of the Phrygian goddess: (4) “Now, the Romans have a goddess whom they call Bona, corresponding to the Greek Gynaeceia. The Phrygians claim this goddess as their own, and say that she was the mother of King Midas; the Romans say she was a Dryad nymph and the wife of Faunus; the Greeks that she was the unnameable one among the mothers of Dionysus. (5) And this is the reason why the women cover their booths with vine-branches when they celebrate her festival, and why a sacred serpent is enthroned beside the goddess in conformity with the myth. (6) It is not lawful for a man to attend the sacred ceremonies, nor even to be in the house when they are celebrated; but the women, apart by themselves, are said to perform many rites during their sacred service which are Orphic in their character.” (48) Under the name of Kybele, we find her worship on Mount Sipylus, (49) Mount Coddinus, (50) in Phrygia, which had received its colonists from Thrace, and where she was regarded as the mother of Sabazius (Dionysus). Sabazius was originally a deity of Thracian origin who became popular in Athens in the 5th century BC. (51) He was a sky-deity often depicted as a nomadic horseman with a staff. The Macedonians were noted horsemen, horse-breeders and horse-worshippers and it’s possible that the worship of Sabazius derived from their background. (43) Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 17. 8 (trans. Jones (Greek travelogue C2nd AD) (44) Kerenyi, 1967 (45) Ovid, Metamorphoses 10. 103 ff (trans. Melville) Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st AD (46) ibid, 14. 530 ff (47) Virgil, Aeneid 9. 82 (48) Plutarch, The Life of Julius Caesar – 9:4-6 (49) Pausanias. v. 13. § 4 (50) iii. 22. § 4 (51) C. Picard, 'Sabazios, Dieu thraco-phrygian: expansion et aspects nouveaux de son culte, RA, 1961, II, p. 129ff; R. Fellman, 'Der Sabazios-Kult', in OrRR, p. 316ff; M. Tacheva-Hitova, Eastern Cults in Moesia Inferior and Thracia, p. 162ff; S.E. Johnson, 'The Present State of Sabazios Research', ANRW, II, 3, Berlin-New York, 1984, p. 1583ff. |