CYBELE (anatolian mother goddess)

In Phrygian myth, her father Meion exposed the infant on the mountain Cybelus because he refused to raise her.³ Women tending flocks found the child and named her Cybele after the mountain, while leopards and other wild beasts nursed her with their milk.³ Her parents recognized her as their child only after she became pregnant from her secret relationship with a native youth named Attis.³ Tragedy struck when her father killed Attis and her nurses, causing Cybele to become frenzied and leave the palace.⁸ She wandered alone through the countryside, her hair hanging free, beating a kettledrum and crying aloud in her grief.⁸ Marsyas the physician, who had loved her more than anyone else, voluntarily followed her in her wanderings out of pity and former affection.^3,8

Cybele joined herself to the first Olympus, where she was identified with the Great Mother Rhea.^9,10 She and Iasion begot Corybas, and Iasion is stated to have married her.¹⁰ After joining the first Olympus, she begat Alce.¹⁰ Her sons were numbered among the divine, holding high thrones, and she was said to have one hundred such sons.⁷ Cybele removed herself to Phrygia along with Dardanus and Corybas.¹⁰

She invented the pipe of many reeds, cymbals, and kettledrums for use in games and dance.³ She taught purification rites to heal sickness in flocks and children, and her spells saved infants from death, leading people to hold her in their arms.³ Her ministers, known as Curetes or Corybantes, served her rites, which were associated with the Phrygian mountains and sacred pines used to build a vessel.^1,11,9 The Seirites first played flute airs during a festival dedicated to her.¹²

Her worship was located in the groves of Ida on the Isle of Crete and in the lofty groves of Phrygia.^13,5 A temple dedicated to Cybebe existed in the city of Sardis, though it was destroyed by fire during the burning of the city.¹⁴ In Pessinus, a temple dedicated to her was located, and the Attalic kings adorned her sacred enclosure with a temple and marble porticos.^1,2,15,8 The groves of Cybele were struck by the bolts of Zeus the Thunderer, and her temple served as a location where legal prosecutions were tried.^13,16 In later deeds, she transformed Hippomenes and Atalanta into lions as a punishment for their crime, and Cybebe transformed Aeneas's fleet of ships into sea nymphs, granting them the power to live eternally in the sea.^6,4 She drove her chariot through the Phrygian kingdoms, capable of making maidens frantic.^17,7