What is Cybele?
[[File:CybeleHellenistic.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Engraving]] of a 3rd century AD statue of Cybele on her [[throne]] flanked by [[lion]]s.]] In [[Anatolia]]n mythology, '''Cybele''' was the personification of the [[earth]]. She was the goddess of [[nature]], [[fertility]], mountains, and wild animals. She is often represented sitting on a [[throne]], flanked by two lions, and wearing a mural [[crown]]. In [[Phrygia]]n myth, she was born a [[hermaphroditic]] being named [[Agdistis]], a child of [[Zeus]] and [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]]. Cybele had a shepherd consort named [[Attis]], and a priesthood of [[eunuch]]s called the [[Galli]]. Her cult was adopted by the [[Greek mythology|Greeks]] and later by the [[Roman mythology|Romans]]. ==Mythology== Zeus let fall in his sleep seed upon the Earth, which in course of time gave birth to an androgynous being, born both [[male]] and female, whom they called Agdistis. But the gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ. The blood fertilized the soil and there grew up from it an almond-tree. A daughter of the river Sangarius picked an almond and laid it in her bosom, where the almond disappeared. She then had a child, a baby boy named Attis. ==Cult== Her orgiastic cult dominated the central and north-western districts of [[Asia Minor]], and was introduced into [[Greece]] via the island of Samothrake and the Boiotian town of [[Thebes]]. Cybele was closely associated with a number of Greek goddesses, firstly [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], the Greek mother of the gods (Meter Theon), but sometimes also [[Demeter]] (especially in the Samothrakian cult), [[Aphrodite]] (on Mount Ida) and [[Artemis]] (in Karia). Her main cult followers were the [[Galli]], these were eunuch priests of a feminine nature, who celebrated her festivals with wild dancing, self-laceration, and self-scourging. ==Related pages== {{commonscat}} * [[Archigallus]], the high-priest of Cybele * [[Taurobolium]], the sacrifice of a bull to Cybele {{religion-stub}} [[Category:Greek gods and goddesses]] [[Category:Roma