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Cybele (on Pertinax's Request)

Lost_Warrior

Entry posted by Lost_Warrior

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Cybele was also known as Magna Mater and was a fertility goddess from Phrygia. She was associated with the Earth and was worshipped on mountaintops. Her worship was "wild, emotional, bloody, orgiastic, and cathartic" and was led by eunuch priests (called Corybantes) who ritually castrated themselves and assumed women's identities.

 

She was also known as a goddess of caverns and fortresses, and of wild beasts.

 

In Greek Mythology Cybele was known as Rhea. She was renowned as the mother of the gods and her festival came first in Rome.

 

Much more detailed info

 

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/cybele.html

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Pantagathus

As Rhea, let us not forget she is the mother of Zeus...

 

In my view, she (whichever name you choose) is the mother goddess seen in the archaeological record of Catal Huyuk and from long back into the meso & neolithic throughout the western & near eastern world.

 

Just the other weekend when my sister went through 34 hours of labor during an odd winter thunderstorm (in the mountains no less!) I bade her to choose Rhea as the middle name of her new daughter...

 

She failed to see the significance. :(

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Pantagathus

Just to clarify my request to my sister:

 

To hide Zeus from Chronos (who had eaten all his other children) Rhea placed him in a mountain cave on Crete and the Curetes stood guard out side dancing and banging their shields together to make such a racket so as Chronos would not hear the crying child...

 

"O secret chamber the Couretes knew! O holy cavern in the Cretan glade where Zeus was cradled, where for our delight the triple-crested Corybantes drew tight the round drum-skin, till its wild beat made rapturous rhythm to the breathing sweetness of Phrygian flutes! Then divine Rhea found the drum could give her Bacchic airs completeness." - Euripides, Bacchae 120

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Pertinax

Thank you-always good to gather as much knowledge as possible about The Lady. The bees I had forgotten about-how very interesting in the context of the beneficial nature of the products of the hive..and my own great love for remote places.

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