Cybele became a vital part of the religious life of everyday Romans. She was integrated into the pantheon of gods and was considered the protectress of the city of Rome to whom she brought peace and plentiful harvest. Her cult was supported not only by the ordinary people but also by the government and enjoyed aristocratic patronage.[1] As Tripolitis explains, “(Cybele’s) cult continued to gain great popularity and spread to every part of the known world…Cybele’s severe and rigorous demands provided a deep religious experience and a psychological exhilaration.”[2]
This time was the heyday of the mystery cults of Rome, and Cybele became one of the chief deities. She was called Augusta, the Great One; Alma, the Nourishing One; Sanctissima, the Most Holy One. Roman emperors considered her to be the highest deity of the Empire and Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, took his title from her epithet. Emperor Julian, who ruled from 361–363 CE, wrote a hymn in which he called her a Virgin, “Wisdom, Providence, Creator of our Souls.”[3] However, as popular as Cybele was, there were still certain Phrygian elements to her cult worship which the Roman authorities could not accept, which led to limited participation in the cult for Roman citizens.[4]
The Romans found the extravagance of the ceremonies, the enthusiasm of the Galli[5] to castrate themselves, their hypnotic dances accompanied by loud flutes and the tympanum/timbral[6] which were played as the Galli castrated themselves, to be repugnant.[7] Early on the Roman authorities confined the rites of the Megalensia to the temple on the Palatine Hill, except for the procession and the public games. During this time, Romans were not allowed to participate in the rites, serve as priests/priestesses, play music on the sacred instruments, or join the orgies which included the Galli. This restriction was lifted in the reign of Claudius (41–54 CE).[8]
Under Emperor Claudius, the cult acquired a new vigor and became one of the most popular and favored of the foreign cults. By the end of the first century CE the popularity of Cybele’s cult had spread throughout the Roman Empire in the Western world. The restrictions barring Roman citizens from participation in the cult were removed. Roman men and women were then able to take part in the processions, and Roman men could join the Galli.[9] Under Claudius, a new annual cycle of festivals was established. The new festival, held from March 15 through March 27, introduced Attis as the consort of Cybele and raised him to prominence, which he had not previously held until this Roman cult. It is thought that this “new” festival was simply the previous Phrygian festival of Attis which had been forbidden under Roman rule.[10]
As with all mystery cults, the specific ritual practices of the Cybelines were not recorded. However, there were numerous references in ancient poems and stories which, when taken together they give us a picture of what the rituals of Cybele in ancient Rome may have entailed. One phrase continually reappeared in Latin, Greek, and Phrygian refers to the rite called the taurobolium. A Cybeline priestess says this phrase “I have eaten out of the drum: I have drunk out of the cymbal: I have carried the Kernos[11]: I have entered (stole into) the bridal chamber.”[12] Another version more specific to the Galli is “I have eaten from the drum: I have drunk out of the cymbal: I have become a mystic votary of Attis.”[13] In the taurobolium the novitiate, after having eaten and drunk, goes to a chamber underneath the ritual area and stands under a grating. A bull is led in and stands on the grating, it is then stabbed to death with a sacred spear, and the initiate is washed and reborn from the blood.[14]
Cybele was not the only foreign goddess worshiped freely during this time. Roman and Greek Gods and Goddesses, the Egyptian Isis, the Hebrew YHWH, the more recent cult of Mithras, all flourished in a Rome, which rejoiced in its polytheism and religious freedom. This freedom of religion was to change with the rise of the cult of Christ and their insistence that their God was the only God and to allow the worship of any other deity was blasphemous and an abomination.
(To be continued)
(Meet Mago Contributor) Francesca Tronetti
[1] Triplolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age, 33.
[2] Ibid., 36.
[3] Gadon, The Once and Future Goddess, 197.
[4] Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age, 33.
[5] The eunuch priest/priestesses of Cybele. Some scholars believe that at least some of the Galli were transsexual or transgendered since they dressed and lived as women after their castration.
[6] Drums.
[7] Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age, 33.
[8] Ibid., 33.
[9] Ibid., 33.
[10] Ibid., 34.
[11] An earthenware vessel, associated with the mystery cults, with one or more small cups holding offerings attached to a circular stand.
[12] Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks.
[13] Firmicus Maternus, “Error of the Pagan Religions.”
[14] Prudentius, “Peristephanonx, 1011–50,” 96–97.
Re:Cybele…one of the things I missed when I first studied Greek and Roman mythology was the CONTEXT in which these deities reigned. “Cybele became one of the chief deities.” And that is the problem I see now. A goddess like Cybele ruled, and frankly, today I am particularly repelled by the castration theme, probably because I see it as an excellent example of this power over dynamic.
If we are going to move into a different way of being in relationship to self, others, the planet, I think we have to let go of this power dynamic – for men and for women.