Cybele: Rome’s Magna Mater

Cybele was originally a mother goddess from Anatolia, who was adopted by the Greeks and Romans. The Greeks equated her with various fertility deities, including Gaia, Rhea, and Demeter. In Rome, she became known as Magna Mater and was considered an ancestral goddess of the Roman people. Through the Romans, her cult was spread throughout the Mediterranean.

Anatolian Mountain Goddess

Cybele seems to have been an ancient goddess in Anatolia. She was probably associated with Venus figurine-style fertility goddesses, distinctly depicted with felines, from around the 6^th millennium BCE. Evidence of the more evolved Phrygian goddess emerged around the 8^th century BCE, associated with lions and birds of prey. An inscription is associated with this iconography in a cut shrine from the 6^th century BCE that calls her Mater Kubileya. This is interpreted as meaning “mother mountain” or “born from stone.”

Among the Phrygians of Anatolia, she was considered the consort of mortal rulers and was probably their most important deity. The Phrygians also had an unshaped stone of black meteoric iron that was believed to be one form of the goddess. These kinds of baetyl divine stones were relatively common in the region. The stone was transported to Rome in 204 BCE.

Pausanias, in the 2^nd century CE, described a cult image of a mother of the gods in a rock-cut temple at Mount Sipylus, which at the time was believed to be the oldest existing image of the goddess.

Her association with wild animals suggests that Cybele was a goddess of the wilderness, probably considered a mother of the land in its natural state.

Her image was often found in funerary contexts, which suggests that she was considered a mediator between boundaries, including the boundary of life and death.

Cybele in Greece

There is evidence that Cybele was venerated among the Greeks from as early as the 6^th century BCE. In the Homeric Hymn 14, she is described as “the mother of all the gods and all human beings,” which led her to be assimilated with Rhea, the Titan mother of the Olympian gods. The idea of her as a mother also probably led to her association with Demeter, the fertility goddess who was the mother of Persephone, the goddess who descended to the underworld as the wife of Hades.

She maintained her Anatolian association with wild animals and was often called the mistress of animals and associated with lions, who would sit in her lap or draw her chariot.

Early surviving Greek images of the goddess and votive offerings that show her in a temple wearing the high, cylindrical polos hat. She wears a long, flowing chiton garment and is sometimes accompanied by a lion.

A more Hellenised image of Cybele was set up in the Metroon in the Athenian agora. She is enthroned with a lion attendant and holds a phiale dish for making libations and a tympanon hand drum. This drum was a marker of foreign cults.

She was associated with Dionysus, another foreign deity, reportedly curing him from madness when he was sent to wander the world. As a result, they were sometimes worshipped together in rites, and like Dionysus, she had a mystery cult. Reliefs of her rights show young men and women with torches and vessels for purification. Written sources suggested joyous parties with foreign music and dancing.

There is evidence that there was some resistance to the spread of Cybele’s cult in Greece. There are stories of people being put to death for participating in her rights. The Athenian tradition suggests that her worship only started there after one of her wandering priests caused a plague. Many of her cults were also funded privately rather than by the individual poleis.

Roman Magna Mater

The Romans called Cybele Magna Mater, probably referring to a local mother goddess. Her cut officially became part of the Roman state following the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE). Dire omens, including a meteor shower, failed harvest, and famine, were considered warnings of Rome’s imminent defeat. This led the Senate to consult the Sibylline Oracle. This suggested that Carthage might be defeated if Rome imported the Phrygian goddess. This was confirmed by the Oracle at Delphi.

They consulted with a Roman ally, the King of Pergamum, to take possession of the goddess’s stone. Rome’s leading citizen, Publius Corneius Scipio Nasica, met the stone when it arrived at the port of Ostia, and it was accompanied to Rome by virtuous matrons. It was stored in the Temple of Victoria while her temple was constructed on the Palatine Hill. In due course, the Romans won the war.

She was accompanied by a heroic figure called Attis, who was considered he consort. She also had eunuch priests, called Galli, but very quickly she was fully Romanised.

The Romans believed that Cybele was a mother goddess of Troy, and that their city was founded by Romulus and Remus, the descendants of the Trojan prince Aeneas. This gave them an ancient connection with the goddess, who was now restored to her exiled people. As such, she was considered a protector of the city. She was also the mother of Jupiter, the chief god of the Roman state.

Augustus incorporated her into his imperial order, just as he heightened his connection with Aeneas. His wife Livia was often represented in the guise of the goddess. From here, her worship spread throughout the Roman Empire as a protector and bringer of fertility.

In Rome, her principal festival was the Megalesia, which stated on April 4, which was the anniversary of her arrival in Rome. The festival started with plays and entertainments, probably on the steps of her temple. On April 10, her image was taken on a public procession to the Circus Maximus, where there were chariot races.

In the late republican era, Lucretius describes the procession’s armed “war dancers” in their three-plumed helmets, clashing their shields together, bronze on bronze, “delighted by blood”; yellow-robed, long-haired, perfumed Galli waving their knives, wild music of thrumming tympanons and shrill flutes. Along the route, rose petals are scattered, and clouds of incense arise. The goddess’s sculpted image wears the Mural Crown and is seated within a sculpted, lion-drawn chariot, carried high on a bier.

Under Claudius, a holy week was introduced for her, starting on the ides of March. On the 15^th, the anniversary of the birth of Attis, reeds were gathered. On the 22^nd, marking the death of Attis under a pine tree, bearers carried an image of Attis hanging from a tree to her temple, and this was followed by a three-day period of mourning. On the 25^th, the vernal equinox, Attis was reborn. This was followed by a day of rest, and then sacrifices to Cybele on behalf of the emperor on March 27.