GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS, the ancient Oriental Greek-Roman deity commonly known as Cybele (q.v.) in Greek and Latin literature from the time of Pindar. She was also known under many other names, some of which were derived from famous places of worship : as Dindymene from Mt. Dindymon. Cybele is her favourite name in ancient and modern literature, while Great Mother of the Gods, or Great Idaean Mother of the Gods (Mater Deum Magna, Mater Deum Magna Idaea), the most frequently recurring epigraphical title, was her ordinary official designation.
The legends agree in locating the rise of the worship of the Great Mother in Asia Minor, in the region of loosely defined geographical limits which comprised the Phrygian empire of prehistoric times and was more extensive than the Roman prov ince of Phrygia. Her best known early seats of worship were Mt. Ida, Mt. Sipylus, Cyzicus, Sardis, and Pessinus, the last named city, in Galatia near the borders of Roman Phrygia, finally becoming the strongest centre of the cult. But the exist ence of numerous very similar non-Phrygian deities indicates that she was merely the Phrygian form of the nature deity of all Asia Minor.
From Asia Minor, the cult of the Great Mother spread first to Greek territory. It found its way into Thrace at an early date, was known in Boeotia by Pindar in the 6th century, and entered Attica near the beginning of the 4th century. At Peiraeus, where it probably arrived by way of the Aegean islands, it existed privately in a fully developed state, that is, accompanied by the worship of Attis (q.v.), at the beginning of the 4th century, and publicly two centuries later. The Greeks from the first saw in the Great Mother a resemblance to their own Rhea, and finally identified the two completely, though the Asiatic peculiarities of the cult were never universally popular with them. In her less Asiatic aspect; i.e., without Attis, she was sometimes identi fied with Ge and Demeter. It was in this phase that she was worshipped in the Metroon at Athens.
In 204 B.C., in obedience to the Sibylline prophecy which said that whenever an enemy from abroad should make war on Italy he could be expelled and conquered if the Idaean Mother were brought to Rome from Pessinus, the cult of the Great Mother, together with her sacred symbol, a small meteoric stone reputed to have fallen from the heavens, was transferred to Rome and established in a temple on the Palatine (Levy xxix. 10-14). Her identification by the Romans with Maia, Ops, Rhea, Tellus, and Ceres contributed to the establishment of her worship on a firm footing. By the end of the republic it had attained promi nence, and under the empire it became one of the three most important cults in the Roman world, the other two being those of Mithras and Isis. Epigraphic and numismatic evidence prove it to have penetrated from Rome as a centre to the remotest provinces. During the brief revival of paganism under Eugenius in A.D. 394, occurred the last appearance of the cult in history. Besides the temple on the Palatine, there also existed minor shrines of the Great Mother in the present Piazza S. Pietro, on the Sacra Via on the north slope of the Palatine, near the junction of the Almo and the Tiber rivers, south of the city (ibid., 311-14).
In all her aspects, Roman, Greek, and Oriental, the Great Mother was characterized by essentially the same qualities. Most prominent among them was her universal motherhood. She was the great parent of gods and men, as well as of the lower orders of creation. Especial emphasis was placed upon her maternity over wild nature. She was called the Mountain Mother; her sanctuaries were almost invariably upon mountains, and f re 4uently in caves ; lions were her faithful companions. Her especial affinity with wild nature was manifested by the orgiastic character of her worship. Her attendants, the Corybantes, were wild, half demonic beings. Her priests, the Galli, were eunuchs attired in female garb, with long hair fragrant with ointment. Together with priestesses, they celebrated her rites with wild music and dancing until their frenzied excitement found its culmination in self-scourging, self-laceration, or exhaustion. Self emasculation sometimes accompanied this delirium of worship on the part of candidates for the priesthood.
Though her cult sometimes existed by itself, in its fully developed state the worship of the Great Mother was accom panied by that of Attis (q.v.) . The cult of Attis never existed independently. There is no positive evidence to prove the exist ence of the cult publicly in this phase in Greece before the 2nd century B.C., nor in Rome before the empire, though it may have existed in private.
The philosophers of the late Roman empire interpreted the Attis legend as symbolizing the relations of Mother Earth to her children the fruits. In this interpretation they were not far wrong, for Cybele and all her kind are embodiments of the earth's fertility.
At Rome the immediate direction of the cult of the Great Mother devolved upon the high priest, Archigallus, called Attis, a high priestess, Sacerdos Maxima, and its support was derived, at least in part, from a popular contribution, the stips. Besides other priests, priestesses, and minor officials, such as musicians, curator, etc.. there were certain colleges connected with the ad ministration of the cult, called cannophori (reed-bearers) and dendrophori (branch-bearers). The quindecimvirs exercised a general supervision over this as over all other authorized foreign cults. Roman citizens were at first forbidden to take part in its ceremonies, and the ban was not removed until the time of the empire.
The main public event in the worship of the Great Mother was the annual festival, which took place originally April 4, and was followed next day by the Megalesia, games instituted in her honour on the introduction of the cult. Under the empire, from Claudius on, the Megalesia lasted six days, April 4 to io, and the original one day of the religious festival became an annual cycle of festivals extending from March 15-27, in the following order : (I) March 15, Canna intrat, the sacrifice of a six-year-old bull, the high priest, a priestess and the cannophori officiating, the last named carrying reeds in procession in commemoration of the exposure of the infant Attis on the reedy banks of the stream Gallus in Phrygia.
(2) March 22, Arbor intrat, the bearing in procession of the sacred pine, emblem of Attis' self-mutilation, death and immor tality, to the temple on the Palatine, the symbol of the Mother's cave, by the dendrophori, a guild of workmen who made the Mother, among other deities, a patron.
(3) March 24, Dies sanguinis, a day of mourning, fasting and abstinence, especially sexual, commemorating the sorrow of the Mother for Attis. The frenzied dance and self-laceration of the priests and the self-mutilation of neophytes, were special features of the day. The taurobolium (q.v.) was often performed on this day, on which probably took place the initiation of mystics. See also CRIOBOLIUM.
(4) March 25, Hilaria. All mourning was put off, and good cheer reigned in token of the return of the sun and spring, which was symbolized by the renewal of Attis's life.
(5) March 26, Requietio, a day of rest and quiet.
(6) March 27, Lavatia, the crowning ceremony of the cycle. The silver statue of the goddess, with the sacred meteoric stone, the Acus, set in its head, was borne in gorgeous procession and bathed in the Almo, the remainder of the day being given up to rejoicing and entertainment, especially dramatic representation of the legend of the deities of the day.
The Great Mother is especially prominent in the art of the empire. No work of the first class, however, was inspired by her. She appears usually with mural crown and veil, well draped, seated on a throne, and accompanied by two lions. Other attri butes which often appear are the patera, tympanum, cymbals, sceptre, garlands, and fruits. Attis and his attributes, the pine, Phrygian cap, pedum, syrinx, and torch, also appear. In litera ture she is the subject of frequent mention, but no surviving work of importance, with the exception of Catullus lxiii., is due to her inspiration. Her importance in the history of religion is very great, for her cult, like the other mystic worships. at once formed a rival to Christianity and acted as a stepping stone to it.
(See MYSTERY.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Grant Showerman, "The Great Mother of the Bibliography.—Grant Showerman, "The Great Mother of the Gods," Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 43 ; Philology and Literature Series, vol. I. No. 3 (Madison, 19o1) ; Hugo Hepding, Attis, seine Mythen and seine Kult (Giessen, 1903) ; H. Graillot, Le culte de Cybele dans l'empire romain (Paris, 1912), good bibliogra phy ; Rapp, Roscher's Ausf uhrliches, Lexikon der griechischen and romischen Myt hologie s.v. "Kybele" ; Drexler, ibid. s.v. "Meter." See ROMAN RELIGION, GREEK RELIGION, and ATTIS.