Kybele

The most important goddess in the Phrygian pantheon was Matar Kubileya, the Mother of the Mountains. From the sixth century on, Greek religion knew her as Meter (the Mother), and poets called her Kybele, a personal name derived from her Phrygian title. In her homeland, her places of worship were door-shaped niches carved into rocky cliffs and hillsides. These were filled with high relief or freestanding images of the goddess, often holding a bird of prey or flanked by lions. A mistress of wild nature, Matar Kubileya was a close relative of the Bronze Age goddess who is depicted in Minoan gems standing on a mountain peak, flanked by twin lions; many variations of this goddess were worshiped throughout Anatolia. Some of the Ionians who first adopted her cult, like the Chians and Phokaians, continued the tradition of rural, rock-cut sanctuaries, but more often the motif of the goddess in the niche was transferred to the portable medium of stone votive reliefs. The popular appeal of Meter’s cult is attested both by its rapid spread through the Greek world in the sixth century and by the abundance of votive reliefs and figurines depicting the goddess, found not only in sanctuaries, but also in

Domestic contexts and tombs. On the other hand, “Meter” iconography was used to depict a wide range of goddesses, so without an inscription, secure identification of artifacts can be difficult.1

Meter was quickly syncretized with Ge/Gaia, with Demeter, and especially with the Titaness Rhea, mother of Zeus and the other elder Olympians. Rhea’s Kretan cult, perhaps a Bronze Age survival, was focused on the birth of Zeus and was celebrated in an ecstatic dance during which the participants imitated the mythical Kouretes, youths who clashed their shields to cover the infant’s cries. One of the centers of this cult, Mt. Ida in Krete, was closely associated with the Phrygian Mt. Ida, the haunt of Meter. Like Idaian Zeus and Rhea, Meter was worshiped with percussive music and ecstatic dancing, and she was accompanied by the Korybantes, youths who were analogous to the Kouretes. The characteristic instruments in her music were the tumpanon, a tambourine-like drum, and the flute. Herodotus (4.76) tells how the Greeks of Kyzikos celebrated Meter’s festival at night, striking tumpana and decking themselves with small images of the goddess. Most ancient and modern observers have traced the ecstatic elements of the cult, as well as the use of the tumpanon, to Phrygia. These features, negatively stereotyped as “Eastern” in the wake of the Persian wars, are most likely Greek developments originating in Krete. Less is known about the origins of the mendicant priests of Meter known as metragurtai (Gatherers for the Mother); they too are considered somewhat disreputable in surviving sources.2

During the Meter cult’s period of explosive growth in the late Archaic period, she was quickly incorporated into civic worship. In Athens, the emerging democracy seems to have welcomed this popular goddess by the end of the sixth century. Meter’s cult was established in or near the bouleuterion (council chamber) in the agora and Athenian council members began to sacrifice to the Mother of the Gods along with the other major civic deities. In the late fifth century, with the construction of a new bouleuterion, the old one became known as the Metroon, or temple of Meter. Like the temple of the Mother in Kolophon, the Metroon was used as a state archive.3 Private sponsorship of Meter was also widespread and was prompted by dreams and visions. Pindar is said to have founded a Theban shrine of Meter after he had a vision of the goddess’ statue walking, and Themistokles brought the cult to Magnesia after the goddess warned him in a dream of an assassination attempt.4 In the succeeding generation, however, the cult of Meter was viewed less favorably, at least by the elite men of Athens, and was associated with women, the poor, and excessive emotional displays. Attis, who later became known as the consort of Kybele, does not become a prominent figure in the cult until the fourth century. While the Phrygian priests of Matar bore the title Attes, the myth of Attis seems to be a Greek invention.5