Cybele

Cybele, or Cybebe (Gr. Κυβέλη, Κυβήβη), a goddess native to Asia Minor and worshipped by most of the peoples of the peninsula, was known to the Romans most commonly as the Great Mother or the Gods (q.v.), or the Great Idaean Mother of the Gods—Magna Deum Mater, Mater Deum Magna Idaea. She was known by many other names, such as Mater Idaea, Dindymene, Sipylene, derived from famous seats of worship, and Mountain Mother, &c., in token of her character, but Cybele is the name by which she is most frequently known in literature. Her cult became centralized in Phrygia, had found its way into Greece, where it never flourished greatly, as early as the latter 6th century B.C., and was introduced at Rome in 204 B.C. Under the Empire it attained to great importance, and was one of the last pagan cults to die. Cybele was usually worshipped in connexion with Attis (q.v.), as Aphrodite with Adonis, the two being a duality interpreted by the philosophers as symbolic of Mother Earth and her vegetation.

(G. Sn.)

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