BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jean Réville, La religion à Rome sous les Sévères, pp. 62 ff.--Drexler in Roscher, Lexikon der Mythol. s. v. "Meter," II, 2932.--Wissowa, Religion und Cultus der Römer, pp. 263 ff., where the earlier bibliography will be found,
[paragraph continues] p. 271.--Showerman, "The Great Mother of the Gods" (Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 43), Madison, 1901.--Hepding, Attis, seine Mythen und sein Kult, Giessen, 1903.--Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, London, 1905, pp. 547 ff.--Gruppe, Griech. Mythologie, 1906, pp. 1521 ff. Eisele, "Die phrygischen Kulte," Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altertum, XXIII, 1909, pp. 620 ff.
For a number of years Henri Graillot has been collecting the monuments of the religion of Cybele with a view to publishing them in their entirety.--Numerous remarks on the Phrygian religion will be found in the works and articles of Ramsay, especially in Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, 1895, and Studies in the Eastern Roman Provinces, 1906.
3_1. Arrien, fr. 30 (FGH, III, p. 592). Cf. our Studia Pontica, 1905, pp. 172 ff., and Statius, Achill., II, 345: "Phrygas lucos . . . .vetitasque solo, procumbere pinus"; Virg., Aen., IX, 85.
3_2 Lion; cf. S. Reinach, Mythes, cultes, I, p. 293. The lion, represented in Asia Minor at a very remote period as devouring a bull or other animals, might possibly represent the sacred animal of Lydia or Phrygia vanquishing the protecting totem of the tribes of Cappadocia or the neighboring countries (I am using the term totem in its broadest meaning). This at least is the interpretation given to similar groups in Egypt. Cf. Foucart, La méthode comparat. et l'histoire des religions, 1909 p. 49, p. 70.
3_3. Πόντια θηρῶν. On this title, cf. Radet, Revue des études anciennes, X, 1908, pp. 110 ff. The most ancient type of the goddess, a winged figure leading lions, is known from monuments dating back to the period of the Mermnadi (687-546 B. C.).
3_4. Cf. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, I, p. 7, p. 94.
3_5. Foucart, Le culte de Dionysos en Attique (Extract from the Mém. Acad. Inscr., XXXVII), 1904, pp. 22 ff.--The Thracians also seem to have spread, in Asia Minor, the cult of the "riding god" which existed until the beginning of the Roman period; cf. Remy, Le Musée belge, XI, 1907, pp. 136 ff.
3_6. Catullus, LXIII.
3_7. The development of these mysteries has been well expounded by Hepding, pp. 177 ff. (see Gruppe, Gr. Myth., p. 1544).--Ramsay has recently commented upon inscriptions of Phrygian mystics, united by the knowledge of certain secret signs (τέκμωρ); cf. Studies in the Eastern Roman Provinces, 1906, pp. 346 ff.
3_8. Dig., XLVIII, 8, 4, 2: "Nemo liberum servumve invitum sinentemve castrare debet." Cf. Mommsen, Strafrecht, p. 637.
3_9. Diodorus, XXXVI, 6; cf. Plutarch, Marius, 17.
3_10. Cf. Hepding, op. cit., p. 142.
3_11. Cf. chap. VI.
3_12. Wissowa, op. cit., p. 291.
3_13. Hepding, op. cit., pp. 145 ff. Cf. Pauly-Wissowa, Real-enc., s. v. "Dendrophori," V, Col. 216 and Suppl., col, 225, s. v. "Attis."
3_14. Cf. Tacitus, Annales, XI, 15.
3_15. This opinion has recently been defended by Showerman, Classical Journal, II, 1906, p. 29.
3_16. Frazer, The Golden Bough, II2, pp. 130 ff.
3_17. Hepding, pp. 160 ff. Cf. the texts of Ambrosiaster cited in Rev. hist. et litt. relig., VIII, 1903, p. 423, n. 1.
3_18. Hepding, p. 193. Cf. Gruppe, p. 1541.
3_19. On this diffusion, cf. Drexler in Roscher, Lexikon, s.v. "Meter," col. 918.
3_20. Gregory of Tours, De glor. confess., c. 76. Cf. Passio S. Symphoriani in Ruinart, Acta sinc., ed. of 1859, p. 125. The carpentum mentioned in these texts is found in Africa; cf. CIL, VIII, 8457, and Graillot, Rev. archéol., 1904, I, p. 353; Hepding, op. cit., p. 173, n. 7.
3_21. Θαρρεῖτε μύσται τοῦ θεοῦ σεσωσμένου | ἕσται γὰρ ὑμῖν ἐκ πόνων σωτηρία; cf. Hepding, op. cit., p. 167.--Attis has become a god through his death (see Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 93), and in the same way were his votaries to become the equals of the divinity through death. The Phrygian epitaphs frequently have the character of dedications, and it appears that the graves were grouped about the temple, see Ramsay, Studies, pp. 65 ff., 271 ff., passim.
3_22. Perdrizet, Bull. corr. hell., XIX, 1905, p. 534 ff.
3_23. We know of those beliefs of the Sabaziasts from the frescoes in the catacombs of Praetextatus; the Mercurius nuntius, who leads the dead, is found beside Attis under the Greek name of Hermes (see Hepding, p. 263).--Maybe the inscription CIL, VI, 509 = Inscr. graec., XIV, 1018, should be completed: Ῥείῃ [Ἑρμῇ] τε γενέθλῳ; cf. CIL, VI, 499. Hermes appears beside the Mother of the gods on a bas-relief by Ouchak published by Michon, Rev. des études anciennes, 1906, p. 185, Pl. II. See also Mendel, "Musée de Brousse," Bull. corr. hell., 1909, p. 255.--The Thracian Hermes is mentioned in Herodotus, see Maury, Rel. de la Grèce, III, p. 136.
3_24. Besides Bellona-Ma, subordinate to Cybele and Sabazius, who was as much Jewish as Phrygian, there was only one god of Asia Minor, the Zeus Bronton (the Thunderer) of Phrygia, prominently mentioned in Roman epigraphy. See Pauly-Wissowa, Realenc., s.v. and Suppl. I, Col. 258.
3_25. Cf. CIL, VI, 499: "Attidi menotyranno invicto." "Invictus" is the characteristic epithet of the solar divinities.
3_26. p. Perdrizet, "Mèn" (Bull. corr. hell., XX), 1896; Drexler in Roscher, Lexikon, s. v., II, col. 2687.
3_27. CIL, VI, 50 = Inscr. graec., XIV, 1018.
3_28. Schürer, Sitzungsb. Akad. Berlin, XIII, 1897, p. 200 f. and our Hypsistos (Suppl. Revue instr. publ. en Belgique), 1897.
3_29. The term is taken from the terminology of the mysteries: the inscription cited dates back to 370 A. D. In 364, in connection with Eleusis, Agorius Praetextatus spoke of συνέχοντα τὸ ἀνθρώπειον γένος ἁγιώτατα μυστήρια (Zozimus, IV, 3, 2). Earlier the "Chaldean oracles" applied to the intelligible god the term μήτρα συνέχουσα τὰ πάντα (Kroll, De orac. Chaldeïcis, p. 19).
3_30. Henri Graillot, Les dieux Tout-Puissants, Cybèle et Attis (Revue archéol., 1904, I), pp. 331 ff.--Graillot is rather inclined to admit a Christian influence, but oinnipotentes was used as a liturgic epithet in 288 A. D., and at about the same date Arnobius (VII, 32) made use of the periphrasis omnipotentia numina to designate the Phrygian gods, and he certainly
was understood by all. This proves that the use of that periphrasis was general, and that it must have dated back to a much earlier period. As a matter of fact a dedication has been found at Delos, reading Διὶ τῷ πάντων κρατοῦντι καὶ Μητρὶ μεγάληι τῆι πάντων κρατούσῃ (Bull. corr. hellén., 1882, p. 502, No. 25), that reminds the reader of the παντοκράτωρ of the Septuagint; and Graillot (loc. cit., p. 328, n. 7) justly observes, in this connection, that on certain bas-reliefs Cybele was united with the Theos Hypsistos, that is to say, the god of Israel; see Perdrizet, Bull. corr. hell., XXIII, 1899, p. 598. On the influence of Judaism on the cult of Men cf. Sam. Wide, Archiv für Religionsw., 1909, p. 227.--On the omnipotence of the Syrian gods, see ch. V, pp. 128 ff.
3_31. We are here giving the substance of a short essay on "Les mystères de Sabazius et le judeïsme," published in the Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr., Febr. 9, 1906, pp. 63 ff. Cf. "A propos de Sabazius," Musée belge, XIV, 1910, pp. 56 ff.
3_32. Cf. Monuments myst. de Mithra, I, p. 333f. The very early assimilation of Cybele and Anahita justifies to a certain extent the unwarranted practice of calling Cybele the Persian Artemis. See Radet, Revue des études anciennes, X, 1909, p. 157. The pagan theologians often considered Attis as the primeval man whose death brought about the creation, and so they likened him to the Mazdean Gayomart, see Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis, 1907, pp. 184 ff.
3_33. Prudentius, Peristeph., X, 1011 f.
3_34. Their meaning has been revealed through an inscription at Pergamum published by Schröder, Athen. Mitt., 1904, pp. 152 ff.; cf. Revue archéologique, 1905, I, pp. 29 ff.--The ideas on the development of that ceremony, which we are summarizing here, have been expounded by us more fully in the Revue archéologique, 1888, II, pp. 132 ff.; Mon. myst. de Mithra, I, pp. 334 ff.; Revue d'histoire et de litt. relig., VI, 1901, p. 97.--Although the conclusions of the last article have been contested by Hepding (op. cit., 70 f., it cannot be doubted that the taurobolium. was already practised in Asia Minor, in the cult of the Ma-Bellona. Moore (American Journal of Archeology, 1905, p. 70 justly refers to the text of Steph. Byz., in this connection: Μάσταυρα· ἑκαλεῖτο δὲ καὶ ἡ Ῥέα Μᾶ καὶ ταῦρος αὐτῃ
[paragraph continues] ἐθύετο παρὰ Λύδοις. The relation between the cult of Ma and that of Mithra is shown in the epithet of Ἀνείκητος, given to the goddess as well as to the god; see Athen. Mitt., XXIX, 1904, p. 169, and Keil und von Premerstein, "Reise in Lydien," Denkschr. Akad. Wien, 1908, p. 28 (inscription of the Hyrkanis plain).
3_35. Prudentius, Peristeph., 1027: "Pectus sacrato dividunt venabulo." The harpé shown on the taurobolic altars, is perhaps in reality a boar-spear having a kind of hilt (mora; cf. Grattius, Cyneg., 110) to prevent the blade from entering too far.
3_36. Hepding, pp. 196 ff.; cf. supra, n. 3_21.
3_37. CIL, VI, 510, = Dessau, Inscr. sel., 4152. Cf. Gruppe, Griech. Myth., p. 1541, n. 7.
3_38. Hepding, pp. 186 ff.
3_39. CIL, VI, 499: "Dii animae mentisque custodes." Cf. 512 "Diis magnis et tutatoribus suis," and CIL, XII, 1277, where Bel is called mentis magister.
3_40. Hippolytus, Refut. haeres., V, 9.
3_41. Julien, Or., V; cf. Paul Allard, Julien l'Apostat, II, pp. 246 ff.; Mau, Die Religionsphilosophie Kaiser Julians, 1908, pp. 90 ff. Proclus also devoted a philosophic commentary to the Cybele myth (Marinus, Vita Procli, 34).
3_42. Regarding all this see Revue d'histoire et de littérat. relig., VIII, 1903, pp. 423, ff.--Frazer (Osiris, Attis, Adonis, 1907, pp. 256 ff.) has recently defended the position that the commemoration of the death of Christ was placed by a great many churches upon March 25th to replace the celebration of Attis's death on the same date, just as Christmas has been substituted for the Natalis Invicti. The text of Ambrosiaster cited in our article (Pseudo Augustin, Quaest, veter. Test, LXXXIV, 3, p. 145, 13, Souter ed.) shows that this was asserted even in antiquity.