Mythology and Cult of Cybele

The Cult of Cybele refers to a divinity of Phrygian origin, first adopted by the Greeks then by the Romans, personifying wild nature. She is introduced as " Magna Mater », Great Goddess, Mother Goddess or even Mother of the Gods. She is one of the greatest goddesses of Antiquity in the Near East.

In the mythology Greek, we call her Damia. Under Theodosius, the Christian religion became the only accepted religion, the cult of Cybele was particularly targeted at v^e century apr. J.-C. For many historians, because of the religious fervor it engendered, it would be at the origin of the cult rendered by Christians to the Virgin Mary in western and southern Europe in particular. Cybele was also very popular in Phoenician North Africa, then Greco-Romanized, especially in Cyrenaica.

According to Greek mythology, she initiates Dionysus into her mysteries. Attis was the young lover of the Phrygian goddess Cybele. When Attis wished to marry the nymph Sangaride, Cybele, who loved him and was jealous of her, drove him so mad that he castrated himself and killed himself. This legend offers many variants which aim to explain in particular that the priests of Cybele, the Galls, are eunuchs (they practiced self-castration rituals, every March 24, on the occasion of sanguinaria).