What do you think?
Rate this book
Soteriology and Mystic Aspects in the Cult of Cybele and Attis
Soteriology and Mystic Aspects in the Cult of Cybele and Attis
- GenresHistory
150 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1985
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 14, 2010
Dr. Giulia Sfameni Gasparro teaches at the University of Massina in Italy. She is an honorary member of the International Association for the History of Religions, and since the early nineteen seventies she has written extensively in her native Italian on many aspects of Greek and Roman religion including Gnosticism, a wide range of mystery cult phenomena, as well as the influence of Christianity on our understanding of different aspects of ancient spirituality.
Only a handful of her writing has been translated into English—most related to our discussion is her addition to The Human Couple of the Fathers, a collaborative text translated by Thomas Halton, that addresses the significance of intersecting relationships between man and woman as a human couple in a way distinct from the development of early Christian teachings on marriage.
Nevertheless, in the preface Dr. Gasparro warns about the risk of oversimplification of the mysteries when treated with a Christian comparison, further noting that precedence has been historically given by scholars to those aspects of the mysteries that lend themselves to comparison with early Christianity. In foundation to her treatment of the soteriological aspects of mystery cults, she explains that: “We are thus probably entitled to refer to a “category,” varied and flexible but sufficiently homogenous from a typological point of view, which covers the theme of vicissitude that distinguishes the personality and the destiny of the “mystic” god (gods subject to dramatic adventures and in need of “salvation”) from the type of the “Olympic” god (the Homeric blessed immortal) within a polytheistic structure."
Nevertheless, a problem arises when we try to define these mystic gods as “saviors” of humanity, or even as we tried to define “salvation,” a term that, as noted by Brelich, is incompatible with all religious structures of the polytheistic type.
Of primary significance to our discussion is Dr. Gasparro's differentiation between mystic and mystery (in both Greek and Latin), as mystic pertains to certain types of deity (subject to dramatic adventures and/or in need of some kind of salvation) that do not necessarily present an esoteric initiatory structure. In this context, mystery pertains to cults displaying evidence of secretive rituals and rites, providing supporting religious narrative.
In her introduction, Dr. Gasparro also questions the origins of the central aspects of the Phrygian Cybele as posited by Ramsay, Neuman, and Temizer. Notable the very early dating of rock monuments, a cultic versus funerary character of the goddess, and the identification of the goddess with a tall polos in a sculpture group dating from 6th or 7th BC respectively.
She moves to forward the notion that despite the persistence of certain basic characteristics of the Idean Mother, Cybele and her ritual, the cult does not present a uniform institution. This in addition to not having a distinct cult center or uniformity among origin myths creates a complex pattern of shared elements. Cybele and her worship must therefore be considered as a flexible network of connected elements, which often times developed along independent line give different cultures and situations in history. On one side, there is a religious complex around the Mother of the Gods of specific Oriental antecedents who was completely Hellenized including the development or presence of mystery initiatory practices. Still, there is too little evidence to determine how or if this developed continuously from the mystic to the mystery prior to Hellenization. Or if the mystery structures are constituted by religious phenomena previously defined in a mystic sense, like the Dionysiac cult of the thiasoi. Some influence or pressure from the Eleusinian model seems very likely. Nevertheless, she notes a contrast between the idea of “possession” of the mystery as distinct to Cybele versus “vision” of the mystery as distinct to Demeter.
Among other things she gives the following description of a Hellenistic bas-relief from Lebadeia as evidence of an initiatory practice in this cult: “The figures, lined up facing outwards in a continuous series which ends on the left with the image of Cybele, seated on a throne in profile and flanked by a lion, are on a larger scale and can undoubtedly be identified as deities characterized by special attributes. The Dioscuri with the typical pileus are followed by three Corybantes with broad shields, then comes a bearded figure, bare to the waist, with cornucopia and snakes, besides whom is a young woman with two long torches. Pan comes next, playing the syrinx, and then Dionysus, recognizable from the thyrsus, leading by the hand a veiled figure who is also being lead on the right by a woman with a large key which allows us to identify a priestess with initiatory functions.”
After the 4th Century, there is a significant influence by the Phrygian elements of the cult on the existing mystery religion of the Greek, including their addition of Attis and the ritual practices of the Galli. No clear borderline existed between these separate notions of the Greek Mother Goddess from the expression of the Phyrgian mythical-ritual complex gravitating around Attis. In brief both somehow seemed to influence the other.
I had questions here about the development of Greek philosophy as related to the notion of the Mother of the Gods, but the author shies away from this line. She does give numerous examples of how Cybele functioned to unify many mythic traditions among them Asklepios, Agdistis, numerous manifestations of Artemis, Dionysus, Isis, and Hecate. While with the addition of Attis there is parallel with Orpheus and Osiris among others. It is my personal opinion that the rise in popularity of Cybele can be directly tied to her inherently cohesive definition as the originating form from which all other forms are born; this can be appreciated in both Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic thought.
Toward the end of the 3rd Century CE more new elements pile into the region as the Roman aristocracy turns to Pergamum with precise religious policy in mind. The official accession of the Mater Magna Idaea in Republican Rome entailed a rigorous selection of the elements composing Cybele's personality and ritual—Greek, Oriental, or otherwise, and thus she is perfectly integrated into the Roman pantheon in much the same pick and choose method found in the Aeneid. In fact, the Romans considering her a protectoress of the city insofar as she was tied to Trojan origins, but still ritualizing her through decidedly Hellenic lens.
Still, the priests of the cult—including Galli—followed the physical stone of the goddess from Phyrgia to Rome. And even Attis came to Rome in the train of the Magna Mater. Official sanction effected a series of reforms at successive moments of the public ritual. Eventually, evolving an entire March festival cycle centered on Attis. This ritual complex clearly displays features peculiar to mystic cults in its ceremonial portrayal of a divine vicissitude characterized by deep pathos and a positive outcome, particularly chthonic fertility. A mystery ritual is soon to follow. In the roman Imperial period the cult included esoteric-initiatory mysteries, referring to the Great Mother Cybele.
The historical and typological relationship between female and male (and emasculated) aspects of cultic ritual cannot be clearly defined. Nevertheless the mass of evidence leads the author and others to suspect that the formation of mysteries in the Phrygian cult was not an original element but a later addition. Archeological evidence suggests this the result of an encounter with Greek religious structures familiar with the Cybele phenomenon in various forms. The mystic elements of the Phrygian cult were then adapted to an esoteric-initiatory ritual mystery practice (model largely after the Eleusinian Mysteries) in which the personal aspect of the participation of the adept in the divine vicissitude took absolute precedent.
The soteriological content of the cult creates a further layer of complexity. There are no sources ascribed to the original Anatolian context and later texts have been lost as well. Still, while no source attributes a specific guarantee of immortal bliss to the initiate, those prospects are not completely absent from the cult. Still they seem to operate in a closer tie to Attis than Cybele, for the Great Mother dominates nature both in its uncultivated aspects and in its vital and fertile energies, displaying additional medical and cathartic faculties. Cybele's capacity to infuse mania can be taken as a beneficial possession not unlike experienced by a Bacchant, placing the practitioner in a state of bliss, but it is a distinct mythic-ritual complex relating to Attis which expresses a religious vision based on the notion of the deity as a guarantor of cosmic existence. The idea is thus established that life and vegetal fertility spring from the death of the deity and, more precisely, from parts of his body and blood. This notion is expressed in connection to the differing origin myth in which the girl bride of Attis meets a violent death as a result of mutilation. These various elements concur in their reciprocal interaction to form a unitary ideological structure. Attis—unlike Persephone or Adonis—does not return periodically, he appears rather to be surviving in death.
Only a handful of her writing has been translated into English—most related to our discussion is her addition to The Human Couple of the Fathers, a collaborative text translated by Thomas Halton, that addresses the significance of intersecting relationships between man and woman as a human couple in a way distinct from the development of early Christian teachings on marriage.
Nevertheless, in the preface Dr. Gasparro warns about the risk of oversimplification of the mysteries when treated with a Christian comparison, further noting that precedence has been historically given by scholars to those aspects of the mysteries that lend themselves to comparison with early Christianity. In foundation to her treatment of the soteriological aspects of mystery cults, she explains that: “We are thus probably entitled to refer to a “category,” varied and flexible but sufficiently homogenous from a typological point of view, which covers the theme of vicissitude that distinguishes the personality and the destiny of the “mystic” god (gods subject to dramatic adventures and in need of “salvation”) from the type of the “Olympic” god (the Homeric blessed immortal) within a polytheistic structure."
Nevertheless, a problem arises when we try to define these mystic gods as “saviors” of humanity, or even as we tried to define “salvation,” a term that, as noted by Brelich, is incompatible with all religious structures of the polytheistic type.
Of primary significance to our discussion is Dr. Gasparro's differentiation between mystic and mystery (in both Greek and Latin), as mystic pertains to certain types of deity (subject to dramatic adventures and/or in need of some kind of salvation) that do not necessarily present an esoteric initiatory structure. In this context, mystery pertains to cults displaying evidence of secretive rituals and rites, providing supporting religious narrative.
In her introduction, Dr. Gasparro also questions the origins of the central aspects of the Phrygian Cybele as posited by Ramsay, Neuman, and Temizer. Notable the very early dating of rock monuments, a cultic versus funerary character of the goddess, and the identification of the goddess with a tall polos in a sculpture group dating from 6th or 7th BC respectively.
She moves to forward the notion that despite the persistence of certain basic characteristics of the Idean Mother, Cybele and her ritual, the cult does not present a uniform institution. This in addition to not having a distinct cult center or uniformity among origin myths creates a complex pattern of shared elements. Cybele and her worship must therefore be considered as a flexible network of connected elements, which often times developed along independent line give different cultures and situations in history. On one side, there is a religious complex around the Mother of the Gods of specific Oriental antecedents who was completely Hellenized including the development or presence of mystery initiatory practices. Still, there is too little evidence to determine how or if this developed continuously from the mystic to the mystery prior to Hellenization. Or if the mystery structures are constituted by religious phenomena previously defined in a mystic sense, like the Dionysiac cult of the thiasoi. Some influence or pressure from the Eleusinian model seems very likely. Nevertheless, she notes a contrast between the idea of “possession” of the mystery as distinct to Cybele versus “vision” of the mystery as distinct to Demeter.
Among other things she gives the following description of a Hellenistic bas-relief from Lebadeia as evidence of an initiatory practice in this cult: “The figures, lined up facing outwards in a continuous series which ends on the left with the image of Cybele, seated on a throne in profile and flanked by a lion, are on a larger scale and can undoubtedly be identified as deities characterized by special attributes. The Dioscuri with the typical pileus are followed by three Corybantes with broad shields, then comes a bearded figure, bare to the waist, with cornucopia and snakes, besides whom is a young woman with two long torches. Pan comes next, playing the syrinx, and then Dionysus, recognizable from the thyrsus, leading by the hand a veiled figure who is also being lead on the right by a woman with a large key which allows us to identify a priestess with initiatory functions.”
After the 4th Century, there is a significant influence by the Phrygian elements of the cult on the existing mystery religion of the Greek, including their addition of Attis and the ritual practices of the Galli. No clear borderline existed between these separate notions of the Greek Mother Goddess from the expression of the Phyrgian mythical-ritual complex gravitating around Attis. In brief both somehow seemed to influence the other.
I had questions here about the development of Greek philosophy as related to the notion of the Mother of the Gods, but the author shies away from this line. She does give numerous examples of how Cybele functioned to unify many mythic traditions among them Asklepios, Agdistis, numerous manifestations of Artemis, Dionysus, Isis, and Hecate. While with the addition of Attis there is parallel with Orpheus and Osiris among others. It is my personal opinion that the rise in popularity of Cybele can be directly tied to her inherently cohesive definition as the originating form from which all other forms are born; this can be appreciated in both Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic thought.
Toward the end of the 3rd Century CE more new elements pile into the region as the Roman aristocracy turns to Pergamum with precise religious policy in mind. The official accession of the Mater Magna Idaea in Republican Rome entailed a rigorous selection of the elements composing Cybele's personality and ritual—Greek, Oriental, or otherwise, and thus she is perfectly integrated into the Roman pantheon in much the same pick and choose method found in the Aeneid. In fact, the Romans considering her a protectoress of the city insofar as she was tied to Trojan origins, but still ritualizing her through decidedly Hellenic lens.
Still, the priests of the cult—including Galli—followed the physical stone of the goddess from Phyrgia to Rome. And even Attis came to Rome in the train of the Magna Mater. Official sanction effected a series of reforms at successive moments of the public ritual. Eventually, evolving an entire March festival cycle centered on Attis. This ritual complex clearly displays features peculiar to mystic cults in its ceremonial portrayal of a divine vicissitude characterized by deep pathos and a positive outcome, particularly chthonic fertility. A mystery ritual is soon to follow. In the roman Imperial period the cult included esoteric-initiatory mysteries, referring to the Great Mother Cybele.
The historical and typological relationship between female and male (and emasculated) aspects of cultic ritual cannot be clearly defined. Nevertheless the mass of evidence leads the author and others to suspect that the formation of mysteries in the Phrygian cult was not an original element but a later addition. Archeological evidence suggests this the result of an encounter with Greek religious structures familiar with the Cybele phenomenon in various forms. The mystic elements of the Phrygian cult were then adapted to an esoteric-initiatory ritual mystery practice (model largely after the Eleusinian Mysteries) in which the personal aspect of the participation of the adept in the divine vicissitude took absolute precedent.
The soteriological content of the cult creates a further layer of complexity. There are no sources ascribed to the original Anatolian context and later texts have been lost as well. Still, while no source attributes a specific guarantee of immortal bliss to the initiate, those prospects are not completely absent from the cult. Still they seem to operate in a closer tie to Attis than Cybele, for the Great Mother dominates nature both in its uncultivated aspects and in its vital and fertile energies, displaying additional medical and cathartic faculties. Cybele's capacity to infuse mania can be taken as a beneficial possession not unlike experienced by a Bacchant, placing the practitioner in a state of bliss, but it is a distinct mythic-ritual complex relating to Attis which expresses a religious vision based on the notion of the deity as a guarantor of cosmic existence. The idea is thus established that life and vegetal fertility spring from the death of the deity and, more precisely, from parts of his body and blood. This notion is expressed in connection to the differing origin myth in which the girl bride of Attis meets a violent death as a result of mutilation. These various elements concur in their reciprocal interaction to form a unitary ideological structure. Attis—unlike Persephone or Adonis—does not return periodically, he appears rather to be surviving in death.
Displaying 1 of 1 review