|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Background | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Attis (sometimes written as "Atys") was the lover of Cybele, her eunuch attendant and driver of her lion-driven chariot; he was driven mad by her and castrated himself. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Attis was originally a local semi-deity of Phrygia, associated with the great Phrygian trading city of Pessinos, which lay under the lee of Mount Agdistis. The mountain was personified as a daemon, whom foreigners associated with the Great Mother Cybele. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mythology | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The origin of Attis is a particular unique and strange variation of the incestuous son-mother relationship of Gods. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The daemon Agdistis (Cybele) initially bore both male and female attributes. But the Olympian gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ and cast it away. There grew up from it an almond-tree, and when its fruit was ripe, Nana who was a daughter of the river Sangarios picked an almond and laid it in her bosom. The almond disappeared, and she became pregnant. Nana abandoned the baby (Attis). The infant was tended by a he-goat. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| As Attis grew, his long-haired beauty was godlike, and Agdistis as Cybele, then fell in love with him. But the foster parents of Attis sent him to Pessinos, where he was to wed the king's daughter. According to some versions the King of Pessinos was Midas. Just as the marriage-song was being sung, Agdistis/Cybele appeared in her transcendent power, and Attis went mad and cut off his genitals. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attis' father-in-law-to-be, the king who was giving his daughter in marriage, followed suit, prefiguring the self-castrating corybantes who devoted themselves to Cybele. But Agdistis repented and saw to it that the body of Attis should neither rot at all nor decay. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attis was reborn as the evergreen pine. At the temple of Cybele/Rhea in Pessinos, the mother of the gods was still called Agdistis. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| As neighboring Lydia came to control Phrygia, the cult of Attis was given a Lydian context. Attis is said to have introduced to Lydia the cult of the Mother Goddess Cybele, incurring the jealousy of Zeus, who sent a boar to destroy the Lydian crops. Then certain Lydians, with Attis himself, were killed by the boar. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In honor of this myth, it is said the Celts of Pessinos at one time abstained from pork. In Rome, the eunuch followers of Cybele were known as Galli. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sacred Festival Days of Attis | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The most important days for sacred festivals of Attis were in the middle to late March. The days were considered universal to the cult across the Empire. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| March 15 - Canna Intrat (procession of the reed-bearers and syrinx-blowers); | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| March 22 - Arbor Intrat [equinox]- (entrance of the sacred pine tree; burial of Attis in effigy strapped to a stake); | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| March 24 - Sanguis (day of mourning, sacrifice, and bloodletting); | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| March 25 - Hilaria (day of Attis' resurrection); | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| March 27 - Lavatio (day of ablution). | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © One-Evil.org 2011. All Rights Reserved |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|