Editing Cybele (section)

== Anatolia==
[[File:Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük on black background.jpg|thumb|[[Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük]], flanked by large felines as arm-rests, {{circa|6,000 BC}}]]
No contemporary text or myth survives to attest the original character and nature of Cybele's Phrygian cult. She may have evolved from a [[Seated Goddess of Catalhuyuk|statuary type]] found at [[Çatalhöyük]] in [[Anatolia]], of a "corpulent and fertile" female figure accompanied by large felines, dated to the [[6th millennium BC]] and identified by some as a [[mother goddess]].{{refn|With reference to Cybele's origins and precursors, S.A. Takács describes "A terracotta statuette of a seated (mother) goddess giving birth with each hand on the head of a leopard or panther," ''Cybele, Attis and related cults: essays in memory of M.J. Vermaseren'' 1996:376;  of this iconic type [[Walter Burkert]] says "The iconography found leads directly to the image of Kybele sitting upon her throne between two lions" (Burkert, ''Homo Necans'' (1983:79)).}} In [[Gordion Furniture and Wooden Artifacts|Phrygian art]] of the 8th century BC, the cult attributes of the Phrygian mother-goddess include attendant lions, a bird of prey, and a small vase for her [[libation]]s or other offerings.<ref>Elizabeth Simpson, "Phrygian Furniture from Gordion", in [[Georgina Herrmann]] (ed.), ''The Furniture of Ancient Western Asia'', Mainz 1996, pp. 198–201.</ref>

The inscription ''Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya''<ref name=Beekes>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 794 (''s.v.'' "Κυβέλη").</ref> at a Phrygian rock-cut shrine, dated to the first half of the 6th century BC, is usually read as "Mother of the mountain", a reading supported by ancient classical sources,<ref name=Beekes/><ref>{{harvnb|Roller|1999|pages=67–68}}. This displaces the root meaning of "Cybele" as "she of the hair": see [[C.H.E. Haspels]], ''The Highlands of Phrygia'', 1971, I 293 no 13, noted in {{harvnb|Burkert|1985}} notes 17 and 18.</ref> and consistent with Cybele as any of several similar [[tutelary deity|tutelary goddesses]], each known as "mother" and associated with specific Anatolian mountains or other localities:{{sfn|Motz|1997|page=115}} a goddess thus "born from stone".<ref>Johnstone, in {{harvnb|Lane|1996|page=109}}.</ref> She is ancient Phrygia's only known goddess,{{sfn|Roller|1999|page=53}} the divine companion or consort of its mortal rulers, and was probably the highest deity of the Phrygian state. Her name, and the development of religious practices associated with her, may have been influenced by the [[Kubaba (goddess)|Kubaba]] cult of the deified [[Sumer]]ian queen [[Kubaba]].<ref>Kubaba was a queen of [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]]'s Third dynasty. She was worshipped at [[Carchemish]], and her name was [[Hellenization|Hellenized]] as ''Kybebe''. {{harvnb|Motz|1997|pages=105–106}} takes this as the likely source of ''kubilya'' (cf. {{harvnb|Roller|1999|pages=67–68}}, where kubileya = mountain).</ref>

In the 2nd century AD, the geographer [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] attests to a [[Magnesia ad Sipylum|Magnesian]] ([[Lydia]]n) cult to "the mother of the gods", whose image was carved into a rock-spur of [[Mount Sipylus]]. This was believed to be the oldest image of the goddess, and was attributed to the legendary [[Broteas]].<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'': "the Magnesians, who live to the north of Spil Mount, have on the rock Coddinus the most ancient of all the images of the Mother of the gods. The Magnesians say that it was made by Broteas the son of Tantalus." The image was probably Hittite in origin; see {{harvnb|Roller|1999|page=200}}.</ref> At [[Pessinos]] in Phrygia, the mother goddess—identified by the Greeks as Cybele—took the form of an unshaped stone of black meteoric iron,<ref>Summers, in {{harvnb|Lane|1996|page=364}}.</ref> and may have been associated with or identical to [[Agdistis]], Pessinos' mountain deity.<ref>Schmitz, Leonard, in Smith, William, [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]], 1867, p. 67. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150605071716/https://nlp.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D9%3Aentry%3Dagdistis-bio-1 link to perseus.org].</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Roller|1994|pages=248–56}}, suggests "Agdistis" as Cybele's personal name at Pessinos.</ref> This was the aniconic stone that was removed to Rome in 204 BC.

Images and iconography in funerary contexts, and the ubiquity of her Phrygian name ''Matar'' ("Mother"), suggest that she was a mediator between the "boundaries of the known and unknown": the civilized and the wild, the worlds of the living and the dead.{{sfn|Roller|1999|pages=110–114}} Her association with hawks, lions, and the stone of the mountainous landscape of the Anatolian wilderness, seem to characterize her as mother of the land in its untrammeled natural state, with power to rule, moderate or soften its latent ferocity, and to control its potential threats to a settled, civilized life. Anatolian elites sought to harness her protective power to forms of ruler-cult; in Phrygia, the [[Midas monument]] connects her with king [[Midas]], as her sponsor, consort, or co-divinity.{{sfn|Roller|1999|pages=69-71}} As protector of cities, or city states, she was sometimes shown wearing a [[mural crown]], representing the city walls.<ref>Takacs, in {{harvnb|Lane|1996|page=376}}</ref> At the same time, her power "transcended any purely political usage and spoke directly to the goddess' followers from all walks of life".<ref>{{harvnb|Roller|1999|pages=111, 114, 140}}; for quotation, see p. 146.</ref>

Some Phrygian [[shaft tomb|shaft monuments]] are thought to have been used for [[libation]]s and blood offerings to Cybele, perhaps anticipating by several centuries the pit used in her [[taurobolium]] and [[criobolium]] sacrifices during the Roman imperial era.<ref>Vecihi Özkay, "The Shaft Monuments and the 'Taurobolium' among the Phrygians", ''Anatolian Studies'', Vol. 47, (1997), pp. 89–103, British Institute at Ankara.</ref> Over time, her Phrygian cults and iconography were transformed, and eventually subsumed, by the influences and interpretations of her foreign devotees, at first Greek and later Roman.