Editing Cybele (section)

====Taurobolium and Criobolium====
[[File:Lyon-Autel-CIL-XIII-1756.jpg|thumb|upright|Eroded inscription from [[Lugdunum]] (modern [[Lyon]], in France) commemorating a taurobolium for the Mother of the Gods under the title ''Augusta''<ref>''Taurobolium Matris Deum Augustae'': ''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' 13.1756.</ref>]]
[[File:CIL XIII 1752.jpg|thumb|upright|Inscription set up by the dendrophores of Lugdunum for the wellbeing of the emperor, his ''[[numen]]'', and his divine household, marking a taurobolium; the presence of an ''[[archigallus]]'' is noted<ref>''CIL'' 13.1752.</ref>]]
Rome's strictures against castration and citizen participation in Magna Mater's cult limited both the number and kind of her initiates. From the 160s AD, citizens who sought initiation to her mysteries could offer either of two forms of bloody animal sacrifice – and sometimes both – as lawful substitutes for self-castration. The [[Taurobolium]] sacrificed a bull, the most potent and costly [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#victima|victim]] in Roman religion; the [[Criobolium]] used a lesser victim, usually a ram.<ref>See {{harvnb|Duthoy|1969|page=1 ff.}} Possible Greek precursors for the taurobolium are attested around 150 BC in Asia Minor, including [[Pergamum]], and at Ilium (the traditional site of ancient [[Troy]]), which some Romans assumed as their own and Cybele's "native" city. The form of taurobolium presented by later Roman sources probably developed over time, and was not unique to Magna Mater – one was given at [[Puteoli]] in 134 AD to honour [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] Caelestia (C.I.L. X.1596) – but anti-pagan polemic represents it as hers. Some scholarship defines the Criobolium as a rite of Attis; but some dedication slabs show the bull's garlanded head (Taurobolium) with a ram's (Criobolium), and no mention of Attis.</ref><ref>See also Vecihi Özkay, "The Shaft Monuments and the 'Taurobolium' among the Phrygians", ''Anatolian Studies'', Vol. 47, (1997), pp. 89–103, British Institute at Ankara, for speculation that some Phrygian shaft monuments anticipate the Taurobolium pit.</ref>

A late, melodramatic and antagonistic account by the Christian apologist [[Prudentius]] has a priest stand in a pit beneath a slatted wooden floor; his assistants or junior priests dispatch a bull, using a sacred spear. The priest emerges from the pit, drenched with the bull's blood, to the applause of the gathered spectators. This description of a Taurobolium as blood-bath is, if accurate, an exception to usual Roman sacrificial practice;<ref>Prudentius is the sole original source for this version of a Taurobolium. Beard, p. 172, referring to it; "[this is] quite contrary to the practice of traditional civic sacrifice in Rome, in which the blood was carefully collected and the officiant never sullied." {{harvnb|Duthoy|1969|page=1 ff.}}, believes that in early versions of these sacrifices, the animal's blood may have simply have been collected in a vessel; and that this was elaborated into what Prudentius more-or-less accurately describes. {{harvnb|Cameron|2010|page=163}}, outright rejects Prudentius' testimony as anti-pagan hearsay, sheer fabrication, and polemical embroidery of an ordinary bull-sacrifice.</ref> it may have been no more than a bull sacrifice in which the blood was carefully collected and offered to the deity, along with its organs of generation, the testicles.<ref>{{harvnb|Cameron|2010|page=163 cf.}}, the self-castration of Attis and the Galli.</ref>

The Taurobolium and Criobolium are not tied to any particular date or festival, but probably draw on the same theological principles as the life, death, and rebirth cycle of the March "holy week". The celebrant personally and symbolically took the place of Attis, and like him was cleansed, renewed or, in emerging from the pit or tomb, "reborn".{{sfn|Duthoy|1969|page=119}} These regenerative effects were thought to fade over time, but they could be renewed by further sacrifice. Some dedications transfer the regenerative power of the sacrifice to non-participants, including [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|emperors, the Imperial family and the Roman state]]; some mark a [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#dies natalis|''dies natalis'']] (birthday or anniversary) for the participant or recipient. Dedicants and participants could be male or female.<ref>{{harvnb|Duthoy|1969|page=61 ff., 107, 101-104, 115}} Some Taurobolium and Criobolium markers show a repetition between several years and more than two decades after.</ref>

The sheer expense of the Taurobolium ensured that its initiates were from Rome's highest class, and even the lesser offering of a Criobolium would have been beyond the means of the poor. Among the Roman masses, there is evidence of private devotion to Attis, but virtually none for initiations to Magna Mater's cult.<ref>Fear, in {{harvnb|Lane|1996|pages=41, 45}}.</ref>

In the religious revivalism of the later Imperial era, Magna Mater's notable initiates included the deeply religious, wealthy, and erudite [[praetorian prefect]] [[Vettius Agorius Praetextatus|Praetextatus]]; the [[Quindecimviri sacris faciundis|quindecimvir]] [[Gaius Caeionius Rufius Volusianus|Volusianus]], who was twice consul; and possibly the [[Julian the Apostate|Emperor Julian]].{{sfn|Duthoy|1969|page=1}} Taurobolium dedications to Magna Mater tend to be more common in the Empire's western provinces than elsewhere, attested by inscriptions in (among others) Rome and [[Ostia Antica|Ostia]] in Italy, [[Lugdunum]] in Gaul, and [[Carthage]] in Africa.<ref>{{harvnb|Duthoy|1969|page=1 ff.}} (listing the relevant inscriptions).</ref>