Editing Agdistis (section)

==Association with Cybele==
Agdistis's story comes from the [[Phrygia]]n city of [[Pessinus]], a cultic center of [[Cybele]] the Great Mother of the gods, where, according to [[Strabo]], the two goddesses were identified.<ref>Baudy, [https://referenceworks-brillonline-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/*-e107470 s.v. Agdistis]; Walton and Scheid, [https://oxfordre-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-187  s.v. Agdistis]; Lancellotti, p. 9; Grimal, s.v. Agdistis; [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.3.12 10.3.12], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:12.5.3 12.5.3]. Compare [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]], [https://archive.org/details/hesychiialexandr0000hesy/page/16/mode/2up s.v. Agdistis]. For inscriptions treating Agdistis as an epithet of the Mother of the gods, see Sfameni Gasparro, [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_EUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA34 p. 34 n. 31].</ref> However, even when Agdistis is considered to be distinct from Cybele, such as in Arnobius' account above, the two are closely associated,<ref>For example, an altar at [[Sizma]] depicts Agdistis, the Great Mother, Apollo Sozon, and Helios, each in relief on one of its four sides, see Sfameni Gasparro, [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_EUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA35 p. 35].</ref> with Agdistis often being interpreted as a "doublet"<ref>Walton and Scheid, [https://oxfordre-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-956 s.v. Attis]; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA218 p. 218].</ref> or "doubling"<ref>Sfameni Gasparro, [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_EUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA34 p. 34].</ref> of the Great Mother.

Agdistis held a special place in the Phrygian religious traditions surrounding Cybele.<ref>Sfameni Gasparro, [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_EUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA34 p. 34].</ref> The accounts of Agdistis given above revolve around Attis who was the young consort of Cybele and prototype of her eunuch priesthood.<ref>Walton and Scheid, [https://oxfordre-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-956 s.v. Attis]; Sfameni Gasparro, p. 26.</ref> And Agistis's story was a mythic ''aition'', or [[origin myth]], which was supposed to explain why Cybele's priests were eunuchs.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA218 p. 218]; Sfameni Gasparro, p. 26.</ref> Although the Great Mother does not figure directly in Pausanias' account, she figures throughout Arnobius', seemingly in parallel with Agdistis, where they both love Attis, enter the closed city and disrupt the wedding, and join together in mourning his death.<ref>Sfameni Gasparro, [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_EUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA34 p. 34]; [[Arnobius]], [https://archive.org/details/thesevenbooksofa00arnouoft/page/n257/mode/2up 5.7].</ref>

While the two goddesses in Arnobius' account share such things as their intimate relationship with Attis, and their ability to inspire ''μανία'' ('mania') in the wedding participants, there are however differences. The most notable difference being Agdistis' androgynous nature.<ref>Sfameni Gasparro, p. 37. In addition, as Sfameni Gasparro, p. 34, points out, the Great Mother is portrayed with a "superior dignity", and goes on to suggest that the reason for this is "the 'Hellenizing' mythographer's intention to safeguard, in the crudity of the episode narrated, the dignity of the 'Mother of the Gods' from the 'barbarous' and coarse aspects of the hermaphrodite Agdistis."</ref>