Editing Cybele (section)

====Megalesia in April====
{{Main|Megalesia}}
[[File:Chronography of 354 Mensis Aprilis.png|thumb|upright|Illustration of the month of April based on the [[Calendar of Filocalus]] (354 AD), perhaps either a Gallus or a theatrical performer for the Megalesia<ref>Michele Renee Salzman, ''On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity'' (University of California Press, 1990), pp. 83–91, rejecting the scholarly tradition that the image represents an old man in an unknown rite for Venus</ref>]]
The ''Megalesia'' festival to Magna Mater commenced on April 4, the anniversary of her arrival in Rome. The festival structure is unclear, but it included [[ludi scaenici]] (plays and other entertainments based on religious themes), probably performed on the deeply stepped approach to her temple; some of the plays were commissioned from well-known playwrights. On April 10, her image was taken in public procession to the [[Circus Maximus]], and [[chariot race]]s were held there in her honour; a statue of Magna Mater was permanently sited on the racetrack's dividing barrier, showing the goddess seated on a lion's back.<ref>It was probably copied from a Greek original; the same appears on the [[Pergamon Altar]]. See {{harvnb|Roller|1999|page=315}}.</ref>

Roman bystanders seem to have perceived Megalesia as either characteristically "[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#ritus graecus|Greek]]";<ref>In the late Republican era, [[Cicero]] describes the hymns and ritual characteristics of Megalensia as Greek. See Takacs, in {{harvnb|Lane|1996|page=373}}.</ref> or Phrygian. At the cusp of Rome's transition to Empire, the Greek [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] describes this procession as wild Phrygian "mummery" and "fabulous clap-trap", in contrast to the Megalesian sacrifices and games, carried out in what he admires as a dignified "traditional Roman" manner; Dionysius also applauds the wisdom of Roman religious law, which forbids the participation of any Roman citizen in the procession, and in the goddess's [[Greco-Roman mysteries|mysteries]];<ref>Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus, ''Roman Antiquities'', trans. Cary, Loeb, 1935, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/2A*.html 2, 19, 3 – 5.] See also commentary in {{harvnb|Roller|1999|page=293}} and note 39: "... one can see how a Phrygian [priest] in an elaborately embroidered robe might have clashed noticeably with the plain, largely monochromatic Roman tunic and toga"; cf Augustus's "efforts to stress the white toga as the proper dress for Romans."</ref> Slaves are forbidden to witness any of this.<ref>{{harvnb|Roller|1999|page=296}}, citing Cicero,  ''De Haruspicum Responsis'', 13. 28.</ref> In the late republican era, [[Lucretius]] vividly describes the procession's armed "war dancers" in their three-plumed helmets, clashing their shields together, bronze on bronze,<ref>Recalling the Kouretes and Corybantes of Cybele's Greek myths and cults.</ref> "delighted by blood"; yellow-robed, long-haired, perfumed Galli waving their knives, wild music of thrumming tympanons and shrill flutes. Along the route, rose petals are scattered, and clouds of incense arise.<ref>See Robertson, N., in {{harvnb|Lane|1996|pages=292–293}}. See also Summers, K., in {{harvnb|Lane|1996|pages=341, 347–349}}.</ref> The goddess's sculpted image wears the Mural Crown and is seated within a sculpted, lion-drawn chariot, carried high on a bier.<ref>Summers, in {{harvnb|Lane|1996|pages=348–350}}.</ref> The Roman display of Cybele's Megalesia procession as an exotic, privileged public pageant offers signal contrast to what is known of the private, socially inclusive Phrygian-Greek mysteries on which it was based.{{sfn|Roller|1999|page=317}}