Cybele, officially known as Mater Deum Magna Idea (Great Idean Mother of the
Gods). The Great Mother was especially prominent in the art of the empire. She
usually appears with a mural crown and veil, seated on a throne or in a chariot,
and accompanied by two lions. Cybele was the Phrygian form of the nature deity
of all Asia Minor, she was a universal mother, parent not only of the gods but
also human beings and beasts. She was called the Mountain Mother, and special
emphasis was placed on her maternity over wild nature; this was manifested by
the orgiastic character of her worship. Her mythical attendants, the Corybantes
were wild, half-demonic beings. Her priests, the galli, castrated themselves on
entering her service. The self-mutilation was justified by the myth that her
lover, the fertility god Attis, had emasculated himself under a pine tree, where
he bled to death. At Cybele’s annual festival (March 15-27), a pine tree was
cut and brought to her shrine, where it was honoured as a god and adorned with
violets considered to have sprung from the blood of Attis. On March 24, the
“Day of Blood,” her chief priest, the archigallus, drew blood from his arms
and offered it to her to the music of cymbals, drums, and flutes, while the
lower clergy whirled madly and slashed themselves to bespatter the alter and the
sacred pine with their blood.