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Description

Here’s my take on Attis, a god of vegetation originating from Anatolia (a region including a good part of present-day Turkey), and more precisely from Phrygia, who was subsequently adopted by the Greeks, then by the Romans. His bloody history is closely linked to that of the mother goddess Cybele, of whom he was both the unsuspected descendant and consort

Long before his birth, Cybele was a hermaphrodite entity called Agdistis, supposedly fathered by Zeus and Gaia, in this version. The androgynous character of this deity was a symbol of wild and uncontrollable nature, and its power ended up worrying the other gods. Among the conspirators was Liber, a Roman god of wine, who poured a sleeping potion into the well where the hermaphrodite used to drink (in another version it is simply Dionysus, but this comes into contradiction with a more commonly accepted version of the story of Cybele, where she cured him of his madness before he was admitted to Olympus, so let's stay with this one, for better consistency). While they slept, a rope was tied, binding their phallus to one of their feet ; so, when they woke up, Agdistis got up and cut off the male organ. Becoming purely feminine, the divinity became Cybele, mother goddess of the mountains, of wild life, and intermediary between the civilized world and the natural world. And where the blood of the emasculation fell to the earth, an almond tree took root.
Later, when the tree in question bore its first fruits, the young Nana, daughter of Sangarius (god personifying the Sakarya river, in Phrygia), came to pick several almonds, which she slipped in her bosom. But the seeds of unsuspected magic vanished within her, and she became pregnant ; thus was born Attis. Unfortunately abandoned by his mother, he was tended by, either by wild goats or by a human couple.

He became familiar with the profession of shepherd in his youth, and became a young man of great beauty, so great that it attracted the attention of Cybele, who fell in love with the young god. Alas, Attis had his first adventure with the naiad Sagaritis, and lost his virginity in her arms. In anger, the jealous mother goddess struck the young god with madness, and he rushed towards Mount Dindymus (at the east of Phrygia) to emasculate himself there, then die shortly after, as a result of the hemorrhage. In another version, Attis is promised to the daughter of the king of Pessinos (sometimes identified as the famous Midas), and it’s his marriage with her that plunges Cybele into a terrible rage. In all her grandeur, she burst into the wedding, and struck the fiancé with madness, who went off to emasculate and die, but under a pine tree this time. In the first version mentioned here, the blood shed by Attis causes an evergreen pine tree to grow, and in the second, violets. Still in the version involving a royal marriage, the future father-in-law of the young god, upset, imitated his tragic gesture, but without dying, becoming the first of the eunuch priests of Cybele, subsequently called the galli. But regretting her act, Cybele wanted to resurrect Attis. In one version, she prays Zeus to bring the young god back to life, but the thunder god only manages to prevent his body from decomposing, still letting his hair grow, and allowing him to move a finger. But in another, the god of vegetation actually comes back to life, and becomes Cybele's consort ; numerous bas-reliefs represent them side by side.

The cult of Attis would have begun around 1250 BC. , in the region where the previously mentioned Mount Dindymus is located, and would have been exported to Greece towards the end of the 4th century BC. , before the Romans also began to practice it, in 204 BC. Although his cult probably remains younger than that of Cybele, it will have closely followed its importation towards the west of the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the time, the young god was represented with the outfit and accessories of a Phrygian shepherd, with the famous cap, the shepherd's staff, but also a tight-fitting outfit leaving the stomach and crotch exposed, and covering the legs only at intervals. Other sculptures adorn him with a solar crown, and/or make him carry a musical instrument, such as a syrinx (pan flute) or a drum.

In the Lydian version of the myth (Lydia being a country located to the west of Phrygia, still in present-day Turkey), Attis is only a simple human, a high eunuch priest of Cybele, importing his cult into Greece. Zeus, jealous, sent a wild boar to ravage the crops and kill the young man.
Attis can be compared to the Mesopotamian god Tammuz/Dumuzid. The latter is also a shepherd god of vegetation, and is the consort of Inanna/Ishtar. The latter, after being trapped by her sister Ereshkigal, ruler of the Underworld, chooses her lover to take her place temporarily, cyclically. Tammuz must then spend some time in the land of the dead each year, returning at spring, a cycle which will later be illustrated by the death and resurrection of Attis.

Here's some fitting music (as in, the one I kinda expect to hear while Attis goes mad...) ! youtu.be/ylkKmzFJ480

Description

Here’s my take on Attis, a god of vegetation originating from Anatolia (a region including a good part of present-day Turkey), and more precisely from Phrygia, who was subsequently adopted by the Greeks, then by the Romans. His bloody history is closely linked to that of the mother goddess Cybele, of whom he was both the unsuspected descendant and consort

Long before his birth, Cybele was a hermaphrodite entity called Agdistis, supposedly fathered by Zeus and Gaia, in this version. The androgynous character of this deity was a symbol of wild and uncontrollable nature, and its power ended up worrying the other gods. Among the conspirators was Liber, a Roman god of wine, who poured a sleeping potion into the well where the hermaphrodite used to drink (in another version it is simply Dionysus, but this comes into contradiction with a more commonly accepted version of the story of Cybele, where she cured him of his madness before he was admitted to Olympus, so let's stay with this one, for better consistency). While they slept, a rope was tied, binding their phallus to one of their feet ; so, when they woke up, Agdistis got up and cut off the male organ. Becoming purely feminine, the divinity became Cybele, mother goddess of the mountains, of wild life, and intermediary between the civilized world and the natural world. And where the blood of the emasculation fell to the earth, an almond tree took root.
Later, when the tree in question bore its first fruits, the young Nana, daughter of Sangarius (god personifying the Sakarya river, in Phrygia), came to pick several almonds, which she slipped in her bosom. But the seeds of unsuspected magic vanished within her, and she became pregnant ; thus was born Attis. Unfortunately abandoned by his mother, he was tended by, either by wild goats or by a human couple.

He became familiar with the profession of shepherd in his youth, and became a young man of great beauty, so great that it attracted the attention of Cybele, who fell in love with the young god. Alas, Attis had his first adventure with the naiad Sagaritis, and lost his virginity in her arms. In anger, the jealous mother goddess struck the young god with madness, and he rushed towards Mount Dindymus (at the east of Phrygia) to emasculate himself there, then die shortly after, as a result of the hemorrhage. In another version, Attis is promised to the daughter of the king of Pessinos (sometimes identified as the famous Midas), and it’s his marriage with her that plunges Cybele into a terrible rage. In all her grandeur, she burst into the wedding, and struck the fiancé with madness, who went off to emasculate and die, but under a pine tree this time. In the first version mentioned here, the blood shed by Attis causes an evergreen pine tree to grow, and in the second, violets. Still in the version involving a royal marriage, the future father-in-law of the young god, upset, imitated his tragic gesture, but without dying, becoming the first of the eunuch priests of Cybele, subsequently called the galli. But regretting her act, Cybele wanted to resurrect Attis. In one version, she prays Zeus to bring the young god back to life, but the thunder god only manages to prevent his body from decomposing, still letting his hair grow, and allowing him to move a finger. But in another, the god of vegetation actually comes back to life, and becomes Cybele's consort ; numerous bas-reliefs represent them side by side.

The cult of Attis would have begun around 1250 BC. , in the region where the previously mentioned Mount Dindymus is located, and would have been exported to Greece towards the end of the 4th century BC. , before the Romans also began to practice it, in 204 BC. Although his cult probably remains younger than that of Cybele, it will have closely followed its importation towards the west of the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the time, the young god was represented with the outfit and accessories of a Phrygian shepherd, with the famous cap, the shepherd's staff, but also a tight-fitting outfit leaving the stomach and crotch exposed, and covering the legs only at intervals. Other sculptures adorn him with a solar crown, and/or make him carry a musical instrument, such as a syrinx (pan flute) or a drum.

In the Lydian version of the myth (Lydia being a country located to the west of Phrygia, still in present-day Turkey), Attis is only a simple human, a high eunuch priest of Cybele, importing his cult into Greece. Zeus, jealous, sent a wild boar to ravage the crops and kill the young man.
Attis can be compared to the Mesopotamian god Tammuz/Dumuzid. The latter is also a shepherd god of vegetation, and is the consort of Inanna/Ishtar. The latter, after being trapped by her sister Ereshkigal, ruler of the Underworld, chooses her lover to take her place temporarily, cyclically. Tammuz must then spend some time in the land of the dead each year, returning at spring, a cycle which will later be illustrated by the death and resurrection of Attis.

Here's some fitting music (as in, the one I kinda expect to hear while Attis goes mad...) ! youtu.be/ylkKmzFJ480