1 Introduction
Before 1700 BC, in Phrygia, a certain faith was born. A not-so-large black stone fell from the sky onto the ground about 50km southwest of Gordion, going up the Sangarius River from the Black Sea. This happened in Pessinus, where the word "fall" is said to have been the origin of the town's name. [1]
People cherished and respected the stone as the object of their wishes for the fertility of the earth.
Apollodorus, the 2nd century AD mythological writer, tells us that in Cybela, which is thought to be Pessinus, there was a goddess who transmitted the mysteries in a later period than Cadmus. [2]
In 205 BC, Rome fell into crisis when it was attacked by Hannibal, the Carthage warlord. At that time, the verses that saved Rome were discovered in the Sibylline books, a collection of oracles from the seer Sibylla, who was born in Erythrae of Ionia. It read: "Though foreign enemies bring war to the land of Italy, if the Idaean Mother is brought from Pessinus to Rome, the enemies will be banished and conquered." The Romans, with the help of Attalus of Pergamon, placed the Idaean Mother in the Temple of Victory on the Palatine Hill in Rome. Rome then won a battle against Carthage and built a new temple to the Idaean Mother. [3]
Pessinus was originally worshiped as a god of fertility, but over time he became a god of blacksmithing and safe navigation, as well as a guardian deity of cities. The history of how gods with such attributes came to be is as follows. [4]
2 God of blacksmithing and nautical safety
Some of the descendants of one who presides over the faith born in Pessinus went to Crete. One of their descendants, Cabeilo, bore a son, Cadmilus, to Hephaestus, the son of Talos, the son of Cres, and his children became the Cabeiri, who performed the rites of their grandmother's faith. [5]
Cres, the grandfather of Hephaestus, was the son of Telchin, son of Aegialeus (or Aezeius) of Sicyon, who was defeated in battle with Apis of Argos on the Peloponnesus peninsula. [6]
In 1690 BC, Cres migrated to Crete. [7]
In 1438 BC, iron was discovered in the remains of a great fire on Mount Ida in Crete, and iron smelting and tempering began in Aptera of Berecynthus, in the northwest of the island. [8]
The people who taught this technique were called the Ideaan Dactyls. [9]
The Idaean Dactyls were a member of the Telchines, descended from Cres' father Telchin, and were a group of people skilled in metallurgy. [10]
The Telchines were a transcendent race that brought technological innovation to the ancient Aegean Sea world. Telchines were children of the sea who excelled at navigation, as well as inventors, introducers, and sometimes magicians with scientific knowledge. [11]
In addition to the god of fertility, the objects of worship born in Phrygia included the attributes of the god of blacksmithing and nautical safety.
With the marriage of Hephaestus and Cabeilo, the Telchines also received the element of priestly Cabeiri. Telchines, Cabeiri and Ideaan Dactyls were the same clan. [12]
3 Propagation from Crete to Troad
In 1435 BC, Teucrus, the founder of the Kingdom of Troy, migrated from Crete to Troad. [13]
The emigrants were led by the Telchines, who were excellent seafarers and based in Telchinis (later Rhodes), who freely navigated the Aegean Sea. Teucrus's immigrant group included Idaean Dactyls with metallurgical skills and Cabeiri ritualists. [14]
The Idaean Dactyls explored north from near Hamaxitus in Troad, where Teucrus landed, and found a promising site around Mount Ida, where they settled. [15]
The Ideaan Dactyls explored Samothrace, Lemnos, and Imbros off the coast of Troad. [16]
In 1429 BC, Cybele, one of the Cabeirides who came to Samothrace with the Idaean Dactyls, married Dardanus' brother Iasion, who had immigrated to the island. [17]
4 Guardian of the city
Chryse, wife of Dardanus, brother of Cybele's husband Iasion, brought the mysteries bestowed upon her by the gods to Samothrace when she married Dardanus. Chryse imparted these mysteries to the inhabitants of Samothrace. [18]
Chryse also brought with her a small wooden portrait called a Palladia. After Chryse's death, Dardanus brought it with him, and it was passed down to his descendants and treated as an important protector of Troy. [19]
In 1430 BC, Methydrium in central Arcadia, where Coritus' son Dardanus lived, was struck by a prolonged flood. The Methydrium was located on a small hill between the Maloetas and Mylaon rivers, which flow at an altitude of about 1,000 m. [20]
Dardanus left half of the population to his son Deimas, and he himself led the rest to Samothrace. [21]
Chryse, wife of Dardanus, passed on her mysteries to Cybele, wife of Iasion.
Iasion originated the ceremony on Samothrace. [21-1]
In 1420 BC, Chryse and Iasion died in a sudden tsunami that hit Samothrace. [22]
Dardanus left Samothrace and crossed to the mainland, taking Cybele and her son Corybas with him.
Dardanus founded Dardanus near Mount Ida in Troad. Dardanus then remarried Teucros' daughter Bateia, becoming Teucros' successor and the founder of the kingdom of Troy. [23]
Cybele was handed down the mysteries from Chryse, and the god Cabeiri became a mystical deity with the added attribute of guardian of the city, in addition to being a god of fertility, blacksmithing, and nautical safety.
5 Propagation from Samothrace to Boeotia
Shortly before Samothrace was hit by a tsunami, a group of immigrants led by Cadmus, son of Agenor, set off from Sidon in Phoenicia and stopped at Samothrace. Cadmus was initiated into the Mysteries and married Dardanus' sister Harmonia. [24]
After this, the group of immigrants led by Cadmus who traveled to Thracia were joined by followers of the Ideaan Dactyls and Cabeiri who lived in Samothrace. [25]
The Idaean Dactyls discovered gold deposits in the Pangaeus mountains north of the Chalcidice peninsula, which became the source of Cadmus' wealth. [26]
The followers of Cabeiri, led by Hyperenor (or Anthas), one of the Sparti who accompanied Cadmus, settled near the Strait of Euripus and founded Anthedon. [27]
Later, their descendants built the sanctuary of Cabeiri, about 5 km west of the Neistan gate in Thebes, and held festivals there. [28]
Potnieus, father of Pelarge, the priest who instituted the Cabeiri ritual after the Epigoni attack on Thebes, is presumed to have been a descendant of Anthas of Anthedon. [29]
The Telchines also settled at Teumessus, about 7 km northeast of the Proetidian gate of Thebes. [30]
6 Propagation from Boeotia to Athens
In 1205 BC, the Cabeiri people of Boeotia, during the Epigoni invasion of Thebes, temporarily settled in Anagyrus of Attica, where they built a sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods. [31]
Herodotus tells us that it was the Pelasgians who lived in Samothrace who initiated the Mysteries of Cabeiri to the Athenians. [32]
It appears to be the Pelasgians who migrated from Arcadia to Samothrace with Dardanus.
The Mysteries of Cabeiri are presumed to be the mysteries of Dardanus' wife Chryse added to the Cabeiri rites of Cybele, wife of Iasion. [33]
Pausanias tells us that Methapus, the priest of Athens, instituted the Cabeiri Mysteries for Thebes. [34]
In Agora of Athens, there was a sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods, and outside the city limits, in Agrai, there was a sanctuary of the Mother of Gods, called Metroum. [35]
7 Cabeiri on Mount Ida
Cybele and her son Corybas, who migrated with Dardanus from Samothrace to Troad, settled at the foot of Mount Ida. Cybele was worshiped as a goddess, and Corybas taught the dance to those who celebrated his mother's rituals, calling them Corybantes. [36]
Their dance was called Cordax, and it is said that they were armed, clanged their weapons, blew the Aulos flute, shouted, and performed a divine dance that frightened and astounded people. [37]
Corybantes is said to have been the priest who proclaimed the rites of Cabeiri, and it was the belief in the god Cabeiri that Cybele of Mount Ida conveyed to the people. [38]
Despite the great distance between Mount Ida and Pessinus of Phrygia and the birthplace of this faith, there is a deep connection between the two.
1) Tantalus, who lived in near the Mount Ida, was pursued by Ilus, son of Tros, and fled to Pessinus. [39]
The Phrygians, who migrated to the Peloponnesus peninsula with Pelops, son of Tantalus, worshiped Cybele, the mother of the mountains. [40]
There seems to have been contact between Pessinus and Mount Ida, which was in the region where Tantalus lived.
2) The object of Pessinus' worship was ''the Idaean Mother'' in the 3rd century BC. [41]
Corybas's mother, Cybele, who lived at the foot of Mount Ida, is thought to have been the object of her worship.
8 After Cybele
Corybas, son of Cybele, married Thebe, daughter of Cadmus' brother Cilix, of Thebe, about 20 km south-east of Mount Ida, and they had a daughter, Ide. [42]
Ide married Lyctius, son of Minos, son of Europa. [43]
Cybele, who lived on Mount Ida, moved to Pessinus, and she became known as "Mother of the Gods," "Mother of the Mountains," and "Great Goddess of Phrygia." [44]
9 Traces of Cabeiri propagation
It is said that the name Cabeiri comes from the name of Mount Cabeirus in Berecyntia of Crete. However, no temples or sacred precincts related to Cabeiri have been reported in Crete.
Like Samothrace, Imbros, and Lemnos, there seems to be no doubt that there was a faith even though there were no buildings. [45]
In Asia Minor, there were sacred shrines of Cabeiri at Corybissa, about 7 km north-northwest of Mt. Ida, and at Hamaxitia, the landing site of Teucrus. There were also a sacred place of Cabeiri at Pergamon in Mysia, and a temple at Sardis in Lydia. The oldest statue of the Mother of the Gods, said to have been made by Broteas, the son of Tantalus, was located in Magnesia. [46]
Within Peloponnesus, the oldest statue and temple of the Mother of Gods were located at Acriae in Laconia. [47]
There was also a temple to the Mother of the Gods at Corinth in Argolis, and a statue of the Mother of the Gods at Sicyon. [48]
Olympia of Eleia, closely related to the Idaean Heracles and Cydonia of Crete, contained an altar and statue of the Mother of the Gods, and a Doric temple that retained its ancient name of Metroum. [49]
There was also a sanctuary of Cabeiri in Memphis of Egypt. [50]
10 Propagation to Rome
Chryse, wife of Dardanus, was the daughter of Lycaon's son, Pallas, who founded Pallantium, about 8 km west of Tegea in Arcadia. [51]
Lycaon, son of Pelasgus, belonged to the venerable Parrhasians, who had existed since the time of the founding of Argos and Sicyon. [52]
Lycaon believed in a god that required human sacrifice, but his son Pallas recommended a different god to the people. People either don't know the names of these gods, or even if they do, they won't tell them, so only the other name, the Pure, is known. [53]
Pallas' faith was passed on to his daughter Chryse and influenced Cybele, a Samothrace and believer in the god Cabeiri.
In 1240 BC, Evander, a descendant of Pallas, migrated from Pallantium to the west coast of central Italy, near the hills of Velia (later Palatium in Rome). [54]
Nicostrate, daughter of Sabines, whom Evander married after emigrating, was a divine prophet who gave oracles and was also called Carmenta. Evander's mother Themis was also a seer and was also called Carmenta. [55]
11 Summary
Before 1700 BC, near the headwaters of the Sangarius River in Phrygia, a cult for the fertility of the earth arose. When Cabeilo, who had this faith, married the Telchines who lived in Crete and were excellent in metallurgy and navigation, the religion became a religion that believed in the god Cabeiri, the god of fertility, blacksmithing, and safety of navigation. The Telchines discovered iron and invented iron processing techniques, and the Ideaan Dactyls were born. The Idaean Dactyls explored in various places, but accompanied by the Cabeiri priests, they settled in Troad. Furthermore, while they were active in the neighboring islands, in Samothrace, the Cabeiri priest Cybele adopted the mysteries of Chryse, who had migrated from Arcadia, into Cabeiri. The Samothrace's followers of Cabeiri joined the Cadmus emigrants who visited the island from time to time and migrated to Boeotia.
Later, they also migrated to Athens, where they introduced the rites of the Cabeiri. Cybele, who remained in Samothrace, returned to the Troad and then relocated to Phrygia, the birthplace of the cult. There she became an object of worship herself, known as "Mother of the Gods," "Mother of the Mountains," "Great Goddess of Phrygia."
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