of benefits, which, without ceasing, flow from her on every side. Dindymene and Dindyme, is a name given her from the mountain Dindymus, in Phrygia. Virgil calls her mater Berecynthia, from Berecynthus, a castle in that country; and in the same place describes her numerous and happy offspring. -"Qualis Berecynthia mater Invehitur curru Phrygiæ turrita per urbes High as the mother of the gods in places, Then, when in pomp she makes the Phrygian round, She was by the Greeks called *Pasithea; that is, as the Romans usually named her, the mother of all the gods; and from the †Greek word signifying a mother. Her sacrifices were named Metroa, and to celebrate them was called Metrazein, in the same language. Her name Bona Dea implies that all good things necessary for the support of life proceed from her. She is also called Fauna, ‡because she is said to favour all creatures; and Fatua, because it was thought that new born children never cried till they touched the ground. It is said, that this Bona Dea was the wife of king Faunus; who beat her with myrtle rods till she died, because she disgraced herself, and acted very unsuitable to the dignity of a queen, by drinking so much wine that she became * Pasithea, id est, wäsi devis perne, omnibus diis maters. Luc. 1. 2. A nrn, mater, derivantur arpwa Cybeles sacra, et μ rpale sacra ea celebrare. Col. Rhod. 1. 8. c. 17. Fauna quod animantibus favere, dicatur. drunk. But the king afterwards repenting of his severity, deified his dead wife, and paid her divine honours. This is the reason assigned why it was forbidden that any one should bring myrtle into her temple. In her sacrifices, the vessels of wine were covered; and when the women drank out of them they called it milk, not wine. *The modesty of this goddess was so extraordinary, that no man ever saw her except her husband; or scarce heard her name: wherefore her sacrifices were performed in private, and all men were excluded from the temple. "Sacra bonæ maribus non adeunda Deæ.-Tib. l. el. 6. No men admitted were to Cybele's rites. From the great privacy observed by her votaries, the place in which her sacrifices were performed was called Opertum, and the sacrifices themselves were styled Opertanea, for the same reason that Pluto is by the poets called Opertus. Silence was observed in a most peculiar manner in the sacrifices of Bona Dea, as it was in a less degree in all other sacrifices; according to the doctrine of the Pythagoreans and Egyptians, who taught, that God was to be worshipped in silence, since from this, at the first creation, all things took their beginning. To the same purpose, Plutarch says, "+Men were our masters to teach us to speak, but we learn silence from the gods: from those we learn to hold our peace, in their rites and initiations." She was called Idæa Mater, from the mountain Ida, in Phrygia, or Crete, for she was at both places highly honoured: as also at Rome, whither they brought her from the city Pessinus in Galatia, by a Juvenal. Sat. 9. Loquendi magistros homines habemus, tacendi Deos: ab illis silentium accipientes in initiationibus et mysteriis:-Plut de Loquac. of benefits, which, without ceasing, flow from her on every side. Dindymene and Dindyme, is a name given her from the mountain Dindymus, in Phrygia. Virgil calls her mater Berecynthia, from Berecynthus, a castle in that country; and in the same place describes her numerous and happy offspring. "Qualis Berecynthia mater Invehitur curru Phrygiæ turrita per urbes High as the mother of the gods in places, And proud, like her, of an immortal race, Then, when in pomp she makes the Phrygian round She was by the Greeks called *Pasithea; that is, as the Romans usually named her, the mother of all the gods; and from the Greek word signifying a mother. Her sacrifices were named Metroa, and to celebrate them was called Metrazein, in the same language. Her name Bona Dea implies that all good things necessary for the support of life proceed from her. She is also called Fauna, ‡because she is said to favour all creatures; and Fatua, because it was thought that new born children never cried till they touched the ground. It is said, that this Bona Dea was the wife of king Faunus; who beat her with myrtle rods till she died, because she disgraced herself, and acted very unsuitable to the dignity of a queen, by drinking so much wine that she became * Pasithea, id est, was dos pnrnp, omnibus diis maters. Luc. 1. 2. A nrn, mater, derivantur μarpwa Cybeles sacra, et μesrpale sacra ea celebrare. Col. Rhod. 1. 8. c. 17. Fauna quod animantibus favere, dicatur. drunk. But the king afterwards repenting of his severity, deified his dead wife, and paid her divine honours. This is the reason assigned why it was forbidden that any one should bring myrtle into her temple. In her sacrifices, the vessels of wine were covered; and when the women drank out of them they called it milk, not wine. *The modesty of this goddess was so extraordinary, that no man ever saw her except her husband; or scarce heard her name: wherefore her sacrifices were performed in private, and all men were excluded from the temple. "Sacra bonæ maribus non adeunda Deæ.-Tib. l. el. 6. No men admitted were to Cybele's rites. From the great privacy observed by her votaries, the place in which her sacrifices were performed was called Opertum, and the sacrifices themselves were styled Opertanea, for the same reason that Pluto is by the poets called Opertus. Silence was observed in a most peculiar manner in the sacrifices of Bona Dea, as it was in a less degree in all other sacrifices; according to the doctrine of the Pythagoreans and Egyptians, who taught, that Gon was to be worshipped in silence, since from this, at the first creation, all things took their beginning. To the same purpose, Plutarch says, "+Men were our masters to teach us to speak, but we learn silence from the gods: from those we learn to hold our peace, in their rites and initiations." She was called Idæa Mater, from the mountain Ida, in Phrygia, or Crete, for she was at both places highly honoured: as also at Rome, whither they brought her from the city Pessinus in Galatia, by a Juvenal. Sat. 9. Loquendi magistros homines habemus, tacendi Deos: ab illis silentium accipientes in initiationibus et mysteriis :-Plut de Loquac. remarkable miracle. For when the ship in which she was carried, stopped in the mouth of the Tiber, the vestal Claudia (whose fine dress and free behaviour made her modesty suspected) easily drew the ship to shore with her girdle, where the goddess was received by the hands of virgins, and the citizens went out to meet her, placing censers with frankincense before their doors; and when they had lighted the frankincense, they prayed that she would enter freely into Rome, and be favourable to it. And because the Sybils had prophesied that Idæa Mater should be introduced by the "best man among the Romans, the senate *was a little busied to pass a judgment in the case, and resolve who was the best man in the city: for every one was ambitious to get the victory in a dispute of that nature more than if they stood to be elected to any commands or honours by the voices either of the senate or pcople. At last the senate resolved that P. Scipio, the son of Cneus, who was killed in Spain, a young gentleman who had never been quaestor, was the best man in the whole city." She was called Pessinuntia †from a certain field. in Phrygia, into which an image of her fell from hea from this the place was called Pessinus, and the goddess Pessinuntia. And here the Phrygians first began to celebrate the sacrifices Orgia to this goddess, near the river Gallus, from which her priests were called Galli. When these priests desired that great respect and adoration should be paid to any thing, they pretended that it fell from heaven; and * Haud parvæ rei judicium senatum tenebat, qui vir optimus in civitate esset: verum certe victoriam ejus rei sibi quisque mallet, quam ulla imperia, honoresve, suffragio seu Patrum, seu Plebis, delatos. Patres conscripti P. Scipionem, Cnei filium ejus, qui in Hispania occidebatur, adolescentem, nondum Quæs. torem, judicaverunt in tota civitate virum optimum esse. + Hesiod. 1. 1. |