Info on goddess Kybele

The divinity known as Kybele, as the Great Mother, is one of the most intriguing figures in the religious life of the ancient Mediterranean world. Evidence for human devotion to this goddess extends from the early sixth millenium B.C., to the final days of paganism in the Roman Empire in the fifth century C.E. We encounter the Mother Goddess most vividly in the poetry, hymns, and religious monuments of ancient Rome, but her original home was Anatolia (modern Turkey). Her most characteristic and enduring features were formed in Anatolia. From there, her worship was widely diffused, attracting an enormous number of followers and covering the full geographical span of the Mediterranean cultural sphere, in Europe, western Asia, and North Africa. The long life of her cult and the literally thousands of offerings to the Mother demonstrate clearly that her worship was deeply felt.

As the evidence from prehistory, there are two Neolithic sites in central Anatolia, Çatalhöyük and Hacilar, which have attracted considerable attention because they have produced material strongly reminiscent of the Mother Goddess cult.

Evidence from both sites suggests that powerful female figures played a role in the religious consciousness of the community. Several female figurines depicting full-breasted women more likely represent older women whose maturity gave them a greater degree of status. There also can be observed several females figures depicted often with exaggerated breasts, hips, buttocks, and abdomens, of a type found widely throughout the Mediterranean Neolithic. Probably the most widely illustrated figure is that of a female seated on a throne supported by two felines. Çatalhöyük has thus produced abundant material that can directly be connected with belief in a mother goddess.

Mother Goddess Kybele can then be seen in every civilization on the land of Anatolia. In the Hittites the word Kubaba is simply her name. Kubaba's form and costume are well known from a number of sculpted reliefs from first millenium Neo-Hittite centers. Her typical costume is a long gown, frequently belted, and a high, elaborate headdress, often with a veil extending from the headdress down the back and sides of her gown. In her hand, she regularly holds a mirror, her symbol of femininity and beauty.

In Phrygia, the goddess becomes the Mother of the natural world, and her worshippers approach her to gain her help in obtaining a measure of control over the natural environment for themselves, both by the choice of attributes and by placing her urban setting, her "house", on natural rock façades guarding the entrance to the cities and valleys of her people. The Phrygian Mother Goddess was not limited by the conventional modern definitions of motherly qualities, of fertility and nurturing, but was focused on a figure of power and protection, able to touch many aspects of life and mediate between the boundaries of the known and the unknown.