CYBELE AND HER COMPANIONS ON THE NORTHERN UTTORAL OF THE BLACK SEA

Patricia A. Johnston

In the cities along the northern coast of the Black Sea, the presence of the cult of Cybele is attested as early as the sixth century. The worship of Cybele was introduced here by Greek colonists between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C., 1 often through a process of syn­ cretism with the local cult of the great mother-goddess. Maarten J. V ermaseren, in his widely read Cybele and Attis: the Myth and the Cult (1977), devoted little attention to this area, other than a few pages to Cybele in the Danuoian Provinces. Since then a growing body of materials has been gathered, catalogued, and published concerning Cybele throughout the Roman Empire, including this region, most recently by V ermaseren himself in his posthumously published vol­ ume VI of the Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque, which includes Thracia, Moesia, Dacia, and Regnum Bospori, all of which, at some point, touch the northern coast of the Black Sea. 2 In his sixth volume of this collection, V ermaseren distinguishes between the Greek Cybele, worshipped in the coastal cities, and Roman Cybele, worshipped in the interior, both of them descended from the Asiatic Cybele, who had become a national Roman God­ dess during the Republic. The focus in this paper will be to identifY some of the characteristic aspects of Cybele and her companions in

1 Strabo associated various orgiastic rites with one another and drew analogies between their gods. He observed that the rites of Phrygian Cybele resembled those of Thracian Kotys and Bendis; he also equated Rhea and Cybele, and maintained that Thracian music is Asiatic in origin. (10.3.15-16, trans. H.L. Jones, Cambridge 1954, p. 105). It is now accepted that Cybele originated in Asia Minor, where the earliest representation of Cybele, found at Qatal Hiiyiik, has been confirmed by carbon-dating to belong to the fifth millenium B.C. cf. MJ. Vermaseren, CCCA, I, Leiden 1987, #773 and p. 233. 2 MJ. Vermaseren, CCCA VI: Gemumia, Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Macedonia, 1hracia, Moesia, Dacia, Regnum Bospori, Colchis, Scythia et Sarmatia, Leiden 1989, pp. 141-142; Cybele and Attis: the Myth and the Cult, London 1977. Items from CCCA VI will be preceded by a number sign (#). Frequent reference will also be made to M. Tacheva-Hitova, Eastern Cults in Moesia Inferior and 1hracia, Leiden 1983, 71-15; M.M. Kobylina, Divinitis Orientales sur le Littoral Nord de laMer Noire, Leiden 1976. 102 PATRICIA A. JOHNSTON the cities and towns along the northern shore of the Black Sea, where the Greek Cybele predominates, from the sixth century B.C. to the second or third centuries A.D. (The increased syncretism of the later periods make it difficult to distinguish some of these characteristics, so later periods are referred to only for the sake of comparison.) The relatively spotty nature of some of the characteristics, which may help to establish some thread of consistency, will of course necessi­ tate occasional reference to interior sites in this region and elsewhere. Representations of Cybele in the sixth volume of Vermaseren's catalog tend to represent her as a young goddess seated on a throne, wearing her "usual" dress, which consists of a chiton or tunic, a himation or outer garment which sometimes covers her head as well. Her head­ dress varies: sometimes she wears a palos, a flat, rounded hat which Kobylina3 associates with Cybele's role as a chthonic deity; some­ times she wears a mural crown, resembling crenelated towers, indi­ cating her role as protectress of cities, and sometimes she wears no headdress or it is not identifiable (because of damage to the figure). In her left hand she holds a tympanon (a tambourine or drum), and in her right hand she holds a patera from which, in several depic­ tions, she is pouring a libation. During the Roman period the tympanon is sometimes replaced by a sceptre in the interior sites (but not along the coast), a phenomenon which is also seen during the same period in the cities of Asia Minor. 4 Here, as elsewhere, Cybele is frequently accompanied by a lion: in the earliest period it tends to be a small lion which rests on her lap; as early as the late fifth century she is in a chariot drawn by a team of lions, and thereafter is also frequently depicted with one or two large lions sitting or standing beside her throne. The presence of a lion is a detail that is sometimes cited as evidence that Cybele came originally from Asia Minor. Since Greeks were not familiar with this animal and the importance attached to it in Asia Minor, other creatures, such as a hare or a kid, or the infant Attis some­ times replace the lion in her lap,5 but in the cities lining the north­ ern coast of the the Black Sea, this is not common. Another com-

3 Kobylina, pp. 1-3. 4 Cf. Tacheva-Hitova, p. 139 and nos. II, 110, 115, and 102 = Vermaseren #340. 5 Tacheva-Hitova, pp. 136-7 and nos. II, 121, 122; the kid: CCCA II, #681, 4th century B.C.; the infant Attis: CCCA II, #683, 684, 695, all from the sixth century B.C.; the examples come from the cities of Cyprus.