“The Great Mother, the patron of Cybele, the cymbals of the Corybantes, the grove of Ida, the hush of the faithful which belong to Cybele’s cult. ” (Virgil)
“Iasion married Cybele and begat Corybas… and Corybas gave the name of Corybantes to all who, in celebrating the rites of his mother, acted like men possessed…” (Diodorus Siculus)
Current analysis of the mystery cults in Pompeii recognizes that the cult of Cybele (the Great Mother of the Gods) had achieved widespread penetration of the Campania region. In addition an inscription exists documenting the restoration of an undiscovered temple to Cybele in Herculaneum. Despite this the conventional narrative focuses on the lack of physical evidence of her cult in Pompeii.
This situation partly arises because the numerous phallic artefacts that have been excavated are simply placed in the category of tintinnabulum. This relatively meaningless term obscures any deeper symbolism that are expressed by the phallic artefacts. In the case of the numerous phallic lamps the shape of a phallus added to the representation of mythic figures associated with metallurgy clearly places them in the context of the Trojan mountain sacred to Cybele.
Herodotus describes the ancestral tribes that originally populated the Hellenic sphere as ‘Pelasgians.’ He states that the phallic worship connected with Hermes was derived from these archaic migrations rather than being introduced from Egypt.
“These customs, then, and others besides, which I shall indicate, were taken by the Greeks from the Egyptians. It was not so with the ithyphallic images of Hermes; the production of these came from the Pelasgians, from whom the Athenians were the first Greeks to take it, and then handed it on to others… The Athenians, then, were the first Greeks to make ithyphallic images of Hermes, and they did this because the Pelasgians taught them. The Pelasgians told a certain sacred tale about this, which is set forth in the Samothracian mysteries.”1
Diodorus Siculus identifies the original inhabitants, or those that preceded the Greeks, as being related to two twinned mountains, Mount Ida in Crete and Mount Ida in the Trojan region. Both mountains are wrapped in myths relating to Zeus and consequently with lightning.
The child Zeus was hidden on the Cretan mountain and protected from his vengeful cannibalistic father Kronos by the armour-clad youths that performed war-dances at the mouth of the cave sanctuary. They clashed spears and shields and other instruments creating a loud brazen noise intended to ward off the danger.
“… it is said that she (Rhea) took as helpers the Curetes, who, by surrounding the goddess with tambourines and similar noisy instruments and with war-dance and uproar, were supposed to strike terror into Kronos and without his knowledge to steal his child away; and that, according to tradition, Zeus was actually reared by them with the same diligence; consequently the Curetes, either because, being young, that is ‘youths,’ they performed this service, or because they ‘reared’ Zeus ‘in his youth’ (for both explanations are given), were accorded this appellation, as if they were Satyrs, so to speak, in the service of Zeus. Such, then, were the Greeks in the matter of orgiastic worship.”2
The mountains are associated with the forging and smelting of metals and were therefore part of an early Bronze Age culture that preceded the rise of the Greek and Roman civilizations. The use of the word ‘dactyli’ as a name for these mountain inhabitants appears to refer to the shape and size of early Bronze Age ingots.
“The first of these gods of whom tradition has left a record made their home in Crete about Mount Ida and were called Idaean Dactyli. These, according to one tradition, were one hundred in number, but others say that there were only ten to receive this name, corresponding in number to the fingers (dactyli/daktyloi) of the hands.”3
Excavations of Bronze Age boats have revealed cargos of roughly cast ingots that approximate the shape and size of the human finger. From this metallurgical base the amount of deities is imagined in myth as numbering ten like the fingers of human hands.
The Mount Ida in Phrygia (contemporary Turkey) is a mere twenty miles from the ruins of Troy revealing the role of the city in spreading Bronze Age metallurgy across the region. The nascent discoveries in the forging and smelting of metals were seen as delving into magical practises that transformed stone into metal. This magical transformative process was equivalent to the creative actions of the gods.
“But some historians, and Ephoros is one of them, record that the Idaean Dactyli were in fact on Mount Ida which is in Phrygia and passed over to Europe with Mygdon; and since they were wizards, they practised charms and initiatory rites and mysteries and in the course of a sojourn in Samothrace they amazed the natives of that island not a little by their skill in such matters. And it was at this time, we are further told, that Orpheus, who was endowed with an exceptional gift of poesy and song, also became a pupil of theirs, and he was subsequently the first to introduce initiatory rites and mysteries to the Greeks.”4
Strabo agrees that the mythic denizens of the Trojan Mount Ida were the first to smelt iron and that they were wizards and attendants of the Great Mother of the Gods. After Troy was sacked the Phrygians gained mastery over the metal trade originating from Mount Ida.
“Some writers say that the name ‘Idaean Dactyli’ was given to the first settles of the lower slopes of Mt Ida, for the lower slopes of mountains are called ‘feet,’ and the summits ‘heads;’ accordingly, the several extremities of Ida (all of which are sacred to the Mother of the gods) were called Dactyli,. Sophocles thinks that the first male Dactyli were five in number, who were the first to discover and to work iron… Some call them natives of Ida, others settlers; but all agree that iron was first worked by these on Ida; and all have assumed that they were wizards and attendants of the Mother of the gods, and that they lived in Phrygia about Ida; and they use the term Phrygia for the Troad because, after Troy was sacked, the Phrygians , whose territory bordered on the Troad, got the mastery over it.”5
War-dances and orgiastic rituals that were accompanied by the clashing of brazen arms were defining features of these archaic entities. They were accorded apotropaic powers connected with the seemingly magical processes involved in metallurgy. “… those accounts which, although they are called ‘Curetan History’ and ‘History of the Curetes,’… are more like the accounts of the Satyri, Sileni, Bacchae, and Titryi; for the Curetes, like these, are called genii or ministers of gods by those who have handed down to us the Cretan and Phrygian traditions, which are interwoven with certain sacred rites, some mystical, the others connected in part with the rearing of the child Zeus in Crete and in part with the orgies in honour of the mother of the gods which are celebrated in Phrygia and in the region of the Trojan Ida… they represent them, one and all, as a kind of inspired people and as subject to Bacchic frenzy…”6
These entities were related to the Cabeiri, phallic denizens of the forges of Hephaestus that were primarily associated with the island of Samothrace. It was never clear in antiquity the precise characteristics that differentiated the Daktyli, Corybantes, Curetes and the Cabeiri. Many of them were imbued with the magical allure of metallurgy and were associated with a type of phallic war-dance. The Cabeiri had an additional association with the Samothracian Mysteries.
“Further, some call the Corybantes sons of Cronus, but others say that the Corybantes were sons of Zeus and Calliope and were identical with the Cabeiri, and that these went off to Samothrace, which in earlier times was called Melite, and that their rites were mystical.”7
Herodotus describes the Cabeiri as being formed in the shape of pygmies and being related to Hephaestus, a deity that encapsulated the supernatural fires of metallurgy. They were therefore associated with the forging of metals and were the denizens of the labyrinthine substrata from which the ores were mined.
“Cambyses committed many such mad acts against the Persians and his allies; he stayed at Memphis, and there opened ancient coffins and examined the dead bodies. Thus too he entered the temple of Hephaestus and jeered at the image there. This image of Hephaestus is most like the Phoenician Pataici; which the Phoenicians carry on the prows of their triremes. I will describe it for anyone who has not seen these figures; it is the likeness of a dwarf. Also he entered the temple of the Cabeiri, into which no one may enter save the priest; the images here he even burnt, with bitter mockery. These also are like the images of Hephaestus, and are said to be his sons.”8
Depictions of orgiastic rituals that are related to the Samothracian Mysteries can be seen in images that have been excavated from Pompeii. In the House of the Physician/Doctor a depiction of pygmies engaged in an orgy can be related to the numerous artefacts that depict diminutive figures engaged in a type of dance or whose phallic projections become oil lamps. The oil lamps therefore show an association between the flame of the burning oil and the phallic form. This is consistent with the concept that these entities symbolize the flames of the forge.
The Cabeiri formed part of the Samothracian Mysteries thus indicating that the mysteries were inspired by the concepts of fire and phallic ritual dance. According to Strabo the revellers in these rites are “subject to Bacchic frenzy, and, in the guise of ministers, as inspiring terror at the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, accompanied by uproar and noise and cymbals and drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry; and consequently these rites are in a way regarded as having a common relationship. I mean these and those of the Samothracians and those in Lemnos and in several other places, because the divine ministers are called the same.”9
The artefacts of Pompeii embody the spirits of these deities that through the discovery of metallurgy were seen as replicating the creative actions of the gods. The burning lamps, much like votive candles in contemporary religious centres, were imbued with the spirits of the deities. The concept of the flickering flame representing the spirit in this context appears to be a universal human perception. According to Plutarch the Idaean Dactyls in Crete and the Corybantes in Phrygia had achieved the ultimate alteration where mind and soul were separated.
“Yet not forever do the Spirits tarry upon the moon; they descend hither to take charge of oracles, they attend and participate in the highest of the mystic rituals, they act as warders and chastisers of them, and they flash forth as saviour a manifest in war and on the sea… To (this) class of better Spirits the attendants of Cronos said that they belong themselves as did aforetime the Idaean Dactyls in Crete and the Corybantes in Phrygia as well as the Boeotian Trophoniads in Udora and thousands of others in many parts of the world whose rites, honours, and titles persist but whose powers tended to another place as they achieved the ultimate alteration. They achieve it, some sooner and some later, once the mind has been separated from the soul.”10
- Herodotus – Histories 2.51
- Strabo – Geography 10.3.11
- Diodorus Siculus – Library of History 5.64
- Ibid.
- Strabo – Geography 10.3.22
- Ibid. 10.3.7
- Ibid. 10.3.19
- Herodotus – Histories 3.37
- Strabo – Geography 10.3.7
- Plutarch – The Face on the Orb of the Moon 30
Animations formed from original photographs of the phallic artefacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum contained in the Secret Cabinet of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples
THE LABYRINTH OF THE NIGHT 