Chapter 26 The Myth and Ritual of Attis

The death and resurrection of many gods are deeply rooted in the beliefs and rituals of Western Asia. Another such god is Attis.It seems that he too was a vegetable god like Adonis, and that there is a festival every spring to mourn and celebrate his death and resurrection.The legends and worship rituals of the two gods are very similar, and even the ancients sometimes regarded the two gods as one.It is said that Attis was a young and beautiful shepherd or shepherd loved by Cybele, the mother of the gods and the great fertility goddess of Asia. Cybele's main hometown was in Phrygia.Some also believe that Attis was her son.It is said that his birth was a miracle like many other heroes.His mother, Nana, was a virgin who conceived by placing a ripe almond or pomegranate in her bosom.Indeed, in the Phrygian cosmogony, the apricot tree is said to be the ancestor of all things, perhaps because its delicate lilac flowers appear on bare branches before leaves, and it It is one of the earliest messengers of spring.Stories of virgin mothers of this kind are relics of an age of childish ignorance, when sexual intercourse was not recognized as the true origin of offspring.There are two different popular accounts of Attis' death.According to one version, he was killed by a wild boar like Adonis.According to another version, he castrated himself under a pine tree and bled to death instantly.This latter version is said to be the native legend of the Percinians, a great place dedicated to Cybele, and this legend is part of a whole set of legends which has a wild quality to it, a strong shows that it is very old.Both accounts are supported by customs, or to be precise, both accounts may have been invented to account for certain customs followed by believers.The legend of the self-castration of Attis is clearly intended to account for the self-castration of his priests, who were generally castrated before commencing their service to the goddess.The legend of his death by a wild boar is to explain why his followers, especially the Percinians, did not eat pork.Likewise, followers of Adonis do not eat pork because wild boars killed their gods.Attis is said to have turned into a pine tree after his death.

The Romans fought against Rome and invaded Italy with Hannibal [approximately 247 ~ 183 BC, a famous general of Carthage. ] The Phrygian veneration of the "Mother of the Gods" was adopted in 204 BC towards the end of the long battle.For their dejected spirits happened to be cheered by a prophecy, which they claimed to have derived from that handy hodgepodge of nonsense in the Sibylean, that if this great goddess of the East were brought to Rome, foreign invaders would be driven from Italy.So the Romans sent envoys to Percinus in Phrygia, the holy city of the goddess.A small black stone, signifying this mighty god, was given to them, and brought back to Rome, where it was received with great reverence, and housed in the Temple of Victory on the Hill of Baledon.The goddess arrived in mid-April, and she set to work immediately.Because the crop harvest that year was as good as it hadn't been seen for a long time.And the next year Hannibal and his battle-hardened soldiers boarded a ship and went back to Africa.When Hannibal finally looked at the coast of Italy receding far behind him, he could not have foreseen that Europe, which had routed his armies, would convert to the gods of the East.Before the garrison of the defeated army had withdrawn from the shores of Italy, the vanguard of the conqueror had encamped in the heart of Italy.

We have not heard of it, but we may surmise that the Mother of Gods carried with her the veneration of her young lover or son to her new abode in the West.Before Rome ended the Republic, it must have been familiar with Galli, the priest of Attis.It seems that these castrated people, in their oriental attire, with little portraits on their breasts, are often seen in the streets of Rome, and they procession through Rome, to the music of cymbals and tambourines, flutes and horns, Sing songs of praise.Their strange costumes attracted attention, and the people, moved by their wild songs, gave alms and hurled roses at the statuette and its wearer.Emperor Claudius [10-54 BC, Roman emperor, ascended the throne since 41 AD. ] went a step further to incorporate the Phrygian veneration of the tree into the already established Roman religion, with which it may have introduced the carnival liturgy of Attis.Regarding the spring festival of Cybele and Attis, we are most familiar with the way held in Rome; but we can know from the materials that the Roman ceremony is the Phrygian ceremony.We may therefore conclude that the difference, if any, between the Roman rite and the original form of Asia was insignificant.The program of the festival seems to be as follows.

On March 22, I went to the woods to cut a pine tree, took it to the Temple of Kubele, and offered it as a great god.The responsibility of transporting the holy tree is given to a tree transporting guild.The trunk is bound like a corpse with woolen ties, and hung with wreaths of violets, which are said to have sprung from the blood of Attis, as roses and anemones are from Adonis' blood; The idol (Attis, no doubt) is tied in the middle of the trunk.On the second day of the festival, March 23, the main ritual appears to be the blowing of the trumpet.The third day, March 24, is called "Blood Day": Archiegelus or the chief priest cuts blood from his own arm and offers it as an offering.He was not the only one who offered blood as a sacrifice.The cymbals crash, the drums roar, the horns whine, the flute screams, and the junior monks are stimulated by the wild music, dancing whirlingly, shaking their heads, letting their hair loose, until the joy enters a frenzy, and the pain is no longer felt, They slit their bodies with magnetic tiles or knives, leaving altars and sacred trees stained with their blood.This gruesome ritual may have been an integral part of the tribute to Attis, possibly to enhance the power of his resurrection.Aborigines in Australia cut themselves in this way on the graves of their friends, perhaps to enable them to regenerate.Also, although we are not explicitly informed, we can infer that it was on this "Day of Blood" that new monks self-castrated themselves for the same purpose.When religious passions agitated to a crescendo, they castrated themselves and hurled their mutilations on cruel goddesses.The severed genitals were then religiously wrapped and buried in the ground or hidden in the sanctuary of Cybele, which, like the offering of blood, was believed to aid in the resurrection of Attis and the general recovery of nature.After the festival, under the warm sunshine in spring, the earth reveals green leaves and blooms flowers.The above conjecture can be supported by another story of the barbarian: it is believed that Attis's mother put a pomegranate in her bosom, and later Attis was born. The pomegranate was obtained from a similar Spurted from the genitals segmented from a species of Attis shemale (named Agistes).

If such speculation is a little reasonable, we can also understand why other Asian fertility goddesses are also served by eunuchs.These goddesses needed the means to perform their reproductive functions from male priests who represented their priests: they themselves needed to be fertilized in order to acquire life-giving powers, which they could then transmit to all things in the world.The goddesses received such services or assistance from eunuch priests, Artemis of Ephesus and the "Astartes of Syria" of Hierapolis.Their sanctuaries are often visited by countless believers and disciples, and they are enriched by the offerings of the Assyrian and Babylonian kingdoms, as well as Arabia and Phoenicia. In their heyday, they were famous in the East.The eunuch priests of this Syrian goddess were so similar to those of Cybele that some equated them.The manner in which these priests devoted themselves to their religious office was similar.This grand festival in Hierapolis every year coincides with the beginning of the new year, and crowds flock from Syria and neighboring areas to the shrine of the goddess.Amidst the high flute sound and drum music, the priests themselves drew their knives to perform castration.This kind of religious passion spread among the audience like a wave. Many people forgot that they were the audience watching the excitement before celebrating the festival, and they couldn't help but follow suit.The pulse of the men beat with the music, their eyes were dazzled by the sight of blood spurting out, one by one dropped their clothes, shouted and jumped forward, grabbed the sharp blade prepared in advance on the field, He cut off his own penis, held it bloody in his hands, ran all over the city, and finally threw it into any passing house.The family is then honored, and it is obliged to furnish him with women's garments, which he wears throughout his life.After the passion passes, calm down, for such an irreparable sacrifice, this person will regret and regret it for the rest of his life.Caturus [about 87-54 BC, an ancient Roman poet who laid the foundation for the creation of Roman lyric poetry. ] In one of his famous poems, he has given a powerful description of the violent reaction of ignorant human emotions in superstitious religious fanaticism.

This view is confirmed by the similar behavior of these Syrian believers: in the similar veneration of Cybele, the sacrifice of male fertility was also performed on the "Day of Blood" of the Spring Goddess cult.At this time the violets were blooming in the pine forest, and it was believed that these flowers had bloomed from the drops of her wounded lover's blood.The legend of Attis' self-euncation at the Panasonic was evidently imagined to account for the self-castration of his priests at the festival dedicated to him, under the sacred tree wreathed in violets.In any case, it is difficult to doubt that it was Attis who was mourned over the statue of Attis on the "Day of Blood" and then buried.The statue buried in the sarcophagus may be the one hanging from the tree.During the whole period of mourning, the faithful do not eat bread, nominally because Cybele did the same when mourning the death of Atis, but in fact it may be related to the fact that the women of Harran did not eat any millet when they mourned Tamz. Something came out for the same reason.

Eating bread or pasta at such a time might be considered arbitrary desecration of a wounded and broken divine body.Fasting may also be a preparation for Holy Communion. But at night, the believers turn their sorrow into joy.A sudden flash of light in the darkness: the tomb is opened: the god rises from the dead; and as the priest anoints the mouths of the mourners, he whispers into their ears the good news that the god is saved.The believers of the gods rejoice in the resurrection of the gods as a promise that they, too, can emerge victoriously from the decay of the grave.The next day, March 25th, was considered the vernal equinox, and there was a carnival celebrating the resurrection of the god.In Rome (and perhaps elsewhere as well), the celebration took the form of carnival.This festival is called the Feast of Joy-Hilalia.All taboos are temporarily lifted.Everyone can say what they want to say and do what they want to do.People dressed up and walked around the streets.The lowest burgher may display the highest and most sacred dignity without reproach.It seems that this is the case with the great ceremony commemorating the death and resurrection of Artis every spring.In addition to these public ceremonies, however, his worship is said to have had secret and mystical ceremonies, the purpose of which may have been to bring believers, especially novice believers, closer to their god.We have very little information concerning these mystical ceremonies and their dates, but there seems to have been a communion and a baptism of blood among them.At communion, initiates participate in mystical rituals by eating with drums and drinking with cymbals, and both instruments feature prominently in Artis' rousing orchestra.The hunger strike in mourning for death may have been to cleanse the body of the meal companion, to remove that which might by contact contaminate the sacred object, and to prepare it for the sacrament of blessing.At the time of baptism, the believer wears a golden crown and a headband, enters a pit, and the mouth of the pit is covered with wooden railings.Then a bull covered with flowers and covered with gold leaves was driven up to the parapet, and he was killed with the sacrificial spear.Greasy blood flowed into the crevice, and the believer devoutly and enthusiastically accepted the blood with his body and various parts of his clothes. When he came out of the pit, his whole body was bloody, from head to toe.He was worshiped, nay, adored by his companions, who considered him reborn, immortal, whose sins had been washed away by the blood of the bull.For some time thereafter, the fictitious newborn state continued, and he was fed milk, like a newborn baby.The believer's rebirth is at the same time as his god's, namely, at the equinox.In Rome the newborns and the baptisms seem to have been chiefly performed in the temple of the Phrygian goddess on Vatican Hill, where St. Peter's Basilica now stands, or not far from it; Numerous inscriptions have been found documenting this ritual.This barbaric superstition seems to have spread from the Vatican to the rest of the Roman Empire.Inscriptions found in Gaul and Germany attest that the temple rites of the provinces were modeled on those of the Vatican.From the same source we also know that both the testicles and the blood of the bull played an important role in the ritual.Perhaps they were believed to be powerful magical artifacts, promoting reproduction and hastening new births.