She had a
variety of names besides that of Cybele, under which she is
most generally known, and which she obtained from Mount Cybelus, in Phrygia, where sacrifices to her were first
instituted. Her sacrifices and festivals, like those of
Bacchus, were celebrated with a confused noise of timbrels, pipes, and cymbals; the sacrificants howling as if
mad, and profaning both the temple of the goddess, and the
ears of their hearers with the most obscene language and
abominable gestures.
Under the character of Vesta, she is generally represented
upon ancient coins in a sitting posture, with a lighted
torch in one hand, and a sphere or drum in the other. As
Cybele, she makes a more magnificent appearance, being
seated in a lofty chariot drawn by lions, crowned with
towers, and bearing in her hand a key. Being goddess, not of
cities only, but of all things which the earth sustains, she
was crowned with turrets, whilst the key implies not only
her custody of cities, but also that in winter the earth
locks those treasures up, which she brings forth and
dispenses in summer: she rides in a chariot, because
(fancifully) the earth hangs suspended in the air, balanced
and poised by its own weight; and that the chariot is
supported by wheels, because the earth is a voluble body and
turns round. Her being drawn by lions, may imply that
nothing is too fierce and intractable for a motherly piety
and tenderness to tame and subdue. Her garments are painted
with divers colors, but chiefly green, and figured with the
images of several creatures, because such a dress is
suitable to the variegated and more prevalent appearance of
the earth. |