106 CHAPTER 1
ritually, it is possible that the notion of the dying moon was replaced by the
notion of the dying sun.
The death of Attis (the Phrygian Adonis) was mourned every spring, after
which ensued celebrations of his resurrection. He was the lover of the Mother
of the Gods Cybele and at the same time was her son.404 According to Diodorus,
Cybele was the daughter of the Lydian king Meon and his wife Dindimena
who got her name from the Dindima Mountain. Since Meon did not want a
daughter, she was left in the Cybelos Mountain, whereupon she was saved and
fed by mountain cats and lionesses. The girl was raised by a shepherdess who
named her after the mountain, Cybele, and the children called her Mountain
Mother. Later, Cybele fell in love with Attis, also called Papas—Father (cf. the
Scythian Papai-Zeus). However, King Meon killed Attis and banished Cybele.
The goddess reached the cave of Dionysus. Then Apollo fell in love with her
and took her away with him, which caused hunger and droughts in Phrygia. To
save themselves, the Phrygians had to worship Cybele as a deity and to bury an
effigy (a symbolic image) of Attis, since they could not find his body.405
It is the Celestial Maiden Tabiti (Hestia) that is the supreme female deity,
“the queen of the Scythians”. The name of the goddess, “the Flaming One”,
clearly indicates her association with fire. The Olympic Hestia is the goddess
of the domestic hearth and the hearth in general. As guardian of the public
hearth she gave a vow to remain a virgin, unmarried. Being a patroness of the
royal hearth, Tabiti also protected the dynasty of Scythian kings.406 The role of
Tabiti as guardian of the domestic hearth depicts the goddess as a deity that
connects the Lower World with the Middle (human) one. It could be presumed
that her cult was part of the ancestor cult, making the figure of Tabiti close to
that of the Serpent-Legged Goddess.407 The statues of Hestia in the Tomb of
404 Frazer 2006, 327. According to one legend, his mother Nana (“mother”), also an incarna-
tion of the Great Goddess, conceived him while still a virgin (Frazer 2006, 327).
405 Venedikov 1997, 346–347. On the Phrygian cult of Cybele and kingship, see Vasileva 2005.
Midas was the son and high priest of Cybele (identified with a rock/mountain). According
to Phrygian beliefs, knowledge comes from the world of the dead. The ruler restores order
in the cosmos and society and he is responsible for the welfare of the state. He embodies
the qualities of the deity of the dying and reviving nature. The Phrygian ritual practice is
associated with running water, springs and woods. “The goddess has a prominent role in
the burial rite. She is the sovereign over the life and death of the Phrygian ruler” (Vasileva
2005, 22, 36, 82–88, 98, and 120).
406 Raevskii 1977, 87–92; Marazov 1976, 49–50.
407 Marazov 1976, 49.