The Veils of Cybele… from from the chthonic Goddess of Anatolia to Savior of the Roman Empire

Nonetheless, the sea voyage of Magna Mater and her welcoming to Rome were truly legendary ones, leaving a certain mark in the Roman history and art, and a significant change in the roman culture. Showers of stones falling from the sky brought more fear, after a series of losses against the Carthaginians. The great Phrygian goddess came to Rome as a saviour, to bring an end to the great struggle in the Punic wars, on a ship symbolically called Navis Salvia, made out of pine wood and painted in fiery colours, as fabled by Ovid (4.273-74). Navis Salvia arrived at the port of Ostia on the fourth of April 204 B.C. where Cybele was greeted as a roman national goddess, accompanied by a fitting ceremony. The sacred stone, the idol of the Goddess was temporarily placed in the temple of Victoria on the Palatine. This symbolic act must have led the people of Rome to believe even more in the victory of Scipio in Africa. Two years after the arrival of the Goddess, at the battle of Zamma, the second Punic War was brought to an end.

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There is a very human tendency to take gods or goddesses from different cultures, adopt them, and then shape them to resemble our culture. We even take on their characteristics and sometimes make them look very similar to how we appear.

For example, the goddess of Anatolia, Cybele, also called Magna Mater by the Romans, has a history that goes back over 9,000 years, and her veneration has continued throughout the millennia. She was embraced by the Greek civilization in Anatolia and given a certain form. When the Romans came, they reinterpreted her, reshaping her to fit their own image.

For the Romans, Cybele was a very important deity, one to be addressed with both fear and awe. So much so that they placed her representation on a boat after receiving an oracle from Sibyl, instructing them to bring her to Rome to end the Punic War. Which she did.

This pattern reflects how we relate to gods and goddesses — as we take them further away from their original forms, we apply characteristics that may be completely unrelated to their primordial expressions. I believe they don’t mind; after all, these deities continue to evolve and adapt to the cultures that adopt them.