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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Cybele

Anatolia’s Mighty Phrygia, The Kingdom Of Myth And Midas

Anatolia’s Mighty Phrygia, The Kingdom Of Myth And Midas

In the western-central arid heartland of ancient Anatolia, the river Sangarios snaked through the ancient Iron Age Kingdom of Phrygia , once a rival to Assyria in the south-east and Urartu in the...
Hierapolis, Phrygian City Of Cybele And Home Of Hades

Hierapolis, Phrygian City Of Cybele And Home Of Hades

Cybele was the sole Phrygian Mother Goddess, acting as an interlocutor between the known and unknown, the living and the dead. As such, one of her chthonic cults was established at the Ploutonion or...
The Midas Monument, Yazılıkaya.

The Mysterious Midas City: 2,800-Year-Old City with Monumental Facades and Strange Inscriptions

A being named Midas has been immortalized in Yazılıkaya, Turkey. Many people think the famous inscription dedicated to this person referred to the king remembered for his ‘golden touch’, but that’s...
Detail of ‘The Introduction of the Cult of Cybele at Rome’ (1505-1506) by Andrea Mantegna.

Candles in the Dark and Spice from the Orient: Mystery Cults

‘But what a small part of our dregs Is Greek! Long ago the wide Orontes of Syria poured into the Tiber And brought With its lingo and morals its flutes And harps...’ - Juvenal Rome did not sit...
The 2,100-year-old marble mother goddess sculpture of Kybele is still under threat at the ancient Turkish castle near the Black Sea.

Ancient Castle in Turkey Remains Threatened by Dynamite Blasts

Commodities versus conservation – yet again the debate is playing out. This time the site of interest is the ruins of an ancient castle in Turkey; where dynamite may shake a unique mother goddess...
Bellona with Romulus and Remus

Who is Bellona and Was She More Powerful than Mars? Piecing Together the Identity of the Mysterious Ancient Roman Goddess of War

In his History , Livy reported that during a critical part of the battle against the Samnites in 296 BCE, the general Appius Claudius was seen in the front lines raising his hands as he uttered a...
Quarrying and Blasting May Destroy 2100-Year-Old Castle Site and Statue of Mother Goddess in Turkey

Quarrying and Blasting May Destroy 2100-Year-Old Castle Site and Statue of Mother Goddess in Turkey

Blasting and quarrying of rock at a site near the ancient Kurul Castle in Turkey have endangered the structure and a precious statue of the ancient goddess Cybele. The castle, which dates back about...
1st century BC marble statue of Cybele from Formia, Lazio

Mothers, Madness and Music: A Study of the Parallels of Cybele and Dionysus

Though she was one of the most renowned goddesses in her day, the motherly, wise Cybele has long been over-shadowed in the mythology of ancient Greece by the later pre-Olympian goddesses, Rhea, Gaia...
The Mother of all Gods: The Phrygian Cybele

The Mother of all Gods: The Phrygian Cybele

A goddess of ecstatic and chthonic reproductive mysteries, Cybele was the primary mother goddess of ancient Anatolia, and Phrygia's only known goddess thus far. She was a "Mistress of Animals", "...
The ruins of the temple of Cybele at the imperial Roman palace complex Felix Romuliana in what is now Serbia

Vibrations and sounds may have enhanced worship of Great Goddess Cybele

In a mountain valley in Serbia around 300 AD, Romans built a palace complex to honor the Emperor Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximianus, who was born in the area. In this palace, called Felix Romuliana,...