Psychic divination. Cybele's rites are filled with throbbing drumbeats. The Sybil (Cybele) prophesied in a cave dedicated to Hecate. Hecate's followers practiced divination at her underworld entry or her underworld entry or at a crossroads at midnight.

Cybele and Hecate were leading deities of mystery cults and considered powerful in divination especially for those at a cross roads or starting a journey or giving birth.

Amazon women worshiped Artemis, Cybele and Hecate as Maiden Mother and Crone, and Thracian Bendis was closely allied to Cybele and Hecate. Diodorus says that the Amazons offered sacrifice to Cybele, Hecate and Tauric Artemis and served as votaries.

The cult of Cybele idolized an earth-goddess of fertility in human, beast, and field. Her worship was accompanied by the sound of crashing drums and cymbals, the music of the pipe, and the voices of frenzied votaries. Her inspiration came as a form of holy madness, which endowed the worshiper with a sense of mystic ecstasy and supernatural strength.

Cybele's name may have a connection with stone cubes (Kybos means dice). The sacred image of her brought to Rome in 204 C.E. by order of the Cumaean Sybil was a black meteorite. Sybil means "cave-dweller" and is a Latin form of Cybele. The Sybils of Cumae lived in a sacred cavern dedicated to Triple Hecate which was classically believed to be the entrance to the underworld.

The worship of the Great Goddess seems to have been common in Asia Minor and the islands of the eastern Aegean has been documented going back to the Bronze Age goddess of the city Karchemish on the Euphrates river in south central Asia Minor.

Here, Hecate cradles a torch, Cybele, her drum and offering bowl, and the two goddesses look on each other.

[From a fourth century relief, Piraeus, Greece.] 9 1/2" x 6 3/4" resin plaque, pewter color finish. #CHP

see also Triple Goddess items
see also Hecate items
see also Goddess and Modern items
see also Greek and Roman items

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