Cyanee and Cyanea, a daughter of the Mæander, mother of Byblis and Caunus by Miletus, Apollo’s son. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 451.
Cyaneus, a large river of Colchis.
Cyanippe, a daughter of Adrastus.
Cyanippus, a Syracusan, who derided the orgies of Bacchus, for which impiety the god so inebriated him, that he offered violence to his daughter Cyane, who sacrificed him on the altar. Plutarch, Parallela minora.——A Thessalian, whose wife met with the same fate as Procris. Plutarch, Parallela minora.
Cyaraxes, or Cyaxares, son of Phraortes, was king of Media and Persia. He bravely defended his kingdom, which the Scythians had invaded. He made war against Alyattes king of Lydia, and subjected to his power all Asia beyond the river Halys. He died after a reign of 40 years, B.C. 585. Diodorus, bk. 2.—Herodotus, bk. 1, chs. 73 & 103.——Another prince, supposed by some to be the same as Darius the Mede. He was the son of Astyages king of Media. He added seven provinces to his father’s dominions, and made war against the Assyrians, whom Cyrus favoured. Xenophon, Cyropædia, bk. 1.
Cybēbe, a name of Cybele, from [♦]κυβηβειν, because in the celebration of her festivals men were driven to madness.
[♦] ‘κυβμβειν’ replaced with ‘κυβηβειν’
Cybĕle, a goddess, daughter of Cœlus and Terra, and wife of Saturn. She is supposed to be the same as Ceres, Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Bona Mater, Magna Mater, Berecynthia, Dindymene, &c. According to Diodorus, she was the daughter of a Lydian prince called Menos, by his wife Dindymene, and he adds, that as soon as she was born she was exposed on a mountain. She was preserved and suckled by some of the wild beasts of the forest, and received the name of Cybele from the mountain where her life had been preserved. When she returned to her father’s court, she had an intrigue with Atys, a beautiful youth, whom her father mutilated, &c. All the mythologists are unanimous in mentioning the amours of Atys and Cybele. The partiality of the goddess for Atys seems to arise from his having first introduced her worship in Phrygia. She enjoined him perpetual celibacy, and the violation of his promise was expiated by voluntary mutilation. In Phrygia the festivals of Cybele were observed with the greatest solemnity. Her priests, called Corybantes, Galli, &c., were not admitted in the service of the goddess without a previous mutilation. In the celebration of the festivals, they imitated the manners of madmen, and filled the air with dreadful shrieks and howlings, mixed with the confused noise of drums, tabrets, bucklers, and spears. This was in commemoration of the sorrow of Cybele for the loss of her favourite Atys. Cybele was generally represented as a robust woman, far advanced in her pregnancy, to intimate the fecundity of the earth. She held keys in her hand, and her head was crowned with rising turrets, and sometimes with the leaves of an oak. She sometimes appears riding in a chariot drawn by two tame lions; Atys follows by her side, carrying a ball in his hand, and supporting himself upon a fir tree, which is sacred to the goddess. Sometimes Cybele is represented with a sceptre in her hand, with her head covered with a tower. She is also seen with many breasts, to show that the earth gives aliments to all living creatures; and she generally carries two lions under her arms. From Phrygia the worship of Cybele passed into Greece, and was solemnly established at Eleusis, under the name of the Eleusinian mysteries of Ceres. The Romans, by order of the Sibylline books, brought the statue of the goddess from Pessinus into Italy; and when the ship which carried it had run on a shallow bank of the Tiber, the virtue and innocence of Claudia were vindicated in removing it with her girdle. It is supposed that the mysteries of Cybele were first known about 1580 years B.C. The Romans were particularly superstitious in washing every year, on the 6th of the calends of April, the shrine of this goddess in the waters of the river Almon. There prevailed many obscenities in the observation of the festivals, and the priests themselves were the most eager to use indecent expressions, and to show their unbounded licentiousness by the impurity of their actions. See: [Atys], [Eleusis], [Rhea], [Corybantes], [Galli], &c. Augustine, City of God, &c.—Lactantius.—Lucian, De Syria Dea.—Diodorus, bk. 3.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 617; bk. 10, li. 252.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 566.—Ovid, Tristia, bk. 4, lis. 210 & 361.—Plutarch, de Garrulitate.—Cicero, Letters to Atticus.—Cælius, Rhodiginus, [♦]bk. 18, ch. 17, &c.
[♦] ‘8’ replaced with ‘18’
Cybĕle and Cybela, a town of Phrygia. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.