The mythology of Greece and Rome, with special reference to its use in art

by Otto Seemann

III.—THE GODS OF THE EARTH AND LOWER WORLD.

We now come to a class of deities who stand in the most decided contrast to the gods of the heaven and the sea, whom we have previously described. It consists of those deities whose power is incessantly exerted either on the surface or in the depths of the earth, and who are accordingly brought into the closest connection with the life of man. The worship of these deities assumed among the Greeks a passionate and excited character, at first entirely strange to the Romans, though it gradually crept in here also.

Though the ancients saw in the earth, on the one hand, the fruitful source of all life in nature, they did not seek to disguise the fact that it is, on the other hand, also the open sepulchre into which all earthly existence sinks when its time is over. The worship of these deities was therefore celebrated with festivals of joy and mirth at the season of the revival of nature, and with mournful solemnities at the season of its decay. The devotees manifested both their mirth and mourning in a loud, noisy, passionate manner, usually designated orgiastic. An element of mystery never failed to introduce itself into the worship of these deities, who, in virtue of their dwellings, were able to inspire a greater feeling of awe than the bright forms of the gods of heaven. Their wrath also, which manifested itself in the sterility of the soil, was the subject of especial fear. Mysteries proper, or secret rites, existed only among the Greeks, but never found their way into the religious systems of Italy. We shall enumerate first the deities of the upper world, who preside over the growth of flocks and the fruits of the earth, and then those who inhabit the lower world.

1. Gæa (Tellus).—First among them is Gæa, or Mother Earth herself. This deity appears in the Cosmogony (or myths relating to the formation of the universe) as one of the primeval creative forces, having herself proceeded immediately from Chaos. In later times she acquired a more personal and plastic character, although she never attained any real importance in the religious system of the Greeks, owing to the existence of more definite and substantial deities, such as Rhea, Hestia, Demeter, and Themis. The worship of Tellus in Rome was more important, although here, too, it was somewhat thrown into the shade by the worship of Ceres and kindred deities.

The chief significance of Gæa lies in the fact that she is the source of all life and increase in nature. She is hence regarded as a mother who tends with loving care all her children. Under this aspect her praises are sung by Hesiod, and also in an ancient Dodonaic hymn. Like Demeter and other deities who dispense prosperity and abundance, she appears as tending and nourishing the young, and is often represented thus on ancient monuments.

At the same time Gæa is the common grave of mankind, and draws all things, with inexorable severity, down into her dark womb. She thus becomes a goddess of death and the lower world, and was on this account invoked, together with the Manes, as a witness of all solemn compacts and oaths.

A very ancient shrine of this goddess existed at Delphi, and the oracle there had once, said the Delphians, belonged to her.

In Rome, where she was also venerated as a goddess of marriage, her temple stood on the site of the house of Spurius Cassius. Festive offerings were made to her before and after seed-time. On the occasion of the Paganalia, she and Ceres were propitiated by the sacrifice of a pregnant sow, which was supposed to promote the prosperity of the coming year.

2. Rhea Cybele (Magna Mater Idæa).—Rhea is well known as the daughter of Uranus and Gæa, and the wife of Cronus, by whom she became the mother of Zeus and the other Cronidæ. She seems to have enjoyed only a limited measure of divine honours, until she was identified with the Phrygian goddess Cybele, who, like the Egyptian Isis, was an Asiatic symbol of fertility. She was worshipped throughout Lydia and Phrygia under the appellation of the “Mighty Mother.” Thence her worship, which was of a peculiarly noisy character, made its way through the Greek colonies into Greece itself, and towards the end of the second Punic war was, at the instance of the Sibylline books, introduced into Rome. Attalus, king of Pergamus, was on this occasion good enough to present the Romans with a sacred stone, which was regarded by the inhabitants of Pessinus as the great mother herself. After its arrival at Ostia, this stone was carried to Rome amid a solemn procession of Roman matrons. The day of its arrival (10th April) was ever afterwards kept as a festival, at which games were celebrated under the superintendence of the prætor. The worship of Cybele, however, never seems to have become naturalised in Rome, perhaps because Romans were not allowed to officiate as her priests.

The true home of the worship of Cybele was the district of Pessinus, a rough and rocky mountain land. It was here that she made her noisy processions, seated in a chariot drawn by lions or panthers, amid the boisterous music of her weird attendants, the Corybantes and Curetes. The myths that relate to the goddess bear a wild, fantastic character, similar to that of her rites. The best known among them is the story of her favourite, Attis, or Atys. He was a Phrygian youth of a beauty so exceptional that the great mother of the gods chose him for her husband. At first he returned her affection, but afterwards he proved faithless, and was about to marry a daughter of the king of Pessinus. But the vengeance of the angry goddess overtook him, for when the wedding guests were assembled at the festive banquet the goddess appeared in their midst, and filled those present with panic fear, and troubled their minds. Atys fled to the mountains, where he slew himself in a fit of frenzy. Afterwards, the goddess instituted a great mourning in memory of him, which took place about the time of the vernal equinox. The priests of the goddess marched, amid the loud noise of kettle-drums and fifes, to the mountains, in order to search for the lost youth; and when at length he, or an image representing him, was found, the priests, in an ecstasy of joy, danced about in wild excitement, gashing themselves with knives.