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Worship on the Esquiline

One of the main characteristics that people attribute to Rome was her vast array of cultures and religions. People flocked to Rome from all over the far reaches of the Empire and setteled in the eternal city, bringing with them their faith. Greeks, Jews, Gauls and Syrians are to name but a few, and with each new culture came a new, and fascinating deity. Many of these cults moved their places of worship to Mons Esquilinius, and it is some of those that we will take a look at here.

CYBELE:

Cybele was thought to be originally a Phrygian goddess, as far as the Hellenes were concerned, Cybele was a deification of the Earth Mother who was worshipped in Anatolia from Neolithic times. Like Gaia or her Minoan equivalent Rhea, Cybele embodies the fertile earth, a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, of nature, and wild animals. Her title Potnia Theron, which is also associated with the Minoan Great Mother, alludes to her ancient Neolithic roots as Mistress of the Animals. She becomes a life,death, rebirth deity in connection with her consort and son, Attis.

Her Roman equivalent was Magna Mater or The Great Mother. The cult of the Great Mother, presents a complex picture insofar as Mycenean tradition is here intertwined with a cult taken over directly from Asia Minor.
Save that it reveals that the Greeks considered Cybele to be Greek, the traditional derivation of her name as she of the hair can be ignored, now that the inscription of one of her Phrygian rock cut monuments has been read matar kubileya.

The inscription Matar, occurs frequently in her Phrygian sites. Her name was not original to the Phrygian language, however, but has been traced to Luwian origin, derived from Kubaba, the name by which she was known in Carchemish, as Mark Munn has shown in detail. The monuments to the Phrygian Mother all belong after the rise of the Mermnad Lydians, when Kubaba was a sovereign deity at Sardis, known to Greeks as Kybebe. The goddess was known among the Greeks simply as Meter or Meter oreie, or, with a particular Anatolian sacred mountain in mind, Idaea, inasmuch as she was supposed to have been born on Mount Ida in Asia Minor, or equally Dindymene or Sipylene, with her sacred mountains Mount Dindymus, or Mount Sipylus in mind.

Cybele's most ecstatic followers were males who ritually castrated themselves, after which they were given women's clothing and assumed female or 'third sex' identities, who were referred to by the third century commentator Callimachus in the feminine Gallai, and who other contemporary commentators in ancient Greece and Rome referred to as Gallos or Galli. Her priestesses led the people in orgiastic ceremonies with wild music, drumming, dancing and drink.

She was associated with the mystery religion concerning her son, Attis, who was castrated and resurrected. The dactyls were part of her retinue. Other followers of Cybele, Phrygian kurbantes or Corybantes, expressed her ecstatic and orgiastic cult in music, especially drumming, clashing of shields and spears, dancing, singing and shouts, all at night.
Atalanta and Hippomenes were turned into lions by Cybele after having sex in one of her temples.

MINERVA:

The name Minerva may come from the ProtoIndo European root, men, from which mental, and mind, are also derived. However, the non Indo European speaking Etruscans had a goddess Menrva, so the name may be of entirely unknown derivation.

Minerva was the daughter of the god Jupiter and willowy Metis. She was considered to be the virgin goddess of warriors, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, crafts, and the inventor of music. As Minerva Medica, she was the goddess of medicine and doctors.
Adapting Greek myths about Athena, Romans said that Minerva was not born in the usual way, but rather sprang fully armed from the brain of her father; this image has captivated Western writers and artists through the ages.

Ovid called her the goddess of a thousand works. Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy and the Empire, though only in Rome did she take on a warlike character. Minerva is usually depicted wearing a coat of mail and a helmet, and carrying a spear used for the hunting of boar.

The Romans celebrated her festival from March 19 to 23 during the day which is called, in the feminine plural, Quinquatria, the fifth after the Ides of March. A lesser version, the Minusculae Quinquatria, was held on the Ides of June, June 13, by the flute players, who were particularly useful to religion. Minerva was worshipped on the Capitoline Hill as one of the Capitoline Triad along with the god Jupiter and the beloved Juno.

In 207 BC, a guild of poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on the Aventine hill. Among others, its members included Livius Andronicus. The Aventine sanctuary of Minerva continued to be an important center of the arts for much of the middle Roman Republic.

Ther is a little know tale that exists regrding a man named Pericles who seemed to attract the godess's favour: Minerva appears to Pericles in a dream, and orders a course of treatment for an injured citizen of Athens who was pious and good. The treatment cured the man, and a brass statue was erected in honor of Minerva the healer. In time she would become a patron goddess of hospitals. JUNO: It is beleved there is a strong possible etymology for Juno, in the Indo European root yeu, vital force, which has such derivatives as the English youth. Although such a derivation could possibly be consistent with an origin as a mother goddess. It is more likely that the root yeu, is used in the same sense as other Latin words derived from it, such as iuvenis, with derivatives such as juvenile, and, which would imply that Juno's nature prior to the syncretism of Greek and Roman mythology was more akin to Diana's, as a maiden goddess of birth or midwifery. However, the Roman absorption of Greek myth replaced most earlier characteristics of Juno with those of Hera, extending her domain from birth to marriage and promoting her to the role of Jupiter's wife and the queen of the gods.She could also throw lightning bolts as well as Jupiter which is characteristic generaly saved for that particular deity. More immediately, Juno's Etruscan equivalent was Uni. It is likely that one of these goddesses inspired the other, but whether Juno comes from Uni, or vice versa, remains disputed. Although there is currently more support for the theory that Uni is derived from Juno. If instead, Juno's name is of Etruscan origin, it cannot have an Indo European link to yeu, and its root meaning will remain ambiguous. There is some support for the theory of Uni being the original; Livy states that Juno was an Etruscan goddess from Veii, who was ceremonially adopted into the Roman pantheon when Veii was sacked in 396BC. Every year, on the first of March, women held a festival in honor of Juno called the Matronalia. Another festival in her honor, the Nonae Caprotinae, was held on July 7. Many considered the month of June, which is named after Juno, the patroness of marriage, to be the most favorable time to marry. The Kalends of every month was also sacred to Juno, and she had festivals on July 1 and September 13. Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She often appeared armed and wearing a goatskin cloak, which was the garment favored by Roman soldiers on campaign. This warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena, whose goatskin was called the aegis. "Juno."

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