Mysteries of the Mother of the Gods (1)

Text
After the dismembered parts of the Great Mother’s son had been swallowed by the earth, thence is born a pomegranate tree.

Arnobius of Sicca, Adversus nationes 5.6:
Nana, daughter of the king or river Sangarius, gazing in astonishment at the beauty of this fruit, plucks and takes some to her bosom. By this she becomes pregnant. As if she had been ravished, her father shuts her up and tries to have her die of starvation. With apples and other food she is supported by the Mother of the Gods. She labors and is delivered of a child, but Sangarius orders it to be exposed. Somebody finds it and takes it, nourishes it on he-goat’s milk, and because Lydia calls people who are handsome thus, or because the Phrygians in their dialect name goats attagi, it happened that the boy’s name Attis was thus derived. Him the Mother of the Gods loved as none other because he was most superb of countenance. Acdestis him also, his doting companion in his adolescence and who in the only way remaining bound him to himself by his improper attentions, taking him through the wooded glades and giving him many gifts of wild beasts. These the boy Attis at first boasted were the fruit of his own toil and labour; later, under the influence of wine, he admits that he is loved by Acdestis and from him receives woodland gifts as rewards. For this reason it is forbidden for those polluted with wine to enter the sanctuary because it betrayed his silence.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Arnobius of Sicca, Adversus nationes 5.6

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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