Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list)
03 Religious festivals, cults, rituals and practices
03 Religious festivals, cults, rituals and practices
02 Religious and ideological symbols and iconographic motifs
03 Religious festivals, cults, rituals and practices
Keywords
Acdestis
Attis
Great Mother
Period
4th century CE
Roman Empire
Channel
Christian-Roman philosophers and scholars
Text
Arnobius of Sicca, Adversus nationes 5.16: And for all that, how can you assert that representation not to be true when the very rites you continue to practice at each returning anniversary are evidence that you believe it to be true and consider that it has been verified and found worthy of credence? What, for example, does that pine mean which you always introduce on appointed days into the sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods? Is it not symbolic of that tree under which the mad and unhappy youth laid hands on himself and which the parent of the gods consecrated as a solace for her grief? What is the meaning of the fleeces of wool with which you bind and surround the trunk of the tree? Is it not a recollection of the woolens with which Ia covered him who was expiring and believed that she could procure some warmth for his limbs as they grew cold? What is the meaning of the little branches of the tree decked and girt round with garlands of violets? Do they not signify how the Mother adorned the pine with the earliest blossoms, as a memorial and testimony of her sad misfortune? What is the meaning of the Galli with hair dishevelled, beating their breasts with their hands? Do they not commemorate the sorrow with which the tower-bearing Mother, together with the tearful Acdestis, lamented the boy? What is the meaning of the fasting from bread to which you have given the term castus? Is it not an imitation of the time when in the poignancy of her grief the divinity abstained from Ceres’ fruit?
