Chapter 1: The Early Gods
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♦ Paris, Musée du Louvre G366: Attic red-figure column krater with Kronos, Rheia with stone
Gazette archéologique 1 (1875), pl. 9
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♦ New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 06.1021.144: Attic red-figure pelike with Kronos, Rheia and stone
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♠ Pherekydes 3F50 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 75, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 1001-2
and bore a son Medeus whom Cheiron the son of Philyra brought up in the mountains. Greek Text
♠ Apollonios of Rhodes 2.1231-41
And at nightfall they came to the island of Philyra, where Cronos, son of Uranus, what time in Olympus he reigned over the Titans, and Zeus was yet being nurtured in a Cretan cave by the Curetes of Ida, lay beside Philyra, when he had deceived Rhea; and the goddess found them in the midst of their dalliance; and Cronos leapt up from the couch with a rush in the form of a steed with flowing mane, but Ocean’s daughter, Philyra, in shame left the spot and those haunts, and came to the long Pelasgian ridges, where by her union with the transfigured deity she brought forth huge Cheiron, half like a horse, half like a god. Greek Text
♠ Epimenides, Theogony 3B19 – Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 1, p. 36, ed. H. Diels and W. Kranz. 6th ed. Berlin 1951.
Epimenides says that the Eumenides come from Kronos:
From him beautiful-haired golden Aphrodite was born
and the immortal Moirai and the Erinyes gleaming with gifts. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Hesiod, Works and Days 111
mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos when he was reigning in heaven. Greek Text
♠ Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3.93
And there were with her all the chiefest of the goddesses, Dione and Rhea and Ichnaea and Themis and loud-moaning Amphitrite and the other deathless goddesses. Greek Text
♠ Homeric Hymn to Demeter 2.441-43
And all-seeing Zeus sent a messenger to them, rich-haired Rhea, to bring dark-cloaked Demeter to join the families of the gods. Greek Text
♠ Bakchylides fr 42 SM – Bacchylidis Carmina cum fragmentis, p. 109, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1970.
♠ Aristophanes, Ornithes (Birds) 876-77
Priest
to Bacchus, the finch and Cybele, the ostrich and mother of the gods and mankind.
Pisthetaerus
Oh! sovereign ostrich Cybele, mother of Cleocritus! Greek Text
♠ Pindar fr 70b.8-9 SM – Pindarus 2, p. 74, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1975.
♠ Euripides, Kretes fr 472 N² – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, pp. 505-6, ed. A. Nauck 2nd ed. Leipzig 1889
♠ Euripides, Bakchai 58-59
take your drums, native instruments of the city of the Phrygians, the invention of mother Rhea and myself. Greek Text
♠ Euripides, Bakchai 78-79
Chorus
Blessed is he who, being fortunate and knowing the rites of the gods, keeps his life pure and has his soul initiated into the Bacchic revels, dancing in inspired frenzy over the mountains with holy purifications, and who, revering the mysteries of great mother Kybele, brandishing the thyrsos, garlanded with ivy, serves Dionysus. Greek Text
♠ Melanippides 764 PMG – Poetae Melici Graeci, p. 395 ed. D. L. Page. Oxford 1962.
Melanippides says that Demeter and the Mother of the gods are one, and Telestes says the same among the children of Zeus and that Rhea… (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Euripides, Helen 1301-52
Chorus
Once with swift foot the mountain mother of the gods rushed through the wooded glen, and the river’s streams and the deep-thundering sea wave, yearning for her lost daughter, whose name may not be spoken. The loudly rattling castanets cried out a shrill sound, when they, swift-footed as whirlwinds, followed the goddess on her chariot yoked to wild creatures, after the girl that was snatched away from the circling chorus of maidens—here Artemis with her bow, and there the grim-eyed goddess, in full armor, with her spear. But Zeus, who sees clearly from his throne in heaven, brought to pass another destiny. When the mother ceased from her wild wandering toil, searching for the treacherous rape of her daughter, she crossed the snow-capped heights of the nymphs of Mount Ida; and in sorrow cast herself down in the rocky woods deep in snow; and, by not making fruitful with crops the barren fields of the earth for mortals, she destroyed the human race. She would not send forth the rich nourishment of leafy tendrils for the herds, and life was leaving the cities. No sacrifice was offered to the gods, and on the altars were no cakes to burn; she made the dew-fed springs of clear water cease flowing, the avenger in sorrow for her child. When she made an end to banquets for gods and the race of men, Zeus spoke out, appeasing the Mother’s gloomy wrath: “Go, holy Graces, go and with a loud cry take from Demeter’s angry heart her grief for the maiden; and you, Muses, with song and dance.” Then Kypris, fairest of the blessed gods, first took up the rumbling voice of bronze and the drum with tight-stretched skin; and the goddess smiled, and received in her hand the deep-toned flute, pleased with its loud note. Greek Text
♦ Delphi, Siphnian Treasury: north frieze with goddess (Meter/Kybele?) with lion-drawn chariot, from gigantomachy
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Artistic Sources edited by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, January 2018
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, July 2020
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