Agdistis, Kybele, and Attis
Mother-Earth and Father-Sky had many children. Some were gods. Others were titans. Others were nymphs, or monsters, or daimones.One of these children was Agdistis, called by some a god, and by others a daemon.
All children have some qualities of both their parents, but Agdistis far more than most, because they were both male and female, having the power of god and goddess both.
Agdistis made their home on the mountain which bears their name, in far Phrygia, and there was worshipped as a god.
In time, mighty Zeus, king of the Olympians, travelled to Phrygia and observed the worship. He grew jealous of Agdistis’s power, and that a daemon was being worshipped as one of the gods, and so he hatched a plan with the other gods of Olympus to cripple them.
He sent Dionysus to feed Agdistis drugged wine. When the drugs took effect, they lay down to sleep on the banks of the river Sangarius. While they slept, Dionysus took a rope forged by Hephaestus and tied one end around Agdistis's foot, and the other aound their penis. When Agdistis finally awoke from their drugged sleep, they did not notice the rope, and stood up, causing the rope to tear their penis away from their body.
Now gods do not work like mortals, and this is true of daemons too. Though Zeus's plan succeeded in cutting them off from their masculine power, the attack did not kill or cripple them as he had intended. Instead, it caused Agdistis to undergo a great transformation, becoming a goddess, and taking the name Kybele.
Where Agdistis’s penis landed, an almond tree sprouted from the blood. One day, Nana, daughter of the god of the Sangarius river, was walking along the bank of the river, when she came across the tree.
Seeing the almonds were ripe, she picked six from the tree and ate them as she walked, not knowing the tree’s divine origins. Soon, she realised something was wrong, and found she was suddenly pregnant.
Several months later, she gave birth to a son, who she named Attis, Agdistis’s son and Agdistis’s masculine facet reborn both.
As Attis grew, he became so renowned for his beauty and grace that although he was only a shepherd, Midas, king of Pessinus, offered him the hand of his daughter Zoë in marriage.
However, Kybele, the goddess who had once been Agdistis, had been observing Attis, her son and other half, and she had fallen in love with him. At the marriage of Attis and the princess, just as a marriage song was about to be sung, Kybele appeared, and used her divine power to drive Attis instantly mad, just as she was mad with jealousy.
Before the king and all the assembled dignitaries, Attis took his knife and castrated himself, as Agdistis had once been castrated, in so violent a manner that he bled to death before his bride or any guest could save him. It is said that from his blood, violets sprouted fourth, and to this day, their blooms remain sacred to him.
As soon as Attis was dead, Kybele regretted what she had done. She went to Zeus to ask him to resurrect Attis, but he refused.
Heartbroken, Kybele wrapped the body of Attis in the skin of a lion, and buried him beneath a fir tree, and on his grave she caused a bull to be sacrificed to him.
For three days, the goddess mourned. For three days she ate no bread, but only wept and sang dirges for her dead love. But on the third day, a light began to emanate from the grave, and Attis rose from dead, no longer trapped in mortal flesh but full divine, and so he took his place at her side.
In honour of this miracle, fir trees became sacred to the goddess, and the Hilaria festival began to be celebrated every year by the worshippers of Kybele, where the devotees killed Attis in effigy, mourned his death, and finally celebrated when on the third day he rose again.
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