GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY. 89 
artists represented them as hideous, broad-faced women, dressed in black, 
with projecting tongues, clawed fingers, blood-shot eyes, streaming dis- 
hevelled hair, and carrying a blazing torch or a bundle of serpents. Some- 
times they appear with snakes instead of hair. They continually pursued 
the guilty culprit, scourging him with serpent whips until he sank to despair, 
and sought refuge from their fury in suicide. 
The Melian Nymphs (nymphs of the ash tree) were a species of Dryad. 
At their birth the oak and fir sprang up from the ground, and will wither 
and die with them. 
Uranos, the progenitor of all these deities, disappeared from the new 
dynasty of gods, receiving no further worship or honor. 
L?hea, as the parent of Zeus, and the grand maternal source of the new 
race of gods, was included among them under the name of Cybele. She was 
represented (pl. 16, jig. 14) as a beautiful woman sitting upon a throne, or 
riding in a chariot drawn by lions clad in a tunic girt around her waist, 
while a full flowing mantle reaches from her shoulders to her feet. On her. 
head rests the mural crown, so formed as to exhibit a wall with towers and 
gates. Her left hand is lying on a tambourine. We see a profile of her 
bust, the head and neck covered, on a coin ( pl. 17, fig. 3). 
Originally Rhea and Cybele constituted two separate beings, the first 
springing from Crete, the second from Phrygia. According to Diodorus, 
Cybele was the daughter of King Mon and his queen Dindyme. In con- 
sequence of a prediction, her father caused her to be exposed on Mount 
Cybelos, where she was suckled by panthers and lionesses until discovered 
by an old shepherdess, who brought her up and called her Cybele. Her 
skill in the healing art secured for her the affection of the people. She 
invented the cymbal, the drum, and the many-tubed flute, and by reason of 
her discoveries and benevolence she obtained the appellation of “ Good 
Mother of the Mountain.” A beautiful youth named Atys (pl. 16, jig. 15) 
was her constant and devoted lover. Whence Atys came, who he was, and 
what fate finally overtook him, are questions which the myths decide 
variously. In regard, however, to his end, the most current account relates 
that when Mzon became apprised of his daughter’s fame, he hastened to 
acknowledge her; but hearing of her intimacy with Atys, put him to death. 
Cybele, whose grief deprived her of reason, accompanied by her friend and 
tutor Marsyas, now roamed to the sound of the pipe and drum which she 
had invented, over many countries, visiting even the Hyperborean nations, 
and everywhere teaching mankind the art of agriculture. In consequence 
of a dreadful famine which ravaged Phrygia, and at the command of the 
oracle, which had been consulted in regard to the general calamity, she, or 
according to others Atys, obtained divine honors, his likeness being buried 
to stay the devastation of the famine, and public worship being decreed to 
him at Pessinus. The worship of Cybele and her chief festival stand, 
therefore, in close connexion with her relation to Atys. 
The celebration of her rites began with the spring, and was partly solemn 
and partly wild and licentious. During the first day, March 21st, a fir was 
eut down and borne, with the image of Atys suspended from its branches, 
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