Atys


ATYS, or Attys,-- in association with types relating to Cybele, on many Roman as well as Greek coins, it would be scarcely worth while to notice the worse than absurd myths of Atys; who, according to one of several stories concerning him, was a handsome young shepherd of Phrygia, of whom the Mother of the Gods (Magna Mater Deum), became greatly enamoured.  She entrusted him with the care of her temple, having made him promise that he would always live in chaste celibacy.  In violation of this vow, however, he fell in love with the nymph Sangaris, whom Cybele, in her jealous anger, caused to die.  And Atys, in the frenzy of his grief, inflicted a nameless injury upon himself.  But the goddess, who found this punishment to cruel, as well to her own feelings as to those of her beloved, physically restored him, and took him again into her service.  The act of self-mutilation was, however, aferwards performed by the sacerdotal successors of Atys, as a condition attached to the priesthood of Cybele.  On a contorniate medal of Vespasian, engraved in Morel 's Thesaurus, this part of the subject is illustrated.--"Atys, sive potius Gallus (as the priest of Cybele was called) se ipsum castrans."--See Cybele


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