CybeleANCIENT_Apuleius

CybeleANCIENT_Apuleius

OGCMA s.v. "Cybele"

Apuleius, Metamorphoses 11.5.1-5, 6.6

Listing this slide under "Cybele" fudges the fact that Apuleius is working the identity of the Magna Mater as Isis. The passage is an important manifestation of syncretism since it claims so specifically that multiple ancient cultures all around the Mediterranean basin worshipped one multivalent goddess, one goddess of multiple faces. Because Reid's OGCMA lacks an entry for "Isis" but defines Magna Mater s.v. "Cybele" — and because Apuleius' Isis starts with Phyrgian Cybele (=Mater Deum)— this important statement is filed here under Cybele.

The Latin text at right is edited after M. Zimmerman's Oxford Classical Text (2012).

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.