Berecynthia (Ancient Greek: Βερεκυνθία) was one of the many epithets of the goddess Cybele, which was derived either from Mount Berecynthus (modern Malaxa Mountain), or from a fortified place of that name in Phrygia, where she was particularly worshipped and known to have a thriving cult. It was also sometimes described as an epithet of Rhea.[1]
Mount Berecynthus itself derived its name from a priest of Cybele named Berecynthus.[2][3][4][5] The 5th-century mythographer Fabius Planciades Fulgentius gave an etymology relating the name to "spring flowers".[6][7]
She was widely worshipped, with a particular ardency in Gaul, where she came to be assimilated and identified with a Celtic protectress of crops.[8] Sixth-century writer Gregory of Tours, the "father of French history", describes her wide worship, and particular rites where an image of the goddess was carried through the fields and vineyards on a cart, to ensure a healthy harvest.[9] The hagiography of the Christian Saint Symphorian describes Symphorian as refusing to pay respect to this image of Berecynthia carried in procession, and being executed for this sacrilege.[10][8] In the 5th century CE, Augustine of Hippo wrote in his The City of God of witnessing similar processions and rites for Berecynthia as far away as North Africa.[11]
Berecynthia figures as one of the main characters in 17th century librettist Aurelio Aureli's libretto L'Erginda .[12]. Under this name, she was a regular fixture in European poetry and opera up through the 18th century.[13][14][15]
References
edit- ↑ Augustine of Hippo (1871). City of God. Vol. 1. T. & T. Clark. p. 52. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- ↑ Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 246
- ↑ Servius the Grammarian, On the Aeneid 9.82, 6.785
- ↑ Strabo, Geographica x. p.472
- ↑ Pseudo-Plutarch, De fluviis 10
- ↑ Fulgentius, Fabius Planciades (1971). "The myth of Berecynthia and Attis". Fulgentius the Mythographer. Translated by Whitbread, Leslie George. Ohio State University Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 9780814201626. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- ↑ Chance, Jane (1994). The Mythographic Chaucer: The Fabulation of Sexual Politics. University of Minnesota Press. p. 41. ISBN 9781452900476. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- 1 2 Berger, Pamela C. (1985). Goddess Obscured: Transformation of the Grain Protectress from Goddess to Saint. Beacon Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780807067239. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- ↑ Anwyl, E. (1906). "Ancient Celtic Goddesses". The Celtic Review. 3 (9): 26–51. doi:10.2307/30069895. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- ↑ Holmes, T. Scott (1911). The Origin and Development of the Christian Church in Gaul during the First Six Centuries of the Christian Era. Macmillan. p. 52. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- ↑ Barton, George A. (1891). "Ashtoreth and Her Influence in the Old Testament". Journal of Biblical Literature. 10 (2). Society of Biblical Literature: 73–91. JSTOR 4617130. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- ↑ Heller, Wendy (2016). "Il favore degli dei (1690): Meta-Opera and Metamorphosis at the Farnese Court". In Gvozdeva, Katja; Ospovat, Kirill; Korneeva, Tatiana (eds.). Dramatic Experience: The Poetics of Drama and the Early Modern Public Sphere(s). Brill Publishers. pp. 129–135. ISBN 9789004329768. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- ↑ Steadman, Philip (2021). "Mercury and Mars in Parma, 1628". Renaissance Fun: The Machines behind the Scenes. UCL Press: 328–69. doi:10.2307/j.ctv18msqmt.17. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- ↑ Ness, Robert (1986). "The Dunciad and Italian Opera in England". Eighteenth-Century Studies. 20 (2): 173–94. doi:10.2307/2739154. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
- ↑ Carter, Tim (1983). "A Florentine Wedding of 1608". Acta Musicologica. 55 (1): 89–107. doi:10.2307/932663. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Berecynthia". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 482.