30 Kasım 2025 Pazar

Dionysos and Shamanism

 

Comparison

Attis playing the drum, wearing a Phrygian cap (from Anatolia) and a Kam (shaman) from Siberia 

Roman Imperial Attis wearing a Phrygian cap and performing a cult dance. Cybele's consort is the Phrygian shepherd called Attis, and their relationship was recognized in ancient Greece and Rome, though there are likely Phrygian roots to his character as well. Attis is believed to be her younger mate, often considered to be a deity himself, though beneath the goddess. It is highly debated whether Attis arrived with Cybele or after her, tacked on by the later Greek and Roman followers.

During the Roman Empire, the myth circulated that Attis castrated a king and was thus castrated in turn, and left to die under a pine tree. His followers buried him and then castrated themselves in his honor. These followers developed into Cybele's cult of priests, called the Galli.

Oktay Polat


... But, you women who have left Tmolos, the bulwark of Lydia, my sacred band, whom I have brought from among the barbarians as assistants and companions to me, take your drums, native instruments of the city of the Phrygians, the invention of mother Rhea and myself... (Dionysus; Euripides, Bacchae)


* Neither the name nor Dionysus himself is of Greek origin, he says "I come from the east"

* Tmolos is a mountain, Bozdağ, Manisa/Turkey


... O secret chamber of the Kouretes and you holy Cretan caves, parents to Zeus, where the Korybantes with triple helmet invented for me in their caves this circle, covered with stretched hide; and in their excited revelry they mingled it with the sweet-voiced breath of Phrygian pipes and handed it over to mother Rhea, resounding with the sweet songs of the Bacchae... (Euripides, Bacchae)


* Neither the name nor Bacchos himself is of Greek origin.

Comes from "Bakşi (Bakshi)", which is Turkish, "religious people, followers, priest, priestess". The religious teachers of Buddha, or Burkan in Turkish, who were descendants of the Sakas, were called Bakshi and they would get drunk and engage in excessive behavior, as in the Dionysian festivals. The Shaman's attire is called "manyak (maniac)." Therefore, the name "Maenads," priestess of Bacchos who performed ecstatic movements at Dionysian festivals, is derived from the word "manyak (maniac)." The word is of Turkish origin.


* At some point, Anatolian mother goddess Kybele (Cybele) became Gaia or Rhea  in Greek and Rome myths.

* Korybantes are the sons of Apollon and Thalia (a muse), and priests of Kybele. But, "korubantes (y=u)" is a Turkish word; Koru, korumak "to protect, guard, secure".

* Kybele is Kubebe in Lydian geography, but also the name of a princess in Sumerian, who was later deified. It is mentioned as Kubaba in Hittite inscriptions (Kültepe). So, Kybele is not from Phrygia or Thrace.

* Barbarians = People who does not speak Greek.

* Shamanism does not exist in Greek culture. (Gladstone)

* "Phrygian pipes" - not necessarily a Phrygian culture. Because there are Scythian (Sacae/Saka) and Kimmerian tribes who lived in this region. And we do know that these flutes are Scythian of origin. This also applies to the "Phrygian hat," because the same "headdresses" was worn by the Sakas (Scythians) in Central Asia, who had no connection with the "Phrygians."

SB


İmages:

Parabiago plate - 4th c AD / Milan; Attis is sitting with Kybele in her car drawn by a pair of harnessed lions, with dancing Korybantes around.

Shamans from Central Asia.