Ancient deities Cybele and Mithras - once revered in the Balkans

If you ask someone in the former Yugoslavia what people believed in before Christianity and Islam, many will immediately say Slavic gods.

But the Slavs only arrived in the 6th or 7th century, and people have always needed a higher power to explain natural phenomena and to ask for help.

Which deities were believed to rule the world at that time?

The Roman Empire extended over the territory of today's Balkans two millennia ago in ancient times.

The Romans built cities and military fortifications here, because the border of the empire was on the Danube, as well as a network of roads that would connect them.

They brought their own laws, trade, customs, but also religion, which intertwined with the beliefs of the time.

Among the famous Greek gods Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, who were gradually replaced by the Roman Jupiter, Juno, Venus, there were also ancient oriental ones, who were also very revered.

The National Museum of Serbia preserves reliefs depicting the goddess Cybele and the god Mithras - about whom little is known today and easily goes unnoticed during a tour.

"The Roman emperors Commodus, Diocletian, and Constantine the Great were Mithraists, and when Constantine the Great allowed Christianity, he continued to honor the cult of Mithras."

"Religious tolerance existed for a long time," said Ana Kadović, an associate at the National Museum, during a lecture on ancient deities.

Kibela - Mother of the Gods

One of the most revered was Cybele or the Great Mother of the Gods, remembered under various names since the 5th century BC.

Her cult originated in Phrygia in Asia Minor, which is the area of ​​present-day Turkey.

Her full name in Latin was Mother of God Great Idaea, Great Ida mother of the gods.

"Athens in the 5th century BC accepted Cybele, she became the patroness of the city, and her sculpture stood in the Athenian Agora, which is believed to have been made by Phidias, probably the most important ancient sculptor."

"The Romans later adopted Cybele," Kadović said during the highly attended guided tour.

Her cult on the Apennine Peninsula was particularly strong during the Punic Wars and the drought that befell the Romans in the 2nd century BC.

Not knowing how to deal with this huge crisis, they consulted highly respected Sibyl books, the guidance of the prophetess Sibyl.

Documents in Greek, kept on the Roman Capitol, were allowed to be opened only among specially selected state officials, by decision of the Senate.

"The Sibyl Books did not contain prophecies, but rather instructions for rituals to overcome crisis situations."

"They read in the book that it was necessary to bring the sacred stone of the mother goddess, and in Pesinuntus, in Asia Minor, a meteorite stone was kept that was believed to be the image of the goddess Cybele," says Kadović.

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The Romans organized the bringing of the stone to Rome, and along the way they stopped at Delphi, to see the oracles, who confirmed that it would help the state escape its troubles.

In honor of the goddess, a temple was built on the Palatine, one of the most sacred hills in Rome, where the stone would later be placed.

"A sculpture of Cybele was also made in the temple, and that stone was placed instead of her face."

The drought soon ended, and Rome defeated Carthage in war, and many believers attributed this to the powers of the mother goddess.

Adherents of the cult of Cybele were members of the upper classes, among them was Livia, the wife of Emperor Augustus, who commissioned her statues.

It was not easy to become a follower of her cult, because the initiation ritual - inclusion among the chosen ones - was quite cruel, says the museum associate.

In honor of the goddess, noisy, musical megalesia festivities were held, significantly different from Roman ones.

"They involved beautifully dressed, often effeminate men throwing rose petals and smelling incense."

"Finally, in the evening, the men would perform the act of self-castration," Kadović said.

This persisted until the prohibition of cutting off genital parts, and was replaced by the sacrifice of expensive animals, such as a bull or a ram.

Temples dedicated to Cybele were called matrons and priests - eunuchs spent time there throughout the year, only coming out for the megalesia in early April.

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That she was also revered in the Balkans is shown by a white stone relief from the 1st century found in the Palace of Parethene, at the archaeological site of Stobi in North Macedonia.

“Cybele is depicted sitting, with lions at her feet,” says Kadović, pointing to the 2000-year-old object.

Objects for personal use dedicated to the goddess Cybele were found at sites in Viminacium, Diana, and Mediana.

Another important deity was Mithras, whose temples were called mithraeums.

One of the mithraeums was in Jajce, in the area of ​​present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, while they have not been found in Serbia.

Mithra's supporters were exclusively men, most often soldiers.

"Two reliefs depicting Mithras were found in the area of ​​Upper Moesia (present-day Serbia)," says Kadović.

Mithra originates from Indo-Persian mythology, where he was considered the god of supreme light and the guardian of nobility who punishes the wicked.

When the ancient prophet Zarathustra reformed the Persian polytheistic religion into a monotheistic one, Mithras lost his status as a deity.

In the 6th century BC, with the expansion of the Persian Empire (present-day Iran) into the area of ​​former Babylonia, which at that time was home to the Chaldean kingdom, the Persians encountered the local religion, which relied on astrology.

"The astrological aspect of Mithraism is crucial."

"The central scene in all temples is the tauroctony - the killing of the bull, Mithras kills the primordial bull from which the world will be created," describes the museum associate.

It was believed that grapevines grew from the blood of a bull, from human genitalia, and from the tail and spinal cord, ears of corn.

"It is a symbol of the creation of the world, but also of the struggle between good and evil," he adds.

Mithraism spread throughout the Hellenic world after Alexander the Great's victory over the Persians and reached the west with Roman soldiers as far as Spain and Great Britain, according to Britannica.

Initiation into the cult of Mithraism involved seven complex circles, each of which required greater knowledge and psychophysical readiness, and at the end, bliss awaited them, according to Kadović.

The transition from one level to another is decided by lion's head - a god with the head of a lion who, wrapped in a snake, guards the keys and stands at the farthest limit of the sky.

It is no coincidence that the number seven is used, as it illustrates an ancient worldview.

Ancient peoples believed that the Earth was a stationary disk with a dome of stars hanging above it.

"In that firmament there are seven stars, among which five are wandering stars and two are fixed - the Sun and the Moon."

"She is a wanderer." planets in Greek, and those five are actually - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn," Kadović describes.

Showing a preserved relief from the 3rd century found in Smederevo, which depicts Mithras with a Phrygian cap, with the peak facing forward, and a cloak, he draws attention to animals.

The dog, snake, scorpion and raven, which are poorly visible due to the passage of time, symbolize the constellations visible in the sky at that time.

Torchbearers are also depicted - one holding a raised flame, the other a lowered torch, representing light and darkness or the spring equinox when everything is born and shines, and the autumn equinox when nature dies and fades away.

"Mithras is believed to have been born on December 25th at the time of the winter solstice, which is one of the comparisons to Jesus Christ later."

"Mithras opened a spring in a rock with an arrow during a drought, as well as scenes where he carries an animal on his back after a hunt, similar to the Good Shepherd who was used as a symbol of Christ at the time," says Kadović.

This interweaving of beliefs is called syncretism, and often the local population attributed the characteristics of their own ancient gods to the Roman deities.

Only after Christianity was declared the sole state religion, during the time of the Roman Emperor Theodosius in the 4th century, were many temples and altars destroyed, and the polytheistic religion was replaced by belief in one god.

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