Αττις
A Phrygian god, the companion of Cybele who was the Mother of the Gods, whose legend developed with the spread of his cult through the Hellenic world and later in Rome. He was regarded originally as the son of the hermaphrodite Agdistis and Nana the Nymph, or daughter, of the river Sangarius (for the circumstances of this birth, see Agdistis). Attis was loved by Agdistis himself, who later struck him with madness; in this state he castrated himself during an orgy and those who saw him followed his example. This part of the myth is a transposition of the rites which belong to the Asiatic cult practices of Cybele. In his own legend, Attis died of self-mutilation, but, though dead, he still retained a kind of regenerated life, and flowers grew from his tomb.
Ovid tells a markedly different version of the Attis legend. According to him, a boy lived in the Phrygian woods who was so handsome that he was deservedly loved by Cybele with a chaste passion. She resolved never to let him leave her and to make him the guardian of her temple but she laid down a condition, that he should retain his virginity. Attis however, could not reject the love felt for him by the Nymph Sagaritis, whose name echoes that of the river Sangarius. Cybele in her rage felled a tree to which the Nymph's life was closely bound and she struck Attis with madness. During a violent fit, he castrated himself. After his self-inflicted injury Attis seems to have been once more taken into Cybele's service. He was generally portrayed with Cybele in her chariot crossing the Phrygian mountains.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Paus. 7, 17, 10
- Arnobius Adv. Nat. 5, 5ff.
- Ovid, Fast. 4, 223ff.
- Diod. Sic. 3, 58ff.
- Paus. 7, 17, 9ff.
- Serv. on Virgil, Aen. 7, 761
- Lucian, Sacrif. 7