The Cult of Attis

From Archaeology Magazine online

Images: An Augustan-era fresco, left, in Rome depicts a chair with details similar to one recently found in Herculaneum, below. (Courtesy Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei)


Cult Chair
Volume 61 Number 2, March/April 2008
by Jarrett A. Lobell

Archaeologists have unearthed a wealth of information on the ancient villas of the Bay of Naples, but they know almost nothing about the furniture that filled the sumptuously decorated homes. Most pieces were destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Now excavators working in Herculaneum, near the famous Villa of the Papyri, have uncovered parts of a remarkable chair.

Made of wood and ivory, the chair is the first of its type ever found. Although fragmentary, its decorations depict scenes of the cult of Attis, a Near Eastern deity who was driven mad by the goddess Cybele and castrated himself, only to be reborn as a pine tree. On the chair are scenes of a pine tree with offerings at its base, Dionysos leaning on a pine, and a satyr with a pine, as well as cupids playing cymbals. The images allude to the celebration of the death and rebirth of Attis, who was introduced to the Romans under the reign of the emperor Claudius (r. A.D. 41-54).

© 2008 by the Archaeological Institute of Americawww.archaeology.org/0803/trenches/chair.html
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What are the odds these chairs are related to the much earlier chairs/goddess thrones that I posted about:

http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2007/08/chess-lessons-from-ancient-history.html

http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-chess-lessons-from-ancient-history.html

And then, there is the connection to the goddess Cybele, with the Attis/Cyble redux of the earlier Osiris/Isis and Damuzi/Inanna legends. There is also the connection of the goddess to the tree (sacred tree, sacred poles, sacred groves, for instance) in the forms of Hathor, Asherah and Inanna - iconography that dates back (working from memory, don't have my notes or prior posts in front of me!) about 5,500 years. What is the symbol of the pine tree, except the "delta" of the goddess depicted upside down? Take a look at the goat/ibex leaping to eat the leaves of the "trees" on the earlier post tonight. Aren't those nothing but "upside down" pine trees?

Attis being "reborn" in the form of a pine tree is, I think, a metaphor for the eternal union of the male and female goddesses who, through their union, create something greater than either.

More Chess Lessons from Ancient History

See prior posts:

August 8, 2007: Chess Lessons from Ancient History

August 9, 2007: More Chess Lessons from Ancient History

September 4, 2007: The Priestesses of Mary

It has been said that chess is a game of archetypes. One of those archetypes is the concept of rulership, as embodied in the throne. The throne is a woman. As far back as we have datable archaeological artifacts, the throne is a woman (more on this later). This isn't a feminist manifesto of uterine power - it's just the plain ol' simple truth. Jan, August 9, 2007

I’m saving a lot of good stuff for an eventual big, long and scholarly (cough, cough) article for Goddesschess, but I realized I owed a post here based on the "more on this later" comment I made in my August 9, 2007 post referenced above.

There is a big gap, time-wise, between the ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis, the Ashdoda, and Mary, Queen of Heaven. In between are many women/throne combination artifacts that have been excavated over the years, all across the Middle East, the Aegean, and Central Asia. By way of example, several thousand years before Isis, there was the "Leopard Queen" discovered at Katul Hoyuk, who is perhaps the oldest representation of a woman upon a throne; the Vinca culture, represented by recent excavations at Plocnik, dates to about 5000 BCE (photo: a headless goddess sits on a chair, with hands resting on rounded belly, perhaps pregnant, Vinca culture, Plocknik); Isis dates to about 3400-3200 BCE. There is a chronological and cultural progression of worship of the Queen of Heaven during all that time, right down to the 3rd century CE, when the Collyridians worshipped the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven.

Epiphanius states that the "priestesses of Mary" worshipped her as a goddess in her own right, the Queen of Heaven, with rituals far older than Christianity, and "adorn a chair or square throne, spread a cloth over it, and at a certain solemn time, place bread on it and offer it in the name of Mary." The worshippers also partook of the sacred cakes.

In the Bible, this harkens back to reports made by the prophets in the Old Testament regarding worship of a much more ancient Queen of Heaven than the Virgin Mary, who was worshipped in Palestine and Phoenicia thousands of years before Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was conceived. The worshippers of Ashtoreth, Asherah and Ishtar all celebrated their revered Goddesses by baking specially marked "cakes" (various types of flat and risen breads) and consuming them at special feast times. The custom passed all the way down to modern times, in the form of "Hot Cross Buns" which are served on Easter Sunday, the holiday of the Germanic Mother Goddess Eostre.

Despite the Church Fathers’ best efforts to suppress the "heresy" of worship of the Mother Goddess, the Queen of Heaven, they failed. Finally, they capitulated (perhaps in the nature of "if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em…) The Council of Ephesus in 431 CE formally sanctioned devotion to the Virgin Mary as Theotokos, Mother of God, (literally, God bearer), allowing the creation of icons bearing the images of the Virgin and Child. Devotion to Mary was, however, already widespread by this point. Early representations showed Mary as the "Throne of Heaven" with Mary and the Child Jesus both crowned as royalty. These are, though, just a reiteration of the 3000 years earlier representations of Isis with Horus on her lap.

Like Isis with the infant Horus was in her day, Mary as the Queen of Heaven (both crowned and uncrowned) with the infant Jesus on her lap was a particularly popular theme among Medieval and Renaissance artists.

I yet need to provide a link between "Mary, Queen of Heaven" and the game of chess – beyond the rather esoteric and yet ancient concept of " woman as throne" that I previously mentioned. Stay tuned…

Chess Lessons From Ancient History

Her name is Isis, a Greek name for the ancient Egyptian Goddess, Aset (Auset), whose name literally means "throne."

Notice the shape of the "crown" upon Isis' head. It is a depiction of an Egyptian throne. It was, literally, upon the Goddess Aset that the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt sat, it was from that Goddess the Pharaohs derived their authority to rule. The Pharaoh - the "King" - sat upon the Goddess, who was the personification of the throne. Without the Goddess Isis, the King was powerless, for he lost his throne.

The depiction of Aset/Isis as a "throne" dates back to at least 3500 BCE (pre-dynastic) in Egyptian iconography. She was the mate of Osiris (Greek name), which in ancient Egyptian was variously Asar, Aser, Ausar, Wesir, or Ausare. That name "Wesir" sounds suspiciously like the much later title of "Vizier," who was the "King's" 'right-hand man,' the chess piece that later became the Bishop in western Chess.

What pieces today are placed on either side of the "King" and "Queen?" The Bishops - whose role in Medieval and Rennaisance European courts was advisor to the ruler and who, in many instances, wielded enormous power and influence despite their "godly" role as a representative of a higher power. De facto - the Vizier of old. Could Goddess Aset/Isis have been the original "King," She being the throne upon which the ruler sat - actually, the physical embodiment of the throne? And was God Asar/Wesir - Osiris - the original Vizier, who later became the "Bishop?"

Think about the tale of the relationship between Aset and Asar. Asar was killed by his jealous half-brother and cut into 14 parts, which he then scattered throughout the width and breadth of Egypt and the ancient Middle East. Isis found and reassembled 13 of the 14 pieces, but she could not find Asar's penis. And so by magic she conjured the 14th piece and thus restored Wesir/Osiris to his human form, and by magic she brought Asar back to life, but only as a God who lives in the Underworld, the King of the Dead. Asar/Wesir/Osiris was in a subsidary role, dependent upon Aset/Isis for his power, indeed, for his life.

Remember what the ancient lore teaches us. Remember the origin of "throne." We call a chess piece the "King" today, but that piece, representing the supreme throne, was originally a Goddess. Yes, to be sure, the female role of supreme throne was taken over by males in later history, but an echo of the Goddess remains down to this very day in the rules of chess; for just like the God Asar/Osiris, that piece that became the King owes His very life and existence to Aset/Isis, and as a sort of "divine" reminder, is thus severely restricted in his movements and power.

Remember.