The Great Mother from Asia Minor to Rome

Both the Greek and Roman worship of the Great Mother derives from Anatolia/Asia Minor (Turkey). Her name appears in inscriptions at Phrygia upon numerous doorway facades that have been carved out of cliff faces. She is called Matar (equivalent to Greek Meter and Roman Mater). Another inscription reads Matar Kubileya (Kubileya corresponding with Kybele/Cybele). The name Kybele also corresponds with Kubaba a Hittite goddess, who was the guardian of the city of Carchemesh located on the Euphrates river, depicted enthroned beneath a lion. If we go back further into Anatolian prehistory to Catalhoyuk (8000 B.C), we can also compare the figurine of a large female sitting upon a throne flanked by either Lions or leopards. Cybele is also often depicted enthroned with lion/s. Greek colonists of Asia Minor began to worship the Great Mother and during the Greek Archaic period (around 7th Century B.C.) Cybele was worshipped in Greece.

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