#mural crown

[didoofcarthage]

Statue of seated Cybele with portrait head of her priestess

Roman, Imperial Period, c. A.D. 50

Marble

J. Paul Getty Museum

[dea-syria]

At the head of the female procession and facing the great god who is borne on the two men, stands a goddess on a lioness or panther. Her costume does not differ from that of the women: her hair hangs down in a long plait behind: in her extended right hand she holds out an emblem to touch that of the god. The shape and meaning of her emblem are obscure. It consists of a stem with two pairs of protuberances, perhaps leaves or branches, one above the other, the whole being surmounted, like the emblem of the god, by an oval with a cross-bar.  ... The goddess who at the head of the procession of women confronts the great sky-god in the sanctuary at Boghaz-Keui is generally recognized as the divine Mother, the great Asiatic goddess of life and fertility. The tall flat-topped hat with perpendicular grooves which she wears, and the lioness or panther on which she stands, remind us of the turreted crown and lion-drawn car of Cybele, who was worshipped in the neighbouring land of Phrygia across the Halys. So Atargatis, the great Syrian goddess of Hierapolis-Bambyce, was portrayed sitting on lions and wearing a tower on her head.At Babylon an image of a goddess whom the Greeks called Rhea had the figures of two lions standing on her knees.

--Simon Frazer, "The Golden Bough"

The Hittite frieze at Boghaz-Keui shows a goddess figure at the head of a procession, standing on a lioness or panther, holding some kind of plant or tree.

Familiar Near Eastern Goddess motifs -- the lady flanked by lionesses with a tall mural crown, holding the Tree of Life. Symbols of power and sovereignty over the natural world.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Staffordshire County, England

Granted 1931

Blazon: Or on a chevron gules a Stafford knot of the first, on a chief azure a lion passant guardant of the field

Crest: Issuant from a mural crown proper a Stafford knot or

Supporters: On the dexter a lion reguardant gules ducally crowned or and on the sinister a griffin reguardant of the second

Mantling: Gules lined or

Motto: The knot unites

While the knot is the most common symbol of the Stafford family (who bear or a chevron gules), the lion and griffin are also Stafford badges.

[rolfsplads]

紋章学って面白い。ギリシャ神話の運命の三女神は城壁冠を被っている。3つの凸部がある城壁冠は村、4つは町、5つは市を表す。北欧神話にも運命の三女神がいる。

[dea-syria]

Cybele, the great mother goddess of Anatolia, appeared by the 7th century BC in Lydia. She was a goddess of fertility, cured or disseminated diseases, pronounced oracles, and protected her people in war. As goddess of the mountains, she was mistress of the wild nature, symbolized by her attendant lions. Known in Greece by the 5th century; she officially was brought to Rome from Asia Minor ca AD 205 where eastern priests served her. Cybele is generally represented enthroned in a naiskos (shrine), wearing a mural crown or a calathos (basket), carrying a liba- tion bowl and drum, and flanked by lions or holding one on her lap. Religious eunuchs, although found in Cybelene cults but not specifically limited to them, were characteristic of several Anatolian female deity cults.

Jeanine Davis-Kimball, “Enarees and Women of High Status”

[dea-syria]

They show a sitting goddess wearing a calathus with a veil over it, holding a mirror, and facing her a youth dressed in the Scythian manner, drinking from a rhyton...iconographically, these compositions recall rather numerous representations of a seated Aphrodite holding a mirror...

This image has been variously interpreted as an image of the goddess being worshipped by a youth who drinks the sacred beverage, an image of a king or hero being invested with divine power, or a sacred marriage.

Mirrors were associated with weddings and feminine sexuality in Iranian peoples, and were a symbol of Aphrodite. They were also buried with Scythian priestesses and used in prophecy and shamanic ceremonies.

A calathus, or polos, is a cylindrical headdress or crown, usually found in depictions of Cybele, Rhea, and Hera.

A rhyton is a drinking flagon.

The Scythians drank unmixed wine and fermented mare’s milk and used both opium and cannabis in their religious rituals; but it seems that the latter two were smoked rather than drunk, so my best guess is that the Scythian ritual *drink* was alcohol.

[dea-syria]

In this shrine are placed the statues, one of which is Hera, the other Zeus, though they call him by another name. Both of these are golden, both are sitting; Hera is supported by lions, Zeus is sitting on bulls. The effigy of Zeus recalls Zeus in all its details—his head, his robes, his  Hera, however, as you look at her will recall to you a variety of forms. Speaking generally she is undoubtedly Hera, but she has something of the attributes of Athene, and of Aphrodite, and of Selene, and of Rhea, and of Artemis, and of Nemesis, and of The Fates. In one of her hands she holds a sceptre, in the other a distaff; on her head she bears rays and a tower and she has a girdle wherewith they adorn none but Aphrodite of the sky. And without she is gilt with gold, and gems of great price adorn her, some white, some sea-green, others wine-dark, others flashing like fire. Besides these there are many onyxes from Sardinia and the jacinth and emeralds, the offerings of the Egyptians and of the Indians, Ethiopians, Medes, Armenians, and Babylonians. But the greatest wonder of all I will proceed to tell: she bears a gem on her head called a Lychnis; it takes its name from its attribute. From this stone flashes a great light in the night-time, so that the whole temple gleams brightly as by the light of myriads of candles, but in the day-time the brightness grows faint; the gem has the likeness of a bright fire. There is also another marvel in this image: if you stand over against it, it looks you in the face, and as you pass it the gaze still follows you, and if another approaching from a different quarter looks at it, he is similarly affected.

Lucian, De Dea Syria

This “Hera” is Atargatis, in her temple at Hierapolis, in modern Syria.

Note the throne of lions, the mural crown, and the adornment with gold and gems.  Also the reference to Aphrodite Ourania’s girdle.

[dea-syria]

There is, however, another sacred story which I had from the lips of a wise man—that the goddess was Rhea, and the shrine the work of Attes. Now this Attes was by nation a Lydian, and he first taught the sacred mysteries of Rhea. The ritual of the Phrygians and the Lydians and the Samothracians was entirely learnt from Attes. For when Rhea deprived him of his powers, he put off his manly garb and assumed the appearance of a woman and her dress, and roaming over the whole earth he performed his mysterious rites, narrating his sufferings and chanting the praises of Rhea. In the course of his wanderings he passed also into Syria. Now, when the men from beyond Euphrates would neither receive him nor his mysteries, he reared a temple to himself on this very spot. The tokens of this fact are as follows: She is drawn by lions, she holds a drum in her hand and carries a tower on her head, just as the Lydians make Rhea to do.  He also affirmed that the Galli who are in the temple in no case castrate themselves in honour of Juno, but of Rhea, and this in imitation of Attes.

Lucian, De Dea Syria

“Rhea” here is not the Cretan Titaness, mother of Zeus, but Lucian’s name for Cybele.

Cybele is attended with lions, holds a drum, and wears a mural crown, symbolic of her role as protectress of her city.  Her priests, the Galli, are castrated and wear women’s clothing, and engage in ecstatic frenzy through dancing.