{"id":1092,"date":"2008-12-04T20:50:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-04T20:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1092"},"modified":"2008-12-04T20:50:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-04T20:50:00","slug":"death-by-self-castration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1092","title":{"rendered":"Death by Self-Castration?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bones of a priest of Cybele<\/a> who lived in Roman Britain suggest that his career as a devotee of the goddess might have been short<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Experts in Roman religion believe that the Yorkshire cleric belonged to the officially sanctioned and important religious cult of a mother goddess called Cybele, who originated in Anatolia, present-day Turkey.<\/p>\n

The cult was based on the great mother goddess and her toy-boy lover Attis who, guilt-ridden for having sexually betrayed her, went mad, castrated himself and, consequently, died.<\/p>\n

The cult’s tradition dictated that its priests had similarly to mutilate themselves in painful solidarity with Attis, often using a piece of flint or a sharp fragment of pottery. Ritual clamps were then used to staunch the blood, but Cybelean priests often died in the process.<\/em><\/p>\n

Has the worship of Cybele been revived? With better medical care? There could have been a temple in Trinidad, Colorado<\/a>, among other places.<\/p>\n

(Via Rogue Classicism.<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bones of a priest of Cybele who lived in Roman Britain suggest that his career as a devotee of the goddess might have been short. Experts in Roman religion believe that the Yorkshire cleric belonged to the officially sanctioned and important religious cult of a mother goddess called Cybele, who originated in Anatolia, present-day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[23,21,5],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-england","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-hC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5070,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5070","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":0},"title":"Should Pagans Show “Solidarity”?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"At The Wild Hunt, you can read a second group of excerpts from various Pagan writers and bloggers on topics of community and solidarity, but this post is different. If you scroll to the bottom, there are links to everyone's full remarks in PDF form. Yes, one of them is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3210,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3210","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":1},"title":"Mother Goddess Temple or Brothel?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From the fascinating\"mortuary archaeology\" blog Bones Don't Lie, diverse explanations for the collection of babies' skeletons in a ruin from Roman Britain. Dr. [Jill] Eyers continues to argues for the brothel hypothesis, finding that further research and the combination of the human remains with archaeological evidence only further supports her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13637,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13637","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":2},"title":"New Issue of The Pomegranate","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Links to articles from the newest issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, (vol. 24, no. 2). These articles are paywalled \u2014\u00a0but you know a librarian, don't you? If you don't, you should. \"The Religious Biographies of Polish Traditional Wiccans: Leaving the Catholic Church, Conversion to Wicca,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":282,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=282","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":3},"title":"The Goddess is Back, and\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The Goddess is Back, and She's Horny Waking the Moon, another unintentional Pagan classic, covers some of the same ground as Tartt's The Secret History. There is the university setting, the eccentric professor, the elite group of students, but then things take a different turn, down the road of conspiracy\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11887,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11887","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":4},"title":"Why Is the Hippo Goddess Holding a Bull by a Chain in the Northern Sky?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This carving comes from a Greco-Roman-era Egyptian temple in Esna,where decorated walls are being carefully cleaned and original colors seen again. As workers in Egypt remove soot and dirt from the temple, sometimes with a mixture of alcohol and distilled water, the original painted carvings and hieroglyphics beneath are so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13209,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13209","url_meta":{"origin":1092,"position":5},"title":"Lakshmi or Yakshi? The Story of a Hindu Idol in Ancient Pompeii","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The 1938 excavation of a house in Pompeii produced a statuette that first was believed to be Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity and fertility. Newer reseach says no, but she still is Hindu. Where did she come from? A podcast interview with art historian Laura Weinstein examines the statuette's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Trade routes from Roman Empire to India","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/India-trade-routes-300x164.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}