Rhea (Ops)

RHEA (Ops).

Rhea, the wife of Cronus, and mother of Zeus and the other great gods
of Olympus, personified the earth, and was regarded as the Great Mother
and unceasing producer of all plant-life. She was also believed to
exercise unbounded sway over the animal creation, more especially over
the lion, the noble king of beasts. Rhea is generally represented wearing
a crown of turrets or towers and seated on a throne, with lions crouching
at her feet. She is sometimes depicted sitting in a chariot, drawn by
lions.

The principal seat of her worship, which was always of a very riotous
character, was at Crete. At her festivals, which took place at night, the
wildest music of flutes, cymbals, and drums resounded, whilst joyful
shouts and cries, accompanied by dancing and loud stamping of feet,
filled the air.

This divinity was introduced into Crete by its first colonists from
Phrygia, in Asia Minor, in which country she was worshipped under the
name of Cybele. The people of Crete adored her as the Great Mother, more
especially in her signification as the sustainer of the vegetable world.
Seeing, however, that year by year, as winter appears, all her glory
vanishes, her flowers fade, and her trees become leafless, they
poetically expressed this process of nature under the figure of a lost
love. She [19]was said to have been tenderly attached to a
youth of remarkable beauty, named Atys, who, to her grief and
indignation, proved faithless to her. He was about to unite himself to a
nymph called Sagaris, when, in the midst of the wedding feast, the rage
of the incensed goddess suddenly burst forth upon all present. A panic
seized the assembled guests, and Atys, becoming afflicted with temporary
madness, fled to the mountains and destroyed himself. Cybele, moved with
sorrow and regret, instituted a yearly mourning for his loss, when her
priests, the Corybantes, with their usual noisy accompaniments, marched
into the mountains to seek the lost youth. Having discovered him^[6] they gave full vent to their
ecstatic delight by indulging in the most violent gesticulations,
dancing, shouting, and, at the same time, wounding and gashing themselves
in a frightful manner.

OPS.

In Rome the Greek Rhea was identified with Ops, the goddess of plenty,
the wife of Saturn, who had a variety of appellations. She was called
Magna-Mater, Mater-Deorum, Berecynthia-Idea, and also Dindymene. This
latter title she acquired from three high mountains in Phrygia, whence
she was brought to Rome as Cybele during the second Punic war, B.C. 205, in obedience to an injunction contained in
the Sybilline books. She was represented as a matron crowned with towers,
seated in a chariot drawn by lions.