In Greek mythology, two are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida in Crete, and Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey), which was also known as the Phrygian Ida in classical antiquity and is mentioned in the Iliad of Homer and the Aeneid of Virgil. Both are associated with the mother goddess in the deepest layers of pre-Greek myth, in that Mount Ida in Anatolia was sacred to Cybele, who is sometimes called Mater Idaea ("Idaean Mother"),[Maarten Jozef Vermaseren and Eugene Lane. 1996 Cybele, Attis and Related Cults: Essays in Memory of M.J. Vermaseren, (Leiden: Brill), , ] while Rhea, often identified with Cybele, put the infant Zeus to nurse with Amaltheia at Mount Ida in Crete. Thereafter, his birthplace was sacred to Zeus, the king and father of Greek gods and goddesses.[Homer Odyssey xix. 172; Plato, Laws i. 1; Diodorus Siculus, v. 70; Strabo x. p. 730; Cicero, De natura deorum, iii. 21]
Etymology
The term
Ida (Ἴδη) is of unknown origin. Instances of
i-da in
Linear A probably refer to the mountain in Crete. Three inscriptions bear just the name
i-da-ma-te (
Arkalochori Zf 1 and 2, and
Kythera Za 2), and may refer to
mount Ida or to the
mother goddess of Ida ( Ἰδαία μάτηρ). In
Iliad (Iliad, 2.821),
Ἵδη (Ida) means "wooded hill", the name recalling the
mountain worship which was a feature of the Minoan mother goddess religion.
[ p.200] The name is related to that of the
nymph Idaea, who, according to
Diodorus Siculus, was the mother of the ten
Kuretes.
[F.Schachermeyer(1964) Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kretap. 266 . W. Kohlhammer Stuttgart] Idaea was also an epithet of
Cybele. The Romans knew Cybele as
Magna Mater ("Great Mother"), or as
Magna Mater deorum Idaea ("great Idaean mother of the gods"), equivalent to the Greek title
Meter Theon Idaia ("Mother of the Gods, from Mount Ida").
[Beard, p.168, following Livy 29, 10 - 14 for Pessinos (ancient Galatia) as the shrine from which she was brought. Varro's Lingua Latina, 6.15 has Pergamum. Ovid Fasti 4.180-372 has it brought directly from Mt Ida. For discussion of problems attendant on such precise claims of origin, see Tacaks, in Lane, pp. 370 - 373.] Proclus considered it as the "mount of the Ideas", whence its etymology.
[Anne D. R. Sheppard, Studies on the 5th and 6th essays of Proclus' Commentary on the Republic, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in Göttinger, 1980, p. 66.]
Mount Ida, Crete
Crete's
Mount Ida is the island's highest summit, sacred to the Goddess Rhea, and wherein lies the legendary Idaean cave (Ἰδαίον ἅντρον), in which baby
Zeus was concealed from his father
Cronus. It is one of a number of caves believed to have been the birthplace or hiding place of
Zeus.
The
Kouretes, a band of mythical warriors, undertook to dance their wild, noisy war dances in front of the cave, so that the clamour would keep Cronus from hearing the infant's crying. On the flank of this mountain is the
Amari Valley, the site of expansion by the ancient settlement at
Phaistos.
[C.Michael Hogan. 2007. Phaistos Fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian] Its modern name is
Psiloritis. The surrounding area and mountain used to be thickly wooded.
Mount Ida, Anatolia
From the Anatolian
Mount Ida,
Zeus was said to have abducted Ganymede to
Mount Olympus. The topmost peak is
Gargarus, mentioned in the
Iliad. Zeus was located in the Altar of Zeus (near Adatepe, Ayvacık) during the
Trojan War. The modern
Turkish language name for Mount Ida, Turkey, is
Kaz Dağı, pronounced . In the
Aeneid, a shooting star falls onto the mountain in answer to the prayer of
Anchises to Jupiter (the Roman equivalent of Zeus).
See also
Notes
External links
