The Rites of the Day of Blood (dies sanguinis) in the Graeco-Roman Cult of Cybele and Attis: A Cognitive Historiographical Approach. (31st December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pachis, Panayotis
• Is Part Of: Journal of cognitive historiography. Volume 5:Number 1/2(2018/2019)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 55
• Publication Date: 2018-12-31
• Subjects: sex and gender in antiquity -- cognitive science of religion -- cybele and attis -- maladaptive beliefs -- extreme rituals; Historiography -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- Periodicals; Cognition and culture -- Periodicals; 907.2
• DOI: 10.1558/jch.39915
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2051-9672

Abstract

Abstract : The cult of Cybele and Attis was an ancient cult disseminated throughout the entire Roman Empire. Among the rites held by its followers, there were the so-called Day of Blood (dies sanguinis) which, according to the Calendar (or Chronography) of Philocalus (354 CE), was celebrated on 24 March. On this day the worshipers and priests (galli) of Cybele/Attis flagellated themselves until they bled profusely, and with their blood they sprinkled Cybele's effigy as well as the altars of the temple, while the initiates castrated themselves and offered their testes to the goddess as a real-life imitation of what happened mythologically to the goddess' consort Attis. The present contribution offers a preliminary systemization of this glaringly maladaptive and quite puzzling belief-behaviour complex in the anthropological and neurocognitive frame of the so-called extreme rituals, highlighting the specific in-group benefit reaped by worshipers and initiates (e.g., community cohesion through costly signalling and credibilityenhancing displays).