Phrygian texts of the Great Mother
1. From a triangular pediment of a façade among the rocks in West Phrygia. A monument to the Great Mother set up in the wild sort of place that is sacred to Her. Dated 7th or 6th century BCE.
Bonok akananonagavos
vrekun t edatoy yos tu tutey demnoy akenanogavos aes
Materan Areyastin
'Let Bonok, the keeper of monuments,
dedicate a magic object that here for the ... pediment the keeper of monuments established for the Mother Areyasti'.
Areyasti is an epithet of Cybele, maybe from a place name. Or maybe related to Greek aristos 'the best'. The meaning of tutey is unknown, maybe an Anatolian proper name.
Yos e sai t Materey eveteksetey ov evin onoman dakhet
lakedo key venavtun avtay Materey
'Whoever to this beneficent Mother does not give a good name,
let him tear himself to pieces for the Mother Herself.'
This text defends Cybele from verbal desecration.
West Phrygia is the area at the river-heads of the Sangarios river (modern Sakarya) between the city of Kotieion (modern Kütahya), Nakoleia (modern Seyitgazi) and Afyonkarahisar. An area about 150 miles west-southwest of Ankara and about 150 miles south-southeast of İstanbul.
2. From Bithynia, an area in northern Anatolia north-northwest of Phrygia, east of Nicomedia (modern İzmit). The inscription is of uncertain date. Inscribed on a rock, near a triangular niche.
Soi bevdos adioi--
kavarmoyoi mroy edaes etoves ni yoi
Matar Kubeleya Ibeya duman ektetoy
yos tivo t asperet d ay ni kin telemin
istoyo vis verktevoys ekey dakati
opito ke yoy evememes meneya anatoy
kavarmoyun Matar ote konovo
ke siti oyvos aey apaktne ni
pakray evkobeyan epaktoy
"Bevdos at this sacred sacrificial stele dedicated and had trust, for which Mother Cybele Ibeia would establish the religious assembly. Whoever will damage even any part of that, and who uses there part of this very thing for his own construction, to him later as to an innocent Meneya spoke benevolently and the Mother from Konos gave him parts of the sacrifice. And he alone ties them together. But if they took it away, he would bring the victorious (Mother) back to the religious assembly."
This complicated text is concentrated on two basic topics: the religious assembly of the Great Mother with its ritual practices and the possibility of a secondary or parallel construction of other cult objects at the same place. Ibeya is an epithet of the Great Mother, maybe from a place-name like Lydian Ibidos Kome. The word duman 'religious assembly' is the same as Greek doumos 'religious assembly of women connected with the cult of the Great Mother'. Meneya is an epithet of the Great Mother, rhyming with Kubeleya, Ibeya, etc. It may be connected with Greek eu-meneia 'favor, benevolence'. The hypothetical place-name *Konos is conjectural. The unknown word konovo might also be related to kavarmoyun 'altar, sacrificial'.
Let's have a contest. What do you think "konovo" means? The winner gets a free şiş kebap on me...
3. From Bithynia, of uncertain date, an inscription on two sides of a large stone.
A
[?] es kuria [...] ata [...]
evteveyay yos yos ye meran
B
eti t evtetey meroun lakedo
"Attis... any part for the benevolent (Mother) and apportion some of the parts to the benevolent (Attis)."
The text deals with a female and a male character--Cybele and Attis?--sharing or dividing something. In this connection, some hints are at the end of the above Bithynian text, about sharing the parts of a sacrifice in the women's religious assembly for the Great Mother.
4. From West Phrygia, of uncertain date, written on the surface of a rock. A text of metric nature.
atai edae geravo
vite atevo atoios
alus siteto dan
"Thou hast dedicated the gift to Attis.
Thou hast known of (or seen) Attis.
Let Das defend this from harm!"
5. Dating from the 2nd century CE, a stone walled into the surface of a fountain. It includes dedication to the dead, dedication to the Great Mother, and a malediction formula. The three characters are the late Mimoga, his son Leukios Mimogas, and Midakas Dadou.
oi knouma eti deada mankan
mimoga die akeni kou okaugoei
midakas dadou leukioi dakar
leukis mimogas kei matar eugeksarnai
ko ta tiama knoumen tan
etastai koltamanei ios moikran
latomeoin egdaes moursa
ai ni kos semoun knoumanei
kakoun addaket ai ni manka bekos
ioi me totoss eugiksarnan
"Midakas son of Dados has put this monument to Mimoga together with its part, at the tomb and in his own presence, for Leukios. And Leukios son of Mimoga for the inexorable Mother, who set a tombstone on this burial plot, on the koltaman, on a small stone slab, offered a moursa*. If someone inflicts harm to this tomb or to its part, his whole bread will be for the Inexorable (Mother)."
*A moursa is apparently something offered to the Goddess on a koltaman, but no one knows what the words mean. Let's have a contest for these words, too, see who can come up with the best meaning, win a free baklava.
6. Fragments of a white limestone slab. Gordion, of uncertain date. The text is very badly damaged.
A
[...] vo [...]
dumeyay [...]y edaes
B
[...] iay uve [...]
-o lavagetas voykay
C
...proitavos terkeya ask
D
...ene
parkes v...
Dumeyay is an epithet of the Great Mother derived from duma- 'religious assembly of women'. Terkeya is another epithet of the Great Mother, perhaps related to terkov- 'burial plot'. From what survives of the text, it is a dedication made by a high-ranking official.
7. Ceramic fragment. Gordion, 5th century BCE.
dumasta eia
Dumasta is another epithet of the Great Mother derived from duma- 'women's religious assembly'; Eia is a woman's proper name.
8. Inscription on the bottom of a bowl. Gordion, 4th century BCE.
tiveia
imeneia
These two words are epithets of the Great Mother derived from cultic objects called teva and iman (image). Iman was also used as a given name in ancient Anatolia.
9. Inscription in a Phrygian dialect on two slabs of a rock surface. Thracia (modern Bulgaria), 3rd-1st centuries BCE. It has a well-defined metrical structure of two verses of 15 syllables divided into 9+6.
ai vikhusin vikhu iptiu
imin iptin sai
ku ioi bakhiu ais
imin tin uikhusi
"As they make an image of Ipta in a form of Ipta's cultic figurine for Her, so whoever set Bacchus's cultic figurine for him, they make an image in the form of a cultic figurine of Zeus." Ipta is an old Anatolian name for the Great Mother, of Hurrian origin (Hittite Hepat).
Texts and translations from The Language of Phrygians: Description and Analysis by Vladimir Orel (Caravan Books, 1997).
Bonok akananonagavos
vrekun t edatoy yos tu tutey demnoy akenanogavos aes
Materan Areyastin
'Let Bonok, the keeper of monuments,
dedicate a magic object that here for the ... pediment the keeper of monuments established for the Mother Areyasti'.
Areyasti is an epithet of Cybele, maybe from a place name. Or maybe related to Greek aristos 'the best'. The meaning of tutey is unknown, maybe an Anatolian proper name.
Yos e sai t Materey eveteksetey ov evin onoman dakhet
lakedo key venavtun avtay Materey
'Whoever to this beneficent Mother does not give a good name,
let him tear himself to pieces for the Mother Herself.'
This text defends Cybele from verbal desecration.
West Phrygia is the area at the river-heads of the Sangarios river (modern Sakarya) between the city of Kotieion (modern Kütahya), Nakoleia (modern Seyitgazi) and Afyonkarahisar. An area about 150 miles west-southwest of Ankara and about 150 miles south-southeast of İstanbul.
2. From Bithynia, an area in northern Anatolia north-northwest of Phrygia, east of Nicomedia (modern İzmit). The inscription is of uncertain date. Inscribed on a rock, near a triangular niche.
Soi bevdos adioi--
kavarmoyoi mroy edaes etoves ni yoi
Matar Kubeleya Ibeya duman ektetoy
yos tivo t asperet d ay ni kin telemin
istoyo vis verktevoys ekey dakati
opito ke yoy evememes meneya anatoy
kavarmoyun Matar ote konovo
ke siti oyvos aey apaktne ni
pakray evkobeyan epaktoy
"Bevdos at this sacred sacrificial stele dedicated and had trust, for which Mother Cybele Ibeia would establish the religious assembly. Whoever will damage even any part of that, and who uses there part of this very thing for his own construction, to him later as to an innocent Meneya spoke benevolently and the Mother from Konos gave him parts of the sacrifice. And he alone ties them together. But if they took it away, he would bring the victorious (Mother) back to the religious assembly."
This complicated text is concentrated on two basic topics: the religious assembly of the Great Mother with its ritual practices and the possibility of a secondary or parallel construction of other cult objects at the same place. Ibeya is an epithet of the Great Mother, maybe from a place-name like Lydian Ibidos Kome. The word duman 'religious assembly' is the same as Greek doumos 'religious assembly of women connected with the cult of the Great Mother'. Meneya is an epithet of the Great Mother, rhyming with Kubeleya, Ibeya, etc. It may be connected with Greek eu-meneia 'favor, benevolence'. The hypothetical place-name *Konos is conjectural. The unknown word konovo might also be related to kavarmoyun 'altar, sacrificial'.
Let's have a contest. What do you think "konovo" means? The winner gets a free şiş kebap on me...
3. From Bithynia, of uncertain date, an inscription on two sides of a large stone.
A
[?] es kuria [...] ata [...]
evteveyay yos yos ye meran
B
eti t evtetey meroun lakedo
"Attis... any part for the benevolent (Mother) and apportion some of the parts to the benevolent (Attis)."
The text deals with a female and a male character--Cybele and Attis?--sharing or dividing something. In this connection, some hints are at the end of the above Bithynian text, about sharing the parts of a sacrifice in the women's religious assembly for the Great Mother.
4. From West Phrygia, of uncertain date, written on the surface of a rock. A text of metric nature.
atai edae geravo
vite atevo atoios
alus siteto dan
"Thou hast dedicated the gift to Attis.
Thou hast known of (or seen) Attis.
Let Das defend this from harm!"
5. Dating from the 2nd century CE, a stone walled into the surface of a fountain. It includes dedication to the dead, dedication to the Great Mother, and a malediction formula. The three characters are the late Mimoga, his son Leukios Mimogas, and Midakas Dadou.
oi knouma eti deada mankan
mimoga die akeni kou okaugoei
midakas dadou leukioi dakar
leukis mimogas kei matar eugeksarnai
ko ta tiama knoumen tan
etastai koltamanei ios moikran
latomeoin egdaes moursa
ai ni kos semoun knoumanei
kakoun addaket ai ni manka bekos
ioi me totoss eugiksarnan
"Midakas son of Dados has put this monument to Mimoga together with its part, at the tomb and in his own presence, for Leukios. And Leukios son of Mimoga for the inexorable Mother, who set a tombstone on this burial plot, on the koltaman, on a small stone slab, offered a moursa*. If someone inflicts harm to this tomb or to its part, his whole bread will be for the Inexorable (Mother)."
*A moursa is apparently something offered to the Goddess on a koltaman, but no one knows what the words mean. Let's have a contest for these words, too, see who can come up with the best meaning, win a free baklava.
6. Fragments of a white limestone slab. Gordion, of uncertain date. The text is very badly damaged.
A
[...] vo [...]
dumeyay [...]y edaes
B
[...] iay uve [...]
-o lavagetas voykay
C
...proitavos terkeya ask
D
...ene
parkes v...
Dumeyay is an epithet of the Great Mother derived from duma- 'religious assembly of women'. Terkeya is another epithet of the Great Mother, perhaps related to terkov- 'burial plot'. From what survives of the text, it is a dedication made by a high-ranking official.
7. Ceramic fragment. Gordion, 5th century BCE.
dumasta eia
Dumasta is another epithet of the Great Mother derived from duma- 'women's religious assembly'; Eia is a woman's proper name.
8. Inscription on the bottom of a bowl. Gordion, 4th century BCE.
tiveia
imeneia
These two words are epithets of the Great Mother derived from cultic objects called teva and iman (image). Iman was also used as a given name in ancient Anatolia.
9. Inscription in a Phrygian dialect on two slabs of a rock surface. Thracia (modern Bulgaria), 3rd-1st centuries BCE. It has a well-defined metrical structure of two verses of 15 syllables divided into 9+6.
ai vikhusin vikhu iptiu
imin iptin sai
ku ioi bakhiu ais
imin tin uikhusi
"As they make an image of Ipta in a form of Ipta's cultic figurine for Her, so whoever set Bacchus's cultic figurine for him, they make an image in the form of a cultic figurine of Zeus." Ipta is an old Anatolian name for the Great Mother, of Hurrian origin (Hittite Hepat).
Texts and translations from The Language of Phrygians: Description and Analysis by Vladimir Orel (Caravan Books, 1997).