#cult of attis

[nineeyedartist]

For as long as I can remember, gender has felt ambiguous within this body. As a child I learned — from a book about bones — how the Biblical story of Adam and Eve has led some to believe that males have one fewer rib than females (on account of Eve being made from one of Adam’s ribs). This fascinated me, so I would lie awake at night trying to count my ribs to find out if I was a boy or a girl — surely the skeleton cannot lie, I thought. Invariably I always lost count, left frustrated that I would never know the truth of my gender. Beyond my own questioning, others have inquired about my gender since birth. From an ambiguous birth name to androgynous features, being asked “are you a boy or a girl?” began long before I even knew about gender variance and what it is to be transgender or third gender.

As I’ve told in Spirits We Are, I identify as part of a collective being: the product of trauma and a thread connected to our ancestors. This experience of multiplicity and ancestral connection has everything to do with our shared and individual relationships to gender and the body. As we’ve begun the process of healing within, I’ve simultaneously been on a journey to rediscover the queer history of my ancestors. My twin spirit has been my primary guide on this exploration, as they are the one tied to our ancestors most deeply. They expressed clearly our ancestral connection to persons with male genitalia who would partially or fully castrate themselves, whip their bodies to bleed, dancing ecstatically to tambourines and the clashing of knives. In time, I was able to uncover a name for these people: the Galli.

The Galli were just one of several spiritually connected gender variant peoples in the ancient Mediterranean world. Throughout the region male, female, and intersex bodied people (male-bodied being most written about) would take on the role of the opposite sex or a third gender for cultural and spiritual purposes. Only a few of these variant identities continue to exist in some form today, many having been erased with the expansion of Abrahamic religions. The Feminnielli of Naples, Italy is one such identity which traces their origins back to the Galli and the cult of Cybele.

Discovering that my ancestors have an ancient heritage of gender variance felt like opening a door I had been unable to see, but knew must exist. It was an even greater feeling of comfort to see my experience of gender reflected in people living today in the land of my ancestors — a rare vestige of an ancient cultural gender identity. Although my body’s ancestry and our ancestral connections do come, in part, from Southern Italy — because I am third generation, raised in the United States, I feel it is not my place to claim a cultural identity as Feminniello. Instead I claim an identity of third gender, as this reflects a generic cultural gender identity, something more specific than non-binary or gender variant. The cultural piece — though diasporic — is significant for me and for us as a collective. For us, gender has ceased to be an individual matter — it’s connected to ancestral spirits and to the very fabric of our spiritual beliefs. It is not so much a personal desire to be between as it is a duty to our ancestors. This life does not belong to one person. This life begs to remember for our descendants what our ancestors were forced to forget.

This month is LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the US and in sharing this I wish to express a sort of pride for a gender experience that isn’t often mentioned in the European-American cultures. Our collective roots have been cut so long ago that many have forgotten the tap root we all once shared, now that we are left with thin fibers tangled at the surface. But some of us are compelled to dive deep into the soil, to recover the withered remains of that deep wellspring of culture that recognized (imperfectly) the varied genders of humanity within Europe. Perhaps, if enough of us can twine our roots together, regrowth and renewal can come forth; opening the way for healing within and between cultures. Perhaps, in reviving our queer ancestors we can provide foundations for our queer descendants to grow upon. For this some of us must find our genders in the past — digging in the dark recesses to recover the blood an bone — while others must find them in the present or future. Many strands wound together become stronger than a single thread can ever be.

Can you imagine my excitement, then, to learn about a documentary on self-discovery and the Feminniello called Summer Within? Here is another descendant from Southern Italy, also raised in the United States, who is seeking connection to their queer ancestors and modern people whose gender exists between. Once again I felt a sense of reflection and relation. Though our paths and stories are vastly different, we share a commonality; we walk parallel to each other on the margins.

The digging into the deep recesses has felt like my/our path. As we explore our ancestral connections to spirit and gender, the distinction between “self” and “other” becomes increasingly blurred. To be trans and third gender in this life is not just about a desire to be a singular “me” — it is about being someone my great-great-great-great grandmother could not be. It’s about healing the misogyny of many generations of grandfathers. It’s about reviving ancient ways that my blood and bone hold memories of. It’s a way to honor the mother-fathers of the deep past where words no longer hold meaning. It’s about living for those who came before us and those who will come after us. It’s about the thread that ties us to the spirits of our ancestors and the old gods the once called by name. It’s about honoring this life as a gift, even when that gift is named a curse by the society we live in.

What more can we do — those of us who are queer by label or identity — than exist, live, breathe, love, and sing as we are. So that we may reflect in each other’s eyes and feel a sense of momentary belonging. There are some of us who must be seen in order to speak to the hidden ones, “you are never alone”. With such variety of human experience — of gendered experience — there must be such a kaleidoscope of bodies existing in the glorious light of day and glistening in full moon light. FROM OUR SKETCH BLOG

[earlgrey24]

A wild Attis reference spotted in Paris

[arom-com]

hi hope this is ok but i've seen sooo many of ur posts tagged as renbrand and i am ... perhaps .... a little curious .... would u like to tell me abt them !!!! 👀👀 (its ok if not ofc)

Ofc!! I sure have been tagging them a lot huh

The short version is that they’re my unhinged lesbian ocs stuck in a murder timeloop

Longer version is this:

(I am not going to be able to explain this in any way approaching coherent) (but I will try!!) (sorry in advance for the Wall of Text)

So RenBrand stands for these two:

Ren Hayashi (23, she/they) university student studying criminal psychology, abandonment issues out the wazoo, Going Through It

Brand Reitveld (26, she/her) local gang leader, Control Issues TM, definitely the cat in whatever cat-and-mouse thing they have going on

They’re in love — it’s not even remotely healthy.

Basically, through no fault of their own, they got stuck in a long-form time loop (days/months rather than strict 24h) that resets whenever one of them dies, which wouldn’t be too much of an issue? Except a) they’ve never met and don’t know they’re stuck together, and b) Ren keeps getting fucking murdered

Bc!! Ren’s psychology prof is running a secret cult (trying to turn his crim psy students into serial killers, it’s a whole thing, very cringe of him) so she gets killed for accidentally getting in the way a couple times (she doesn’t know about the cult), and then ofc starts investigating, which only makes it worse (I feel so bad for her but it’s also really funny, saddest most pathetic sopping wet oc I’ve ever created)

(Some of Ren’s deaths are also caused by Brand who’s like listen I don’t have a grudge against you or anything but you do keep getting my people killed so I have to eliminate the threat, no hard feelings! And Ren is like I am in abject misery)

(strangers to enemies to lovers except the strangers to enemies is a speedrun and the enemies to lovers is a slow burn)

The story they’re from is sort of a dark mystery-slash-romance (think nbc hannibal meets groundhog day, which is certainly a sentence), and it’s mainly centred around Ren and her corruption arc as she goes from “tired student just trying to finish her dissertation if it kills her” to “codependent mob-wife who kills first and asks questions later”

I’m obsessed with time as a narrative device, and especially time loops, because it can be used in such interesting ways!! And the interesting part about time loops to me is that they’re like,,,,, rube goldberg machines for character development? You only stick a character in a time loop when you need them to undergo a pretty drastic change without a proper catalyst, and it forces them to wear themselves down to their bones, to find the very essence of what they are, and then build themselves back up again into their ideal and purest form of self. (Of course, some people just use them as a tool for romance, but that’s boring!! Boo)

Usually time loops exist to make a character better, because they’re given some kind of epiphany that makes them the best and kindest version of themselves. (Alternatively, they can be used as the cosmic equivalent of a washing machine spin cycle if you’re writing horror) But what interests Me is the idea of using a time loop to make a character worse, which is what I’m doing to Ren (and to a lesser extent, Brand)

And it’s not just corruption for corruption’s sake, either! Ren, as she is, is miserable — she’s completely isolated, unable to achieve any of her goals, and ultimately ends up getting killed in an impersonal way for impersonal reasons — but once the loop begins and she gets her second chance, she starts to wear away at all her self-imposed barriers and boundaries until she can start making her own decisions and being an active agent in her own life. Of course, she’s not choosing to do good, but the best version of herself is not necessarily Good or Kind, it’s just Authentic.

Brand, on the other hand — because she has more support and isn’t as repressed — is experiencing the time loop less as a vehicle for character development, and more as a perpetual time travel fix-it (which is SO fun, having two characters get wildly different outcomes from the same experience). Her problems are more interpersonal rather than internal, so where Ren is using the extra time to understand herself, Brand uses it to understand the world around her (and is thus doing a much better job at actually solving the plot, we love a girlboss).

Brand’s conflicts are with her brother (who I can’t even Begin to explain without adding another thousand words to this post), and (as the leader of the local gang) with the police & the murder cult, which means that a lot of her loops are spent information-gathering (and murdering, dw abt it)

Personality-wise Ren is pretty quiet, she doesn’t like to ask for things which means she gets into miscommunications a lot (people not helping when she wishes they would, people helping when she doesn’t need it bc they think she just doesn’t want to ask), she’s a very “the only one you can rely on is yourself” kind of person, which isn’t exactly ideal for someone you’re stuck in a time loop with but at least it means she never gives up? She also doesn’t really care what people think of her — or rather, she does care, but she doesn’t let it stop her

Brand is suffering from a lethal combination of being the youngest sibling and simultaneously the eldest daughter, so she’s great at asking for help and using her resources but it means that she a) is a little entitled about it, and b) needs to feel like she has perfect control over everything or she’ll die. She’s very possessive and protective over things that she considers hers (hence murdering Ren for getting her people killed, it’s fine they get over it)

Renbrand also come equipped with two sets of narrative foils (Brand’s disabled ex-ballet dancer brother and his bodyguard/love interest, and the cult leader professor and his prized pupil who both hates and loves him for what he’s become) but the word count on this is already obscenely, embarrassingly long so I’ll talk abt them another day maybe

[dridersgeorg]

All of the myths about the niche gods I love end up with them dying either for or because of their consorts and I think that’s beautiful

Attis falls in love with a human, Cybele gets jealous and makes him lose his mind, castrate and kill himself. She feels bad about it and asks Zeus to make sure his body never decays so he can stay pretty (but still dead?) forever.

Abzu rolls up to slaughter the gods of the earth because they woke him and Tiamat up from his comfy nap but before being able to return to Tiamat, they all murder him. Tiamat gives birth to a million monsters and just barely loses to Marduk, and Abzu’s soul is yeeted up to be the night sky while his corpse becomes the land, removing him from the concept of his origin.

Adonis gets merc’d by a boar probably sent by Artemis because our man was fuckin’ Aphrodite and Aphrodite was responsible for Hippolytus’ death. Guilty by association I guess? His blood makes the river run red and his body gets turned into red anemone flowers.

[txttletale]

is there any more reliable fact behind what people some trans people say about like cults of cybele

yes! the galli, their practice of self-castration, and their feminine dress and presentation are very well attested by many sources: among them catullus, ovid, varro, livy, and polybius, off the top of my head.

of course, we have no actual accounts from the galli themselves: we can only speculate as to what their subjectivity wrt gender might have been, let alone to the myriad different relationships any individual gallus might have had. however, we can at least know that their presentation was feminine by choice: there is archeological attestation for honorific monuments and art depicting galli in feminine dress, often commissioned by galli themselves, and for them being buried in it. so unlike elagabalus, who in his commissioned statues and coins is always depicted purely masculinely we do have some definitinve information about how the galli at least purposefully presented themselves to the world.

attitudes to them shift throughout Roman history and from source to source, from mild curiosity, to contempt, to violent hatred--we don't, unfortunately, have a lot of writing about the galli in and of themselves--many of their mentions are cautionary tales, a 'what not to do' guide for aristocratic roman men seeking to avoid effeminacy or gender deviance. different authors describe them in different ways: varro calls them 'half-men' (semiviri), while catullus' attis says 'ego mulier' (i, a woman) but also 'ego epherbus, ego puer' (i, a young man and a boy) in her lament over the loss of access to the world of manhood her devotion has resulted in.

but yeah, there is absolutely a gigantic body of evidence for the existence of the itinerant priesthood of cybele being a known and constant part of Roman life, for their having flouted gender roles, practiced self-castration, and adopted feminine presentation, clothing, and appearances of their own accord. take from this what you will! i certainly think that in the project of attempting to locate transfemininity throughout history, it is certainly a more fruitful and worthy ground than the lurid tales of elagabalus and his Big Dick Surveillance Squad.

some recommended reading if you're curious:

“Fabulous Clap-Trap”: Roman Masculinity, the Cult of Magna Mater, and Literary Constructions of the galli at Rome from the Late Republic to Late Antiquity, Jacob Latham

Transgendered Archeology: the Galli and the Catterick Transvestite, Renato Pinto & Gretel Luciano

Looking for eunuchs: the galli and Attis in Roman art, Shelley Hales (in Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond, ed. Shaun Tougher)

[violetmoondaughter]

In neopaganism the horned god is seen with two different faces representing the duality of nature and the changing of seasonal cycle. The theory of these two aspects of the god was debated by Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough and by Robert Graves in The White Goddess.  

According to these theories old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship and periodic sacrifice of a sacred king. Frazer based his thesis on the pre-Roman priest-king Rex Nemorensis who was ritually murdered by his successor. The king was the incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a solar deity who underwent a mystic marriage to a goddess of the Earth. He died at the harvest and was reincarnated in the spring. This legend of rebirth is central to almost all of the world's mythologies. Some examples of this archetypical figure are the gods Dionysus, Osiris, Tammuz, Dumuzi, Adonis, Janus, Attis. 

 The two aspects of this figure take the names of Holly and Oak king. 

The Holly King is seen as an old version of the green man, ruler of winter, death and darkness. He starts his kingdom at summer solstice when, after the longest day, ruled by his opposite king the oak king, the days start to get darker and shorter entering in the dark half of the year. The holly king is so called referring to the plant that is fruitful during the winter season.  The holly king is also referred to as a black knight and is also connected with the dark aspects of many pagan gods. 

Counterpart of the Holly King is the Oak King that is usually seen as a young green man, ruler of summer, life and light. He starts his kingdom at the winter solstice, when after the darkest night a new light is reborn, signing the beginning of the light half of the year. The oak king is called over the name of the plant that is fruitful during the hot season. Opposite to the Holly King, the Oak King, relates to the light aspect of many pagan gods and its sometimes referred to as a white knight. 

According to the theory these two kings may be seen as two brothers fighting for the throne or as a father and son passing the kingdom to each other in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth. This cycle of life and death represents the seasonal cycle of death and rebirth of the sunlight and vegetative world.

[tylermileslockett]

Atalanta#8 "Aphrodites Revenge"

The marriage between Hippomenes and Atalanta proves strong and true, and Hippomenes doesn’t stifle his wife’s wild independence. On the contrary, he loves her the more for it. Many days they hunt together in the forests, and before long they have a son, Parthenopaeus. However, Hippomenes made an unforgivable mistake. He forgot to honor and sacrifice to Aphrodite for helping him win the foot race. The Olympians do not forget such things easily, and the goddess plans her revenge. One day the pair rest inside a cave dedicated to the mother goddess Cybele, where Aphrodite bewitches the two with lust, and they lay together within site of the gods. Furious at the blasphemous act, Cybele turns the lovers to lions, and put them under the harnesses of the Goddesses chariot.

Atalanta and Hippomenes son, Parthenopaeus, has his own epic life and story, as he goes on to be one of the captains in “The Seven Against Thebes” play. The third in a trilogy by “the father of Greek tragedy”, Aeschylus, the play concerns the two sons of King Oedipus of Thebes, Eteocles, who refuses to relinquish the throne, and Polynices, the other son who leads a revolt army led by seven Argive (from city-state of Argos) captains.

Cybele, a mother goddess of fertility, motherhood, and wilds, has her roots in Anatolia (Turkey), also knows as Asia Minor, in the kingdom of Phrygia. Using the title of Meter Theon, or “Mother of the gods,” the Greek equivalent would be Rhea. The goddess was born a hermaphrodite, but the other gods, fearing this duality, cut of her penis and discarded it. Later, when her mortal lover, Attis, spurns her, she drives him crazy and he amputates his penis and bleeds to death at the base of a pine tree. Thus, Cybele’s cult was run by transgender eunuch priests; the Galli. The orgiastic rites of the cult of Cybele share similarities with the cult of Dionysus. Apparently the priests and other followers, in honor of Cybeles castration, would work themselves into a frenzy, and mutilate and bleed themselves upon violets (representing Attis blood) adorned on a sacred pine tree.

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[roseabelle-spankoffski]

Rose?

My name is Webby. Someone mentioned that you are no longer in Atty's cult. And how. I know it might be hard to believe at the moment, but you cannot blame yourself for what happened. You were under Atty's influence. Those actions were not your own.

-@stuckinmyweb

[She hardly registers who's talking at first. When she does, she turns to see a...woman that looks like a spider]

WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ADE YOU IN MY ROOM?!

[She panics]

[calder]

super mutant coverage from Nukapedia's page on Disability representation. for better or worse. feedback welcome

The Children of the Cathedral are a cult in the ruins of L.A. who mutate and torture their congregants and captives to various ends, forever changing their bodies and minds. Some are transformed into pliable servitors through torturous consecration--an honor second only to baptism, the metamorphic birth of super mutants through the transformative FEV vats at Mariposa to the north.

Most super mutants are mentally impaired, but generally capable of reason. They are infertile due to their quad-helix DNA, which factors heavily into the main plot. All super mutants encountered in Fallout are slaves to the Master, so they are generally inclined to attack to the player, but almost (if not) all of them can be spoken to under specific circumstances.

Harry is a voiced mutant with a simplistic, childlike manner of speaking. If the Vault Dweller kills the various super mutants in the area, he will avenge each of his friends by name in combat, and mourn one as his brother.[1][2] If the player has already destroyed the vats, he will only ask to be left alone.[3][4]

When the Master is killed, super mutants flee the region out of fear.[5] For decades thereafter, baptized survivors of the Cathedral remained shunned from human society. Even those living in far-away rehabilitory seclusion are subjected to harassment, defamation, displacement, and genocide, engineered by the NCR government.[6]

These details contrast some later depictions of super mutants as interchangeable and inherently hyper-violent creatures incapable of peace.

Super mutants derived from prime normals (unirradiated humans) tend to exhibit hyper-intelligence, or at least normal cognitive function.

The mutant Lou Tenant speaks with a highly sophisticated and dramatic voice due to his hyper-intelligence. No other super mutant in the setting has exhibited this affected style of speech.

Some adherents are altered in a chemical process called "consecration."[7][8] The survivors of this process, though apparently human, are rendered insane.[9][10] The cult honors them as the "servitor" class, but non-believers pejoratively refer to them as "zombies" for their inability to think normally. Most of these "zombies" zealously espouse the cult's propaganda and show little individuality.

The servitor Dane is kept in the Inner Sanctum. He suffers terribly from disturbing hallucinations as a result of his consecration.[7] He converses with himself at length in two distinct intonations. At one point, he derides himself as a "schizo bastard."[11] He also experiences periods of lucidity, and begs the Vault Dweller to kill Father Lasher for his abuse of Calder the Flower Child.

Nightkin are the most exalted of the Cathedral's castes. Psychically inclined, they serve as high-level guards and military officers. They use Stealth Boys to stay invisible at all times, even when alone in their private quarters at night. A small library at the Cathedral is occupied only by nightkin, and a computer can be found in the nightkin barracks. The Master is able to communicate with them telepathically. Dane claims to hear the nightkin crying.

In Fallout 2, most super mutants live peacefully at Broken Hills, a settlement where all sorts of humans and mutants are welcome.

In Brotherhood of Steel, all the super mutants (such as Attis), are infertile. This is a key aspect of the game's plot, as the Attis Army are seeking a cure for their infertility.

Most super mutants are mentally disabled.

Several potential health and ability issues are indicated by a scene which depicts a super mutant relieving himself while flailing his arms above his head and screaming, as he blasts the back tank of a closed toilet from several feet away with an unthinkable procession of urine too visually graphic to further describe.[Video 1]

All super mutants in Fallout 3 except for Fawkes and Uncle Leo are portrayed as ravenous cannibals barely capable of speech. Fawkes is ostracized by the super mutants of Vault 87 for displaying complex thought. If the player eavesdrops on super mutant enemies, they seem to be constantly confused and angry.

Jacobstown functions as a haven and rehabilitation center for super mutants, especially the nightkin who are suffering from schizophrenia due to prolonged Stealth Boy usage. Two doctors reside here, hoping to find some way to help them medically with their mental struggles.

Lily Bowen, a nightkin herself and resident of Jacobstown, is an elderly woman with dementia. She frequently mistakes the Courier for her grandchild (Jimmy or Becky depending on the gender) and also suffers schizophrenia like most nightkin. Taking damage may cause her to lapse into violent behavior, similar to mood swings, during which she claims to be guided by a voice she calls "Leo." Her companion quest focuses on getting Lily to either take her medication consistently (to help control her psychosis and silence "Leo"), or stop taking it altogether (later resulting in "Leo" completely taking over and Lily becoming violently psychotic, perhaps permanently).

The mutant separatist Tabitha suffers from mania. She also seems to have some degree of dissociative identity disorder. A robot named Rhonda helps her manage the symptoms of her mental conditions. With Rhonda disabled, Tabitha's mental condition is deteriorating.

Tabitha's Black Mountain mutants are presented as a violent parallel faction to the peaceful community of Jacobstown.

A super mutant named Neil guards the pass to Black Mountain, and warns people to stay away for their own safety, especially at night. He maintains his post simply because he is in a position to prevent violence on a significant scale. Neil is not mentally disabled, and will not tolerate microaggressions pertaining to his condition, both out of self-respect and respect for differently abled metamorphic people. He is quick to forgive those who apologize, but any other option will result in him terminating the conversation.

The presentation of Tabitha as a violent nightkin with a comedic low-detail blond wig has been criticized as falling into cheap, antiquated tropes related to disabled and queer people. The depiction of Gail in Fallout 76 as a benevolent, dignified super mutant woman with mental disabilities has been praised in comparison.

The nightkin Dog and God has been called a portrayal of dissociative identity disorder. Both identities are aware of the other. Each desires complete control over the body and refers to losing agency to the other as being "put in the cage/basement." The nightkin's story ends with either an act of suicide that kills the body and both identities with it, one personality taking over permanently, or the Courier helping to create a new unified identity.

This new identity is, in turn, struck with amnesia, unable to recall any details of that which transpired before its synthesis.

Fans with similar conditions have suggested that the presentation of efficaciously "resolving" this person into a single personality to "unlock their good ending" is a simplistic and clichéd character arc. It presents the character's mind and identity as something to be immediately "solved" by a manipulative stranger, in the form of a life-changing ego death triggered by a single violent and traumatizing event. The relatively complex presentation of fellow nightkin character Lily has been praised in comparison.

Dead Eye is a blind super mutant who lives with a larger group of mutants.

Super mutants are once again depicted as disorganized cannibals who live only to pillage.[23] The only conversant super mutant characters (aside from the isolated case of Virgil) are Strong and Erickson, both of who were othered by their immediate groups for expressing different and/or complex thought. Super mutants in the Commonwealth can be seen impulsively carrying out suicide bombings using mini nukes, despite canonically having no ideology[23] or even an apparent internal hierarchy apart from leadership by strength.

Strong, a potential companion, became very interested in a line from MacBeth when Rex Goodman was captured while trying to teach it to the super mutants, though it seems he simply became fixated on the notion that "the milk of human kindness" was a literal physical liquid hidden somewhere in the world that confers the "power of humans" on the drinker; Strong believes he could find and drink this milk to become stronger. He was imprisoned along with Rex by Fist for this. He never particularly expresses a deeper comprehension of the literary themes of MacBeth past his obsession with finding the milk of human kindness.

Erickson became a survivalist after splitting from his group on the Island. He claims the Fog helped him "think straight," which made him unable to continue working for his brutal leader. He is the only super mutant in Fallout 4 to be seen speaking with proper syntax except for Virgil.

Virgil is a former Institute scientist who deliberately turned himself into a super mutant to survive in the Glowing Sea and hopes to reverse his condition. He retains his intelligence but suffers from anger issues. He also has difficulty articulating the use of his hands.

The super mutant merchant Grahm was arguably the only non-robotic NPC in Fallout 76 at launch. He travels with a brahmin he calls "Chally the moo-moo," apparently unable to pronounce the name "Charlie."

Gail is a super mutant woman who lives among the Core crew of the Crater Raiders. She is singularly concerned with protecting the human child Ra-Ra. She finds humans very annoying and confusing. She casually admits to not understanding some events which happen around her.

Ra-Ra mentions that she wants to grow up to be like Meg and Gail, suggesting that she sees both as powerful and dignified women.

Her design has no elements which might frame her masculine physicality as comedic, or imply she is "crazy."

Maul is a super mutant who exhibits the typical simplified speech and love of mayhem, but concerns himself with intellectual pursuits such as video games and comics. He wears a small pair of glasses, and he may respond to dialogue prompts with nonverbal scoffs. Maul is an archetypical "comic book guy" character, and accordingly resembles an autistic RPG fan. Like Gail, Maul finds humans and their interests to be obnoxious and inscrutable, and makes no attempt to hide his contempt for the player character.

Maul infodumps about his special interest fictions. His favorite IP seems to be Grognak the Barbarian.

Some of his analysis of fictional situations reveals a difficulty understanding social cues.

At times, his descriptions of the video game adaptation evoke discussions of soulslike games.

Contrasting his vocal misanthropy, he expresses great affinity for animals. He considers himself a dog person, because 'cat require more patience than Maul prepared to give.' If Maul had cats, he would name them Bramble and Zil.

[ancientorigins]

Roman Imperial Attis wearing a Phrygian cap and performing a cult dance.

[sirensong-productions]

Um, Hello

[Hopefully, she'll have better luck talking to Atty's cult]

@kyrata-y-thulu

[Hidgens sighs.]

If you’re here to audition for a role in our upcoming musical, the cast is full. You may audition to play an instrument with the option to join our production team.

[deathlessathanasia]

“The most important goddess in the Phrygian pantheon was Matar Kubileya, the Mother of the Mountains. From the sixth century on, Greek religion knew her as Meter (the Mother), and poets called her Kybele, a personal name derived from her Phrygian title. In her homeland, her places of worship were door-shaped niches carved into rocky cliffs and hillsides. These were filled with high relief or freestanding images of the goddess, often holding a bird of prey or flanked by lions. A mistress of wild nature, Matar Kubileya was a close relative of the Bronze Age goddess who is depicted in Minoan gems standing on a mountain peak, flanked by twin lions; many variations of this goddess were worshiped throughout Anatolia. Some of the Ionians who first adopted her cult, like the Chians and Phokaians, continued the tradition of rural, rock-cut sanctuaries, but more often the motif of the goddess in the niche was transferred to the portable medium of stone votive reliefs.

The popular appeal of Meter’s cult is attested both by its rapid spread through the Greek world in the sixth century and by the abundance of votive reliefs and figurines depicting the goddess, found not only in sanctuaries, but also in domestic contexts and tombs. On the other hand, “Meter” iconography was used to depict a wide range of goddesses, so without an inscription, secure identification of artifacts can be difficult. Meter was quickly syncretized with Ge/Gaia, with Demeter, and especially with the Titaness Rhea, mother of Zeus and the other elder Olympians. Rhea’s Kretan cult, perhaps a Bronze Age survival, was focused on the birth of Zeus and was celebrated in an ecstatic dance during which the participants imitated the mythical Kouretes, youths who clashed their shields to coverthe infant’s cries. One of the centers of this cult, Mt. Ida in Krete, wasclosely associated with the Phrygian Mt. Ida, the haunt of Meter. Like Idaian Zeus and Rhea, Meter was worshiped with percussive music and ecstatic dancing, and she was accompanied by the Korybantes, youths who were analogous to the Kouretes. The characteristic instruments in her musicwere the tumpanon, a tambourine-like drum, and the flute. Herodotus (4.76) tells how the Greeks of Kyzikos celebrated Meter’s festival at night, striking tumpana and decking themselves with small images of the goddess. . . .

During the Meter cult’s period of explosive growth in the late Archaic period, she was quickly incorporated into civic worship. In Athens, the emerging democracy seems to have welcomed this popular goddess by the end of the sixth century. Meter’s cult was established in or near the bouleute¯ rion(council chamber) in the agora and Athenian council members began to sacrifice to the Mother of the Gods along with the other major civic deities. In the late fifth century, with the construction of a new bouleute¯ rion, the old one became known as the Metroön, or temple of Meter. Like the temple of the Mother in Kolophon, the Metroön was used as a state archive.

Private sponsorship of Meter was also widespread and was prompted by dreams and visions. Pindar is said to have founded a Theban shrine of Meter after he had a vision of the goddess’ statue walking, and Themistokles brought the cultto Magnesia after the goddess warned him in a dream of an assassination attempt. In the succeeding generation, however, the cult of Meter was viewed less favorably, at least by the elite men of Athens, and was associated with women, the poor, and excessive emotional displays. Attis, who later became known as the consort of Kybele, does not become a prominent figure in the cult until the fourth century. While the Phrygian priests of Matar bore the title Attes, the myth of Attis seems to be a Greek invention.”

 - Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide by Jennifer Larson

[our-lord-satanas]

TYPES OF DEITIES

GREEK, ROMAN, AND SOME CELTIC DEITIES:

• Aphrodite: Goddess of love.

• Ares: God of war.

• Artemis: Goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity.

• Athena: the warrior Goddess.

• Adonis: a God associated with the cycle of life, death and rebirth; beautiful lover of Venus who dies but is reborn every spring.

• Aesculapius: God of healing.

• Anna Perenna: personification of the year (annus), whose festival on 15 March involved drinking and singing of licentious songs by women.

• Annona: numen / spirit / personification of the food supply.

• Antinous: deified 19 year old (probable) lover of Hadrian; associated with young, masculine beauty, love and homosexuality.

• Apollo: God of light and the sun, healing (and disease), music (especially stringed instruments), poetry, archery and prophecy.

• Attis: Cybele’s consort.

• Aurora: Goddess of dawn.

• Bacchus: God of the vine, grapes, fruitfulness, vegetation, wine, ecstasy and madness.

• Bellona: Goddess of war and belligerence.

• Bona Dea (also Damia): the “good Goddess”; fertility Goddess mostly worshipped by women; see also Fauna.

• Camenae: healing Goddesses identified with the Greek Muses, thus music.

• Cardea: Goddess of door hinges and handles.

• Castor and Pollux: Gods of camaraderie and strong friendship; associated with sailors and men of the cavalry who travel far and wide.

• Ceres: Goddess of agriculture, plant growth and crop fertility.

• Clementia: Goddess of mercy and clemency.

• Concordia: Goddess of Concord.

• Consus: God of the granary/grain storage.

• Cupid: God of love and desire.

• Cybele: see Magna Mater.

• Dea Dia: agricultural Goddess of growth.

• Demeter: Goddess of harvest and agriculture.

• Diana: chaste Goddess of the hunt, animals (esp. wild), woodlands, childbirth, light and the moon.

• Dii Familares: collective term for all household Gods; guardians of home and family; includes the Lares, the Penates, Janus, Vesta, etc.

• Dionsus: God of wine and pleasure.

• Dis Pater (also Orcus or Pluto): God of the Underworld and mineral wealth.

• Discordia: Goddess of discord and strife.

• Dius Fidius: God of oaths; though Jupiter is also strongly associated with oaths.

• Dryad: general term borrowed from Hellenism denoting a tree Deity.

• Egeria: protectress of pregnant women and childbirth; a water spirit worshipped in connection with Diana and the Camenae.

• Epona: Celtic Goddess of horse riding whose cult was adopted by the Roman cavalry and spread throughout much of Europe.

• Eros: God of passion and lust.

• Fama: numen / spirit /personification of rumour, fame and infamy.

• Fauna: Goddess of the fertility of woodlands, fields, and flocks; counterpart to Faunus; possibly another name for Bona Dea.

• Faunus: God of the earth who brings fertility to fields and flocks; associated with sexuality and pleasure.

• Fides: numen/spirit/personification of good faith, trust and honesty.

• Flora: Goddess of flowering plants; associated with spring, fertility and sexual licentiousness.

• Forculus: God of doors.

• Fortuna: Goddess of increasing prosperity, good fortune, ill fortune, chance and luck. 

• Gaia: the Earth Mother.

• Genius: protecting male spirit; the feminine counterpart is a “juno”.

• Graces: Goddesses of charm, grace and beauty; hence associated with Venus.

• Hades: Ruler of the Underworld.

• Hecate / Hekate: Goddess of magic, witchcraft, and sorcery.

• Hebe: Goddess of youth or of the prime of life.

• Hestia: Goddess of the hearth, home, and hospitality.

• Hera: Goddess of marriage.

• Hestia: guardian of hearth and home.

• Hercules: God of heroism, strength and perseverance.

• Honos: numen/spirit/personification of honour and virtus. 

• Janus: God of beginnings, transitions, openings, closings and entrance-ways.

• Juno: Goddess of women, marriage and motherhood. 

• Jupiter: protecting God of the sky and weather, especially thunder, lightning, rain and storms; also associated with the swearing of oaths.

• Juturna: Goddess of fountains.

• Juventas: Goddess of youth.

• Lar (Plural Lares): protecting spirit/s of the household.

• Larvae (also Lemures): malevolent spirits of the dead.

• Latona: mother of Apollo and Diana (twin deities of light).

• Liber: see Bacchus.

• Libera: consort of Liber / Bachhus; identified with the Greek Ariadne.

• Libertas: numen/spirit/personification of liberty and personal freedom.

• Libitina: Goddess of the dead, funerals and burial.

• Limentinus: God of the threshold.

• Lucifer: the Morning Star; literally “bringer of light”.

• Luna: Goddess of the moon, may be considered an aspect of Diana.

• Lymphae: general term for Deities of springs, streams and similar water divinities; similar to Greek Naiads.

• Magna Mater: Phrygian earth Goddess of nature; great mother of all.

• Manes: spirits of the dead, generally friendly. 

• Maia: Goddess of nursing mothers.

• Mars: God of violence, war, valour and virility.

• Matuta: Goddess worshipped mostly by young women; associated with growth, Aurora and the Greek Leucothea.

• Mercury: God of financial gain, trade, travel, writing, language, communication, cunning, trickery and psychopomp.

• Minerva: Goddess of skilled thought leading to skilled action, thus wisdom, workmanship and strategy.

• Miseria: numen / spirit / personification of misery and wretchedness, Cicero refers to her as kin to other spirits of unhappiness, including Dolus (deceit), Metus (anxiety), Invidentia (envy), Mors (death), Tenebrae (darkness), Querella (lamentation), Fraus (fraud / delusion) and Pertinacia (obstinacy). We may add to this list Melancholia (alternately, Melancholica); note that mania and psychosis almost certainly belong to the domain of Bacchus. See also Discordia. 

• Mithras: Persian God of light.

• Nemesis: Goddess of retribution.

• Neptune: God of water, the sea and horses.

• Nox: Goddess of night.

• Nundina: Goddess associated with the purification and naming of children (for girls on the 8th day; for boys on the 9th).

• Ops: Goddess of the wealth of the harvest, consort to Saturn.

• Osiris: consort to Isis.

• Ouranos (also known as Uranus): God of the sky.

• Pales: Deity of shepherds, flocks and livestock.

• Pan: the goat-legged fertility God.

• Parcae: Goddesses of childbirth and destiny (Nona, Decuma and Morta); determining the length of a person’s life and their allotment of suffering. 

• Pax: Goddess of peace.

• Penates: spirits of the household provisions / food stores / pantry.

• Pluto: God of the Underworld (in Roman mythology).

• Plutus: God of abundance or wealth.

• Picus: agricultural Deity associated particularly with the fertilisation of the soil with manure; associated with Faunus.

• Pietas: personification of a respectful and faithful attachment to Gods, country and family.

• Picymnus and Pilumnus: agricultural Gods associated with childbirth.

• Pomona: Goddess of fruit.

• Portunus: God of harbours.

• Poseidon: God of the the sea (and of water generally), earthquakes, and horses.

• Priapus: God of animal and vegetable sexuality and fertility; protector of gardens, and lust.

• Prosepina (also known as Persephone): Goddess and Queen of the Underworld, wife of the God Haides (Hades). She was also the Goddess of spring growth, who was worshipped alongside her mother, Demeter, in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

• Quirinus: deified Romulus, the founder of Rome.

• Rhea: Goddess of motherhood, fertility, childbirth, and comfort and good living.

• Robigo: God of mildew and wheat rust, a fungal disease affecting grain. Robigo can therefore protect crops from wheat rust.

• Roma: numen / spirit / personification of Rome.

• Rumina: Goddess of breastmilk.

• Sabazius: Phrygian God of vegetation.

• Salus: Goddess of safety, good health and well-being.

• Serapis (also Sarapis): Greco-Egyptian God of the sky; associated with healing and fertility.

• Selene: Goddess of the Moon; or, the personified divine being of the Moon.

• Saturn: God of agricultural abundance, sowing, seeds and mythological ruler of a past golden age. 

• Silvanus: God of the woods and fields.

• Somnus: God of sleep.

• Sol: God of the sun, may be considered as another name for Apollo.

• Spes: numen / spirit / personification of hope.

• Tellus: Goddess of the earth; Ovid states she is one and the same as Vesta.

• Terminus: God of property boundaries; may be associated with steadfastness.

• Trivia: (also Hekate / Hecate), Goddess of crossroads (usually three-way), ghosts, the undead and witchcraft. 

• Venus: Goddess of love, relationships, passion, pleasure, beauty, charm and fertility.

• Veryumnus: God of orchards.

• Vesta: Goddess of ritual-fire, hearth-fire, and home; associated with purity and virginity. 

• Victoria: Goddess of victory, especially military victory.

• Vulcan: God of destructive and fertile (creative) fire.

• Zeus: Ruler of Olympus.

PAGAN GODS AND GODDESSES:

CELTIC DEITIES:

• Brighid: Goddess of spring, fertility, and life.

• Cailleach: Goddess of the cold and the winds.

• Cernunnos: God of animals, fertility, and wild places.

• Cerridwen: Goddess of change and rebirth and transformation and her cauldron symbolizes knowledge and inspiration.

• The Dagda: God of fertility, agriculture, manliness, strength, magic, druidry, and wisdom.

• Herne: God associated with the Wild Hunt.

• Lugh: God of the sun and light.

• The Morrighan: Goddess of war and sovereignty

• Rhiannon: Goddess of horses, forgiveness, rebirth, the moon, and fertility.

• Taliesin: Chief of Bards.

EGYPTIAN DEITIES:

• Anubis: God of funerals and embalming.

• Bast (also Bastet): Goddess of protection, pleasure, and the bringer of good health.

• Geb: God of Earth

• Hathor: Goddess of love, beauty, music, dancing, fertility, and pleasure.

• Isis: Goddess of healing and magic, worshipped as an ideal mother and wife, as well as being a patroness of magic and the downtrodden.

• Ma’at: Goddess of truth and balance.

• Osiris: King of Egyptian Gods.

• Ra: God of the sun, order, kings, and the sky.

• Taweret: Guardian of fertility.

• Thoth: God of magic and wisdom.

NORSE DEITIES:

• Aegir: hosts the Gods in his halls and is associated with brewing ale.

• Baldur: God of light and radiance, joy and purity, peace and forgiveness.

• Baldur: God of light and radiance, joy and purity, peace and forgiveness.

• Bragi: God of poetry.

• Heimdall: Protector of Asgard.

• Frigga: Goddess of marriage and prophecy.

• Freyr: God of fertility, peace, and good weather.

• Freya/Freyja: Goddess of abundance, love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future).

• Hel: Goddess of death and the Underworld.

• Hodur: God of winter and darkness.

• Idun: Goddess of youth, fertility, and death.

• Loki: God of mischief, trickery, and deception.

• Njǫrd: God of the wind and of the sea and its riches.

• Odin: God of all Gods, wisdom, and war.

• Sif: Goddess of grain and fertility, and one of the Asynjur.

• Thor: God of thunder and lightning.

• Tyr: God of warfare and battle.

• Váli: one of the God’s on vengeance.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PAGAN DEITIES:

DEITIES OF LOVE AND MARRIAGE:

• Aphrodite (Greek)

• Cupid (Roman)

• Eros (Greek)

• Frigga (Norse)

• Hathor (Egyptian)

• Hera (Greek)

• Juno (Roman)

• Parvati (Hindu)

• Venus (Roman)

• Vesta (Roman)

DEITIES OF HEALING:

• Asclepius (Greek)

• Airmed (Celtic)

• Aja (Yoruba)

• Apollo (Greek)

• Artemis (Greek)

• Babalu Aye (Yoruba)

• Bona Dea (Roman)

• Brighid (Celtic)

• Eir (Norse)

• Febris (Roman)

• Heka (Egyptian)

• Hygieia (Greek)

• Isis (Egyptian)

• Maponus (Celtic)

• Panacaea (Greek)

• Sirona (Celtic)

• Vejovis (Roman)

LUNAR DEITIES:

• Alignak (Inuit)

• Artemis (Greek)

• Cerridween (Celtic)

• Chang’e (Chinese)

• Coyolxauhqui (Aztec)

• Diana (Roman)

• Hecate/Hekate (Greek)

• Selene (Greek)

• Sina (Polynesian)

• Thoth (Egyptian)

DEITIES OF DEATH AND THE UNDERWORLD:

• Anubis (Egyptian)

• Demeter (Greek)

• Freya/Freyja (Norse)

• Hades (Greek)

• Hecate/Hekate (Greek)

• Hel (Norse)

• Meng Po (Chinese)

• Morringhan (Celtic)

• Osiris (Egyptian)

• The Keres (Greek)

• Whiro (Maori)

• Yama (Hindu)

DEITIES OF THE WINTER SOLSTICE:

• Alcyone (Greek)

• Ameratasu (Japan)

• Baldur (Norse)

• Bona Dea (Roman)

• Cailleach Bheur (Celtic)

• Demeter (Greek)

• Dionysus (Greek)

• Frau Holle (Norse)

• Frigga (Norse)

• Hodr (Norse)

• Holly King (British/Celtic)

• Horus (Egyptian)

• La Befana (Italian)

• Lord of Misrule (British)

• Mithras (Roman)

• Odin (Norse)

• Saturn (Roman)

• Spider Woman (Hopi)

DEITIES OF IMBOLC:

• Aradia (Italian)

• Aenghus Og (Celtic)

• Aphrodite (Greek)

• Bast (Egyptian)

• Ceres (Roman)

• Cerridwen (Celtic)

• Eros (Greek)

• Faunus (Roman)

• Gaia (Greek)

• Hestia (Greek)

• Pan (Greek)

• Venus (Roman)

• Vesta (Roman)

DEITIES OF SPRING:

• Asase Yaa (Ashanti)

• Cybele (Roman)

• Eostre (Western Germanic)

• Freya/Freyja (Norse)

• Osiris (Egyptian)

• Saraswati (Hindu)

FERTILITY DEITIES:

• Artemis (Greek)

• Bes (Egyptian)

• Bacchus (Roman)

• Cernunnos (Celtic)

• Hera (Greek)

• Kokopelli (Hopi)

• Mbaba Mwana Waresa (Zulu)

• Pan (Greek)

• Priapus (Greek)

• Sheela-na-Gig (Celtic)

• Xochiquetzal (Aztec)

DEITIES OF THE SUMMER SOLSTICE:

• Amaterasu (Shinto)

• Aten (Egypt)

• Apollo (Greek)

• Hestia (Greek)

• Horus (Egyptian)

• Huitzilopochtli (Aztec)

• Juno (Roman)

• Lugh (Celtic)

• Sulis Minerva (Celtic and Roman)

• Sunna or Sol (Germanic)

DEITIES OF THE FIELDS:

• Adonis (Assyrian)

• Attis (Phrygean)

• Ceres (Roman)

• Dagon (Semitic)

• Demeter (Greek)

• Lugh (Celtic)

• Mercury (Roman)

• Osiris (Egyptian)

• Parvati (Hindu)

• Pomona (Roman)

• Tammuz (Sumerian)

DEITIES OF THE HUNT:

• Artemis (Greek)

• Cernunnos (Celtic)

• Diana (Roman)

• Herne (British and Regional)

• Mixcoatl (Aztec)

• Odin (Norse)

• Ogun (Yoruba)

• Orion (Greek)

• Pakhet (Egyptian)

DEITIES OF WAR AND BATTLE:

• Ares (Greek)

• Athena (Greek)

• Bast (Egyptian)

• Huitzilopochtli (Aztec)

• Mars (Roman)

• The Morrighan (Celtic)

• Thor (Norse)

• Tyr (Norse)

MOTHER GODDESSES:

• Asasa Ya (Ashanti)

• Bast (Egyptian)

• Bona Dea (Roman)

• Brighid (Celtic)

• Cybele (Roman)

• Demeter (Greek)

• Freya/Freyja (Norse)

• Frigga (Norse)

• Gaia (Greek)

• Isis (Egyptian)

• Juno (Roman)

• Yemaya (West African/Yoruban)

[zarya-zaryanitsa]

Belenus, Cybele, and Attis: Echoes of their Cults through the Centuries by Marjeta Šašel Kos

„There are two interesting cases of the worship of Roman period deities in the north-eastern Italian and Pannonian regions, which in one way or another seem to have survived through the early medieval to modern times. The first is the cult of Belenus, the well-known Celtic and most notably Norican and Aquileian god. The second case is that of Cybele and Attis, the so-called eastern deities, whose cult became highly influential in the mentioned areas – as well as elsewhere – in the second and third centuries AD. Interestingly, a deity called “holy Belin” was documented in the second half of the 19th century in the area of Tolmin in Slovenia (the hinterland of Aquileia), as a traditional folk belief. In Pannonia, traces of the cult of Cybele and Attis seem to have survived from antiquity in Prekmurje and Porabje (Slovenia, Hungary), reflected in the unusual and still existing custom of the “wedding with a pine-tree”.”

[thegodwhocums]

The tympanum and the cymbals are the inseparable instruments of Cybele and Attis, but whereas the cymbals are often depicted in the representations of Attis the tympanum occurs more frequently in connection with the Goddess. These musical instruments also play a part in the orgiastic service of Dionysus, which is closely related to that of Cybele. The wild music stirs the Bacchants to ecstasy, but in the later Rome of the fourth century AD mention is also made of the ‘Orgies of Rhea’.

Maarten J. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis: the myth and the cult, translated by A. M. H. Lemmers, London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, p.118

[tylermileslockett]

The marriage between Hippomenes and Atalanta proves strong and true, and Hippomenes doesn’t stifle his wife’s wild independence. On the contrary, he loves her the more for it. Many days they hunt together in the forests, and before long they have a son, Parthenopaeus. However, Hippomenes made an unforgivable mistake. He forgot to honor and sacrifice to Aphrodite for helping him win the foot race. The Olympians do not forget such things easily, and the goddess plans her revenge. One day the pair rest inside a cave dedicated to the mother goddess Cybele, where Aphrodite bewitches the two with lust, and they lay together within site of the gods. Furious at the blasphemous act, Cybele turns the lovers to lions, and put them under the harnesses of the Goddesses chariot.

Atalanta and Hippomenes son, Parthenopaeus, has his own epic life and story, as he goes on to be one of the captains in “The Seven Against Thebes” play. The third in a trilogy by “the father of Greek tragedy”, Aeschylus, the play concerns the two sons of King Oedipus of Thebes, Eteocles, who refuses to relinquish the throne, and Polynices, the other son who leads a revolt army led by seven Argive (from city-state of Argos) captains.

Cybele, a mother goddess of fertility, motherhood, and wilds, has her roots in Anatolia (Turkey), also knows as Asia Minor, in the kingdom of Phrygia. Using the title of Meter Theon, or “Mother of the gods,” the Greek equivalent would be Rhea. The goddess was born a hermaphrodite, but the other gods, fearing this duality, cut of her penis and discarded it. Later, when her mortal lover, Attis, spurns her, she drives him crazy and he amputates his penis and bleeds to death at the base of a pine tree. Thus, Cybele’s cult was run by transgender eunuch priests; the Galli. The orgiastic rites of the cult of Cybele share similarities with the cult of Dionysus. Apparently the priests and other followers, in honor of Cybeles castration, would work themselves into a frenzy, and mutilate and bleed themselves upon violets (representing Attis blood) adorned on a sacred pine tree.

This is the final image in my Atalanta series, hope you liked it! to see more of my work, please click my linktree: https://linktr.ee/tylermileslockett