Mount Ida
In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida in Crete, and Mount Ida in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), which was known as Phrygian Ida in Classical times. Both are associated with the mother goddess in the deepest layers of pre-Greek myth, in that Mount Ida in Phrygia was sacred to Cybele, who is sometimes called Mater Idaea ("Idaean Mother"),[1] and Rhea put the infant Zeus to nurse with Amaltheia at Mount Ida in Crete. Consequently, Cretan Ida was also sacred to Zeus the king and father of Greek gods and goddesses.[2]
Etymology
The name Ida is of unknown pre-Greek origin. Instances of i-da in Linear A are often conjectured to refer to either this mountain or the homonymous one in Crete.
Mount Ida, Crete
Crete's Mount Ida is the island's highest summit, sacred to the Goddess Rhea, and wherein lies the legendary cave in which Zeus was reared. On the flank of this mountain is the Amari Valley, the site of expansion by the ancient settlement at Phaistos.[3] Its modern name is Psiloritis.
Mount Ida, Asia Minor
From the Anatolian Mount Ida, Zeus was said to have abducted Ganymede to Olympus. The topmost peak is Gargarus, mentioned in the Iliad. Zeus is located in The Altar of Zeus where is near Adatepe-Ayvacık at Trojan War. The modern Turkish name for Mount Ida, Turkey, is Kaz Dağı, pronounced [kɑz dɑːɯ]).
Notes
- ^ Maarten Jozef Vermaseren and Eugene Lane. 1996 Cybele, Attis and Related Cults: Essays in Memory of M.J. Vermaseren, (Leiden: Brill), ISBN 9004101969, 9789004101968
- ^ Homer Odyssey xix. 172; Plato, Laws i. 1; Diodorus Siculus, v. 70; Strabo x. p. 730; Cicero, De natura deorum, iii. 21
- ^ C.Michael Hogan. 2007. Phaistos Fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian
