On May 4, 9:29 pm, djhe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:
>
> It was the wor****ppers of Cybele who castrated themselves -- see
> Catullus 63. Do you have any sources saying that the wor****ppers
> of Ephesian Artemis also castrated themselves, rather than
> substituting bulls?
I've never heard that about the followers of Artemis, but there
apparently were other cults where castration was a religious
rite. The first Christian king we know of, Abgar VIII of Edessa,
decreed that anyone who castrated himself would have a
hand cut off - the idea being to suppress some local cults.
The Romans took over Abgar's kingdom (he lived on happily
as a Roman noble) thus striking a blow for the self-castrating
everywhere.
I see from my source that Abgar's ancestor, Abgar V, is supposed in
local legend to have corresponded with Christ
and been converted himself. But historians don't seem to buy
this, so VIII is regarded as the first Christian ruler, though there
is a bit of doubt even there.
William Hyde
>
> Dorothy J. Heydt
> Vallejo, California
> djhe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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