Prayers to Magna Deum Mater Idae

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Gaius Valerius Catullus 63.91:

O Goddess, Great Goddess Cybele, keep far away from me Divine Mistress of Dindymus, and all Your furies, too, (who cause men to castrate themselves in Your worship); may they all fall far away from my house. Go, incite others if You must, just go, and stay far away from me and my house.

IDR-03-05-01, 253, Alba Iulia Apulum, Dacia

Pro salute Augusti Magnae deum Matri sacrum Titus Flavius Longinus veteranus ex decurione alae II Pannoniorum decurio coloniae Dacicae decurio municipii Napocensis decurio Kanabarum legionis XIII Geminae et Claudia Candida coniunx et Flavius Longinus Clementina Marcellina filii ex imperio pecunia sua fecerunt locus datus decreto decurionum

"For health and wellbeing, Titus Flavius Longinus, veteran officer of the Second Pannonia Cavalry, senator of colony Dacia, decurion of Napocensis, cavalry officer of the Canabarian Thirteenth Legion Gemina, and his wife Claudia Candida and his children Flavius Longinus and Clementina Marcellina, under his own authority and at his own expense, by a decree of the city council, set up a sanctuary for the Augustan Great Mother of the Gods."

Julian the Blessed IV.112

Who is the Mother of the Gods? She is the source of the intellectual and creative gods, who, in their turn guide the visible gods: She is both the Mother and Spouse of mighty Jupiter; She came into being next to and together with the great creator; She is in control of every form of life, and the cause of all generation; She easily brings to perfection all things that are made, without pain She brings to birth, and with the Father's aid creates all things that are; She is the motherless maiden, enthroned at the side of Jupiter, and in very truth is the Mother of All the Gods. For having received into Herself the causes of all the gods, both intelligible and supramundane, She became the source of the intellectual gods.

Publius Ovidius Naso, Fasti 4.319-24

Nurturing Mother, fecund womb that bore the Gods, accept the prayers of this supplicant under one condition. I am said to be unchaste. If You condemn me, my confession I'll make and accept death as penalty for the verdict of a goddess. But if the crime is absent, pledge Your security for my life, grant this one thing in Your action, and follow chaste goddess my chaste hands.

RIB 1791 = CLE 24, Magnae (Caervoran), Britannia

Imminet Leoni Virgo caelesti situ spicifera iusti inventrix urbium conditrix ex quis muneribus nosse contigit deos ergo eadem mater divum Pax Virtus Ceres Dea Syria lance vitam et iura pensitans in caelo visum Syria sidus edidit Libyae colendum inde cuncti didicimus ita intellexit numine inductus tuo Marcus Caecilius Donatianus militans tribunus in praefecto dono principis

Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus, Punica 17.27-9:

(P. Scipio Nasica welcomes the Magna Mater at Her arrival to Rome) "after Her long voyage, with his hands held up in prayer." But when the ship became stuck in the Tiber a priest called out: "Spare your guilty palms from touching these ropes. Away from here, I warn you, go far away from hence, whosoever among you is unchaste, do not share in this sacred task."

Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus, Punica 17.35-40: (Then Claudia took up the ropes alone)

O Great Mother of the Heavenly Host, Genetrix of all the divine powers, whose children cast lots to see who should rule over land, and seas, and the stars, and the nether world of the Manes, if without violation my body is free of all unchaste crimes, may You be my witness, dear Goddess, and testify on my behalf of my innocence by the ease with which I now draw this vessel.

Statius Thebiad 8.303-38

O eternal Creatrix of Gods and men, who animates forest and stream with soul, and joins seeds of life together throughout the world, and You bear the stones of Pyrrha that were enlivened into men by the hand of Prometheus. Hungry men You were first to give nourishment with a variety of foods. You encircle and carry the sea within You. Under Your power are the gentleness of domesticated herds and the ferocity of wild beasts and the repose from flight of birds. Firm and immobile, unsetting power of the earth suspended in the vacuum of space, You are the center around which the rapid heavens revolve. All the heavenly bodies, in chariots of fire, wheel about You, O center of the universe, indivisible from the Great Brotherhood of the Gods. Therefore are You the Bountiful who nourishes so many nations, and at the same time so many high cities and so many noble peoples. You provide Yourself and all the world as one, from above and below. You carry without effort to Yourself Atlas, who toils to hold up the celestial field of stars. We alone do You refuse to carry. Do we weigh You down, Goddess? For what unwitting wrong, I pray, must we atone? That we would so soon come here as a small band of strangers from distant Inachian shores? It is unworthy of You, most beneficial Goddess, to set limits by such cruel means on every side against all that is human merely by birth, against people who everywhere are Your own. May You then abide with and bear arms for all alike. I pray You allow that those warriors who spend their last breathe in the battle will have their souls return once more into the heavens. Do not so suddenly carry us off to our tomb and take the breath from our body. Do not be in such haste; soon enough we will come as all do when You lead them along the path that all must travel. Only listen to our pleas and keep a level plain for the Pelasgians and do not hasten the swift Fates. And You, dear to the Gods, not by any hand or Sidonian sword were you dispatched, but mighty Nature opened Her heart to you, entombing you for your merits in Cirrha's chasm, welcoming you in Her loving embrace. May You joyously grant, I pray, that I may come to know You in my prayers, that You may council me on the heavens and give true warnings from Your prophetic altars, and that You may teach me what You are prepared to reveal to people. I will perform Your rites of divination, and in Apollo's absence I will call Your prophet and upon Your divine spirit for visions. That distant place to which You hurry is, to me, more potent than all the shrines of Delos and Cirrha, better by far than the sanctuary of any other shrine.

Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid 10.252-5

Nurturing Idean Mother of the Gods, for whom Dindymus is dear, you who love turreted cities and bridled lions, lead me now into battle, and rightly fulfill the omens. Come with your favoring step, O Goddess, lead and we Phrygians will follow.

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