The Rituals of Attis... WHAT .

Cybele and Attis

So I know that it was the assigned reading for class and this is probably now common knowledge for those of you who did the assignment, but for those of you who didn't or even those of you who did and are just as confused/uncomfortable/slightly REALLY grossed out as I am, I'd like to explore (okay so maybe touch on slightly more than what we read on account of how unorthodox it was..) the significance of, motivations for, and the  influence of rituals devoted to Attis.

Okay so just to recap the (slightly disturbing) content of The Myth and Ritual of Attis by James Frazer, a variety of celebratory acts directed toward the Western god Attis (said to be the almost direct equivalence to the Assyrian god Adonis) were described in great detail, but a few stood out among others... oh ya like the mass voluntary castration and cross-dressing party worshippers of Attis would throw down on the third day of their festival, the 24th of March. But I'll start out by pointing out a few connections that I made (though nothing special), like the quite noticeable similarity between the Phrygian tradition of cutting down a pine tree, decorating and basically worshiping it on the first day of the festival in the hopes of enabling the resurrection of their god later in the spring (the pine tree was associated with their god Attis because it was under such that he castrated himself and bled to death) and our very own contemporary (Christian) tradition of obtaining a pine tree, decorating it, and making it the center of our household for about a month, generally connected with the worship of a religious figure that resurrects in the spring as well. Another fairly obvious connection that can be made (partly because we touched on the concept earlier in class this semester) is between the Phrygian tradition of "washing away past sins" or being "reborn" through the bathing of various forms of sacred liquids (bull's blood, and dieting on milk like a newborn) and the Christian tradition of baptisms. It's clear that we still carry on this tradition today (this is what we talked about in class some time ago), it's just that throughout the centuries the sacred liquid that we bath ourselves in has changed for whatever reasons (slight shift in worship/beliefs, political correct-ness.. PETA..).

Phrygian apparel

Alright so onto the weird stuff, by today's standards I should say. On the third day of this festival, the Day of Blood as they called it, the high priest would draw blood from his arms beneath the tree altar as a offering of worship obviously to Attis. But as this was a festival, emotions ran high because of all the festivities like "barbaric music", as Frazer described it, from all sorts of instruments including flutes, cymbals, drums and horns, and it would appear that quite a few people got out of hand, encouraged of course by the music.. Gradually more men would join in to add to the offering for their great god, normal I suppose, but as tensions ran higher the longer it went on many men would all of sudden undress, grab a sword that was available to promote more involvement, and castrate himself right then and there. You'd think after something like that a guy would immediately regret this decision made spur of the moment encouraged by screaming spectators and thumpin beats, but no. They would then run naked through the streets, with their man-parts in hand, and throw it into someone's house... whosever's house one of these pieces may land in (and yes, they were considered honored if this happened to them) had to dress the men who so graciously gifted them their manhood in women's clothing, which they then had to wear for the rest of their lives. Yeeeeah... As you can imagine, a day or so later the men greatly regret this irreversible sacrifice and spend their lives in sorrow and regret, which was said to mirror that Attis castrated himself under the pine tree.

Alright so that seems pretty messed up right? I mean I understand devotion and worshipping of a higher power to some degree, but come on. If you think about it though, the contemporary trend, that isn't limited by religion, of circumcision seems pretty similar to the above acts though like every religious act these days, just seems like it's digressed over time.