Corybantes
conceptEcstatic male dancers and drummers associated with the worship of Cybele and Rhea, whose frenzied armed dances drowned out the cries of the infant Zeus.
The Myth
The Corybantes were divine warriors who performed ecstatic armed dances, clashing their shields and spears to create a thunderous din. When Rhea gave birth to Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete, she hid him from Cronus, who would have devoured him as he had his other children — Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. The Corybantes danced around the cave, their noise masking the infant's cries. In some traditions they were identified with the Curetes, attendants of Rhea, or with the Dactyls, who discovered metalworking on Mount Ida. Their worship involved trance-inducing music with drums, cymbals, and flutes, practices later absorbed into the cult of Dionysus and the worship of Cybele, the Phrygian Great Mother.
Parents
Symbols
Fun Fact
The word "corybantic" still means frenzied or wildly agitated in English. Ancient Athenian doctors actually prescribed participation in Corybantic rites as therapy for mental illness — the ecstatic dancing and loud drumming were believed to purge madness. It was essentially the world's first music therapy program, predating modern clinical music therapy by about 2,400 years.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
Dactyls
creatureMythical beings of Mount Ida who discovered metalworking and iron smelting, associated with the...
Cronus
titanKronos (Cronus) overthrew his father Uranus and ruled the Golden Age, but devoured his own children...
Demeter
godGoddess of grain, harvest, and the fertility of the earth. When her daughter Persephone was...
Demeter (Grain)
godDemeter was the goddess of grain, harvest, and fertility whose grief over Persephone's abduction...
Demeter Thesmophoros
godAn epithet of Demeter as bringer of divine law and civilised customs, honoured at the Thesmophoria,...
Dionysus
godGod of wine, ritual madness, and theatrical performance. Dionysus was the only Olympian born of a...
Dionysus Eleuthereus
godAn epithet of Dionysus as the Liberator, worshipped at the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens where the...
Hades
godRuler of the underworld and lord of the dead. Despite his fearsome reputation, Hades was not evil —...
Hades (God)
godHades was the lord of the underworld who received the dead — feared but not evil, wealthy from...
Hera
godQueen of the Olympian gods and goddess of marriage. Known for her jealous rages against Zeus's...
Hera Teleia
godAn epithet of Hera as goddess of marriage and its fulfilment, worshipped as the divine model of the...
Hestia
godThe eldest child of Kronos and goddess of the hearth fire. Hestia was the gentlest of the...