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ἐπέστη. For the phrase and idea cf. Il. ii. 20, the dream of Agamemnon.

The name Atys is that of the Phrygio-Lydian deity, Attes or Attis, clearly connected with the Syrian Ate (whose female double is Atargatis; cf. Meyer, i. 487): the cult itself is probably of Hittite origin and is closely connected with that of Adonis (Thammuz; cf. ii. 79. 2 n.). Frazer (G. B.2 ii. 130-7) describes the cult, and says that Attis is ‘a deity of vegetation whose divine life manifested itself in the pine tree and the spring violets’ (used in his ritual). According to one form of the legend Attes was killed by a boar, according to the other form (current in Pessinus) by selfmutilation (Paus. vii. 17. 10-12); this latter story is immortalized in the Attis of Catullus. Attes is both son and lover of the great mother-goddess, Cybele. For the worship of the mother and the son in Asia Minor cf. Ramsay, C. and B. pp. 87, 264. The swine, originally ‘the sacred victim’, typical of the god himself, has become by false interpretation the enemy of the God (Farnell, G. C. ii, p. 646). The interest of the story, from the historical point of view, is that H. (or his informants) has introduced a cultmyth into history; it has received a Greek colouring, for the steps taken to avert calamity are the means of bringing it to pass. (Cf. the myth of Oedipus.) The fact underlying the story seems to be that Croesus had a son, Atys, who died young. For Atys' son, Pythius, cf. vii. 27. 1.

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