Abstract

Hippolytus, Refutatio omnium haeresium, V. 9. 8, p. 99, Wendland preserves a curious hymn to Attis: ετε Κρόνον γένος ετε ‘Pέας μεγάλης, χαρ’ τ κατης κουσμα ‘Pέας Ἄττι σ καλοσι μν’ Ασσύριοι τριπόθητον Ἄδωνιν, δλη δ' Αγυπτος Ὄσιριν, πουράνιον μηνς κέρας ‘Eλληνς σοία, Σαμοθρκες Ἅδαμνα σεβάσμιον, Αίμόνιοι Κορύβαντα, κα ο ρύγες λλοτε μν IIάπαν, ποτ δ’ α νέκυν θεν… It is preceded by a long exegetical disquisition, which treats the various divine names in the order in which they occur in the hymn, and includes the remarks, 8. 13, p. 91, τοτόν, ησι, θρκες ο περ τν Αμον οκοντες Κορύβαντα καλοσι, κα θρξν ο Φρύγες μοίως… τν ατν δ τοτν, Φησι, Φρύγες κα IIπαν καλοσιν . The statement here made is obviously at variance with the hymn: Αμόνιοι are properly Thessalians, and have nothing to do with Mount Haemus. Moreover, we have evidence for the cult of a Korybas, more commonly called a Kabeiros, at the foot of Mount Olympus, and as Mount Olympus lies on the borders of Thessaly and Macedonia, this may be designated as a cult by Thessalians. Αμόνιοι therefore agrees with facts, and the explanation given by Hippolytus or by the authority whom he was following can be explained as due to a confusion of place-names. It led here to the further error of θρκες; the attribution of orgiastic cults to Thracians was natural, but there seems a lack of evidence for Korybas or Korybantes in Thrace