Korybantes
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 The Kouretes dancing around the infant Zeus as pictured in Jane Ellen Harrison, Themis 1912, p. 23. |
The Phrygian Korybantes were often confused by Greeks with other ecstatic male confraternities, such as the Idaean Dactyls or the Cretan Kouretes, spirit-youths (kouroi) who acted as guardians of the infant Zeus. In Hesiod's telling of Zeus's birth, when Great Gaia came to Crete and hid the child Zeus in a "steep cave", beneath the secret places of the earth, on Mount Aigaion with its thick forests; there the Cretan Kouretes' ritual clashing spears and shields were interpreted by Hellenes as intended to drown out the infant god's cries, and prevent his discovery by his cannibal father Cronus. "This myth is Greek interpretation of mystifying Minoan ritual in an attempt to reconcile their Father Zeus with the Divine Child of Crete; the ritual itself we may never recover with clarity, but it is not impossible that a connection exists between the Kouretes' weapons at the cave and the dedicated weapons at Arkalochori", Emily Vermeule observed. Among the offering recovered from the cave, the most spectacular are decorated bronze shields with patterns that draw upon north Syrian originals and a bronze gong on which a god and his attendants are shown in a distinctly Near Eastern style.
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| Theoi Project - Korybantes and Kouretes Theoi Project - Korybantes and Kouretes www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Kouretes.html - Web |
| Long review (in English) of Paola Ceccarelli, La p... Long review (in English) of Paola Ceccarelli, La pirrica nell' antichità greco romana: Studi sulla danza armata, 1998 ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2000/2000-03-17.html - Web |
| Association of Greek Hoplites Association of Greek Hoplites www.koryvantes.org - Web |
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