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Rhea
Aegean Universal Mother, Great Goddess, Pre-Hellenic Great Mother Goddess.
Also known as Britomartis, Great Goddess of Bronze Age Crete and the
Aegean Islands. She had no consort, and ruled supreme before the coming
of patriotic Hellenic invaders. She is an archetypal Triple Goddess.
Rhea is identified with mother goddess Cybele from Asia Minor and is
also known as Rhea Cybele and Magna Mater ("great mother").
Pre-Roman Latium knew Her as Rhea Silvia, Rhea of the Woodland. Under
her rule, the Vestal Virgins were neither celibate nuns, nor servants
of the state, as they became in later ages. They were choosers and deposers
of the early Latin kings, a college of matronae who ruled the rulers
and took no husbands. Acca Larentia - the Holy Harlot or High Priestess,
cared for her children.
In ancient Crete, Rhea was worshipped in fervent processional celebrations
as the Goddess of all Creation. It was said that she was so ancient,
she inhabited the oak forests of Arcadia before the moon's creation.
As the Great Mountain Mother, her mythology merged with that of Kybele.
In later, post-patriarchal myth, she was said to be the daughter of
Gaia and mother of the Olympian goddesses and gods. In Orphic myth,
she sat outside the cave of black-winged Night playing her drum to alert
everyone to listen to the oracles of the Goddess.
She was one of the Titans, the daughter of Uranus and Gaea (Heaven and
Earth). The consort of Kronos and mother of a number of Olympian Divinities,
including Zeus, whom she concealed from his father until he could overthrow
him and assume the Lordship of Creation. She was worshipped with orgiastic
rites. Rhea is depicted between two lions or on a chariot pulled by
lions. Greece.
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