Rhea

Rhea, an ancient Cretan earth-goddess, daughter of Uranus and Gæa, wife of her brother the Titan Cronus, and by him mother of the Olympian deities Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, Demeter. She was early identified with the Asiatic nature-goddess Cybele, the Great Mother, who was worshipped on mountains in Mysia, Lydia, and Phrygia. Her Cretan Curetes corresponded to the Phrygian Corybantes, many of whom mutilated themselves like Attis in the frenzy of their orgies. The regular priests of Cybele, the Galli, made themselves eunuchs for conscience' sake. A Sibylline oracle decreed the introduction of the worship of the Great Mother at Rome in 204 B.C., and in 217 a temple was dedicated on the Palatine. The cult became widely extended under the Empire. In the 2d century A.D. the rites of the Taurobolia and Criobolia were added, in which candidates were baptised for purification and regeneration with the blood of sacrificial bulls and rams. See the article CYBELE.—RHEA SYLVIA was the mother of Romulus (q.v.).