In
Greek mythology 'Dindymon'
[1] was a mountain in
Phrygia that was sacred to the "mountain mother",
Cybele or
Rhea. Dindymon might be placed on the peninsula of
Cyzicus facing the
Sea of Marmara or by
Strabo above
Pessinos, sacred to Cybele, or by
Stephanus Byzantinicus in the
Troad, thus near
Mount Ida.
Apollonius of Rhodes' ''
Argonautica'' book II sets a scene at Mount Dindymon, where
Jason placates the goddess of the mountain, identified as Rhea.
[2]
The various applications of Dindymon, as the mountain of the Anatolian
Mother Goddess, the "Mountain Mother", is explained by Robinson Ellis:
[3] "The name Dindymenian mother would in the first instance no doubt be connected with the earliest seat of the worship, the Phrygian Dindymon, but as soon as the worship spread farther and the name of Dindymon with it, the Goddess of Dindymon would lose its original definiteness and be variously applied by different writers."
Notes
1. Rarely 'Dindymus', as in Pliny's Natural History V.142 and Sextus Propertius, III.22.3.
2. (Apollonius of Rhodes), Richard Hunter, tr., 1993. ''Jason and the Golden Fleece'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press), Book II, p. 29f.
3. Robinson Ellis, 1876. ''A Commentary on Catullus'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press), Catullus LXIII.91 (p. 224)