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Two sacred mountains are called 'Mount Ida' in Greek mythology, equally named "Mount of the Goddess." Both are associated with the Mother Goddess in the deepest layers of pre-Greek myth: Mount Ida, Crete, and Mount Ida, Turkey, known as 'Phrygian Ida' in Classical times. Mount Ida in Phrygia is sacred to another aspect of the Great Goddess as Cybele, the Mother Goddess, who is often called ''Mater Idae'' ('The Idean Mother").

Contents

Etymology

Mount Ida, Crete

Mount Ida, Turkey

Notes

External links

Etymology

The name Ida is associated with the Goddess, ''De'', which also appears in Demeter, the "goddess-mother," (De + meter). The "De" is an Attic-Ionic dialect form of the older ''Da'',
:"a female deity whose succor and assistance were evoked in archaic formulas by use of this syllable".^[1]
The modern Turkish name for Mount Ida, Turkey, ''Kaz Dağı'' (pronounced ) has no more than a coincidental connection with the goddess' syllable; ''dağ'' is the element that translates as "mountain," and all other mountains and mountain ranges in Turkey include ''dağ'' in their names.
There is reasonable evidence to believe that the Turkish mountain was renamed from something else, perhaps Gargarus, to the same name as the Cretan mountain by the Tjeker, a people at the tip of the Biga Peninsula (the Troad) in the Bronze Age. If that is true, the etymology is likely to be only that of the Cretan mountain, with the others being ultimately named from it. Whatever its name, the Turkish mountain was certainly sacred in its own right. All mountain were at the dawn of history.

Mount Ida, Crete

Main articles: Mount Ida, Crete

'Mount Ida, Crete', is the island's highest summit, sacred to the Goddess Rhea, and in which lies the cave in which Zeus was reared.

Mount Ida, Turkey

Main articles: Mount Ida, Turkey

'Mount Ida, Turkey' (Kaz Dağı) is a mountain in the environs of ancient Troy, now in Balıkesir Province, northwest Turkey. The topmost peak is ''Gargarus'' mentioned in the ''Iliad''.

Notes

1. Karl Kerenyi, ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter'' p. 28.

External links

★ Perseus Website: Ida