Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

Kybele and meteorites

895

the Phrygians worship the Mother of the gods, something would shortly fall
from heaven and must be brought to Rome. Not long afterwards news came
that the image had fallen, and to Rome it was brought. Indeed the day of its
arrival is still kept as a festival for the Mother of the gods. The story goes that
the ship bearing it stuck in the mud of the river Tiber and could by no means
be floated off until the soothsayers predicted that it would follow only if drawn
by a woman pure from intercourse with strangers. Claudia Quintia1, who had
been charged with adultery, but not yet tried, and on account of fast living was
thought a most likely culprit, vehemently called the gods to witness her
innocence and fastened her girdle to the hull. Thereupon the goddess followed,
and Claudia passed from the depth of infamy to the height of fame. But before
this affair of Claudia the Romans had been bidden by the Sibylline books to
transport the image from Phrygia by the hands of their best man. So they had
sent the man reckoned their best at the moment—Scipio Nasica, son of
Cn. Scipio who had been general in Iberia and had fallen there. Nasica was
cousin of the Scipio that had robbed the Carthaginians of their empire and first
earned the title Africanus. In this way the goddess was brought to Rome by
the best of their men and women.'

An altar of Luna marble dedicated to the Mother of the gods
Dy one Claudia Syntyche was found more than two centuries since
at the Marmorata on the Tiber-side and is now in the Capitoline
Museum2. A relief on the front face (fig. 725) shows the Vestal

Better Claudia Quinta, on whom see F. Miinzer in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii.
2899 no. 435.

2 L. Re—F. Mori Sculture del Museo Capitolino Roma 1806 i Atrio pi. 24, Mtiller—
Wieseler Denkm. d. alt. Kunst ii. 4. 11 f. pi. 63, 816 ( = my fig. 726), Stuart Jones Cat.

MATRIDEVMET NAVISALV[.a£

salviae votosvscepto

CLAVDIA srMTHfCHEl
D D

Fig. 726.

^ Mus- Capit. Rome p. 181 f. Sala delle Colombe no. 109 b pi. 43 ( = my fig. 725),
• He]big Fiihrer durch die offent lichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertumer in Rom3
Pag 1912 j. 442 f n0 - g H Haas Bilderatlas zitr Religionsgcschichte Leipzig-

•'-nanpvr. • . . ; „ „ ...... r._____t__j______:

angen 1926 ix_xi p. xjx fig. ,57, E. Strong Art in Ancient Rome London 1929 i. 43
'^£■ 38. Height o-87m. On the right face, a pedum and cymbals; on the left face,
Ins g'an caP witn lappets; on the back, pipes. The inscription is given in Orelli
no ° ' no- I0°5i Corp. inscr. Lett, vi no. 492 = 30777, Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel.
• 4096 Matri deum et Navi Salviae | Salviae voto suscepto [ Claudia Synthyche | d. d.
second word Salviae is probably a mere case of dittography, though L. Bloch in