This article is about the Thracian goddess. For the surname, see
Kotys (surname). For aristocrats named "Kotys", also spelled as "Cotys", see
Cotys (disambiguation).
Kotys (
Ancient Greek: ΚότυςKótys), also called Kotytto (Κοτυττώ), was a Thracian goddess whose festival, the Cotyttia, resembled that of the
PhrygianCybele, and was celebrated on hills with riotous proceedings and orgiastic rites, especially at night.
Etymology
The name Kotys is believed to have meant "war, slaughter", akin to
Old NorseHöðr "war, slaughter".[1]
Worship
Worship of Kotys was apparently adopted publicly in Corinth (c. 425 BC),[2][3] and perhaps privately in Athens about the same time, and was connected, like that of
Dionysus, with licentious frivolity. It then included a baptismal ceremony. Kotys was often worshipped during nocturnal ceremonies, which were associated with rampant insobriety and obscene behaviour.[4]
Her worship appears to have spread even as far as
Italy and
DorianSicily. Later relief sculptures from Thrace showed her as a huntress-goddess similar to
Artemis, but in literature she was instead compared with the Oriental-Greek-Roman
Cybele (Great Mother of the Gods).[5]
Those who celebrated her festival were called βάπται or baptes, which means "bathers,"[6] from the purifications which were originally connected with the solemnity: the pre-worship purification ceremony involved an elaborate bathing ritual.
Some Greeks considered Kotys to be an aspect of
Persephone,[7] and her cult shares similarities with that of
Bendis. She was particularly worshipped among the
Edones.[8] The
Suda mentions that she was also worshiped among the
Corinthians.[9]
In Literature
Baptae by
Eupolis portrays celebrities of the time as worshippers of Kotys who engage in perversion and crossdressing during their acts of worship.[10]
"
Comus" by
John Milton briefly alludes to Cotytto as a dark-veiled goddess and mysterious dame whose secret flames burns midnight torches.[11]
Algernon Charles Swinburne’s poem “Prelude” in Songs Before Sunrise references Cotys's orgiastic nature and role as a goddess of the Edones in Thrace.[12]
Cotys is the name of the main character in
Aleister Crowley’s short story “The Stone of Cybele.” She is not the goddess with the same name, though she bears some similarities, and another character recites poetry about the goddess to her.[13]
References
^Also cognate:
Irishcath "war, battle", early German Hader "quarrel", Greek kótos "hatred",
Old Church Slavonickotora "fight, brawl",
Sanskritśatru "enemy, nemesis", and
Hittitekattu "spiteful". See Orel, Vladimir. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2003: 165.