Cybele

This second-century statue of the Roman goddess Cybele enjoys the benefit of some eighteenth-century restoration. It was displayed at Liverpool a couple of years ago and I was pleased to inspect it from close quarter. Cybele was the classical Great Mother Goddess or Magna Mater, whom Lucretius, the Roman poet and philosopher, claimed ‘symbolised the world order’ and was mother of us all. She sounds not unlike the Virgin Mary of medieval prominence, who was said to bear a similar role.

Scripture speaks of no such mother, but rather of God, who is our Father by adoption. Beautiful statues of comely divinities are nothing compared to the burning love and awesome grace of God the Father, for whom no picture could do justice. Cybele and Mary might fulfil a psychological need for a mother figure, but the God of scripture fulfils our real, deeper spiritual need, for we were made for His pleasure and service. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 1:3