Sensory Experiences in the Cybelic Cult: Sound Stimulation through Musical Instruments

Abstract

The traditional method by which historians have studied the so-called "mystery cults" that developed in the framework of the Roman Empire between the 3rd century BCE and the definitive victory of Christianity in the 4th century CE has been shaped by a number of different priorities. First, the need to define what "mystery" amounts to in this cultic context, as well as to distinguish other possible descriptive categories (Eastern religions, sacra peregrina, externae religiones, superstitio ), has, in important ways, demarcated the subject matter at issue and pre-detennined the approach to it that has been taken by scholars. Second, and more specifically, this analytical approach has been defined prirnarily by an interpretative effort airned at describing and understanding the systemic framework within which these religious forms developed and became attractive offerings for Roman populations. A wide range of scholarship has been dedicated to reconstructing and understanding the diffusion mechanisms of these cults, the contents of their belief systems, and how specific cults manifested ad intra andad extra. A fundamental premise of this scholarship is that these "mystery cults" never, either individually or collectively, constituted a distinct religious reality beyond the general structure of "Ro man religion". The grounds for this view lie in the supposition that these cults not only sharcd a common symbolic-ritual languagc with thc broadcr Ro man religion but were also supervised, and gradually translated into socially acceptable forms, primarily through the action of politicaL powers.