Agdistis of Phrygia

Catalogue ID: 05-local-and-lesser/164-agdistis-phrygia-pausanias

Cycle: Local and lesser — Phrygian aetiology / Mother of the Gods / Attis cycle prelude

Version line: Pausanian Lydian–Phrygian — bisexual earth-born Agdistis; almond; Attis

Sources: Pausanias 7.17.9–12; Arnobiuss and later sources depend on similar Anatolian myth—**Roman/late** narrators labeled when used; classical Greek core is Pausanias’s report

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/05-local-and-lesser/164-agdistis-phrygia-pausanias.md

Characters

Agdistis — earth-born dual-sexed being; source of the almond
Artemis — whose seed upon earth begets Agdistis
Attis — child of the almond; beloved in the sequel
Mother of the Gods — associated power in the cult sequel
Nana — daughter of Sangarius; conceives Attis from the almond
Olympian gods — castrators of Agdistis
Sangarius — Phrygian river-god; father of Nana

Places

Almond tree — growth from Agdistis’s severed parts
River Sangarius — Nana’s paternal stream
Troy — homeland of the myth

Themes

Narrative

Pausanias recounts a Phrygian story: Zeus spilled seed upon earth; the earth bore Agdistis, a being of dual sex and wild strength. The gods feared Agdistis and castrated the creature; from the shed genitals grew an almond tree. Nana, daughter of the river Sangarius, placed fruit from the tree in her bosom and conceived Attis. The tale continues into Attis’s beauty, Agdistis’s/the Mother’s love, and Attis’s self-castration—material already surveyed under Attis–Cybele. Catalogue Agdistis here as the named dual-sexed parent of the almond-Attis aetiology, distinct from Greek notices that mention only the Mountain Mother or Attis without Agdistis’s birth.