ORIGIN Phrygia [northwestern Turkey]. Vegetation god.
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 500 BC and probably earlier until circa AD 400.
SYNONYMS none specific.
ORIGIN Phrygia [northwestern Turkey]. Vegetation god.
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 500 BC and probably earlier until circa AD 400.
SYNONYMS none specific.
Mountain goddess. Hellenized Phrygian [northwestern Turkey]. Probably derived from a local Anatolian mountain deity. Known from inscriptions in Greece from circa 400 BC as a deity who defends the righteous. It is uncertain whether she bears any link with the Celtic goddess ANDRASTA.
by Dr Alena Trckova-Flamee Ph.D.
The name Ida or Idaea (Idaia) appeared in the Greek myths as the name of two nymphs who were living in various places. The first nymph lived on Ida, which is the highest point of Crete (in modern times called Mount Psiloritis 2456m) and the second one was living on Mount Ida (now named Kaz Gagi 1774m) in ancient Phrygia near Troy, in the north-western region of Turkey. Ida, -idi means in the Greek language the wooded mountain, so this word became the name of the mountains as well as the name of these female divinities; the nymphs who were — according to the myths — living on Mount Ida.