The Koryvandes (Corybantes), called the Kurbantes in (Phrygia), are the crested dancers who worship the Phrygian goddess Cybele with drumming and dancing. Their wild ectatic cult can be compared to the female Maenads who followed Dionysus. Ovid says they were born from rainwater.
They are interchangeable with the Kuretes (Curetes), another brotherhood worshipping the Great Mother Goddess, as Rhea, in Crete. In the Greek telling of Zeus' birth, the Kuretes' ritual clashing spears and shields were interpreted as intended to drown out the infant god's cries, and prevent his discovery by his father Cronus.
In this myth, the Koryvandes may have been Cretan vegetation daemons, later supplanted by the Olympian pantheon.
Koryvandes or Kuretes presided over the infancy of Dionysus, another god who was born as a babe, and of Zagreus, a Cretan child of Zeus.
After the cult of Cybele had been formally established in Rome (203 BCE), the Roman Korybantes of Cybele were called Galli ("Gauls"). Gauls had overrun Phrygia earlier in the 3rd century, and their region was subsequently known to Romans as Galatia. The galli castrated themselves to emulate Attis, the consort of their goddess.
Alternatives: Corybantes, Korybandes
