74 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
fore
the time of Mohammed, was believed to have dropped from heaven together
with Adam, and in many Greek legends images were said to have fallen
from heaven. Of course in the case of real statues this is simply a
vague superstition, but the stone venerated in Phrygia as an image of
Cybele may possibly have been a genuine meteorite. The following facts
in relation to this stone are presented by Professor Newton:
It
was a conical mass bearing a rude resemblance to a human head, and was
said to have fallen near Pessinus. It was placed in the Temple of
Cybele and worshipped as her image. During the second Punic war, in 205
B.C., because of Hannibal's prolonged invasion of Italy, the downfall
of the Roman state was feared, and the Romans were terrified by a
shower of stones from the sky. On consulting the Sibylline books, some
verses were found to the effect that a foreign enemy could be driven
from Italy if the Idœan mother (Cybele) was brought from Pessinus in
Phrygia to Rome. An embassy was sent to King Attalus of Pergamos to
request his consent to the transfer of the stone, and although he even
refused obedience to the commands of the Delphic oracle, which required
him to surrender the stone as an act of hospitality, he at last yielded
when a violent earthquake shook the country, and the voice of the
goddess was heard, enunciating these words : " It is my will. Rome is a
worthy place for any god ; delay not." *
Herodian,
who relates this story, proceeds to narrate the arrival of the stone at
Kome, where Scipio Africanus was chosen to bear it to the Temple of
Victory. A silver image of the goddess was made, the conical stone
serving as the head. For five hundred years this image, later
transferred to the Temple of the Great Mother of the Gods, was an
object of Roman worship. It has been described very fully by Arnobius
(fl. 300 a.D.).4 He
states that it was a small stone which could be easily and lightly
carried in the hand ; it was of a black hue and of rough surface, and
had many irregular projecting angles. As it was naturally marked
•Titi Livi, "Ab urbe condita," lib. xxix, cap. 11. « " Adversus Gentes," lib. vii.
