SAGARITIS

SAGARITIS was the Dryad- and Naiad-nymph of a tree on the banks of the River Saggarios (Sangarius) in Phrygia. She had an affair with the youth Attis, consort of the goddess Kybele (Cybele). When the goddess learned of their tryst, she slew the nymph by felling her tree and drove Attis to castrate himself.

PARENTS

SAGGARIOS (Ovid Fasti 4.222)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

SAGARI′TIS, a nymph in whose embraces Attis became faithless to Cybele; the goddess avenged the wrong done to her by causing the tree with which the nymph's life was connected, to be cut down. (Ov. Fast. iv. 229.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Ovid, Fasti 4. 222 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"A woodland Phrygian boy, the gorgeous Attis, conquered the towered goddess [Rhea-Kybele] with pure love. She wanted to keep him as her shrine's guardian, and said, ‘Desire to be a boy always.’ He promised what was asked and declared, ‘If I lie, let the Venus [Aphrodite] I cheat with be my last.’ He cheats, and in the Nympha Sagaritis stops being what he was: the goddess' wrath punished him. She slashes the tree and cuts the Naiad down. The Naiad dies : her fate was the tree's."

SOURCES

ROMAN

• Ovid, Fasti - Latin Poetry C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.