But who was Magna Mater? Her religion at one time extended all the way from Turkey to India. Three hundred feet up the north face of Mount Sipylus in Turkey travelers today can still find an ancient thirty-foot-high image of the goddess carved into solid rock. But in India, portraits of this same goddess riding her lion into battle are present everywhere. You'll find Durga posters hanging in people's homes. You'll even see her painted on truck boxes and lunch boxes.
Magna Mater, her Latin name means "Great Mother", which is surprisingly reminiscent of her age-old titles in India: Sri Mata ("Great Mother") and Maha Devi ("Great Goddess"). In ancient Turkey, she was called Turqas, which some scholars believe is related to her Indian name, Durga.
In ancient Turkey, number of her more male devotees would castrate themselves in her honor, a practice which shocked the Roamns-who didn't shock easily. Amazingly this unique way of propitiating the Great survived in Some areas of India quite recently.(I'll have more to say about Durga in Chapter 13. " Meet the Hindu Goddessess"!)
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