50 § Black Stone and Cubic Stone

OCCASIONALLY we have had to call attention to the diverse linguistic fantasies which the name Cybele has engendered. We shall not return to those which are too obviously devoid of any foundation and which are due only to the excessive imagination of certain people;^[1] we will consider only several comparisons which may seem more serious at first sight, even though these also are unjustified. Thus, we have recently seen the supposition put forward that Cybele 'seems to get her name' from the Arabic _qubbah_, because she was adored in the grottos by reason of her 'chthonian' nature. Now, this alleged etymology has two defects, either one of which would suffice to dismiss it: firstly, like another of which we are going to speak shortly, it takes into account only the first two letters of the root of the name Cybele which, however, contains three, and it goes without saying that the third letter is of no less account than the other two; secondly, it is based on no more than a pure and simple misconception. In fact, _qubbah_ has never meant 'vault, vaulted hall, crypt', as the author of this hypothesis believes; it means cupola or dome, the symbolism of which is 'celestial' and not 'terrestrial', and therefore exactly the opposite of the nature attributed to Cybele or the 'Great Mother'. As we have explained elsewhere the cupola surmounts an edifice with a square base and therefore, generally speaking, with a body of cubic form, and it is that square or cubic part which, in the whole thus constituted, has a 'terrestrial' symbolism. This leads us directly to the examination of another hypothesis which has often been formulated about the origin of the name Cybele, and which has a more particular importance for what concerns us here.

Efforts have been made to derive _Kubele_ from _kubos_, and here at least there is no misunderstanding such as the one we have just noted. But on the other hand, this etymology has in common with the preceding one the defect of taking into consideration only the first two of the three letters constituting the root of _Kubele_, which makes it equally impossible from a strictly linguistic point of view. If it is only a question of seeing, between these two words, a certain phonetic similarity which, as often happens, may have some value from the symbolic point of view, that is something altogether different; but before examining this point more closely, let us say that, in reality, the name _Kubele_ is not of Greek origin and that there is nothing enigmatic or doubtful about its true etymology. It is in fact directly linked to the Hebrew _gebal_ and to the Arabic _jabal_, 'mountain'; the difference of the first letter cannot justify any objection to this, for the change of _g_ into _k_, or inversely, is but a secondary modification of which many other examples can be found.^[3] Cybele is thus the 'goddess of the mountain';^[4] and what is very worthy of note is that, by this signification, her name is the exact equivalent of that of Parvati in the Hindu tradition.

This same meaning of the name Cybele is clearly linked to that of the 'black stone' which was her symbol. In fact, it is known that this stone was of conical shape and, like all the 'bætyls' of the same form, it must be considered as a miniature representation of the mountain as 'axial symbol'. On the other hand, since the sacred 'black stones' are meteorites, this 'celestial' origin suggests that the 'chthonian' nature we alluded to at the outset corresponds in reality only to one of the aspects of Cybele. Moreover, the axis represented by the mountain is not 'terrestrial', but connects heaven and earth to one another; and we will add that it is along this axis that, symbolically, the fall of the 'black stone' must take place as well as its final reascension; for here too it is a question of the relations between heaven and earth.^[5] There can be no question, of course, of contesting the fact that Cybele has often been assimilated to the 'Earth Mother', but only of indicating that she also had other aspects; moreover, it is quite possible that the more or less complete forgetting of these, following upon a predominance attributed to the 'terrestrial' aspect, may have given birth to certain confusions, and in particular to the one that has led to the classing together of the 'black stone' and the 'cubic stone' which are, however, two very different symbols.^[6]

The 'cubic stone' is essentially a 'foundation stone'. It is therefore, indeed 'earthly', as its form likewise indicates; and what is more, the idea of 'stability' expressed by this same form is in perfect conformity with the function of Cybele as 'Earth-Mother', that is, as representing the 'substantial' principle of universal manifestation. This is why, from the symbolic point of view, the relation of Cybele with the 'cube' is not to be entirely rejected as a phonetic 'convergence'; but clearly, this is no reason for seeking to extract from it an etymology, or for