CORYBANT

any of the wild, half-demonic beings who were mythical attendants of the ancient Oriental and Greco-Roman deity the Great Mother of the Gods (q.v.). They were often identified or confused with the Cretan Curetes (attendants of the Greek god Zeus) and were distinguished only by their Asiatic origin and by the more pronouncedly orgiastic nature of their rites. Accounts of the origin of the Corybantes vary, and their names and number differ from one authority to another. They apparently had a mystic cult, and a prominent feature of their ritual was a wild dance, which was claimed to have powers of healing mental disorder. It is possible that they originally were priests or medicine men of ancient times, later thought of as superhuman.