Lucian, Attis, and the “tragodopodagra” and a supposed “resurrection” of Attis

Recently online I expressed the opinion that no version of the myth of the god Attis states that he was resurrected, until 350 AD when the story appears in Firmicus Maternus.  Prior to that date, the myth is that he was not.

Not everyone reading this may recall the myth of Attis.  Here is a less-than-serious summary of the myth, as found online, and reflecting the myth as we find it in Pausanias:

Attis was a shepherd-lad.  He was also the boyfriend of the scary Phrygian goddess Cybele.  One day he went off and shagged a nymph; and his missus found out (as they do).  In a rage, she cursed him with madness (as they do).  While “under the influence,” therefore, Attis sat down and chopped off his willy with the edge of a potsherd (as you do).  Then he died of sepsis, as you do in a pre-antibiotic era.

Then his missus calmed down.  No more Saturday nights at the disco.  So, she went to Father Zeus and asked him to bring Attis back from the dead.

Zeus, no mean shagger himself, disapproved of this “infidelity means castration” meme.  Not having that in his mythology.  So he refused.  The most he would do is to preserve the body of Attis eternally.

The reaction of Cybele is not recorded.

This remark of mine led some strange person to message me with a jeer and a screen grab from some unknown forum:

My first reaction – possibly yours also – was to wonder what on earth the “Tragodopodagra” might be.  But long experience with online trolls tells me never to let such a claim go past unexamined.

The work is indeed a humorous work of Lucian, known usually as the Podagra.  I learn that the manuscripts also call it the Tragopodagra, or Tragodopodagra.^[1]https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/illiclasstud.43.2.0488/ref]  “Podagra” means “Gout” – that nasty cramping feeling in the legs that 18th century gentlemen got from drinking a couple of bottles of port a day.  The work appears with English translation in volume 8 of the Loeb Classical Library edition, LCL 432, accessible on Archive.org here.

The work does indeed refer at one point to Attis, among its other classical references.  Let us hope that this erudition consoled the poet in his discomfort.  Page 327:

CHORUS

On * Dindymus, Cybebe’s mount,
Phrygians raise their frenzied cries
To tender Attis as his due.
To the note of Phrygian horn
Along the slopes of Tmolus high
Lydians shout their revelling song,
And Corybants on tambourines
Madly drum with Cretan beat…

But the loud howls of the Galli, the castrated priests of Cybele, are as nothing to the cries of the sufferer from gout.

Needless to say the work has no other mention of Attis, and certainly none of resurrection.

1. ^[1]↩