Corybantic (kor-i-BAN-tik)
adjective - Wild; frenzied; uncontrolled. After Corybant, an
ancient priest of Phrygian goddess Cybèle, who performed wild
ecstatic dances in her worship.
History of these Prints
Bernard De Montfaucon (1655-1741) was a French scholar and
critic, born at the chateau of Soulage (now Soulatge, in the
department of Aube, France), on the 13th of January 1655.
Belonging to a noble and ancient line, and destined for the
army, he passed most of his time in the library of the family
castle of Roquetaillade, devouring books in different languages
and on almost every variety of subject. In 1672 he entered the
army, and in the two following years served in Germany under
Turenne. But ill-health and the death of his parents brought him
back to his studious life, and in 1675 he entered the cloister
of the Congregation of St Maur at La Daurade, Toulouse, taking
the vows there on the 13th of May 1676. He lived successively at
various abbey sat Soreze, where he specially studied Greek and
examined the numerous manuscripts of the convent library, at La
Grasse, and at Bordeaux; and in 1687 he was called to Paris, to
collaborate in an edition of Athanasius and Chrysostom,
contemplated by the Congregation. From 1698 to 1701 he lived in
Italy, chiefly in Rome in order to consult certain manuscripts,
those available in Paris being insufficient for the edition of
Chrysostom. After a stay of three years he returned to Paris,
and retired to the abbey of St-Ger-main-des-Pr6s, devoting
himself to the study of Greek and Latin and to the great works
by which he established his reputation. He died suddenly on the
21st of December 1741. Today he is renowned for his pioneering
work in the field of Greek paleontology
In 1719 he published "L'ANTIQUITÉ EXPLIQUÉE ET
REPRÉSENTÉE EN FIGURES" in 15 volumes of parallel French
and Latin text. In this massive work, Montfaucon reproduces,
methodically grouped, all the ancient monuments that might be of
use in the study of the religion, domestic customs, material
life, military institutions, and funeral rites of the ancients.
Of this work, which contains 1120 plates, the whole edition of
1800 copies was exhausted in two months, in spite of its
enormous size. The work was subsequently published in English in
1721 as "ANTIQUITY EXPLAINED, AND REPRESENTED IN
SCULPTURES, By The Learned Father Montfaucon, Translated Into
English By David Humphreys, M.A. and Fellow of Trinity College
in Cambridge." The plate shown here was extracted from this
six volume English work. The engravings were rendered by artists
of the House of Pierre Giffart in Paris and depict various
artifacts and monuments of the ancient world found either in
ancient monuments or buildings; or in paintings, carvings,
drawings, or engravings preserved in the choicest cabinets of
that kingdom; relating to its history, government, constitution,
laws, manners, customs, weapons, armour, habits and fashions;
their commencement, duration, and changes; representing all that
peculiarly concerns the persons, families, and illustrious
actions, of many of the kings, queens, dauphins, and other
children of France, Princes of the blood, peers of the realm,
high officers, and lords of state, civil and military; together
with several of their portraits, and the chief of their public
transactions. Particularly, several very scarce and curious
pieces of antiquity, relating to the most material parts of
English history are presented in this work.
This work served as a fundamental source work of classical
motifs for painters, sculptors and architects. In preparing
L'Antiquité, de Montfaucon received contributions and
assistance from many of the greatest European collections of
antiquities of the period; most of these are credited adjacent
to each of their respective illustrations. The regent, Philippe
d'Orléans, desired that the author should become a member of
the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and he was
elected to replace Père Letellier in 1719. In spite of the
imperfections that are impossible to avoid in such an immense
work, one cannot deny that it contributed to the spread,
particularly in France, of the interest in archaeology.
Also, here's a poem that tells
about her:
Wherefore great mother of gods, and mother
of beasts,
And parent of man hath she alone been
named.
Her hymned the old and learned bards of
Greece.
Seated in chariot o'er the realms of air
To drive her team of lions, teaching thus
That the great earth hangs poised and
cannot lie
Resting on other earth. Unto her car
They've yoked the wild beasts, since a
progeny,
However savage, must be tamed and chid
By care of parents. They have girt about
With turret-crown the summit of her head,
Since, fortressed in her goodly strongholds
high,
'Tis she sustains the cities; now, adorned
With that same token, to-day is carried
forth,
With solemn awe through many a mighty land,
The image of that mother, the divine.
Her the wide nations, after antique rite,
Do name Idaean Mother, giving her
Escort of Phrygian bands, since first, they
say,
From out those regions 'twas that grain
began
Through all the world. To her do they
assign
The Galli, the emasculate, since thus
They wish to show that men who violate
The majesty of the mother and have proved
Ingrate to parents are to be adjudged
Unfit to give unto the shores of light
A living progeny. The Galli come:
And hollow cymbals, tight-skinned
tambourines
Resound around to bangings of their hands;
The fierce horns threaten with a raucous
bray;
The tubed pipe excites their maddened minds
In Phrygian measures; they bear before them
knives,
Wild emblems of their frenzy, which have
power
The rabble's ingrate heads and impious
hearts
To panic with terror of the goddess' might.
And so, when through the mighty cities
borne,
She blesses man with salutations mute,
They strew the highway of her journeyings
With coin of brass and silver, gifting her
With alms and largesse, and shower her and
shade
With flowers of roses falling like the snow
Upon the Mother and her companion-bands.
Here is an armed troop, the which by Greeks
Are called the Phrygian Curetes. Since
Haply among themselves they use to play
In games of arms and leap in measure round
With bloody mirth and by their nodding
shake
The terrorizing crests upon their heads,
This is the armed troop that represents
The arm'd Dictaean Curetes, who, in Crete,
As runs the story, whilom did out-drown
That infant cry of Zeus, what time their
band,
Young boys, in a swift dance around the
boy,
To measured step beat with the brass on
brass,
That Saturn might not get him for his jaws,
And give its mother an eternal wound
Along her heart. And it is on this account
That armed they escort the mighty Mother,
Or else because they signify by this
That she, the goddess, teaches men to be
Eager with armed valour to defend
Their motherland, and ready to stand forth,
The guard and glory of their parents'
years.
~ Lucretius, On the Nature
of Things
[Her priests were called "galli"
because they had to castrate themselves prior to entering her
service.]
About the name Cybèle 
