Hipta

In the inscriptions which mention Hipta, her name is given as () or (), names which are non-Greek in origin. In editions of the Orphic Hymns produced prior to the discovery of Hipta's name in epigraphic evidence, her name was rendered as "Hippa" (), a reading of her name recorded in a number of the collection's manuscripts. According to the 5th- or 6th-century AD grammarian Hesychius, the word refers to a bird (perhaps, in particular, woodpeckers), and is also a name for the goddess Hera. == Lydian inscriptions ==

Hipta is mentioned in four Greek inscriptions from Katakekaumene, a region of Lydia in Asia Minor which sits to the northeast of Mount Tmolus; all four inscriptions were discovered within a radius of twelve kilometres. One such inscription, found in a church in the settlement of Gölde, is a stele which likely dates to the 1st century AD. It refers to "Mother Hipta" (), and mentions the Phrygian god Sabazios; above the inscription is a relief containing objects similar to those which have been found depicted on votive hands to Sabazios. There is only a single known inscription which names Hipta without mentioning Sabazios, which was discovered on an altar in a house from Maionia, and likely dates to the 1st century AD. The remaining two inscriptions are examples of so-called "confession" inscriptions, a group of inscriptions found in the region which date to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD and contain a guilty confession to the deity they address. One of these inscriptions, discovered in Ayazviran, relates the suffering of an individual who stole a slave of Hipta and Sabazios and subsequently received an eye disease. The other "confession" inscription, found in an individual's house in the region, reads as follows: These inscriptions evince that Hipta and Sabazios were venerated in cult in the city of Maionia, and seem to indicate that there existed a place of worship dedicated to Hipta and Sabazios in the area, which Anne-France Morand suggests may have been a sacred grove. Given the proximity of the inscriptions to each other, Peter Hermann suggested that they may have originated from a single cult site. The inscriptions address Hipta as "Mother Hipta", pointing strongly to a connection with the Phrygian goddess Cybele. According to Ian Rutherford, Hipta may have been a late form of Ḫepat, a goddess worshipped in Hurrian religion. == Orphic literature ==

Hipta is addressed in the forty-ninth of the Orphic Hymns, a collection of Greek hymns composed in Asia Minor around the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD. Within the collection, the hymn to Hipta is among the group of hymns which focus on the childhood of Dionysus, with her hymn falling directly behind that to Sabazios. In the hymn to Sabazios, Dionysus is sewed into the thigh of Sabazios-Zeus, and, when he emerges, is given to Hipta, who rears him on Mount Tmolus, a mountain near to where the inscriptions mentioning her were discovered. In Hipta's own hymn, she is similarly described as the nurse of Dionysus, and as: Within this passage, "Sabos" refers to Sabazios. The connection with Cybele may also be present in her Orphic Hymn, where she is addressed, in line 4, as "chthonic mother", and associated with Mount Ida and Mount Tmolus. The strong association of the Orphic Hymn to Hipta with that to Sabazios mirrors their connection in the inscriptions which mention her. According to the 5th-century AD Neoplatonist Proclus, the mythical poet Orpheus was the author of a work entitled On Hipta. Proclus also relates a tale, in which, after the birth of Dionysus from Zeus's thigh, the young god is given to Hipta, who puts the child in a (, a winnowing basket), around which a snake is coiled, which she places on top of her head. The is an object frequently used in Dionysian worship, and is attested in ancient art, and snakes are known to played a role in mysteries of Sabazios. This story appears to be congruent with the description of the Hipta in the Orphic Hymns, and may be illustrated on a vase from the classical period which depicts a female figure presenting to two gods a winnowing basket, the contents of which are covered. According to Rosa García-Gasco, a figure mentioned in Nonnus's Dionysiaca, Mystis, is a name for Hipta, the nurse of Dionysus from Orphic literature. == Notes ==