Cybele

"The great mother of the earth."

Cybele (キユベレ, Cybele) is a Summon of the Venus element. It is one of sixteen summons that is automatically available as soon as the player acquires the necessary Djinn.

Basic Mechanics

For a successful summoning of Cybele, the player must have three Venus Djinn on Standby. Cybele has a base Venus power of 120 and also does additional damage equivalent to 9% of the enemy’s maximum HP. In addition, the summoner's Venus Power will be increased by 60 points.

In the GBA series, the sequence appears as a large, orange-and-blue amphibian with a beard and a pair of trees growing from its head, dropping down and spiting out a small bunch of seeds that land at the feet of the enemy forces, grow into a mass of long vines, and entangle and carry the enemy up offscreen for a moment. Then, the vines dissipate and the enemies fall back down to earth. This frog creature was originally assumed to be Cybele until Golden Sun: Dark Dawn revealed it to be merely her pet or underling.

Cybele as she appears in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, owner of the frog that creates vines.

In Dark Dawn, Cybele's summon sequence reveals that Cybele is a giant, silver-haired maiden, and that it is she that sends the frog to assist the party via entangling the enemy forces. Cybele reclines in a barren wasteland, but as she awakens, lush grass and trees overtake the landscape. She then conjures a petite form of the vine frog, and gently blows it away so that it lands in the battle scene. The frog immediately burrows into the ground underneath the enemy group and makes vines burst out of the ground with enough force that the enemies are propelled far up into the air.

Analysis

Cybele can be considered to be the first truly useful Venus summon sequence. Compared to Ramses, Cybele is twice as powerful but only uses 1.5 times the Djinn, making it more efficient. In Golden Sun, Cybele can be very effective in the boss fight against the Killer Ape in Mogall Forest, where the third Venus Djinni necessary to use Cybele can be found right beforehand. Cybele may not see as much use in The Lost Age, as the fourth Djinn necessary for Judgment can be found prior to any boss battles the player may fight. In Dark Dawn, Cybele is an available summon early on, as Isaac and Garet will each lend the player some Djinn for the tutorial dungeons. During the game proper, the unequal distribution of Djinn means that Cybele can quickly be passed over in favor of Judgment. In any case, however, Cybele is powerful enough that it may still see use in certain situations.

Cultural references

Origin: Phrygian, Roman, Greek

Cybele was a Phrygian earth mother goddess who was adapted into Greek and Roman mythology as an ancestral earth-mother, often associated with the likes of the Olympian corn-goddess Demeter, the Titaness Rhea ( the mother of the six Olympians); or even as Gaea, the ancient landmass of the Earth itself. The Romans reinvented her as a Trojan Goddess, and thus, by way of the myth of the Trojan Aeneas establishing Rome, was established as a major cult deity in the Roman Empire. She is depicted in art as a human woman, much like in Dark Dawn.

Dark Dawn's re-interpretation of the frog as a summon of Cybele herself may be an allusion to Attis, a Phrygian vegetation god who was Cybele's consort.

Extended Gallery

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  Cybele's Frog separated sprite

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  Cybele full GBA sequence

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  Concept art of Cybele from Golden Sun: Dark Dawn