Strangest Rituals in Ancient Times part 2

Self-Mutilation:

In ancient Greece, one particularly strange ritual was the religious practice of self-mutilation. The followers of Cybele, a goddess of fertility, would sometimes engage in extreme acts of self-harm during their worship. These acts included castration, self-flagellation, and even self-emasculation. The purpose of such rituals was to transcend the physical and achieve a higher spiritual connection with

the deity they worshipped. It is hard for us to fathom the level of devotion and belief that would drive individuals to inflict such extreme pain upon themselves.