The paper is a psycho-analytic interpretation of the cult of Cybele and Attis originating in Phrygea and popular in Rome during the latter days of the republic and early days of the empire. The gist of the various versions of the cult is that Cybele was a hermaphrodite who through an operation became female. She became the mother of Attis with whom she was also in love and who loved her. He, through remorse and also in attempting to relive his mother's cycle, emasculated himself. Cybele, out of remorse for having been the cause of his self-mutilation, obtained immortality for him. The motives for the self-castration drive in neurotics are seen here—i.e. guilt, self-punishment, identification with the mother, and the purchasing of life at the expense of virility.