In
Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called
Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess":
Mount Ida in
Crete; and
Mount Ida in the ancient
Troad region of western
Anatolia (in modern-day
Turkey) which was also known as the
Phrygian Ida in classical antiquity and is the mountain that is mentioned in the
Iliad of
Homer and the
Aeneid of
Virgil. Both are associated with the
mother goddess in the deepest layers of pre-Greek myth, in that Mount Ida in Anatolia was sacred to
Cybele, who is sometimes called
Mater Idaea ("Idaean Mother"), while
Rhea, often identified with Cybele, put the infant
Zeus to nurse with
Amaltheia at Mount Ida in Crete. Thereafter, his birthplace was sacred to Zeus, the king and father of Greek gods and goddesses.