in antiquity, priests of Cybele, who danced and capered to the sound of flutes and drums. See Crotalum.

Catullus, in his poem called Atys, gives a beautiful description of them, representing them as madmen. Accordingly Maximus Tyrius says, that those possessed with the spirit of Corybantes, as soon as they heard the sound of a flute, were seized with an enthusiasm, and lost the use of their reason. And hence the Greeks use the word ἐποβατεῖν, to corobantize, to signify a person's being transported or possessed with a devil. See Enthusiasm.

Some say that the Corybantes were all eunuchs; and that it is on this account Catullus, in his Atys, always uses feminine epithets and relatives in speaking of them.

Diodorus Siculus remarks, that Corybas, son of Jason and Cybele, passing into Phrygia with his uncle Dardanus, there instituted the worship of the mother of the gods, and gave his own name to the priests. Strabo relates it as the opinion of some, that the Corybantes were children of Jupiter and Calliope, and the same with the Cabiri. Others say the word had its origin from this, that the Corybantes always walked dancing (if the expression may be allowed) or tossing the head, ἐποβατεῖν, to dance.