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KOURETES

Greek Singular:
Greek Plural: Kourhte
KourhteV Transliteration: Kouręte
Kourętes Translation: Youths
Latin Spelling: Curetes

THE KOURETES were nine Kretan Daimones who cared for the infant Zeus. To keep the babe safely hidden from his cannabalistic father they drowned out the god's cries with their frenzied dance of clashing spear and shield.

They were frequently confused with, and were barely distinguishable, from the Phrygian Korybantes.

Parents

(1) THE HEKATERIDES x5 (Catalgoes of Women)
(2) THE DAKTYLOI x5 & THE HEKATERIDES x5 (Strabo 10.3.19-22)
(3) THE DAKTYLOI x5 (Diodorus Siculus 5.65.1)
(4) GAIA (Diodorus Siculus 5.65.1, Dionysiaca 14.23)
(5) born from a shower of rain [upon GAIA?] (Metamorphoses 4.282)

Names

(1) MELISSEUS (Apollodorus 1.4-5)
(2) PYRRHIKHOS (Pausanias 3.25.2)
(3) MELISSEUS, PYRRHIKHOS, IDAIOS, KYRBAS, PRYMNEUS, MIMAS, AKMON, DAMNEUS, OKYTHOOS (Dionysiaca 13.135 & 14.23)

Greek: PurricoV
IdaioV
KurbaV
PrumneuV
MimaV
Akmwn
DamneuV
WkuqooV
MelisseuV Transliteration: Pyrrhikhos
Idaios
Kyrbas
Prymneus
Mimas
Akmon
Damneus
Okythoos
Melisseus Latin Spellings: Pyrrhichus
Idaeus
Cyrbas
Prymneus
Mimas
Acmon
Damneus
Ocythoos
Melisseus

Offspring

(1) THE YOUNGER DAKTYLOI x90 (Strabo 10.3.22)
(2) ADRASTEIA, IDA (daughters of the Kourete Melisseus) (Apollodorus 1.4-5)
(3) IDA (daughter of the Kourete Korybas) (Diodorus Siculus 4.60.3)

"But of them [the daughters of Hekateros] were born ... and the divine Kouretes, sportive dancers." -Catalogues of Women

“Hymn to the Kouretes. Leaping Kouretes, who with dancing feet and circling measures armed footsteps beat: shoe bosoms Bakkhanalian furies firer, who move in rhythm to the sounding lyre: who traces deaf when lightly leaping tread, arm-bearers, strong defenders, rulers dread: famed deities the guards (of Persephone) preserving rites mysterious and divine: come, and benevolent this hymn attend, and with glad mind the herdsman’s life defend.” –Orphic Hymn 31 to the Curetes

“To the Kouretes, Fumigation from Frankincense. Brass-beating Kouretes, ministers of Ares, who wear his arms the instruments of wars; whose blessed frames, heaven, earth, and sea compose, and from whose breath all animals arose: who dwell in Samothrake’s sacred ground, defending mortals through the sea profound. Deathless Kouretes, by your power alone, the greatest mystic rites to men at first were shown. Who shake old Okeanos thundering to the sky, and stubborn oaks with branches waving high. ‘Tis yours in glittering arms the earth to beat, with lightly leaping, rapid, sounding feet; then every beast the noise terrific flies, and the loud tumult wanders through the skies. The dust your feet excites, with matchless force flies to the clouds amidst their whirling course; and every flower of variegated hue grows in the dancing motion formed by you; immortal Daimones, to your powers consigned, the task to nourish and destroy mankind, when rushing furious with loud tumult dire, overwhelmed, they perish in your dreadful ire; and live replenished with the balmy air, the food of life, committed to your care. When shook by you, the seas with wild uproar, wide-spreading, and profoundly whirling, roar. The concave heavens with echo’s voice resound, when leaves with rustling noise bestrew the ground. Kouretes, Korybantes, ruling kings, whose praise the land of Samothrake sings; great Zeus’ assessors; whose immortal breath sustains the soul, and wafts her back from death; aerial-formed, who in Olympos shine the heavenly Twins [Dioskouroi] all-lucid and divine; blowing, serene, from whom abundance springs, nurses of seasons, fruit-producing kings.” –Orphic Hymn 38 to the Curetes

“To Korybas, Fumigation from Frankincense. The mighty ruler of this earthly ball for ever flowing, to these rites I call; martial and blest, unseen by mortal sight, preventing fears, and pleased with gloomy night: hence fancy’s terrors are by thee allayed, all-various king, who lovest the desert shade. Each of thy brothers killing, blood is thine, twofold Kourete, many-formed, divine. By thee transmuted, Deo’s [Demeter’s] body pure became a Drakon’s savage and obscure: avert they anger, hear me when I pray, and, by fixed date, drive fancy’s fears away.” –Orphic Hymn 39 to Corybas

“The dance in armour was first invented and danced by the Kouretes.” -Greek Lyric II Thaletas Frag 10 (from Scholiast on Pindar)

”Ge (Earth), say the Greeks, was the first to produce man, having won that fine privilege, wishing to be mother not of senseless plants nor of unreasoning beasts but of a civilised, god-loving creature. But it is hard to discover, he says, whether Boiotian Alalkomeneus on the shore of the Kephissian lake was the first of men to appear, or if it was the Idaian Kouretes, divine race, or the Phrygian Korybantes that the sun first saw shooting up tree-like.” –Greek Lyric V Anonymous Fragments 985 (from Hippolytus, Refutation of all the Heresies)

"As for the Kouretes ... some assert that they originated in Krete." -Strabo 10.3.1

"Hesiod says that five daughters were born to Hekateros and the daughter of Phoroneus, 'from whom sprang the mountain-ranging Nymphai, goddesses, and the breed of Satyroi, creatures worthless and unfit for work, and also the Kouretes, sportive gods, dancers [Strabo later says that their fathers were the Daktyloi]." -Strabo 10.3.19

"And they [some writers] suspect that both the Kouretes and the Korybantes were offspring of the Idaian Daktyloi; at any rate, the first hundred men born in Krete were called Idaian Daktyloi, they say, and as offspring of these were born nine Kouretes, and each of these begot ten children who were called Idaian Daktyloi." -Strabo 10.3.22

“Not long after Kherronessos had ruled [the Chersonnese opposite Rhodes], five Kouretes passed over to it from Krete, and these were descendants of [or the same as] those who had received Zeus from his mother Rhea and had nurtured him in the mountains of Ide in Krete, And sailing to the Kherronesos with a notable expedition they expelled the Karians who dwelt there, and settling down in the land divided it into five parts, each of them founding a city which he named after himself …
Triopas, one of the sons of Helios and Rhodos, who was a fugitive because of the murder of his brother Tenages, came to the Kherronesos. And after he had been purified there of the murder by Melisseus the kin [one of the Kouretes], he sailed to Thassalia” –Diodorus Siculus 5.60.2

“The Curetes, sprung from a sharp shower [of rain from Ouranos (Heaven) upon Gaia (Earth)].” –Metamorphoses 4.282

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INDIVIDUAL KOURETES

"She [Rhea] put him [the babe Zeus] in the care of both the Kouretes and the Nymphai Adrasteia and Ide, daughters of Melisseus [eldest of the Kouretes]." -Apollodorus 1.4-5

"The war-dance was a soldiers' dance; and this is plainly indicated both by the 'Pyrrhic dance,' and by 'Pyrrikhos,' [one of the Kouretes] who is said to be the founder of this kind of training for young men, as also by the treatises on military affairs." -Strabo 10.3.8

“[Pyrhikhos, Lakedaimon] according to another account Pyrrhikhos was one of the gods called Kouretes.” –Pausanias 3.25.2

"All these [Kouretes] came then from the famous island: Prymneus, and Mimas Waddlefoot, and Akmon the forester, Damneus and Okythoos the shielfman; and with them came flash-helm Melisseus as comrade to Idaios.” –Dionysiaca 13.135

"The chief and leader of the dancing Korybantes [the Kouretes not the Korybantes] was Pyrrhikhos and shake-a-shield Idaios; and with them came Knossian Kyrbas, and armed his motley troops, their namefellow.” –Dionysiaca 14.23

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THE KOURETES PROTECTORS OF THE INFANT ZEUS

"The Koureites hid the holy babe of the goddess [Rhea] in a cave without the knowledge of crooked-witted Kronos, when blessed Rhea stole him and won great honour from the immortals." -Greek Lyric IV Corinna Frag 654

“O secret chamber the Kouretes knew! O holy cavern in the Kretan glade where Zeus was cradled, where for our delight the triple-crested Korybantes drew tight the round drum-skin, till its wild beat made rapturous rhythm to the breathing sweetness of Phrygian flutes! Then divine Rhea found the drum could give her Bacchic airs completeness.” –Euripides Bacchae 120

"Rhea, when she was heavy with Zeus, went off to Krete and gave birth to him there in a cave on Mount Dikte. She put him in the care of both the Kouretes and the Nymphai Adrasteia and Ide, daughters of Melisseus [eldest of the Kouretes]. These Nymphai nursed the baby with the milk of Amaltheia, while the armed Kouretes stood guard over him in the cave, banging their spears against their shields to prevent Kronos from hearing the infant’s voice." -Apollodorus 1.4-5

“When the Nymphe [Neda], carrying thee, O Father Zeus [from Arkadia where he was born to hand over to his protectors and nurses in Krete], toward Knosos … But thee, O Zeus, the companions of Kyrbantes [Kouretes] took to their arms, even the Diktaian Meliai, and Adrasteia [Nemesis] laid thee to rest in a cradle of gold, and thou didst suck the rich teat of the she-goat Amaltheia, and thereto eat the sweet honey-comb ... And lustily round thee danced the Kouretes a war-dance, beating their armour, that Kronos might hear with his ears the din of the shield, but not thine infant noise..” -Callimachus, Hymn I to Zeus 42

"Kouretes, young men who executed movements in armour, accompanied by dancing, as they set forth the mythical story of the birth of Zeus; in this they introduced Kronos as accustomed to swallow his children immediately after their birth, and Rhea as trying to keep her travail secret and, when the child was born, to get it out of the way and save its life by every means in her power; and to accomplish this it is said that she took as helpers the Kouretes, who, by surrounding the goddess with tambourines and similar noisy instruments and with war-dance and uproar, were supposed to strike terror into Kronos and without his knowledge to steal his child away; and that, according to tradition, Zeus was actually reared by them with the same diligence; consequently the Kouretes, either because, being young, that is 'youths,' they performed this service, or because they 'reared' Zeus 'in his youth' (for both explanations are given), were accorded this appellation." -Strabo 10.3.11

"In the Kretan accounts the Kouretes are called 'rearers of Zeus,' and 'protectors of Zeus,' having been summoned from Phrygia to Krete by Rhea. Some say that, of the nine Telkhines who lived in Rhodes, those who accompanied Rhea to Krete and 'reared' Zeus 'in his youth' were named Kouretes." -Strabo 10.3.19

“The Messenians have their share in the story: for they too say that the god [the infant Zeus] was brought up among them and that his nurses were Ithome and Neda ... These Nymphai are said to have bathed Zeus here, after he was stolen by the Kouretes owing to the danger that threatened from his father, and it is said that it [the fountain Klepsydra on Mt Ithome in Messenia] has its name from the Kouretes’ theft.” –Pausanias 4.33.1

“As for the Olympiakos Games, the most learned antiquarians of Elis say that Kronos was the first king of heaven, and that in his honour a temple was built in Olympia by the man of that age, who were named the Golden Race. When Zeus was born, Rhea entrusted the guardianship of her son to the Daktyloi of Ida, who are the same as those called Kouretes [Pausanias here confuses the Kouretes with their fathers the Daktyloi]. They came from Kretan Ida – Herakles, Paionaios, Epimedes, Iasios and Idas.” –Pausanias 5.7.6-10

"In the days when he ruled the Titanes in Olympos and Zeus was still a child, tended in the Kretan cave by the Kouretes of Ida." -Argonautica 2.1231-1241

“In olden days he [Zeus] played as a child in fragrant Dikton, near the hill of Ida, they set him in a cave and nurtured him for the space of a year, what time the Diktaioi Kouretes were deceiving Kronos.” –Phaenomena 27

“After the Daktyloi Idaioi [who lived in Krete], according to accounts we have, there were nine Kouretes. Some writers of myths relate that these gods were born of the Earth, but according to others, they were descended from the Daktyloi Idaioi. Their home they made in mountainous places which were thickly wooded and full of ravines, and which, in a word, provided a natural shelter and coverage, since it had not yet been discovered how to build houses. And since these Kouretes excelled in wisdom they discovered many things which are of use to men generally; so, for instance, they were the first to gather sheep into flocks, to domesticate the several other kinds of animals which men fatten, and to discover the making of honey [one of them was named Melisseus or Honey-Man]. In the same manner they introduced the art of shooting with the bow and the ways of hunting animals, and they showed mankind how to live and associate together in a common life, and they were the originators of concord and, so to speak, of orderly behaviour. The Kouretes also invented swords and helmets and the war-dance, by means of which they raised a great alarum and deceived Kronos. And we are told that, when Rhea, the mother of Zeus, entrusted him to them unbeknown to Kronos his father, they took him under their care and saw to his nurture …
The myth the Kretans relate runs like this: when the Kouretes were young men, the Titanes, as they are called, were still living. These Titanes had their dwelling in the land about Knosos.” –Diodorus Siculus 5.65.1

“When she [Rhea] had given birth to Zeus, concealed him in Ide, as it is called, and, without the knowledge of Kronos, entrusted the rearing of him to the Kouretes of Mt Ide. The Kouretes bore him off to a certain cave where they gave him over to the Nymphai [Ida & Adrasteia], with the command that they should minister to his every need And the Nymphai nurtured the child on a mixture of honey and milk and gave him upbringing at the udder of the goat which was named Amaltheia.
And many evidences of the birth and upbringing of this god remain to this day on the island. For instance, when he was being carried away, while still an infant, by the Kouretes, they say that the umbilical cord (omphalos) fell from him near the river known as Triton, and that this spot has been made sacred and has been called Omphalos after that incident, while in like manner the plain about it is known as Omphaleion. And on Mount Ide, where the god was nurtured, bot the cave in which he spent his days has been made sacred to him, and the meadows about it, which lie upon the ridges of the mountain, have in like manner been consecrated to him. But he most astonishing of all that which the myth relates has to do with the bees, and we should not omit to mention it: The god, they say, wishing to preserve an immortal memorial of his close association with the bees [from with the Kourete Melisseus harvested honey to feed him], changed the colour of them, making it like copper with the gleam of gold, and since the region lay at a very great altitude, where fierce winds blew about it and heavy snows fell, he made the bees insensible to such things and unaffected by them, since they must range over the most wintry stretches.” –Diodorus Siculus 5.70.1

“After Opis [Rhea] had borne Jove [Zeus] by Saturn [Kronos], Juno [Hera] asked her to give him to her, since Saturn and cast Orcus [Haides] under Tartarus, and Neptunus [Poseidon] under the sea, because he knew that his son would rob him of the kingdom. When he had asked Opis for what she had borne, in order to devour it, Opis showed him a stone wrapped up like a baby; Saturnus devoured it. When he realized what he had done, he started to hunt for Jove throughout the earth. Juno, however, took Jove to the island of Crete, and Amalthea, the child’s nurse, hung him in a cradle from a tree, so that he could be found neither in heaven nor on earth nor in the sea. And lest the cries of the baby be heard, she summoned youths and gave them small brazen shields and spears, and bade them go around the tree making a noise. In Greek they are called Curetes; others call them Corybantes; these in Italy, however are called Lares.” –Hyginus Fabulae 139

“Why the Great Goddess [Rhea-Kybele] loves incessant din? ... [When] Jove [Zeus] was born [to Rhea]: a stone, concealed in cloth, settled in the god’s [Kronos'] gullet; so the father was fated to be tricked. For a long time steep Ida booms its clanging noise so the wordless infant may wail safely. Shields or empty helmets are pounded with sticks, the Curetes’ or Corybantes’ task. The truth hid. The ancient event’s copied today: her acolytes shake brass and rumbling hides. They hammer cymbals, not helmets, and drums, not shields; the flute makes Phrygian tunes as before.” –Ovid Fasti 4.207

“The Berecyntian mother [Rhea], while she bids the Curetes leap in excited dance around the infant Thunderer [Zeus]’; their cymbals clash in emulous frenzy, but [Mount] Ide resounds with his loud wailings.” –Thebaid 4.782

“The Kouretes were the nurses of the infant Zeus, the mighty son of Kronos, what time Rhea concealed his birth and carried away the newly-born child from Kronos, his sire implacable, and placed him in the vales of Krete. And when the son of Ouranos beheld the lusty young child he transformed the first glorious guardians of Zeus and in vengeance made the Kouretes wild beasts. And since by the devising of the god Kronos exchanged their human shape and put upon them the form of Lions, thenceforth by the boon of Zeus they greatly lord it over the wild beasts which dwell upon the hills, and under the yoke they draw the terrible swift car of Rhea who lightens the pangs of birth.” –Cynegetica 3.7

“[The Kouretes] had surrounded Zeus a newborn babe in the cavern which fostered his breeding, and danced about him shield in hand, the deceivers, raising wild songs which echoed among the rocks and maddened the air – the noise of the clanging brass resounded in the ears of Kronos high among the clouds, and concealed the infancy of Kronion with drummings.” –Dionysiaca 14.30

"The pyrrhic dance[of the Kouretes] raised a noise in the ears of Kronos, and clanged sword on shield on Mount Ida, and rang out a valiant din to deceive the enemy, as he screened the stealthy nurture of growing Zeus ... [The Kourete Akmon] holding Korybantic shield, which had often held in its hollow baby Zeus asleep among the mountains: yes, a little cave once was the home of Zeus, where the sacred goat [Amaltheia] played the nurse to him with her milky udder for a makeshift, and cleverly let him suck the strange milk, when the noise of shaken shields resounded beaten on the back with tumbling steel to hide the little child with their clanging. Their help allowed Rheia to wrap up that stone of deceit, and gave it to Kronos for a meal in place of Kronides [Zeus].” –Dionysiaca 28.252

“The cave in the rock of Dikte with its flashing helmets, ask the Korybantes [Kouretes] too, where little Zeus used to play, when he sucked the nourishing pap of goat Amaltheia and grew strong in spirit, but never drank Rheia’s milk.” –Dionysiaca 46.14

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THE KOURETES PROTECTORS OF LETO IN CHILDBIRTH

"On the same coast [of Ephesos, Asia Minor], ... is also Ortygia ... here is the mythical scene of the birth [Leto gave birth to Apollon here] ... Above the grove lies Mt. Solmissos, where, it is said, the Kouretes stationed themselves, and with the din of their arms frightened Hera out of her wits when she was jealously spying on Leto, and when they helped Leto to conceal from Hera the birth of her children." -Strabo 14.1.20

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THE KOURETES & MINOS OF KRETE

"Minos’s son Glaukos, while he was still a to the chased a mouse and landed in a vat of honey, where he died. When he failed to appear, Minos launched a vast search for him, and sought divinations concerning his whereabouts. The Kouretes told Minos that he owned a tri-colored cow in his herds, and that the man who could most accurately describe the cows colour would also give him back his son alive." -Apollodorus 3.18

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THE KOURETES & DIONYSOS

“Now Hera left the shieldbeswingled cave of the Diktaian rock [in Krete where the Kouretes danced with swinging shields and lances].” –Dionysiaca 8.178

“The goddess [Rhea] took care of him [the baby Dionysos; and while he was yet a boy, she set him to drive a car drawn by ravening lions. Within that godwelcoming courtyard, the tripping Korybantes [Kouretes] would surround Dionysos with their childcherishing dance, and clash their swords, and strike their shields with rebounding steel in alternate movements, to conceal the growing boyhood of Dionysos; and as the boy listened to the fostering noise of the shields he grew up under the care of the Korybantes [Kouretes] like his father [Zeus].” –Dionysiaca 9.160

“At once Rheia Allmother sent out her messenger to gather the host [of armies for the war of Dionysos against the Indians], Pyrrhikhos [one of the Kouretes, his name is the title of the Greek dance in armour], the dancer before her loverattle timbrel, to proclaim the warfare of Lyaios under arms. Pyrrhikhos, gathering a varied army for Dionysos, scoured all the settlements of the eternal word; all the races of Europe and the nations of the Asiatic land he brought to rendezvous in the land of the livedainty Lydians.” –Dionysiaca 13.35

“The Euboian battalions were ruled by shield-bearing Korybantes [Nonnos is referring to six of the Kouretes], guardians of Dionysos in his growing days: who in the Phrygian gulf beside mountain-ranging Rheia surrounded Bakkhos still a child with their drumskins. They found him once, a horned baby, covered with a cloak the colour of purple wine, lying among the rocks where Ino had left him in charge of Mystis the mother Korymbos. All these came then from the famous island: Prymneus, and Mimas Waddlefoot, and Akmon the forester, Damneus and Okythoos the shielfman; and with them came flash-helm Melisseus as comrade to Idaios, whom ther father Sokos under the insane goad of impiety had once cast out of the brinegirt country along with Kombe the mother of seven [Korybantes]. They escaped and passed to Knossian soil, and again went on their travels from Krete to Phrygia, and from Phrygia to Athens; where they remained as foreign settlers and hearthguests until Kekrops destroyed Sokos with avenging blade of justice; then leaving the land of brineflooded Marathon turned their steps homewards to the sacred soil of the Abantes, the earthborn stock of the ancient Kouretes, whose life is the tune of pipes, whose life is goodly noise of beaten swords, whose heart is set upon rhythmic circling of the feet and the shield-wise dancing. To the army came also warrior sons of the Abantes [the men of Euboia] … Seven captains armed this host, but all of one temper for war: with blazing altar they propitiated the tenants of the Zodiac path, committing their campaign to the planets of equal number.” –Dionysiaca 13.135

“From Krete came [when Rheia summoned gods to join Dionysos in his war against the Indians] grim warriors to join them, the Idaian Daktyloi [Nonnos is referring to the other three Kouretes & not the Daktyloi], dwellers on a rocky crag, earthborn Korybantes, a generation which grew up for Rheia selfmade out of the ground in the olden time. These had surrounded Zeus a newborn babe in the cavern which fostered his breeding, and danced about him shield in hand, the deceivers, raising wild songs which echoed among the rocks and maddened the air – the noise of the clanging brass resounded in the ears of Kronos high among the clouds, and concealed the infancy of Kronion with drummings. The chief and leader of the dancing Korybantes [the Kouretes not the Korybantes] was Pyrrhikhos and shake-a-shield Idaios; and with them came Knossian Kyrbas, and armed his motley troops, their namefellow.” –Dionysiaca 14.23

“At the mouth of the Astakid lake many a son of India was cut up by the steel of the Kouretes. The warriors surrounded the battalions of the foe with blow for blow, and imitated the rhythms of the armour-dance in the wheeling movements of their feet. Leneus broke off a crested peak from a mountain, and lifting this in his hairy hand, he cast the jagged mass among the enemy.” –Dionysiaca 14.386

“The dancers of battle, the Diktaian Korybantes [the Kouretes], joined in the battle [with Dionysos against the Indians].
Damneus fought and pursued the enemy tribes. On the plain the warcry sounded. Prymneus succoured the excited Bakkhai women, like a fair wind which blows astern and saves the mariner riding with the gales; full welcome he came to the army, as Polydeukes brings calm to buffeted ships when he puts to sleep the heavy billows of the galebreeding sea.
Okythoos with light quick step scared away the warriors. Many he slew with speedy fate, bringing down one with spear in stand-up fight, one with a shot at a distant view, cutting down another with horrid knife; another still running onwards and flying like to the breezes the furious pursuer caught, plying his knees and feet quick as the wind – as good a runner as Iphiklos, who used to skim the untrodden calm touching only the surface with the soles of his feet, and passed over a cornfield without bending the tops of the ears with his travelling footsteps. Okythoos was like him windfoot.
Mimas was in the thick of the fray, making a dance of battle with woven paces and frightening the host, swinging a capering sword, the dancer-at-arms skipping in dead earnest with knowling leaps; as once the pyrrhic dance raised a noise in the ears of Kronos, and clanged sword on shield on Mount Ida, and rang out a valiant din to deceive the enemy, as he screened the stealthy nurture of growing Zeus. So mailclad Mimas brandished his spear in air in mimicry of the dance-at-arms, as he cut down the heads of his foes, an iron harvest of battle; so he offered the firstfruits of the enemy to witnessing Bakkhos with Indianslaying axe and doublebiting sword; so he poured his libation of blood and gore to Dionysos, instead of the sacrifice of cattle and the wonted drinkoffering of wine.
Beside Okythoos, Akmon with brilliant helmet moved his restless circling feet in knowing leaps. He fought unshakeable like the hammer-beaten anvil of his name, holding Korybantic shield, which had often held in its hollow baby Zeus asleep among the mountains: yes, a little cave once was the home of Zeus, where the sacred goat [Amaltheia] played the nurse to him with her milky udder for a makeshift, and cleverly let him suck the strange milk, when the noise of shaken shields resounded beaten on the back with tumbling steel to hide the little child with their clanging. Their help allowed Rheia to wrap up that stone of deceit, and gave it to Kronos for a meal in place of Kronides [Zeus].
Sharpsighted Idaios entered the revels of war, that dance of battle turning his intricate steps, incessantly shaken with the mad passion for Indian carnage.
Melisseus also scared all the dusky host with boldness unshaken. True to his name, he imitated the bee up in arms with her terrible sting. Morrheus hurled a hurtling stone against he quick Kourete who faces him, but he missed Melisseus, he missed him – for it is not seemly that a Korybante should be killed with a millstone.
So the dancers of cruel war fought all together as one. Round the car of Deriades they gathered in a ring of shields, beating their armour, and surrounded the tower in rhythmic battle and shieldbearing dance. And the noise mounted through the air to the palace of Zeus, and the fairfooted Horai trembled at the turmoil of both armies.” –Dionysiaca 28.275

“The Diktaian Korybantes joined battle [in Dionysos’ war against the Indians], shaking the plumes of their highcrested helmets, rushing madly into the fray. Their naked swords rang on their beaten shields in emulation, along with resounding leaps; they imitated the rhythm of the dance-at-arms with quick circling movements of their feet, a revel in the battlefield. The Indian nation was ravaged by the steel of those mountaineer herdsmen, the Kouretes. Many a man fell headlong into the dust when the heard the bellow of the heavy-thumping oxhides.” –Dionysiaca 29.215

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THE KOURETES & EPAPHOS

"Hera asked the Kouretes to kidnap the child [Epaphos], which they did. When Zeus found this out, he slew the Kouretes, while Io set out to find their baby." -Apollodorus 2.5-9

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THE DANCE OF THE KOURETES & THEIR CONNECTION WITH THE KORYBANTES & DAKTYLOI

"The Kabeiroi ... just as the Kyrbantes and Korybantes, and likewise the Kouretes and the Idaean Daktyloi, are identified with them." -Strabo 7 Fr 50

"Those accounts which, although they are called 'Kouretan History' and 'History of the Kouetes,' just as if they were the history of those Kouretes [a tribe of the same name] who lived in Aitolia and Akarnania, not only are different from that history, but are more like the accounts of the Satyroi, Silenoi, Bakkhai, and Tityroi; for the Kouretes, like these, are called Daimones or ministers of gods by those who have handed down to us the Kretan and the Phrygian traditions, which are interwoven with certain sacred rites, some mystical, the others connected in part with the rearing of the child Zeus in Krete and in part with the orgies in honor of the Mother of the Gods [Rhea] which are celebrated in Phrygia and in the region of the Trojan Ida. But the variation in these accounts is so small that, whereas some represent the Korybantes, the Kabeiroi, the Idaian Daktyloi, and the Telkhines as identical with the Kouretes, others represent them as all kinsmen of one another and differentiate only certain small matters in which they differ in respect to one another; but, roughly speaking and in general, they represent them, one and all, as a kind of inspired people and as subject to Bakkhic frenzy, and, in the guise of ministers, as inspiring terror at the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, accompanied by uproar and noise and cymbals and drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry; and consequently these rites are in a way regarded as having a common relationship, I mean these and those of the Samothrakians and those in Lemnos and in several other places, because the divine ministers are called the same. However, every investigation of this kind pertains to theology, and is not foreign to the speculation of the philosopher." -Strabo 10.3.7

"But I must now investigate how it comes about that so many names have been used of one and the same thing [the Daimones called Kouretes, Korybantes & Kabeiroi], and the theological element contained in their history. Now this is common both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to perform their sacred rites in connection with the relaxation of a festival, these rites being performed sometimes with religious frenzy, sometimes without it; sometimes with music, sometimes not; and sometimes in secret, sometimes openly. And it is in accordance with the dictates of nature that this should be so, for, in the first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and, secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and, thirdly, the secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived by our human senses; and, fourthly, music, which includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the delight it affords and by its artistic beauty, brings us in touch with the divine, and this for the following reason; for although it has been well said that human beings then act most like the gods when they are doing good to others, yet one might better say, when they are happy; and such happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing philosophy, and engaging in music." -Strabo 10.3.9

"In Krete, not only these rites [the orgiastic and Bakkhic], but in particular those sacred to Zeus, were performed along with orgiastic worship and with the kind of ministers who were in the service of Dionysos, I mean the Satyroi. These ministers they called Kouretes, young men who executed movements in armour, accompanied by dancing, as they set forth the mythical story of the birth of Zeus; in this they introduced Kronos as accustomed to swallow his children immediately after their birth, and Rhea as trying to keep her travail secret and, when the child was born, to get it out of the way and save its life by every means in her power; and to accomplish this it is said that she took as helpers the Kouretes, who, by surrounding the goddess with tambourines and similar noisy instruments and with war-dance and uproar, were supposed to strike terror into Kronos and without his knowledge to steal his child away; and that, according to tradition, Zeus was actually reared by them with the same diligence; consequently the Kouretes, either because, being young, that is 'youths,' they performed this service, or because they 'reared' Zeus 'in his youth' (for both explanations are given), were accorded this appellation, as if they were Satyroi, so to speak, in the service of Zeus. Such, then, were the Greeks in the matter of orgiastic worship." -Strabo 10.3.11

"The Greeks use the same name Kouretes for the ministers of the goddess [Phrygian Rhea]], not taking the name, however, from the same mythical story, but regarding them as a different set of Kouretes, helpers as it were, analogous to the Satyroi; and the same they also call Korybantes." -Strabo 10.3.12

"In the following verses he [Pindar] connects the Kretan usages [Kouretes] also with the Phrygian [Korybantes]: 'O thou hiding-bower of the Kouretes, and sacred haunts of Krete that gave birth to Zeus, where for me the triple-crested Korybantes in their caverns invented this hide-stretched circlet, and blent its Bakkhic revelry with the high-pitched, sweet-sounding breath of Phrygian flutes, and in Rhea's hands placed its resounding noise, to accompany the shouts of the Bakkhai, and from Mother Rhea frenzied Satyroi obtained it and joined it to the choral dances of the Trieterides, in whom Dionysus takes delight." -Strabo 10.3.13

"Further, one might also find, in addition to these facts concerning these Daimones and their various names, that they were called, not only ministers of gods, but also gods themselves. For instance, Hesiod says that five daughters were born to Hekateros and the daughter of Phoroneus, 'from whom sprang the mountain-ranging Nymphai, goddesses, and the breed of Satyroi, creatures worthless and unfit for work, and also the Kouretes, sportive gods, dancers.'
And the author of Phoronis speaks of the Kouretes as 'flute-players' and 'Phrygians'; and others as 'earth-born' and 'wearing brazen shields.' Some call the Korybantes, and not the Kouretes, 'Phrygians,' but the Kouretes 'Kretes,' and say that the Kretes were the first people to don brazen armour in Euboia, and that on this account they were also called 'Khalkidians'; still others say that the Korybantes, who came from Baktriana (some say from among the Kolkhians), were given as armed ministers to Rhea by the Titanes. But in the Kretan accounts the Kouretes are called 'rearers of Zeus,' and 'protectors of Zeus,' having been summoned from Phrygia to Krete by Rhea. Some say that, of the nine Telkhines who lived in Rhodes, those who accompanied Rhea to Krete and 'reared' Zeus 'in his youth' were named Kouretes." -Strabo 10.3.19

"Some, however, believe that the Kouretes were the same as the Korybantes and were ministers of Hekate." -Strabo 10.3.20

"The Skepsian says that it is probable that the Kouretes and the Korybantes were the same, being those who had been accepted as young men, or 'youths,' for the war-dance in connection with the holy rites of the Mother of the Gods [Rhea]." -Strabo 10.3.21

"The lawgiver [Rhadamanthys?]commanded the boys to attend the Troops ... he commanded that from boyhood they should grow up accustomed to arms and toils, so as to scorn heat, cold, marches over rugged and steep roads, and blows received in gymnasiums or regular battles; and that they should practise, not only archery, but also the war-dance, which was invented and made known by the Kouretes at first, and later, also, by the man who arranged the dance that was named after him, I mean the Pyrrhikhos dance, so that not even their sports were without a share in activities that were useful for warfare." -Strabo 10.4.16

“They [the Argonauts] seized shields and spears, and dispersed them [arrow shooting birds] by the noise, after the manner of the Curetes.” –Hyginus Fabulae 20

“She [Demeter hiding away Persephone] heard the music of the helmeted Kretan troop resounding in Dikte, as they danced about with the tumbling steel thundering heavy upon their oxhide shields.” –Dionysiaca 6.120

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CULT OF THE KOURETES

“The Messenians [at Messene, Messenia] have a … hall of the Kouretes, where they make burnt offerings of every kind of living creature, thrusting into the flames not only cattle and goats, but finally birds as well.” –Pausanias 4.31.9

“From Akakesion [in Arkadia] it is four stades to the sanctuary of Depoine ... The story of the Kouretes is represented under the images [in the sanctuary], and that of the Korybantes (a different race from the Kouretes), carved in relief upon the base, I know, but pass them by." -Pausanias 8.37.1

Sources:

Hesiod, Catalogues of Women - Greek Epic C8th-7th BC
The Orphic Hymns - Greek Hymns C? BC
Greek Lyric II Thaletas, Fragments - Greek Lyric BC
Greek Lyric IV Corinna, Fragments - Greek Lyric C5th BC
Greek Lyric V, Anonymous Fragments - Greek Lyric BC
Euripides, Bacchae - Greek Tragedy C5th BC
Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd BC
Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st BC - C1st AD
Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd AD
Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd BC
Callimachus, Hymns - Greek C3rd BC
Aratus, Phaenomena - Greek C3rd BC
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History - Greek History C1st BC
Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd AD
Ovid, Fasti - Latin Epic C1st BC - C1st AD
Statius, Thebaid - Latin Epic C1st AD
Oppian, Cynegetica – Greek Poetry C3rd AD
Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th AD
Other references not currently quoted here: Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1.23.5 & 2.70.3; Statius Thebaid 2.274; Virgil Georgics 4.151

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