CORIBANTES. The Corybantes, attendants of the goddess Cybele, followed her with wild dances and music of the tambourine. They were sometimes identified with the Curetes, who guarded the child Jupiter, clashing their spears and shields together to drown out his cries. In this way they prevented his father Saturn from finding him (Fasti IV.199-219).

In expanding Jean de Meun's gloss on Bo IV, Metr 5.16-20, Chaucer adds that the people called Coribantes think that the moon is enchanted when it goes into eclipse, so they beat their basins of brass to release it from enchantment. Pliny attributes the custom to certain primitive peoples (Natural History, II.ix.54). Chaucer follows Trevet in attributing the custom to the Coribantes.