Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/637

 PHRYGIA. the nation settled in Asia ; for the Phrygians are not only repeatedly spoken of in the Homeric poems {II. ii. 862, iii. 185, x. 431, xvi. 717, ssiv. 535), but are generally admitted to be one of the most ancient nations in Asia Minor (see the story in Herod, ii. 2), whence they, or rather a portion of them, must at one time have migrated into Europe; so that in our traditions the account of their migrations has been reversed, as in many other cases. The geographical position of the Phrygians points to the highlands of Armenia as the land of their first abode, and the relationship between the Phrygians and Armenians is attested by some singular coincidences. In the army of Xerxes these two nations appear under one commander and using the same armour ; and Herodotus (vii. 73) adds the remark that the Ar- menians were the descendants of the Phrygians. Eudoxus {ap. Steph. B. s. v. ^ApfJ-evia, and Eustath. ad Dion. Per. 694) mentions the same circumstance, and moreover alludes to a similarity in the lan- guages of the two peoples. Both are said to have lived in subterraneous habitations (Vitruv. ii. 1 ; Xenoph. Anab. iv. 5. § 25; Diod. xiv. 28); and the names of both, lastly, are used as synonyms. (Anecd. Graec. Oxon. iv. p. 257, ed. Cramer.) Under these circumstances it is impossible not to come to the conclusion that the Phrygians were Armenians ; though here, again, the account of their migration has been reversed, the Armenians not being descended from the Phrygians, but the Phry- gians from the Armenians. The time when they descended from the Armenian highlands cannot be determined, and unquestionably belongs to the re- motest ages, for the Phrygians are described as the most ancient inhabitants of Asia Minor. (Paus. i. 14. §2; Claudian, in Eutrop. ii. 251, &c.; Appulei. Metam. xi. p. 762, ed. Oud.) The Phrygian legends of a great flood, connected with king Annacus or Nannacus, also are veiy significant. This king re- sided at Iconium, the most eastern city of Phrygia; and after his death, at the age of 300 years, a great flood overwhelmed the country, as had been foretold by an ancient oracle. (Zosim. vi. 10; Suid. s. v. HafvaKos; Steph. B. s.v. 'Indftov; comp. Ov. Met. vlii. 620, &c.) Phrygia is said to have first risen out of the flood, and the ark and Mount Ararat are mentioned in connection with the Plnygian town of Celaenae. After this the Phrygians are said to have been the first to adopt idolatry. {Orac. Sibyll. i. 196, 262, 266, vii. 12—15.) The influence of the Old Testament upon these traditions is unmis- takable, but the identity of the Phrygians and Ar- menians is thereby nevertheless confirmed. Another argument in favour of our supposition may be de- rived from the architectural remains which have been discovered in modern times, and are scarcely noticed at all by the ancient writers. Vitruvius (ii. 1) remarks, that the Phrygians hollowed out the natural hills of their country, and formed in them passages and rooms for habitations, so far as the nature of the hills permitted. This statement is most fully confirmed by modem travellers, who have found such habitations cut into rocks in almost all parts of the Asiatic peninsula. (Hamilton, Re- searches, ii. p. 250, 288 ; Texier, Description de TAsie Mineure, i. p. 210, who describes an immense town thus formed out of the natural rock.) A few of these architectural monuments are adorned with inscriptions in Phrygian. (Texier and Steuart, A Description of some ancient Monuments with In- scriptions still exisiinrj in Lydia and Phryfjia, PHrxYGIA. C21 London, 1842.) These inscriptions must be of Phrygian origin, as is attested by such proper names as Midas, Ates, Aregastes, and others, which occur in them, though some have unsuccessfully attempted to make out that they are Greek. The impression which these stupendous works, and above all the rock-city, make upon the beholder, is that he has be- fore him works executed by human hands at a most remote period, not, as Vitruvius intimates, because there was a want of timber, but because the first robust inhabitants thought it safest and most con- venient to construct such habitations for themselves. They do not contain the slightest trace of a resem- blance with Greek or Eoman structures; but while we assert this, it cannot be denied, on the other hand, that they display a striking resemblance to those structures which, in Greece we are in the habit of calling Pelasgian or Cyclopian, whence Texier designates the above mentioned rock-city (near Boghugkieui, between the Halys and Iris) by the name of a Pelasgian city. (Comp. Hamilton, Researches, i. pp. 48, 490, ii. pp. 226, &c., 209.) Even the lion gate of Mycenae reappears in several places. (Ainsworth, Travels and Researches, ii. p. 58; Leake, Asia Minor, p. 28.) These facts throw a surprising light upon the legend about the migration of the Phrygian Pelops into Argolis, and the tombs of the Phrygians in Peloponnesus, men- tioned by Athenaeus (xiv. p. 625). But yet much remains to be done by more systematic exploration of the countries in Asia Minor, and by the interpreta- tion of their monuments. One conclusion, however, can even now be arrived at, viz. that there must have been a time when the race of the Phrygians formed, if not the sole population of Asia Minor, at least by far the most important, bordering in the east on their kinsmen, the Armenians, and in the south- east on tribes of the Semitic race. This conclusion is supported by many facts derived from ancient writers. Independently of several Greek and Trojan legends referring to the southern coasts of Asia Minor, the name of the Phrygian mountain Olympus also occurs in Cilicia and Lycia ; the north of Bithynia was in earlier times called Bebrycia, and the town of Otroia on the Ascanian lake reminds us of the Phrygian chief Otreus. (Hom. //. iii. 186.) In the west of Asia Minor, the country about Jlount Sipylus was once occupied by Phrygians (Strab. xii. p. 571); the Trojan Thebe also bore the name Slygdonia, which is synonymous with Phrygia (Strab. xiii. p. 588) ; Mygdonians are mentioned in the neighbourhood of Miletus (Aelian, V. H. viii. 5); and Polyaenus {Strateg. viii. 37) relates that the Bebryces, in conjunction with the Phocaeans, carried on war against the neighbouring barbarians. From all this we infer that Trojans, Mysians, Maeonians, Mygdonians, and Dolionians were all blanches of the great Phrygian race. In the Iliad the Trojans and Phrygians appear in the closest relation, for Hecuba is a Phrygian princess (xvi. 718), Priam is the ally of the Phrygians against the Amazons (iii. 184, &c.), the name Hector is said to be Phrygian (He.sych. s. v. AapeTos), and the names Paris and Scamandriiis seem likewise to be Phrygian for the Greek Alexander and Astya- nax. It is also well known that both the Greek and Roman poets use the names Trojan and Phry- gian as synonyms. From the Homeric hymn on Aplirodite (113) it might be inferred that Trojans and Phrygians spoke different languages; but that passage is equally clear, if it is taken as alluding