Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/101

 FUNEREAL ARCHITECTURE. 85 and, like those on the frontispiece, should be read from left to right. This is not the place for attempting to unravel the meaning of these texts ; nevertheless, regard should be had to the upper- most and longer inscription graven on the native rock (Fig. i), as likely to be helpful in determining the nature of the monument itself. The prominent place it occupies, its length of line (13 m.), the size and clearness of the characters, each separated by a dot, so as to make confusion impossible ; finally, the issues involved in these alphabetical signs ; everything combines to attract the eye and draw attention to it. Transliterated in Roman figures, it reads thus : " Ates arkaie Fais akenanola Fos midai la Faltei Fanaktei edaes." It is self-evident that the first word is the nominative singular of the radical atu, attn, the great Phrygian god, the Atys, whom classical writers represent as the inseparable companion of Cybele. The name seems to have enjoyed popular favour, for Herodotus (i. 34) tells us that a son of Croesus and an old king of Lydia (i. 71) were so called ; and Strabo writes that it was the official title of the high priest of Cybele at Pessinus. 1 Discarding the next two words of doubtful reading, we come to the dative form of the familiar name of Midas ; those which follow, la Faltei and Fanaktei, being in the same case, are supposed to be his honorific or patronymic appellations. Curiously enough, if we drop the initial letter F of the second word instances of which may be observed in cognate languages we have the Greek dative oW/m, ai/afcret, from avag, prince. Edaes, on the other hand, is the third person of a verb, which in Phrygian probably represented an Indo-European root, signifying to establish in Sanscrit da-dha-mi, to establish ; Greek, Ti-0e-/u ; German, stellen, stabilire, dtablir, poser? Hence the words known at present yield the following formula: "Atys . . . dedicated ... to king Midas" Mt'Sct. . . O.VCLKTL. . . 1 Hist, of Art, torn. iv. p. 659, n. 2 G. CURTIUS, Grundzuge der Griechischen, etc., 3rd edit., 1869, p. 238, No. 309. 3 For more details respecting the conjectures that may be adduced about the words still undeciphered, and the reasons for considering edaes as a third person of an aorist, see RAMSAY, Hist. Relat. of Phrygia and Cappadoda, pp. 29, 30. Professor Ramsay persists in considering the Midas monument as a funereal memorial, whilst we would rather attribute to it a commemorative and religious character (Journal, x. pp. 149-156). No grave-chamber has been found at lasili Kaia, nor in one or two cognate facades, and until a discovery which would settle the question is made,