Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/117

 FUNEREAL ARCHITECTURE. ioi whose name they adopted and to whom they paid divine honours. 1 Viewed in this light, the niche to the left was a shrine in which lamps and offerings were deposited as tokens of regard to the ancestral god. 2 What tends to confirm our conjecture is the fact that in the same neighbourhood are other two sculptured frontispieces, whose tops, covered by a fine growth of pines, can be easily reached ; but where, despite diligent search, no well, nor the semblance of a pseudo-door, have been detected. The most important, because of its inscription the longest known in Phrygia is Fig. 58 (4 in plan). It consists of no less than five lines, three of which follow the slope of the roof below and above it on the native rock. Then a horizontal line appears on the frontal in the place usually occupied by the frieze in a Greek entablature, ending on the dexter hand on the rough stone ; whilst 1 We plead guilty to having misquoted Hesychius. The error arose from our having, contrary to our invariable custom, taken the lines from a book which happened to be close at hand, where the misprint occurred, and not from the original as we should have done. They should be read as follows : Oi vvo Mt'Sa /3ao-iAev0cvTS eW/SovTo, Kai &/J.WOV rov Mi'Sa 0eov, fy Ttves p.r)Tfpa O.VTOV CKTC Ti/i<ra Aeyowev. As may be observed, " Mida " is in the genitive case, whilst 6cdv is in the accusative, and agrees with the feminine article r^v; hence the construction is, "The goddess of Midas," doubtless Cybele, who was said to be the mother of the great ancestor of the Phrygians. Even in this form the passage may be adduced in favour of the opinion I put forth : Midas, whose name so largely figures in national legends as the son of a goddess, came to be considered in the light of a heroic or semi-divine character. 2 Of the inexactitudes complained of by M. Ramsay, I find but one of any relevancy (Hell. Studies, x. pp. 161-163). It occurs on the left side, which should have been left incomplete, whilst we have left out a few squares which occur on the right side. (See Ibid., ix. Fig. 13.) The fact is that the ornament of the faQade was never finished ; we forgot to warn our draughtsman, and when the mistake was discovered it was too late to be remedied. M. Ramsay makes a great deal of our having distributed six nails on each of the double doors of the pedi- ment, when one panel should have but four. In truth, a venial error. We might with far better reason reproach him with having produced, in 1888, a picture which shows no trace of the characteristic sinking which surrounds the facade, and imparts thereto a niche-like aspect ; upon which he vehemently insists in 1889. This |our illustration, albeit containing two wee nails in excess, brings out very distinctly. The slight discrepancy between the text and the translation in regard to the tombs of the Ayazeen necropolis and the Midas city is due to the fact that I have written this part with the help of the additions and corrections at the end, so as to pave the reader trouble and put him at once in possession of the whole evidence. TRS.