Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/245

 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PHRYGIAN CIVILIZATION. 229 the vault of undying pines in sheer wantonness of youthful spirits. Here twice a year were celebrated the mysteries of Cybele and Atys, the king and the heads of the various clans taking part in the ceremonies. Tents and temporary booths were set up on the greensward, whilst prince and nobles, during the festivities, occupied roomy wooden houses planted on artificial esplanades, of which we found traces on many a point ; "konaks," they would be called at the present day, very like the kiosk of the old Dere Bey of Kumbet (Fig. 83). There never was here a town, as we understand the term as Apamaeand Celense, Pessinus and Ancyra, for example. Real Phrygian cities, of which many are still im- portant centres, were built on better chosen sites, lending them- selves more readily to supply the wants of an agglomerated popu- lation all the year round. In this district water fails during the hot summer months, but with the autumnal rains of October silvery rills reappear, when along their banks cattle find an abun- dance of coarse tall grass to the end of June. 1 Picturesque rural retreats such as these seemed marked out for those al fresco festivities, panegyria, which have never been out of fashion with Eastern races, Greeks, Syrians, and Turks. With the return of each season, woods and meadows, even as the valley of the Alphaeus during the Olympian games, would fill with the hum, the stir and merriment of thousands of human voices, married to the confused sound of flutes and tambourines ; the multitude passing, with scarcely any transition, from frenzied joy to black despair. The cares and routine of daily life were for the time suspended or forgotten ; every sense was employed in celebrating the public rites of the national gods. On such occasions visits were paid and sacrifices and libations made to the manes of ancestors who had wished their tombs to be placed under the special tutelary wing of Cybele, whose style and image appeared on these same rocks. 1 To fin 1 a perennial spring, says Earth, one must needs go as far as the neigh- bourhood of Doghanlou Deresi (8 in map) and Gherdek Kai'asi (3 in map), some two hours north of the Midas monument. This is one reason which prevents us seeking there the " town of Gordios " (TopSiov TroXis), also named Gordion, supposed to have been " the hearth (cradle) of ancient Midas," writes Plutarch (Alexander, xviii.) ; a conjecture overthrown by Arrian, who says of Gordion, " It is found on the river Sangarius " (Ana., i. 29), a situation which does not by any means fit the site we have called " Midas city." Arrian's testimony, especially upon matters relating to Asia Minor, is generally correct.