Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/32

 1 6 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. the form given here is that which has found general popularity and acceptance. Among the various readings that have come down to us, one alone indicates, implicitly at least, the epoch to which the Greeks carried back the reign of Tantalus, and the dominion he exercised over the country that stretches from Sipylus to Ida ; it represents Ilus, Ilos, Ilium, a prince of the Dardani, the founder of Ilium and grandfather of Priam, as having overthrown Tantalus and destroyed his empire. 1 To accept as sober fact the story according to which Ilus, to avenge his brother Ganymedes, had led a great force against Tantalus, is out of the question ; but the tale suffices to prove that a far more remote antiquity was ascribed to Tantalus and his kingdom on Sipylus, than to the Phrygian empire of the Sangarius. For the chroniclers, to put an event generations before the Trojan war, was equivalent to relegating it away to that shadowy past, ere men had taken count of time. If such traditions stood by themselves, they might be deemed of little moment ; but it so happens that they are in perfect agreement with the monuments. Three of these rock-sculp- tures found in the Sipylus region have already been figured and described in the fourth volume of our history ; namely, the two bas-reliefs at Karabel, and that colossal statue of Cybele, which for a long time was taken as a Niobe. 2 These works, it will be remembered, were assigned by us to the oldest civilization of Asia Minor, that which we designated as Hittite or Syro-Cappa- docian ; we based our assumption on similarity of type, style of workmanship, and graphic signs, which distinguish both these and the monuments of the basins of Orontes and the Halys. 3 On the other hand, nowhere in this district has the slightest trace been found of an alphabet derived from the Phoenician, that which the Phrygians of the valleys of the Rhyndacus and the Sangarius borrowed from the Greeks when they wished to write their language ; equally non-existent are those principles of ornament seen on the Midas monument, and the surrounding sepulchral facades. Had we no historical witness the mere sight of these monuments would enable any one of average intelligence to assign priority of date to the city and the culture of the population dominated by the rounded summits of Sipylus. To be noted 1 Diodorus, iv. 74. 2 Hist, of Art, torn. iv. Figs. 361, 363, 365. 3 For the signs in question, see Ibid., Figs. 364, 366.