Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/39

 CUSTOMS AND RELIGION OF THE PHRYGIANS. 23 of Sipylus or Phrygia Parva, which, as a kingdom, had already ceased to exist when epic poetry had its birth ; the other to those of that state of Phrygia Major, the last rulers of which belong to historical times. In this second group will be included a certain number of tombs recently discovered in Paphlagonia ; here and there, north and south of the chain of Olympus, the arrangements in sepulchral architecture are precisely similar, at least in those tombs that are prior to the introduction of the Greek language and Greek arts into the centre and north of the peninsula. Were the Paphlagonians sprung, like the Phrygians, from a Thracian stock ? We know not, save that the resemblance between the two sets of monuments seems to justify the comparison we have made. CUSTOMS AND RELIGION OF THE PHRYGIANS. The historian who desires to form a fair idea of the general culture, religious creed, and public worship of Phrygia is obliged in a great measure to rely upon authorities of comparatively recent date, unconnected, it would seem, with the period within which we wish to confine ourselves for the present. Such a course is justified by the oft-repeated statement, which will bear being mentioned afresh, namely, that Hellenic culture did not penetrate to, or take permanent hold on, the interior of the peninsula until the days of Alexander and his successors. And though its diffusion was universal and lasting, it proved ineffectual in stamping out the religion, legends, and usages, hallowed by a past so remote as to be counted by thousands of years. Hence it comes to pass that even the Greeks, in matters pertaining to religion and art, were actually influenced by the order of things they beheld around them. Under Roman rule, the temples of Pontus, Cappadocia, and Phrygia, of Bela, Comana, and Pessinus, to name only the best known, along with the lands attached to them, preserve a whole host of eunuch-priests and consecrated temple-slaves of either sex. The yearly festivals, which were wont on stated days to attract thousands of pilgrims to worship at the shrines, are as fully attended as of old. No need is there to rejuvenate or bring them up to date ; their title of nobility and claim to the reverence of the multitude reside in their antiquity. Then, too, in many a sepulchre of old Phrygia, dating from the first and the second century of the