Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/47

 CUSTOMS AND RELIGION OF THE PHRYGIANS. 31 obliterated, has been discovered by Professor Ramsay. Fortu- nately for us, however, the two initial words, " Matar Kubile," written in sunk characters, can be easily made out (Fig. 3). 1 Next in popularity and importance was the lunar god Men, whose cult spread throughout Asia Minor, and thence to Greece and Rome. 2 Statuary generally represents him as a man of youthful appearance. 3 Greek and Latin writers, to whom we owe the little that is known of the Phrygian religion, men- tion, in relation with Cybele, a god whom they variously call Bagaios, Sabazius, Atys, and Agdistis. 4 That . . YlG, 3. Phrygian inscription. RAM- SO Widely different should be SAY, On the Early Historical Rela- .... . tions, Plate III. applied to the same personage is rather puzzling at first ; but philology will perhaps help us out of the difficulty. If, according to the best authorities, words said to belong to the Phrygian idiom admit of being explained by Indo-European roots, Bagaios was simply a generic term for god ; 5 Sabazios, Sabazius, a eulogistic epithet signifying vener- able, worthy of adoration. 6 The real and proper name of the god was Atys or Agdistis. Atys may be a dialectic variant, an abbreviation of the older and more complete form of Agdistis, 1 There is also the form Cybele, sometimes found in Greek lexicographers and in inscriptions of this goddess, which, like Fig. 3, seems to indicate a late modifica- tion of the name. 2 Among the Thracians, who owned community of blood and religion with the Phrygians, Sabazius is a solar god (MACROBIUS, Saturnalia, i. 18). The great Phrygian deity was styled TTOI/A^ CVKWV aorpwv (Philosophumena, Miller, p. 118), a periphrase clearly intended to designate the sun, and to be read in an ancient hymn cited by Origen, or whoever was the author of the book which bears his name. MACROBIUS (Saturn., i. 22) identifies Atys with the sun : " Solent Phryges sub nomine Attinis ornant et fistula et virga." 8 In the psalms Men, lunar god, is described as the great " measurer." TRS. 4 It is possible that Agdistis may be a local name, as Dindymene, Sipylene, etc., applied to Cybele, according to the places in which she was worshipped. Pausa- nias (I. iv. 5) specifies a mountain, 'AySo?, in Phrygia as the burial-place of Atys. Professor RAMSAY (Sifiytos, p. 56) recognizes in dySos the Phrygian word which signified mountain, and which he compares with the Greek 0^605, hill; whence Agdistis, "the son of the mountain." It may be asked whether "mountain" was not invented to explain a name which was no longer understood. In other forms of the myth, Agdistis has ceased to be a male god, and appears with all the attributes of Cybele. 6 See p. 3, note, of this volume. 6 Compare the Greek word vefifiv ; Sanscrit, sabhadj, honoured, revered.
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