Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/292

 2 74 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judaea. had this permanent effect, that it broke up for ever the remaining Hittite group, whose chief centre, Boghaz-Keui, may then have been besieged and destroyed. At any rate, we have proved that if Hittite arts were still in force towards the middle of the sixth century, it was in this district, where their monuments are found in abundance. Tradition was cut asunder by this catastrophe, never to be resumed. What was left of the old stock was fused in the remnants of the Moschian and Tibarenian tribes, which had per- haps preceded them in the country. From this mixture of nationalities the emasculated Cappadocians were formed, whose very name became a term of reproach, whether under Persian or Greek rule, and whose feeble efforts to regain their independence under native princes, Ariarathes and Ariobarzanes, were effectually crushed by the iron rule of Rome.^ Thus it came to pass that, when the Greeks took upon them- selves to write the history of the civilized world, the name of the Hittites was already forgotten. If, in order to reinstate them on their proper level, modern scholars have recoiled before no obstacles, it was because they from the outset gauged the impor- tance of adding another chapter to the history of the Asianic peninsula, which, from various causes, has ever been a main point of interest and attraction. The civilization which the Hittites introduced in central Anatolia cannot wholly have perished. To them may be attributed the peculiar pantheistic cultus which prevailed throughout Asia Minor; and which at Comana, Zela, Pes- sinus, etc., was presided over by priest-kings, sometimes eunuch- priests, surrounded by thousands of self-mutilated hierodules, and other officials of either sex.^ It is possible that Atys, but more especially the great goddess who appears under the various names of Ma, Kybebe, Kybele, Cybele, the Ephesian Artemis, Diana, may have been imported from Cappadocia into Phrygia. Of the ^ E. Meyer, Kappadokien, etc., believes that in historical times the Aryan element was dominant in Cappadocia. He bases his hypothesis on the fact that a number of local names end in -ao-cros and -/Ai/77, but, as we only know these names through Greek transliterations, his reason cannot be said to carry weight with it. It received its name of Cappadocia (Kappatuka) from the Persians, as we learn from their inscriptions, as well as from Herodotus. ^ Upon the origin of the worship at Ephesus, and the Asiatic elements which largely obtained down to the beginning of our era, see Curtius, Beitrcege zicr Geschichte, etc. {Ephesos, Fergamon, Smyrna, Sardes), in 4to, 1872; Denkmaler, Berlin.