Page:The Hittites - the Story of a Forgotten Empire.djvu/115

Rh other 'Holy Cities' of Asia Minor. At Pessinus in Phrygia, where lions and panthers stood beside the goddess, the whole city was given up to her worship, under the command of the chief Gallos or priest; and on the shores of the Black Sea the Amazonian priestesses of Kybele, who danced in armour in her honour, were imagined by the Greeks to constitute the sole population of an entire country. At Ephesos, in spite of the Greek colony which had found its way there, the worship of the Mother-goddess continued to absorb the life of the inhabitants, so that it still could be described in the time of St. Paul as a city which was 'a worshipper of the great goddess.' Here, as at Pessinus, she was worshipped under the form of a meteoric stone 'which had fallen from heaven.'

We may regard these 'Holy Cities,' placed under the protection of a goddess and wholly devoted to her worship, as peculiarly characteristic of the Hittite race. Their two southern capitals, Kadesh and Carchemish, were cities of this kind, and their stronghold at Boghaz Keui was presumably also a consecrated place. Their progress through Asia Minor was characterised by the rise of priestly cities and the growth of a class of armed priestesses. Komana in Kappadokia, and Ephesos on the shores of the Ægean, are typical examples of such holy towns. The entire population ministered to the divinity to whom the city was dedicated, the sanctuary of the deity stood in its centre, and the chief authority was wielded by a high-priest. If a king existed by the side of the priest, he came in course of time to fill a merely subordinate position.

These 'Holy Cities' were also 'Asyla' or Cities of Refuge. The homicide could escape to them, and be