| February 9, 2010 |
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| Information about the place
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Phrygia, Phrigia
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| Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities |
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Phrygia
(Phrugia). A country of Asia Minor, which was of different extent
at different periods. Under the Roman Empire Phrygia was bounded on the west by
Mysia, Lydia, and Caria; on the south by Lycia and Pisidia; on the east by Lycaonia
(which is often reckoned as a part of Phrygia) and Galatia (which formerly belonged
to Phrygia), and on the north by Bithynia. The Phrygians are mentioned by Homer
as settled on the banks of the Sangarius, where later writers tell us of the powerful
Phrygian kingdom of Gordius and Midas. It would seem that they were a branch of
the great Thracian family, originally settled in the northwest of Asia Minor as
far as the shores of the Hellespont and Propontis, and that the successive migrations
of other Thracian peoples, as the Thyni, Bithyni, Mysians, and Teucrians, drove
them farther inland. They were not, however, entirely displaced by the Mysians
and Teucrians from the country between the shores of the Hellespont and Propontis
and Mounts Ida and Olympus, where they continued side by side with the Greek colonies,
and where their name was preserved in that of the district under all subsequent
changes--namely, Phrygia Minor or Phrygia Hellespontus. The kingdom of Phrygia
was conquered by Croesus, and formed part of the Persian, Macedonian, and Syro-Grecian
Empires; but, under the last, the northeastern part, adjacent to Paphlagonia and
the Halys, was conquered by the Gauls, and formed the western part of Galatia;
and under the Romans was included in the province of Asia. In connection with
the early intellectual culture of Greece, Phrygia is highly important. The earliest
Greek music, especially that of the flute, was borrowed in part, through the Asiatic
colonies, from Phrygia. With this country also were closely associated the orgies
of Dionysus and of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, the Phrygia Mater of the Roman
poets. After the Persian conquest, however, the Phrygians seem to have lost all
intellectual activity, and they became proverbial among the Greeks and Romans
for submissiveness and stupidity. The Roman poets constantly use the epithet Phrygian
as equivalent to Trojan.
But scanty remains of the Phrygian language survive, chiefly
in the shape of brief inscriptions. It was probably an Indo-European dialect closely
related to the Armenian, and some such relation is implied in the notices of Herodotus
and Strabo.
| This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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