The History of Antiquity Volume I Part 29

[667] That the chronological statements in the book of Judges afford no fixed point for deciding the date of the invasion of Canaan by the Hebrews is proved by Noldeke ("Chronologie der Richterzeit"). The genealogical tables give only six or seven generations down to Eli and Samuel, and these cannot fill a longer s.p.a.ce than of 150 to 175 years.

As Ramses III. whose reign according to Lepsius falls in the years 1269-1244 B.C. fought against the Pulista, Cheta, and Amari, _i.e._ the Philistines, Hitt.i.tes, and Amorites, within the first nine years of his reign (p. 164) without meeting the Hebrews among them, we may a.s.sume that their settlement in Canaan did not take place till after the year 1260 B.C., about the middle of the thirteenth century, B.C.

[668] Cf. Noldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 95.

[669] Lev. xxvii. 28, 29.

[670] In the form of a vow, Numb. xxi. 1-3, from the second text; in the form of a command, Exod. xxiii. 32, 33; x.x.xiv. 12, from the revision.

[671] If the Hivites are counted in 2 Samuel xxi. 22 among the Amorites, the reason is to be sought in the comprehensive meaning here given to the name Amorites.

[672] 2 Sam. xxi. 1-10; 1 Kings ix. 20; cf. Joshua xvii. 12.

[673] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 304, 305; Noldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 98.

[674] Joshua xi. 1, 10, 13; xii. 19; xix. 36; Judges iv. 2, 17; 1 Sam.

xii. 9

[675] 1 Sam. xxi. 1-6; xxii. 11-18.

[676] Joshua xii.; Noldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 98.

[677] Judges i. 27-30.

[678] Judges i. 16; iii. 13.

[679] Joshua xix. 49, 50; xxiv. 33, both from the first text; Joshua xvii. 14-18.

[680] Joshua xvii. 14-18.

[681] Judges i. 7.

[682] Judges i. 12-15, 20; Jesus, 46, 11.

[683] Judges i. 19.

[684] Joshua xix. 47; Judges xviii.

[685] Judges i. 22, 29.

[686] Judges i. 27.

[687] Judges i. 30-35.

CHAPTER XII.

THE NATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.

The peninsula of Asia Minor is a table-land of about 750 miles in length by 400 in breadth, lying between the Black Sea, the aegean, and the Mediterranean. This table-land reaches its highest level in the south; here run along the Mediterranean, from east to west, parallel ranges of mountains, the chain of Taurus, and under the snow-clad heights lie green Alpine pastures, while the slopes are filled with the most beautiful wood. Under these mountains on the sea we find here and there narrow and hot but fruitful plains, which are separated into several sharply-divided districts by the spurs of the Taurus, which run athwart them into the sea. Northward of the peaks of Taurus the soil gradually sinks to the Black Sea, so that while the southern coast possesses only short streams, with the exception of the Sarus and Pyramus, the larger arteries of the land empty into the Black Sea--the Iris, the Halys, the Billaeus, the Sangarius, and the Rhyndakus. These rivers take their course, partly through rocky districts, partly through extremely fruitful valleys. The centre of the land, from the middle course of the Halys to the Sangarius in the west, is taken up with a wide treeless desert, the great Salt-steppe, the edges of which are formed by a ma.s.s of volcanic craters, by deep ravines and large lakes. Further to the west the waters streaming from the table-land find their way to the aegean, down a series of mountain terraces, so that the valleys of the Maeander and the Hermus are at the same time the highways which connect the coast with the interior. These terraces sometimes advance to the western sh.o.r.e, with steep limestone rocks and precipitous promontories running out into the bright blue sea; at other times they approach the coast with softer outlines; in one place broader, in others narrower plains are left, which, owing to the great fertility of the soil, are covered with orchards and vineyards. Further inland, on the rising heights, is a splendid forest of oaks, firs, and planes, broken by mountain pastures, over which rise the jagged rocks of Ida, Tmolus, Messogis, and Latmus; in the far distance the snow-capped peaks of Taurus fill the horizon. On the western coast the proximity of the ocean softens the heat of summer and the cold of winter; and the combination of sea and mountain, of ocean breezes and upland air, the connection opened to the table-land on the east by the Hermus and Maeander and the calm sea on the west, which forms a pa.s.sage to a number of adjacent islands--make these districts on the sh.o.r.e of the aegean Sea the favoured home of civilisation in Asia Minor.

On the north-east, where the peninsula joins the broad mountain land of the isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian, around the sources of the Euphrates and Tigris, on the course of the Araxes, which falls into the Caspian Sea, and the high table-land of Lake Van, lay the home of the Armenians. According to Strabo, their customs were like those of the Medes, who were the neighbours of the Armenians, to the east of the Lake of Urumiah, and at the mouth of the Araxes. And if, according to the same evidence, the Armenians paid the greatest reverence to the G.o.ddess Anaitis,[688] the G.o.ddess Anahita held a prominent position in the wors.h.i.+p of the nations of the table-land of Iran. Moreover, even in modern Armenian, the affinity with the Iranian languages is predominant; and there is therefore no doubt that the Armenians belong to the Indo-Germanic stock, and are a nation of Aryan descent.

On the southern slope of the group of mountains which they possessed south-east of the Lake of Van, on the upper course of the Great Zab, lay the district of Arphaxad, with which we have already become acquainted from Semitic sources; south of the lake lay the Carduchi, whom the later Greeks call the Gordyaeans and Gordyenes; but among the Armenians they were known as Kordu, among the Syrians as Kardu.[689] These are the ancestors of the modern Kurds, a nation also of the Aryan stock, whose language is even nearer to those of Iran than the Armenian. Westward of the Carduchi, at the confluence of the two streams of the Euphrates, we again meet with a Semitic race.[690] The north-western slope of the Armenian mountains, as far as the Phasis and the Black Sea, was the home of the Muskai of the a.s.syrian inscriptions, the Mesech of the Hebrews, the Moschi of the Greeks. Beside them, further to the west, on the coast, were the Tabal of the a.s.syrians, the Tubal of the Hebrews, the Tibarenes of the Greeks; westward from these, as far as the mouth of the Iris, were the Chalti of the Armenians, the Chalybians (Chaldaeans) of the Greeks. Of the origin and language of the Moschi and Tibarenes we know nothing further; the genealogies of the Hebrews placed Mesech and Tubal among the sons of j.a.phet.

The territory of the Armenians round Lake Van lies 5,000 feet high. The only extensive plain among the mountains which are the home of the Armenians is the valley on the middle course of the Araxes, which is separated from the district of the Van by the range of the Masis (Ararat). The highest peak of this range, a mighty cone of dark rock, veiled by wide glaciers, rises to a height of 16,000 feet. Only the valley of the Araxes allowed agriculture on any extensive scale; it only brought forth abundant produce. Other more protected and warmer depressions, though small in extent, on the southern slopes, permitted the culture of the vine. The inhabitants of the heights followed a pastoral life, and the mountain pastures supported splendid horses and mules.

Moses of Chorni (Kh.o.r.ene), who wrote the history of Armenia in the years 460-480 of our era,[691] tells us as follows:--j.a.phet, the third son of Noah, had a son Gomer; Gomer's son was Thiras; Thiras had a son Thorgom; Thorgom's son Haik, together with his son Armenak and all his family, emigrated from Babylon to the plain of Airarat, in order to escape the tyranny of Belus, the king of Babel. This plain Haik then left to Cadmus, his grandson, the son of Armenak, and himself, with Armenak, pa.s.sed on to the west, and founded Haikashen. But when the army of the Babylonians marched out to attack Airarat, Haik came to the a.s.sistance of his grandson, and defeated Belus on the sh.o.r.e of Lake Van. Then Armenak marched eastwards from Haikashen into the plain at the foot of the Aragazd, where at a later time Armajis, the son of Armenak, built the city of Armavir. The son of Armajis was Amasiaj, and of Amasiaj, Arast. The grandson of Arast was Aram, who undertook distant campaigns, and subjugated Syria and Cappadocia to his rule. With him Ninus, king of a.s.syria, out of respect to his power and bravery, made a league. Aram's son and successor was Araj, whose beauty inflamed Shamiram (Semiramis), the queen of a.s.syria. When Araj resisted her inclinations, Shamiram, at the head of her army, invaded Armenia, but, before the battle, she bade her soldiers spare Araj. The Armenians were defeated, and in spite of the command of Shamiram, Araj was slain in the _melee_, and she attempted in vain to resuscitate the corpse by magic arts. Then Shamiram caused builders to come from a.s.syria to Armenia, and with the help of these she erected a splendid city, Shamiramakert (city of Semiramis), on the sh.o.r.e of the lake of Van, in order to dwell in the cool air of the mountains during the heat of the summer months; and the throne of Armenia she gave to Cardus, the son of Araj. But he rebelled against her, fought without success, and, like his father, fell in battle. At last the Medes rebelled against Shamiram, and after defeat she fled to Armenia. On the sh.o.r.es of Lake Van she was overtaken by her pursuers, and when she had thrown her necklace and her ornaments into the water, she was slain. Then her son Zames (Ninyas) ascended the throne of a.s.syria, and for twenty-six generations the descendants of Cardus were va.s.sals of the kings of a.s.syria.[692] After these twenty-six kings, whose names are given by Moses, when Nineveh had fallen, Barbakis (Arbaces) the Mede, crowned Baroir king of Armenia, and his descendants ruled as independent princes. The ninth successor of Baroir was Tigran (Tigranes). He conquered Azdahag (Astyages), the king of the Medes, and pierced him through with his lance in the battle. Owing to Tigran's bravery and victory, the prince of the Persians became the lord of the Medes.[693]

We can trace the elements out of which this account has arisen. The names j.a.phet, Gomer, and Thiras are borrowed from the Hebrew scriptures, from the genealogy of the j.a.phetic nations in Genesis; but the order of succession is altered. To the same book belongs Thorgom, the son of Thiras, and father of Haik; in the Hebrew his name is Torgarmah.

Torgarmah was the name of Armenia among the Syrians;[694] the Hebrews appear to have used the word to denote the district of Van. The native name of the Armenians was Haikh, and of the land, Haiastan. From these names is derived Haik, the son of Thorgom, the progenitor of the race.

The emigration from Babylon is no doubt an invention arising out of some early contact, out of the trade of Armenia with Babylonia, and intended to give the Armenians a share in the splendour of that ancient centre of the civilisation of Hither Asia, from which, as a fact, they derived such important elements of culture as their system of writing. Eastward of Lake Van Haik defeats the Babylonians, for here lay Haik's fortress; in Armenian Haikabjerd, _i.e._ fortress of the Armenians, and Hajots-dsor, _i.e._ valley of the Armenians. Northeast of this lake lies the canton of Harkth, _i.e._ the fathers, the canton of the fathers;[695] and in this, on the Eastern Euphrates, is Haikashen, _i.e._ Haik's building, which Haik is said to have founded, and where his grave was reported to be. As the name of Haik, _i.e._ the name of the nation, clings especially to the neighbourhood of Lake Van, so are the names of his supposed successors, his son Armenak, and grandsons Cadmos and Amajis, attached to the district of Airarat, to Mount Aragadz, and the city of Armavir. The land of Airarat, _i.e._ the fruitful plain, on the middle course of the Araxes, was, as we have heard, the first object of the immigrants, who must have come, not from the south, as the story represents, but from the east, from Media, and must have reached the valley of the Araxes from the sh.o.r.e of the Caspian Sea. As Haikh is the name by which the Armenians called themselves, so Armenak is obviously formed from the name Armina, which the Medes and Persians gave to the Armenians. Cadmus, the son of Armenak, is inserted in the story; and has been borrowed, as the form of the name shows, from Grecian sources, perhaps to represent the Semitic population in the South of Armenia. That in this learned construction of the Armenian myth the eastern, and not the southern, district of Armenia is given to Cadmus, is due, no doubt, to the fact that the Semitic word _kedem_ could hardly have any other meaning than that of "the East." Armenak's grandson and great-grandson, Amasiaj and Arast, represent respectively the mountain chain of Masis and the river Araxes; in old Armenian the name of the latter was Eras'ch.[696]

The division of the two centres of the Armenian land and Armenian life--the land in the East and the land in the West, the land of Ararat on the Araxes, and the district of Van--is strongly marked in this tradition, and not less so in the a.s.syrian inscriptions and the scriptures of the Hebrews. The first text of the Pentateuch represents Noah's s.h.i.+p as landing on Mount Ararat, and this text or the second mentions Togarmah beside Gomer. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of the horses and mules which came from Togarmah, the land of mountain pastures, to Tyre.[697] The a.s.syrian inscriptions mention the land of Van (_mat vannai_) beside the land of Urarti, _i.e._ Ararat; each is ruled by its own prince.

King Aram represents the land of Aram, the Aramaeans, whose neighbours the Armenians were, and with whom they came into frequent contact. The oldest historical recollections of the Armenians might perhaps go back to the times when the kings of a.s.syria made an inroad into their mountains and reduced their princes to tribute and obedience. But when Moses of Chorni tells us of the meetings of Aram, Araj, and Cardus with Ninus, Semiramis, and Ninyas, of the twenty-six kings who governed under a.s.syrian dominion, and of the liberation of the land by Arbaces, these supposed names of the a.s.syrian riders are enough to prove that the narratives were framed upon the accounts of the Greeks, especially the Greek chronographers.

On the other hand, the story of the city of Semiramis on Lake Van is grounded upon the a.s.syrian images and ruins, which are still found in various parts of Armenia, especially at Van, Bitlis, Karkar, Egil, and Achlat, as also upon monuments of the Persian kings, and Xerxes in particular; but no doubt it is due in the greatest extent to the monuments of the native princes, of whom inscriptions are in existence belonging to the end of the seventh and the sixth century B.C. Later historians knew nothing of these princes, and were unable to read the inscriptions. The long list of Armenian kings in Moses of Chorni does not contain a single name of the Armenian princes mentioned in the inscriptions of the a.s.syrian kings, or in the native inscriptions of these princes.

The narrative of king Tigran appears to be of an earlier date than the rest of the material from which Moses of Chorni compiled his history of Armenia in the older period. Tigran is said to have ruled over Armenia at the time of Cyrus, with whom he entered into a league; he overcame Astyages (Azdahag) of Media in battle, and slew him in single combat.

The first wife of Astyages and a number of his children, together with other captives, Tigran then conducted to Armenia, and there he settled them in the neighbourhood of Koghten. In the songs of the people of Koghten the descendants of Astyages are "allegorically" spoken of as the descendants of the dragon, "for Azdahag," Moses adds, "signifies a dragon in our language."[698] Hence it is clear that the Armenians claimed the glory of having conquered the Medes and overthrown their supremacy. And if they called the descendants of Astyages the descendants of the dragon, they obviously contracted the old cloud-demon of the Avesta, Azhi-dahaka, into Azdahag, and confounded him with Astyages. Xenophon in his romance of Cyrus calls Tigranes the son of the king of Armenia, and represents him as paying the most considerable services to Cyrus. It may have been the case that Xenophon in his march through Armenia, when he crossed the snowclad heights of this mountain region, and entered the mud huts of the mountaineers, and was hospitably entertained by them with barley-wine, _i.e._ with beer, heard the name and deeds of Tigranes.[699]

The kings of a.s.syria at an early period turned their arms to the North.

On the Zibene-su, the eastern source of the Western Tigris, the likeness of Tiglath Pilesar I. (1130-1110 B.C.) has been found engraved on the rocks at Karkar. The inscription tells us that he had overcome the land of Nairi, _i.e._ in all probability the land of the rivers (Euphrates and Tigris), and that he had defeated the Muskai (p. 512), who had not paid their tribute for fifty years, and had invaded k.u.mukh (Commagene).

More than 200 years later, Tiglath Adar II. (889 to 883 B.C.) caused his image to be hewn in the rocks here beside that of the first Tiglath Pilesar. Tiglath Adar's successor, a.s.surnasirpal (883-859 B.C.), made repeated campaigns against the Nairi, destroyed 250 of their towns, slew many of their princes, and set up his image beside those of Tiglath Adar and Tiglath Pilesar. In his tenth campaign he took Amida (Diabekr) on the Tigris. Below this city, at Kurkh, there is a second image of this king. His successor also, Shalmanesar II. (859-823 B.C.), fought against the Nairi, set up his image at the source of the Tigris, and in the year 843 defeated the king of Urarti. In the year 831 his troops again defeated a king of Urarti, of another name than the first; in the year 828 B.C. they laid waste the land of king Udaki of Van, and in the following campaign fifty places in Urarti were burnt. Bin Nirar III., king of a.s.shur (810-781 B.C.), marched twice against the district of Lake Van, and seven times against the Nairi; he boasts that he has taken possession of the land of the Nairi throughout its whole extent.[700]

Shalmanesar III. (781-771 B.C.) led his army six times against Urarti.

Then Tiglath Pilesar II. (745-727 B.C.), in the year 742, defeated king Sarda, or Sarduri, of Urarti, with his confederates; in the year 728 B.C. removed Va.s.sarmi from Tubal, and placed Chulli on the throne in his stead. In the time of Sargon of a.s.syria (722-705 B.C.), Aza, the prince of the land of Van, who, like his predecessor Iranzu, was a tributary to a.s.syria, was murdered. His brother Ullusun, whom Sargon put in his place, combined with Urza, prince of Ararat, and the prince of Mount Mildis against a.s.syria. Sargon was victorious; Ullusun submitted (716 B.C.); but Urza maintained himself in Ararat, and although Sargon boasts to have burnt fifty of his towns.h.i.+ps, he combined with Urzana of Musasir, _i.e._ probably of Arsissa on Lake Van, with Mita, prince of the Moschi, with Ambris, prince of Tubal, the son of Chulli, whom Sargon had allowed to succeed his father on the throne of the Tibarenes, and to whom at the same time he had entrusted the sovereignty over Cilicia, and had given his daughter in marriage.[701] The confederates were defeated; Ambris was carried prisoner to a.s.syria, a part of his nation were transplanted to a.s.syria, and a.s.syrians settled at Tubal in his place.

Mita submitted. Arsissa was captured; 20,000 prisoners, their treasures, the G.o.ds Haldia (?) and Bagamazda (?), with the holy vessels, were carried away. When Urza perceived this, he took away his own life (714 B.C.).[702] In the seventh century Esarhaddon of a.s.syria had to fight against the Cilicians, the Tibarenes, and the Mannai; the last name seems to denote the Armenian district of Minyas, on the upper course of the Eastern Euphrates, of which the chief city was Manavazakert; Manavaz, the son of Haik, is said to have built this city.[703] Against the Mannai, or the Minni of Ezekiel, Esarhaddon's successor, a.s.surbanipal (668-626 B.C.), also directed his weapons. In the course of this war Asheri, the prince of the Minni, was slain by his own dependents, and his son Ualli submitted; the previous tribute of the Minni was raised by thirty horses; and Mugalla, king of Tubal, and Sandasarmi of Cilicia voluntarily submitted to a.s.surbanipal.[704]

The mountains of Armenia, as these narratives prove, were divided into several princ.i.p.alities. The a.s.syrians first attacked the land to the south of the high mountain-range, _i.e._, in the first instance the land of Ararat, the most powerful of these Armenian princ.i.p.alities. On either side of the mountain, in the basin of Lake Van, and in the valley of the Araxes, the Armenians made a vigorous resistance, so that the obedience of the Armenian chieftains never seemed to be secured for any length of time. In spite of this resistance, the civilisation of the a.s.syrians exercised great influence on the Armenians. This is not merely shown in the adoption of the system of cuneiform writing on the part of the Armenians; Sargon caused the capture of Arsissa to be represented in his palace at Khorsabad. If these reliefs are true representations, the style of architecture and the plan of the Armenian temples were not essentially different from the a.s.syrian. The altars also, the ornaments, and the weapons appear to be similar.[705] On the other hand it would admit of no doubt that the Armenians, in spite of this influence, retained the wors.h.i.+p of their Iranian G.o.ds without any foreign admixture, if the name of that Armenian deity Bagamazda, _i.e._ the great G.o.d, were read correctly. That deity would at the same time afford a new proof that the deities of Iran were wors.h.i.+pped in Armenia also.

Strabo, as already (p. 512) remarked, gives an account of the wors.h.i.+p of Anaitis, the water-giving G.o.ddess, the Anahita of the Iranians, among the Armenians; and the name of this G.o.ddess is found, in the form "Anaid," in the cuneiform inscriptions of the Armenian princes.

Unfortunately these inscriptions, which mainly belong to the land of Van, have not as yet been sufficiently deciphered. The names of the kings, from which they come, are read as Bagridur, Isbuinis, Minuas, Argistis II. and Bagridur II.[706] These kings reigned successively; each calls himself the son of his predecessor. An older Argistis of Ararat is mentioned after the time of Urza in an inscription of Sargon, king of a.s.syria, belonging apparently to the year 708 B.C. The inscriptions of the kings of Armenia from the first to the second Bagridur are filled with the wars which they carried on, the numbers of the slain, of the captives, the cattle in the spoil, the towns and temples destroyed. As a.s.shur is mentioned in the inscriptions of Argistis II., and in those of his successor Bagridur II. a war against Babylon is narrated,[707] these two kings must have been contemporaries of the last ruler of a.s.syria, a.s.suridilili (626-606 B.C.), and Nebuchadnezzar II. of Babylon (604-568 B.C.), and their three predecessors contemporaries of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and a.s.surbanipal.

The central plain of the table-land of Asia Minor, from the valley of the Halys and the great salt lake to the Cadmus and the Mysian Olympus, north-westwards as far as the coasts of the Propontis, was inhabited by the Phrygians. According to Herodotus the Thracians a.s.serted that the Phrygians had once dwelt in their land under the name of Briges. Hence they had pa.s.sed through Thrace to Asia, though a part, who still preserved the name of Briges, had remained behind in Thrace. Of those who arrived in Asia, some pa.s.sed still further to the east; and the Armenians were colonists of the Phrygians.[708] In Strabo also the Phrygians are immigrants, and come from Thrace.[709] In any case the Bithynians, who were settled on the lower course of the Sangarius from the mouth of this stream westward as far as the Bosporus, were of Thracian descent; they are said to have emigrated from the Strymon to Asia.[710] On the other hand, the Phrygians themselves maintained that they were not an offshoot from the Thracian Briges, but the Briges in Thracia had emigrated from them.[711] If the affinity of the Armenians, the Phrygians, and Thracians is established, the Phrygians must be considered in the right. These migrations could not have proceeded from the Strymon, they must rather have taken place from the east to the west, from Armenia to Thrace, and the Thracians rather than the Armenians were the last link in this emigration. As the modern science of language finds Indo-Germanic roots in the slight remains of the Phrygian language which have come down to us,[712] we must a.s.sume that the progenitors of the Phrygians and Thracians pa.s.sed from the Armenian mountains in the east towards the west. The ancestors of the Phrygians remained on the table-land of Asia Minor, those of the Thracians went further to the north-west, towards Bithynia, over the Bosporus, which the Greeks named after the Thracians; and beyond the strait they inhabited the land under the Balkan from the Black Sea to the sh.o.r.es of the Adriatic. The character of the language of the Thracians and Illyrians, remains of which are preserved in Rumanisch and Albanian, places it in the Indo-Germanic family.

The Phrygians are said to have been a very ancient nation.[713]

According to the accounts of the Greeks, the legends of the Phrygians began the history of their country with Gordius and Midas. Gordius, it was said, was a poor farmer, who possessed only two yoke of oxen. At that time the Phrygians were divided by factions, and in order to restore peace, the deity commanded that they should elect as king the man whom they first met on a waggon on the way to the shrine of Zeus.

Then they met Gordius on his waggon and greeted him as king. Gordius built the city of Gordium at the confluence of the Scopas and Sangarius, and dedicated in the temple of Zeus on the citadel of Gordium the chariot which carried him to the throne. After Gordius's death the throne descended to his son Midas, to whose lips, when a boy, ants had carried grains of corn. Midas is said to have founded the city of Gordiutichus in the south of the land, on the borders of Phrygia, and Ancyra in the north: at Pessinus on the slope of Mount Agdus he built a temple to the G.o.ddess of Phrygia and established the sacrifices.[714] He was the richest king who ever lived. Everything that he touched turned to gold. Once he bathed in the Pactolus, and ever since the sands washed down by the river became sands of gold. When Pan blew his shepherd's pipe, and Apollo touched his lyre, Midas preferred the music of Pan. In revenge, Apollo caused a.s.ses' ears to grow upon Midas, and he covered them with a tall cap. But the barber of Midas knew the secret, and told it into a pit; and some rushes grew in the pit, and whispered "Midas has a.s.ses' ears."[715]

The gold of Midas and his power of changing everything into that metal comes from the Greeks, whose legends desired to celebrate and explain the ancient wealth of the kings of Phrygia. From the same source are the a.s.ses' ears and the whispering rushes. The use of the pan's pipe, though not of the shepherd's pipe, was learnt by the Greeks through their colonists in Asia Minor from the Phrygians. The reed (or flute) was called "eleg" among the Armenians: its notes first accompanied the Elegies of Callinus of Ephesus, and Archilochus of Paros, to which it gave the name. Among the Greeks many judges, and those by no means of the least reputation, gave the most decided preference to the music of the cithara, the lyre of Apollo, over the flute. In the same feeling which prompted this judgment, the want of taste in finding the tones of the flute more beautiful than those of the cithara is visited by a punishment which at the same time is intended to explain the origin of the tall Phrygian cap. The reeds belong to a brook in the vicinity of Celaenae in Phrygia, which the Greeks called "the flute-spring"

(Aulokrene) because the reeds growing on the sh.o.r.es were used as wind-instruments. There is another story in which the Greeks have expressed the contrast between the quiet and composed tones of the cithara, and the wild music of the Phrygian flutes--the Phrygian harmonies to which they ascribed the power of rousing the feelings into a pa.s.sionate excitement of pain or delight.[716] The music of the flute was introduced into choric poetry in the first half of the sixth century by Polymnestus of Colophon, and Sakadas of Argos. Among the Phrygians, Marsyas, a faithful and chaste companion of their national G.o.ddess, was the genius of flute-music.[717] A brook which flowed into the Maeander through the city Apamaea Cibotus, in the neighbourhood of Celaenae, was named after Marsyas. The Greeks had a story that their G.o.d Apollo had overcome with his cithara the flute-player of the Phrygians, and had flayed him in punishment for his presumption in entering on the contest.

At Celaenae a bottle of Marsyas was exhibited, on which the story of the flaying of Marsyas may have been founded.[718]

After removing the fictions and additions of the Greeks, the characteristic trait of the Phrygian story still remains, that their monarchs arose out of the agricultural cla.s.s, that grains of corn were carried into the lips of the son of the first ruler, and that the king of Phrygia loved the pan's pipe of the shepherds. Elsewhere also the respect of the Phrygians for the agricultural life is brought into prominence. Nicolaus of Damascus tells us of a law of the Phrygians by which the slaughter of the ploughing ox, or the theft of agricultural implements, was punished with death.[719] In the fourth century B.C. the waggon of Gordius was still standing on the citadel of Gordium. The yoke was bound so fast to the pole with the bark of dog-wood--the knot is reported to been tied by Gordius himself--that it was said in Phrygia that the man who should untie this knot would rule over all Asia. The name Gordius should apparently be traced back to the Armenian "gords,"

i.e. labour, or "day labour."[720] That side by side with these traits the national tradition ascribed the erection of the ancient cities and temples, the building of Gordium, Gordiuteichus, and Ancyra to the earliest princes, is only natural. The names of the cities Manegordum (near Ancyra) and Midaeum also point to these.

The Phrygians obeyed a dynasty which saw its ancestors in the kings Gordius and Midas, and called themselves alternately by these names. The first king of whom we have any more definite information was Midas, the son of Gordius, who ascended the throne of Phrygia in the year 738 B.C.