An evocation of a royal funeral in Gordion. Phrygian, late 8th century BC.

The Phrygians (Phruges or Phryges) were an ancient Indo-European people, initially dwelling in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges (Briges), changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the Hellespont.

From tribal and village beginnings, the state of Phrygia arose in the 8th century BC with its capital at Gordion/Gordium (c. 75 km southwest of Ankara). During this period, the Phrygians extended eastward and encroached upon the kingdom of Urartu. Under kings alternately named Gordias and Midas, the independent Phrygian kingdom of the 8th and early 7th centuries BC maintained close trade contacts with her neighbours in the east and the Greeks in the west. Phrygia seems to have been able to co-exist with whatever power was dominant in eastern Anatolia at the time. Ultimately the Phrygian Kingdom was overwhelmed by Cimmerian invaders c. 690 BC, then briefly conquered by its neighbor Lydia, before it passed successively into the Persian Empire of Cyrus and the empire of Alexander and his successors.

The two most prominent manifestations of Phrygian cultural identity are their mother goddess Cybele and the Phrygian cap, which was worn by the greco-roman god Mithras and survived into modern imagery as the ‘Liberty cap’ of the American and French revolutionaries. The last mention of the Phrygian language in literature dates to the 5th century AD and it was likely extinct by the 7th century.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen
Source: Wikipedia .