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{{Short description|Ancient Indo-European-speaking people of Anatolia}}
{{for multi|the early Christian sect|Montanism|the play by Aeschylus|Achilleis (trilogy)}}
[[Image:Phrygians.jpg|thumb|Phrygians]]
{{Indo-European topics}}
The '''Phrygians''' ([[Greek language|Greek]]: Φρύγες, ''Phruges'' or ''Phryges'') were an ancient [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European speaking]] people who inhabited central-western [[Anatolia]] (modern-day [[Turkey]]) in antiquity.

Ancient Greek authors used "Phrygian" as an [[umbrella term]] to describe a vast ethno-cultural complex located mainly in the central areas of Anatolia rather than a name of a single "tribe" or "people", and its ethno-linguistic homogeneity is debatable.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Oreshko|first=Rostislav|title=The onager kings of Anatolia: Hartapus, Gordis, Muška and the steppe strand in early Phrygian culture|journal=Kadmos|year=2020|volume=59|number=1/2|publisher=De Gruyter|pages=77–128|doi=10.1515/kadmos-2020-0005|s2cid=235451836|url=https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03880045/file/Oreshko%20The%20onager%20kings%20of%20Anatolia%20-%20final.pdf }} pp. 82–83.</ref> Phrygians were initially dwelling in the southern [[Balkans]]&nbsp;– according to [[Herodotus]]&nbsp;– under the name of [[Bryges]] (Briges), changing it to Phryges after their final migration to [[Anatolia]], via the [[Hellespont]]. Many historians support a Phrygian migration from Europe to Asia Minor {{circa|1200}} BC, although Anatolian archaeologists have generally abandoned the idea.<ref name="Drews1995" /> It has been suggested that the Phrygian migration to Asia Minor, mentioned in Greek sources to have occurred shortly after the [[Trojan War]], happened much earlier, and in many stages.<ref name="Kopanias2015" />

[[Phrygia]] developed an advanced [[Bronze Age]] culture. The earliest traditions of [[Music of Greece|Greek music]] are in part connected to Phrygian music, transmitted through the Greek colonies in Anatolia, especially the [[Phrygian mode]], which was considered to be the warlike mode in ancient Greek music. According to  a myth, the Phrygian King [[Midas]] (of the "golden touch") was tutored in music by [[Orpheus]]. Another musical invention that came from Phrygia was the [[aulos]], a reed instrument with two pipes. In classical Greek iconography, [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]], a [[Troy|Trojan]], is represented as non-Greek by his Phrygian cap, which was also worn by [[Mithras]] and survived into modern imagery as the "[[Phrygian cap|liberty cap]]" of the [[American Revolution|American]] and [[French revolutionaries]].

Phrygians spoke the [[Phrygian language]], a member of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] linguistic family. Modern consensus regards [[Greek language|Greek]] as its closest relative.<ref name="Brixhe pp. 165–178">Brixhe, Cl. "Le Phrygien". In Fr. Bader (ed.), ''Langues indo-européennes'', pp. 165–178, Paris: CNRS Editions.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Hajnal |first1=Ivo |title='Urgriechisch': Eine Herausforderung für die Methode der Rekonstruktion? |url=http://sprawi.at/files/hajnal/vortrag_rek_urgriech.pdf |website=Institut für Sprachwissenschaft |publisher=Universität Innsbruck |access-date=4 March 2021 |location=Innsbruck, Austria |page=8 |language=de}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

==History==
[[File:Asia Minor in the Greco-Roman period - general map - regions and main settlements.jpg|thumb|300px|Classical regions of [[Asia Minor]]/[[Anatolia]]]]
A conventional date of c. 1180 BC is often used for the influx (traditionally from Thrace) of the pre-Phrygian [[Bryges]] or [[Mushki]], corresponding to the very end of the [[Hittite Empire]]. Following this date, Phrygia retained a separate cultural identity. From tribal and village beginnings, the state of [[Phrygia]] arose in the 8th century BC with its capital at [[Gordium]]. Around 690 BC, it was invaded by the [[Cimmerians]]. Phrygia was briefly conquered by its neighbour [[Lydia]], before it passed successively into the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]] of [[Cyrus the Great]] and later the [[empire]] of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]] and his [[Diadochi|successors]]. Later, it was taken by the [[Attalids]] of [[Pergamon]], and eventually became part of the [[Roman Empire]]. The last mention of the [[Phrygian language]] in literature dates to the 5th century AD and it was likely extinct by the 7th century.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Swain, Simon |author2=Adams, J. Maxwell |author3=Janse, Mark |title=Bilingualism in ancient society: language contact and the written word |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford [Oxfordshire] |year=2002 |pages=246–266 |isbn=0-199-24506-1}}</ref>

===Migration===
After the collapse of the Hittite Empire at the beginning of the twelfth century BC, the political vacuum in central-western Anatolia was filled by a wave of [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] migrants and "[[Sea Peoples]]", including the Phrygians, who established their kingdom with a capital eventually at [[Gordium]]. It is presently unknown whether the Phrygians were actively involved in the collapse of the Hittite capital [[Hattusa]] or whether they simply moved into the vacuum left by the collapse of Hittite hegemony. The so-called [[Handmade Knobbed Ware]] was found by archaeologists at sites from this period in Western Anatolia. According to Greek mythographers,<ref>JG MacQueen, ''The Hittites and their contemporaries in Asia Minor'', 1986, p. 157.</ref> [[Midas]] had been king of the Phrygians, who were originally called the [[Bryges]] (Brigi) and came from the western part of archaic [[Thrace]] or [[Macedon]]. Midas has been linked to the [[Mushki]] king Mita. However, the origins of the Mushki, and their connection to the Phrygians, is uncertain.<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.academia.edu/4580510 |title=The Mushki/Phrygian Problem from the Near Eastern Point of View |journal=In: Nostoi. Indigenous Culture, Migration and Integration in the Aegean Islands and Western Anatolia During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. Proceedings of the International Conference Istanbul 2011, Edited by N. Stampolides, C. Maner, and K. Kopanias. Istanbul: Koç University Press |date=2015 |first=Konstantinos |last=Kopanias}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=The Early Iron Age in the Elazıǧ Region and the Problem of the Mushkians |journal = Anatolian Studies|volume = 41|pages = 87–97|date=1991 |first=Veli |last=Sevin|jstor = 3642931|doi = 10.2307/3642931|s2cid = 164050075}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://docplayer.net/108120425-The-mushki-problem-reconsidered.html |title=The Mushki Problem Reconsidered |date=1997 |first=Aram V. |last=Kossian}}</ref> Some scholars have suggested that Mita was a [[Luwian]] name (it was recorded in Asia Minor in the 15th century BC).<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.academia.edu/4580510 |title=The Mushki/Phrygian Problem from the Near Eastern Point of View |journal=In: Nostoi. Indigenous Culture, Migration and Integration in the Aegean Islands and Western Anatolia During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. Proceedings of the International Conference Istanbul 2011, Edited by N. Stampolides, C. Maner, and K. Kopanias. Istanbul: Koç University Press |date=2015 |first=Konstantinos |last=Kopanias}}</ref>

Though the migration theory is still defended by many modern historians, most archaeologists have abandoned it as the origin of the Phrygians due to a lack substantial archeological evidence, with the theory resting only on the accounts of [[Herodotus]] and [[Xanthus (historian)|Xanthus]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Drews|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Drews|title=The end of the Bronze Age: changes in warfare and the catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFpK6aXEWN8C|year=1995|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691025919|page=65}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://www.academia.edu/4580510 |title=The Mushki/Phrygian Problem from the Near Eastern Point of View |journal=In: Nostoi. Indigenous Culture, Migration and Integration in the Aegean Islands and Western Anatolia During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. Proceedings of the International Conference Istanbul 2011, Edited by N. Stampolides, C. Maner, and K. Kopanias. Istanbul: Koç University Press |date=2015 |first=Konstantinos |last=Kopanias}}</ref>

===8th to 7th centuries===
[[File:Phrygian soldiers. Detail from a reconstruction of a Phrygian building at Pararli, Turkey, 7th–6th Centuries BC.jpg|right|upright=1.8|thumb|Phrygian soldiers. Detail from a reconstruction of a Phrygian building at Pazarlı, Çorum, Turkey, 7th–6th&nbsp;centuries&nbsp;BC.]]
[[Image:MidasSehri.Tomb.jpg|thumb|Tomb at [[Yazılıkaya, Eskişehir|‘Midas City’]], near [[Eskişehir]] (sixth century BC)]]
Assyrian sources from the 8th century BC speak of a king Mita of the [[Mushki]], identified with king Midas of Phrygia. An Assyrian inscription records Mita as an ally of [[Sargon II|Sargon of Assyria]] in 709 BC. A distinctive Phrygian pottery called Polished Ware appears in the 8th century BC. The Phrygians founded a powerful kingdom, which lasted until the [[Lydia]]n ascendancy (7th century BC). Under kings alternately named Gordias and Midas, the independent Phrygian kingdom of the 8th and 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.

The invasion of Anatolia in the late 8th century BC to early 7th century BC by the [[Cimmerian]]s was to prove fatal to independent Phrygia. Cimmerian pressure and attacks culminated in the suicide of its last king, Midas, according to legend. Gordium fell to the Cimmerians in 696 BC and was sacked and burnt, as reported much later by Herodotus.

A series of digs have opened Gordium as one of Turkey's most revealing archeological sites. Excavations confirm a violent destruction of Gordion around 675 BC. A tomb of the Midas period, popularly identified as the "Tomb of Midas" revealed a wooden structure deeply buried under a vast tumulus, containing grave goods, a coffin, furniture, and food offerings (Archaeological Museum, Ankara). The Gordium site contains a considerable later building program, perhaps by Alyattes, the Lydian king, in the 6th century BC.

Minor Phrygian kingdoms continued to exist after the end of the Phrygian empire, and the Phrygian art and culture continued to flourish. Cimmerian people stayed in Anatolia but do not appear to have created a kingdom of their own. The Lydians repulsed the Cimmerians in the 620s, and Phrygia was subsumed into a short-lived Lydian empire. The eastern part of the former Phrygian empire fell into the hands of the [[Medes]] in 585 BC.

===Croesus' Lydian Empire===
Under the proverbially rich King [[Croesus]] (reigned 560–546 BC), Phrygia remained part of the Lydian empire that extended east to the [[Halys River]]. There may be an echo of strife with Lydia and perhaps a veiled reference to royal hostages, in the legend of the twice-unlucky [[Adrastus (son of Gordias)|Adrastus]], the son of a King Gordias with the queen, [[Eurynome]]. He accidentally killed his brother and exiled himself to Lydia, where King Croesus welcomed him. Once again, Adrastus accidentally killed Croesus' son and then committed suicide.

===Post-state history===
Lydian [[Croesus]] was conquered by [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]] in 546 BC, and Phrygia passed under [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian]] dominion. After [[Darius I|Darius]] became Persian Emperor in 521 BC, he remade the ancient trade route into the Persian "[[Royal Road]]" and instituted administrative reforms that included setting up satrapies (provinces). In the 5th century, [[Phrygia]] was made into two administrative provinces, that of [[Hellespontine Phrygia]] (or Lesser Phrygia), with its provincial capital established at [[Dascylium]], and the province of Greater Phrygia.

==Culture==

=== Language ===
[[File:Map Phrygian inscriptions.png|right|thumb|400px|Map showing where Phrygian inscriptions have been found.]]
The [[Phrygian language]] is a member of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] linguistic family with its exact position within it having been debated due to the fragmentary nature of its evidence. Though from what is available it is evident that Phrygian shares important features with [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Armenian language|Armenian]]. Between the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, Phrygian was mostly considered part of the [[Centum and satem languages|satem]] group of the Indo-European languages, and thus close to Armenian and [[Thracian language|Thracian]], while today it is commonly considered to be a centum language and thus closer to Greek.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Obrador-Cursach|first=Bartomeu|url=https://www.tesisenred.net/bitstream/handle/10803/650834/BOC_PhD_THESIS.pdf|title=Lexicon of the Phrygian Inscriptions|publisher=[[University of Barcelona]]|year=2018|pages=101|quote=Scholars have long debated the exact position of Phrygian in the Indo-European language family. Although this position is not a closed question because of the fragmentary nature of our current knowledge, Phrygian has many important features which show that it is somehow related to Greek and Armenian.{{nbsp}}... Indeed, between the 19th and the first half of the 20th c. BC Phrygian was mostly considered a satem language (a feature once considered important to establishing the position of a language) and, especially after Alf Torp's study, closer to Armenian (and Thracian), whereas it is now commonly considered to be closer to Greek.{{nbsp}}... Brixhe (1968), Neumann (1988) and, through an accurate analysis, Matzinger (2005) showed the inconsistency of the Phrygo-Armenian assumption and argued that Phrygian was a language closely related to Greek.}}</ref> The reason that, in the past, Phrygian had the guise of a satem language was due to two secondary processes that affected it. Namely, Phrygian merged the old labiovelar with the plain velar, and secondly, when in contact with palatal vowels /e/ and /i/, especially in initial position, some consonants became palatalized. Furthermore, [[Frederik Kortlandt|Kortlandt]] (1988) presented common sound changes of Thracian and Armenian and their separation from Phrygian and the rest of the [[palaeo-Balkan languages]] from an early stage.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Woodhouse|first=Robert|year=2009|title=An overview of research on Phrygian from the nineteenth century to the present day|url=https://www.ejournals.eu/Studia-Linguistica/2009/2009/art/5400/|journal=Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis|volume=126|issue=1|page=171|doi=10.2478/v10148-010-0013-x|issn=2083-4624|quote=This question is of course only just separable from the question of which languages within Indo-European are most closely related to Phrygian, which has also been hotly debated. A turning point in this debate was Kortlandt's (1988) demonstration on the basis of shared sound changes that Thraco-Armenian had separated from Phrygian and other originally Balkan languages at an early stage. The consensus has now returned to regarding Greek as the closest relative.|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Obrador-Cursach|first=Bartomeu|year=2019|title=On the place of Phrygian among the Indo-European languages|journal=[[Journal of Language Relationship]]|publisher=[[Gorgias Press]]|volume=17|issue=3–4|page=234|doi=10.31826/jlr-2019-173-407|issn=2219-4029|quote=2.1.4. Phrygian belongs to the centum group of IE languages (Ligorio and Lubotsky 2018: 1824). Together with Greek, Celtic, Italic, Germanic, Hittite and Tocharian, Phrygian merged the old palatovelars with plain velars in a first step: NPhr. (τιτ-)τετικμενος ‘condemned’ < PIE *deiḱ-; NPhr. γεγαριτμενος ‘devoted, at the mercy of’ < PIE *ǵhr̥Hit-; NPhr. γλουρεος ‘golden’ < PIE *ǵhl̥h3-ro-. However, two shifts affected this language. Phrygian merged the old labiovelar with the plain velar (the etymological and the resulting ones): OPhr. ke(y), NPhr. κε (passim) ‘and’ < PIE *ku̯e; OPhr. knais (B-07), NPhr. κ̣ναικαν ‘wife’ (16.1 = 116) < *gu̯neh2i-. Secondly, in contact with palatal vowels (/e/ and /i/, see de Lamberterie 2013: 25–26), and especially in initial position, some consonants became palatalised:PIE *ǵhes-r- ‘hand’ > OPhr. ↑iray (B-05),7NPhr. ζειρα (40.1 = 12) ‘id.’ (Hämmig 2013: 150–151). It also occurs in glosses: *ǵheu̯-mn̻ >ζευμαν ‘fount, source’ (Hesychius ζ 128). These two secondary processes, as happened in Tocharian and the Romance languages, lend Phrygian the guise of a satəm language.|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Modern consensus regards Greek as the closest relative of Phrygian, a position that is supported by [[Claude Brixhe|Brixhe]], Neumann, Matzinger, Woodhouse, Ligorio, Lubotsky, and Obrador-Cursach. Furthermore, 34 out of the 36 Phrygian isoglosses that are recorded are shared with Greek, with 22 being exclusive between them. The last 50 years of Phrygian scholarship developed a hypothesis that proposes a [[Graeco-Phrygian|proto-Graeco-Phrygian]] stage out of which Greek and Phrygian originated, and if Phrygian was more sufficiently attested, that stage could perhaps be reconstructed.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Brixhe|first=Claude|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00wood|title=The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0-521-68496-5|editor-last=Woodard|editor-first=Roger D.|page=72|quote=Unquestionably, however, Phrygian is most closely linked with Greek.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Obrador-Cursach|first=Bartomeu|url=https://www.tesisenred.net/bitstream/handle/10803/650834/BOC_PhD_THESIS.pdf|title=Lexicon of the Phrygian Inscriptions|publisher=[[University of Barcelona]]|year=2018|pages=102|quote=Furthermore, if Phrygian were not so-poorly attested perhaps we could reconstruct a Proto-Greco-Phrygian stage of both languages.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Obrador-Cursach|first=Bartomeu|year=2019|title=On the place of Phrygian among the Indo-European languages|journal=[[Journal of Language Relationship]]|publisher=[[Gorgias Press]]|volume=17|issue=3–4|page=243|doi=10.31826/jlr-2019-173-407|issn=2219-4029|quote=With the current state of our knowledge, we can affirm that Phrygian is closely related to Greek. This is not a surprising conclusion: ancient sources and modern scholars agree that Phrygians did not live far from Greece in pre-historic times. Moreover, the last half century of scientific study of Phrygian has approached both languages and developed the hypothesis of a Proto-Greco-Phrygian language, to the detriment to other theories like Phrygio-Armenian or Thraco-Phrygian.|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Obrador-Cursach|first=Bartomeu|year=2019|title=On the place of Phrygian among the Indo-European languages|journal=[[Journal of Language Relationship]]|publisher=[[Gorgias Press]]|volume=17|issue=3–4|pages=238–239|doi=10.31826/jlr-2019-173-407|issn=2219-4029|quote=To the best of our current knowledge, Phrygian was closely related to Greek. This affirmation is consistent with the vision offered by Neumann (1988: 23), Brixhe (2006) and Ligorio and Lubotsky (2018: 1816) and with many observations given by ancient authors. Both languages share 34 of the 36 features considered in this paper, some of them of great significance:…The available data suggest that Phrygian and Greek coexisted broadly from pre-historic to historic times, and both belong to a common linguistic area (Brixhe 2006: 39–44).|doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Archaeology ===
Based on an extremely slight archaeological record, some scholars such as [[N. G. L. Hammond|Nicholas Hammond]] and [[Eugene N. Borza]], suggested that the Phrygians were members of the [[Lusatian culture]] that migrated into the southern [[Balkans]] during the [[Late Bronze Age]].<ref name="Borza1990">Borza, Eugene N. ''In the Shadow of Olympus: the Emergence of Macedon''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990, {{ISBN|0-691-00880-9}}, p. 65. "What can be established, despite an extremely slight archaeological record (especially along the slopes of Mt. Vermion), is that two streams of Lusatian peoples moved south in the later Bronze Age, one to settle in Hellespontine Phrygia, the other to occupy parts of western and central Macedonia."</ref><ref name="GordionExcavations1950-1973">The Gordion Excavations 1950–1973: Final Reports Volume 4, Rodney Stuart Young, Ellen L. Kohler, Gilbert Kenneth, p. 53.</ref> Many historians support a Phrygian migration from Europe to Asia Minor {{circa|1200}} BC; though, Anatolian archaeologists have generally abandoned the idea due to lack of western (European) ceramic ware, and the continuation of the pre-Bronze Age collapse pottery styles in central Asia Minor.<ref name="Drews1995">{{cite book|last=Drews|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Drews|title=The end of the Bronze Age: changes in warfare and the catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFpK6aXEWN8C|year=1995|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691025919|page=65}}</ref> It has been suggested that the Phrygian migration to Asia Minor, mentioned in Greek sources to have occurred shortly after the [[Trojan War]], happened much earlier, and in many stages.<ref name="Kopanias2015">{{citation |last=Kopanias |first=Konstantinos |title=The Mushki/Phrygian Problem from the Near Eastern Point of View |date=2015 |url=https://www.academia.edu/4580510 |journal=In: Nostoi. Indigenous Culture, Migration and Integration in the Aegean Islands and Western Anatolia During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. Proceedings of the International Conference Istanbul 2011, Edited by N. Stampolides, C. Maner, and K. Kopanias. Istanbul: Koç University Press |quote=The Phrygian migration, which is mentioned in the Greek sources to have taken place shortly after the Trojan War, is likely to have occurred much earlier and in many stages.}}</ref>

[[Image:CybeleHellenistic.jpg|thumb|The Phrygian [[goddess]] [[Cybele]] with her attributes]]

=== Religion ===
{{main|Phrygia#Religion}}
The Phrygians worshipped the goddess [[Cybele]]. In their language it was known as {{transliteration|xpg|Matar}} {{gloss|Mother}}, and was also referred to as {{transliteration|xpg|Matar Kubileya}} {{gloss|Mother of the mountain}} (from which the Greek {{transliteration|grc|Kybele}} and Latin {{lang|la|Cybele}} derive) or {{transliteration|xpg|Matar areyastin}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bøgh |first=Birgitte |date=2007 |title=The Phrygian Background of Kybele |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27643268 |journal=Numen |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=304, 306 |doi=10.1163/156852707X211573 |jstor=27643268 |issn=0029-5973 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> In her typical Phrygian form, she wears a long belted dress, a ''[[polos]]'' (a high cylindrical headdress), and a veil covering the whole body. The later version of Cybele was established by a pupil of [[Phidias]], the [[Sculpture|sculptor]] [[Agoracritus]], and became the image most widely adopted by Cybele's expanding following, both in the [[Aegean civilization|Aegean]] world and at [[Rome]]. It shows her humanized though still enthroned, her hand resting on an attendant lion and the other holding the ''[[Tympanum (hand drum)|tympanon]]'', a circular frame drum, similar to a [[tambourine]].

The Phrygians also venerated [[Sabazios]], the sky and father-[[God (male deity)|god]] depicted on horseback. Although the Greeks associated Sabazios with [[Zeus]], representations of him, even at Roman times, show him as a horseman god. His conflicts with the indigenous Mother Goddess, whose creature was the [[Lunar Bull]], may be surmised in the way that Sabazios' horse places a hoof on the head of a bull, in a [[Roman sculpture#Relief sculptures|Roman relief]] at the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]].

Obrador-Cursach (2020) analysed a new Phrygian inscription from [[Dorylaion]], that mentions the gods {{transliteration|xpg|Miθrapata}}, {{transliteration|xpg|Mas Tembrogios}} and the {{transliteration|xpg|Pontic Bas}}.<ref>{{cite book |last=Obrador-Cursach |first=Bartomeu |chapter=New Phrygian Inscriptions |title=The Phrygian Language |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |publisher=Brill |date=2020 |pages=525–526 |doi=10.1163/9789004419995_010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=de Hoz |first=Maria-Paz |date=2022 |chapter=Greek–Phrygian contact and sociolinguistic context in the Neo-Phrygian corpus |editor1-last=Obrador-Cursach |editor1-first=Bartomeu |editor2-last=Adiego |editor2-first=Ignacio-Xavier |title=Steps into Phrygian: language and epigraphy |publisher=Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona |volume=Barcino Monographica Orientalia 19 |series=Series Anatolica et Indogermanica 3 |location=Barcelona |page=68 |url=https://www.academia.edu/99877019/Greek_Phrygian_contact_BMO}}</ref> Other attested deities in the Phrygian corpus are {{transliteration|xpg|Ti-}} {{gloss|Zeus}}, {{lang|xpg|βας}} {{gloss|the shining one}}; and borrowed deities {{transliteration|xpg|artimitos}} {{gloss|[[Artemis]]}}, {{transliteration|xpg|mas}} {{gloss|[[Men (deity)|Men]]}} (possibly a moon god) and {{lang|xpg|διουνσιν}} {{gloss|[[Dionysos]]}}.<ref>{{cite book |last=Obrador-Cursach |first=Bartomeu |chapter=The Phrygian Language |title=The Phrygian Language |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |publisher=Brill |date=2020 |page=118 |doi=10.1163/9789004419995_005}}</ref>

== Mythological accounts ==
The name of the earliest known mythical king was [[Nannacus]] (aka Annacus).<ref>Suidas s. v. Νάννακος; Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Ἰκόνιον; Both passages are translated in: [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QzoGAAAAQAAJ/page/n19 <!-- pg=14 quote=annacus phrygia. --> "A New System: or, An Analysis of Antient Mythology"] by Jacob Bryant (1807): 12–14.</ref> This king resided at Iconium, the most eastern city of the kingdom of Phrygia at that time, and after his death, at the age of 300 years, a great flood overwhelmed the country, as had been foretold by an ancient oracle. The next king mentioned in extant classical sources was called Manis or Masdes. According to Plutarch, because of his splendid exploits, great things were called "manic" in Phrygia.<ref>Plutarch, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/plu/pte/pte04.htm "On Isis and Osiris"], chap. 24.</ref> Thereafter the kingdom of Phrygia seems to have become fragmented among various kings. One of the kings was [[Tantalus]] who ruled over the north western region of Phrygia around [[Mount Sipylus]]. Tantalus was endlessly punished in [[Tartarus]], because he allegedly killed his son [[Pelops]] and sacrificially offered him to the Olympians, a reference to the suppression of [[human sacrifice]]. Tantalus was also falsely accused of stealing from the lotteries he had invented. In the mythic age before the [[Trojan War]], during a time of an [[interregnum]], [[Gordias|Gordius]] (or Gordias), a Phrygian farmer, became king, fulfilling an oracular [[prophecy]]. The kingless Phrygians had turned for guidance to the oracle of Sabazios ("Zeus" to the Greeks) at [[Telmissus]], in the part of Phrygia that later became part of [[Galatia]]. They had been instructed by the oracle to acclaim as their king the first man who rode up to the god's temple in a cart. That man was Gordias (Gordios, Gordius), a farmer, who dedicated the ox-cart in question, tied to its shaft with the "[[Gordian Knot]]". Gordias refounded a capital at Gordium in west central Anatolia, situated on the old trackway through the heart of Anatolia that became [[Darius the Great|Darius]]'s Persian "Royal Road" from [[Pessinus]] to [[Ancyra]], and not far from the [[Sakarya River|River Sangarius]].

Later mythic kings of Phrygia were alternately named [[Gordias]] and [[Midas]]. Myths surround the first king Midas. There were seven altogether connecting him with a mythological tale concerning [[Attis]].<ref>Pausanias ''Description of Greece'' 7:17; Arnobius ''Against the Pagans'' 5.5</ref> This shadowy figure resided at Pessinus and attempted to marry his daughter to the young Attis in spite of the opposition of his mother figure Agdestis and his lover, the goddess [[Cybele]]. When Agdestis or Cybele appear and cast madness upon the members of the wedding feast. Midas is said to have died in the ensuing chaos.

The famous king Midas was said to be a son of the kind Gordius mentioned above. He is said to have associated himself with [[Silenus]] and other satyrs and with [[Dionysus]], who granted him the famous "golden touch".

The mythic Midas of Thrace, accompanied by a band of his people, traveled to Asia Minor to wash away the taint of his unwelcome "golden touch" in the river [[Pactolus]]. Leaving the gold in the river's sands, Midas found himself in Phrygia, where he was adopted by the childless king Gordias and taken under the protection of Cybele. Acting as the visible representative of Cybele, and under her authority, it would seem, a Phrygian king could designate his successor.

According to the ''Iliad'', the Phrygians were Trojan allies during the [[Trojan War]]. The Phrygia of [[Homer]]'s ''Iliad'' appears to be located in the area that embraced the Ascanian lake and the northern flow of the Sangarius river and so was much more limited in extent than classical Phrygia. Homer's ''Iliad'' also includes a reminiscence by the Trojan king [[Priam]], who had in his youth come to aid the Phrygians against the [[Amazons]] (''[[Iliad]]'' 3.189). During this episode (a generation before the Trojan War), the Phrygians were said to be led by [[Otreus]] and [[Mygdon of Phrygia|Mygdon]]. Both appear to be little more than eponyms: there was a place named Otrea on the Ascanian Lake, in the vicinity of the later [[Nicaea]]; and the Mygdones were a people of Asia Minor, who resided near Lake [[Dascylitis]] (there was also a [[Mygdonia]] in Macedonia). During the Trojan War, the Phrygians sent forces to aid [[Troy]], led by [[Ascanius]] and [[Phorcys]], the sons of [[Aretaon]]. [[Asius (mythology)|Asius]], son of [[Dymas]] and brother of Hecabe, is another Phrygian noble who fought before Troy. [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]] mentions another Phrygian prince, named [[Coroebus]], son of [[Mygdon of Phrygia|Mygdon]], who fought and died at Troy; he had sued for the hand of the Trojan princess [[Cassandra]] in marriage. King Priam's wife [[Hecuba|Hecabe]] is usually said to be of Phrygian birth, as a daughter of King [[Dymas]].

The Phrygian [[Sibyl]] was the priestess presiding over the [[Apollonian oracle]] at Phrygia.

[[Marsyas]], a Phrygian follower of Cybele, was a [[satyr]] who is regarded as the inventor of the [[aulos]], which he created using the hollowed [[antler]] of a [[stag]]. He unwisely competed in music with the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian]] [[Apollo]] and inevitably lost, whereupon Apollo flayed Marsyas alive and provocatively hung his skin on Cybele's own sacred tree, a [[pine]].

[[Herodotus]]<ref>[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.2 ''Histories''] 2.2</ref> claims the priests of [[Hephaestus]] told him a story that the Egyptian pharaoh [[Psamtik I|Psammetichus]] had two children raised in isolation in order to find the original language. The children were reported to have uttered ''bekos'' meaning "bread" in Phrygian. It was then acknowledged by the Egyptians that the Phrygians were a nation older than the Egyptians.

[[Josephus]] claimed the Phrygians were founded by the biblical figure [[Togarmah]], grandson of [[Japheth]] and son of [[Gomer]]: "and [[Thrugramma]] the [[Thrugrammeans]], who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians".

==See also==
*[[Bryges]]
*[[Phrygian cap]]
*[[Phrygian language]]
*[[Paleo-Balkan languages]]
*[[Carians]]
*[[Mysians]]
*[[Lydians]]
*[[Lycians]]

==References and notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last=Avram |first=A. |date=2016 |title=Two Phrygian gods between Phrygia and Dacia |journal=Colloquium Anatolicum |volume=15 |pages=70–83 |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/collan/issue/61595/919742#article_cite}}
* Drew-Bear, Thomas and Naour, Christian. "Divinités de Phrygie". In: ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ANRW)'' [Rise and Decline of the Roman World]. Band 18/3. Teilband Religion (Heidentum: Die religiösen Verhältnisse in den Provinzen [Forts.]). Edited by Wolfgang Haase, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 [1990]. pp. 1907–2044. {{doi|10.1515/9783110862768-006}}
* {{cite journal |last=Güney |first=Hale |title=The Sanctuary of Zeus Sarnendenos and the Cult of Zeus in Northeastern Phrygia |journal=Anatolian Studies |volume=69 |date=2019 |pages=155–174 |doi=10.1017/S0066154619000097 |jstor=26940112|s2cid=198042018 |doi-access=free }} Accessed 24 May 2023.
* {{cite journal|last=Obrador-Cursach|first=Bartomeu|date=2017|title=The Phrygian god Bas|journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |volume=76|issue=2 |pages=307–317 |doi=10.1086/692917 |jstor=26557717 |hdl=2445/177976 |s2cid=166197991 |url=https://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/177976/1/673638.pdf}}
* {{cite book |last=Obrador-Cursach |first=Bartomeu |date=2022 |chapter=The gods of the Phrygian inscriptions |editor1-last=Obrador-Cursach |editor1-first=Bartomeu |editor2-last=Adiego |editor2-first=Ignacio-Xavier |title=Steps into Phrygian: language and epigraphy |publisher=Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona |volume=Barcino Monographica Orientalia 19 |series=Series Anatolica et Indogermanica 3 |location=Barcelona |pages=103–154 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/82891239}}
* Räthel, Maximilian (2019). ''Midas und die Könige von Phrygien. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte Phrygiens und seiner Herrscher vom 12. bis zum 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr.'' [Midas and the kings of Phrygia. Studies on the history of Phrygia and its rulers from the 12th to the 6th century BC.]. München: utzverlag, {{ISBN|978-3-8316-4781-1}}.
* {{Cite journal |last=Roller |first=Lynn E. |title=Phrygian Myth and Cult |journal= Source: Notes in the History of Art|volume=7 |issue=3/4 |date=1988 |page=43–50 |doi=10.1086/sou.7.3_4.23202659|s2cid=191384852 }}
* Wittke, Anne-Maria (2004). ''Mušker und Phryger. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte Anatoliens vom 12. bis zum 7. Jh. v. Chr.'' [Muscans and Phrygians. A contribution to the history of Anatolia from the 12th to the 7th century BC]. Wiesbaden: Reichert, {{ISBN|3-89500-385-9}}.
{{refend}}

{{History of Anatolia}}

[[Category:Phrygians| ]]
[[Category:Indo-European peoples]]
[[Category:Ancient peoples of Anatolia]]