when he laid violent hands on himself. The victims immolated in honor of this goddess were a bull or a she-goat, whence the sacrifice was called Taurobolium or Cribolium. At Rome a sow was yearly sacrificed to her, and the ceremony performed by a priest and priestess sent for out of Phrygia on that occasion. Her priests, or those at least who were named Galli, were all eunuchs. This the great goddess is said to have required of them in memory of Attis. The waters of the river Gallus were supposed to inspire them with such enthusiasm, as to perform the horrible operation on themselves without the least reluctance. They were forbidden to drink wine, because Attis, overcome with that liquor, had disclosed some amours which he had ever before concealed with the utmost care, as being of a disreputable nature. They abstained also from bread, in commemoration of the long fast Cybele had kept on account of the death of Attis. They held oaths to be unlawful on all occasions, which tenet some tell us was common to all the Phrygians. On their death, the priests

this version of the story: that Dardanus instituted the Samothracian mysteries; that his wife, Chryses, learnt them in Arcadia; and that Idæus, the son of Dardanus, instituted afterwards the mysteries of the mother of the gods in Phrygia. Herodotus brings the Curetes out of Phoenicia with Cadmus; and Sir Isaac Newton-Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, c. ii-thinks that, having followed Cadmus out of Phoenicia, some of them settled in Phrygia, where they were called Corybantes; some in Crete, where they were called Idæi Dactyli; others in Rhodes, where they were called Telchines; others in Samothrace, where they were known under the name of Cabriri; some in Eubæa, where they were skilled in arts and sciences. They wrought in copper, in a city then called Chalcis; some in Lemnus, where they assisted Vulcan; and a very considerable number of them in Ætolia, which was thence called the country of the Curetes, till Ætolus, the son of Endymion, possessing himself of it, called it Ætolia. These Curetes, making themselves armor, used to dance in it at the sacrifices, with great noise of pipes, and drums, and swords, striking upon one another's armor, and keeping some kind of harmony. This is said by Solinus and Isiodorus to have been the origin of music in Greece. Clemens Alexandrinus ascribes to the Curetes the invention of musical rhymes, and of the letters called Ephesians. Sir Isaac Newton thinks that when the Phoenician letters were brought by Cadmus into Greece, they were at the same time introduced into Phrygia and Crete by the Curetes, who called them Ephesian, from the city of Ephesus, where they were first taught. [This is a mere conjecture.] The Curetes were no less esteemed for their skill and knowledge in religious matters, and mystical practices, than for their arts and sciences.-Strabo, lib. x.; Diodorus, lib. v.Bockart considers them to have come from Palestine, and that they had the name of Curetes from a tribe among the Philistines, called Cretins or Cerethites. [Should this conjecture be well founded, then there is reason to believe, as is seen from what I have elsewhere related, that they had their origin in India.] As Cybele—as the Great Mother—was sometimes represented with a key and sometimes with a drum in her hand, some have considered her identical with the Syrian goddess Astarte, whose chariot was also drawn by lions. [There is also much similarity in regard to the priests and the ceremonies which were practised in the worships of the Great Mother and the Syrian goddess, as will be seen by a comparison between what is related above and in vol. i. pp. 465-470.] Lucian tells us the Great Mother was the Cretan Rhea-that is, according to some, Europa, the sister of Cadmus. -English Universal History, vol. ii.

The Cabiri, the Curetes, the Corybantes, the Idæan Dactyli, and sometimes the Telchini, were taken for the same, and sometimes considered as identical with the Dioscuri.Moufaucon.

were placed upon a stone ten cubits high. Though the Romans professed a great veneration for Cybele, her priests were looked upon by them as the very refuse of mankind.

Besides Cybele, who was the peculiar and chief deity of the Phrygians, the people worshipped also other deities; namely, Bacchus, whom they styled Sabazios, and his priests and temples Saboi.* Apollodorust informs us that while Bacchus was travelling through Phrygia, he was purified by Cybele, instructed in her mysteries, and presented by her with a stole or sacerdotal garment, which was the first he ever used. of the Phrygian deities was Adagys.!

Another

We are told of some dances and songs employed by the Phrygians in solemnizing the festivals of their gods, and sometimes on other occasions, which they called Lityerses, from a son of Midas who bore that name. Some speak also of a dance called Sicinnis, invented, say they, by a Phrygian nymph, and used by the Phrygians in honor of Sabatius, whom they add to the number of the other Phrygian gods.

* Whence Bockart derives the Hebrew word Sabbath, as that of Levite from Lycius and Evias. + Lib. iii.

Stephanus says, that when Bacchus was born, Jupiter committed him to the care of one of Cybele's female attendants, who, being asked by Juno whose child she nursed, answered that it was the child of Mars, whence Bacchus, in the Carian dialect was called Masaris or Masares, that is, the Mars of Ma.-English Universal History, vol. ii.

Bockart thinks Adygus to be identical with Hermaphroditus, the son of Venus and Mercury, there being, at least to his ear, a great similitude of sound between Adygus and Androgynus. Some rank also the Cabiri or Cabires among the Phrygian deities, and add, that they were so called from Cabirus, a hill in Phrygia, or, as Stesinbrotus terms it, in Berecynthia. But others derive their name from the Hebrew word Cabir, signifying great and powerful. Some confine the number of the Cabiri to two, viz. Jupiter and Bacchus ; but Manaseas enumerates four-Ceres, Proserpine, Pluto, and Mercury, whom he disguises under the uncouth appellations of Axioros, Axiokersa, Axiokersas, and Kassmitas; to these Dionysiodorus adds another one, whom he styles Casmillus, called by others Camillus, and considered the same as Mercury; but he is universally looked upon as one of inferior rank, and in no wise on a level with the Cabiri, termed the Most High, the Most Powerful. -See Bockart. We will speak more of the Cabiri in another place, being deserving of more particular attention, as will be made evident.

See Bockart.

LETTER XVI.

KINGS OF PHRYGIA THE GREATER.

Nannacus,

THERE is scarcely any account of the earlier Phrygian kings worthy of credit, though the following has been gathered from ancient writers." The first king of Phrygia we find mentioned in history is first king of Nannacus, Annacus, or Cannacus, for he bore all these appellaPhrygia. tions. Suidast says that he reigned before the flood of Deucalion, and that from thence things exceedingly ancient, were probably said to be from the time of Nannacus. He lived to a very great age, for it is recorded of him that when he was above three hundred years old, he sent to inquire of such oracles as were in any repute, how long he should live. The oracles unanimously answered, that at his death all things were to perish; whereupon repairing with his subjects to the temples of the gods, he strove there with many sighs and tears to appease their wrath, and avert the impending calamities; and "thence to weep like Nannacus, became a trite expression to signify any extraordinary grief or sorrow."‡ Not long after Nannacus died, and the flood of Deucalion ensued, which was attended with the destruction of all mankind, save Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha.

Midas.

Midas is the next Phrygian king mentioned by ancient writers. He is said to have resided at Pessinus, and is the same king who designed, as I have already related, to give his daughter Jo, in marriage to Attis or Atys. This king, some think, is that Midas who built, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, a magnificent temple at Pessinus, and appointed yearly sacrifices to be made there, in honor of the Great Mother of the gods. Hyginus seems to make this Midas a son of Cybele herself. The next Phrygian king of whom we read is Manic, a prince Manic. as Plutarch informs us, of such prowess and virtue, that the word Manic derived from his name, became synonymous with great; whence Manic achievements were, among the Phrygians, the same as great, or glorious, or heroic achievements.

As the learned authors of the English Universal History have taken all possible pains to inform their readers on the subject now in question, I have had scarcely anything more to do than to follow the account they have given.

+ Verbo Αννακοσ.

Lib. iii. c. 5.

Suid. et Supra Erasm. Chiliad.

De Tois and Osir.

Gordius.

After these reigned Gordius, who was raised from the plough to the throne. His elevation to that high station is related thus: While he was one day ploughing, an eagle alighted on the yoke, and continued there all day. Gordius terrified at this prodigy, went to consult the soothsayers of Telmissus, a city in Lydia, about this extraordinary event; for the art of divining was in a manner hereditary to all the Telmissians. On his entering the city he met a most beautiful young woman, who upon his inquiring after the soothsayers and acquainting her with the motive of his journey, informed him that she was herself skilled in the art of divination; that nothing less than a kingdom was presaged by that omen; and then offered herself ready to share with him in wedlock, the hopes with which she had inspired him. This offer seemed to him the greatest happiness that could attend a crown. He consequently readily complied with her request, following at the same time his own inclination. Not long after, intestine discords breaking out among the Phrygians, the oracles which they consulted on that occasion, were all unanimous in advising them to commit the government to a king, if they desired to put a stop to the growing evils. Upon this the Phrygians having sent again to consult about the person whom they should raise to that dignity, their ambassadors were enjoined to tell them, that the first man who after their return should visit the temple of Jupiter in a cart, was by the gods designed for their king. The ambassadors had scarcely delivered the answer of the oracle, when Gordius appeared riding in his cart, and was immediately proclaimed king of Phrygia with loud shouts of joy. Gordius acknowledging the crown of Jupiter,* in memory of so signal a favor, consecrated in his temple the cart to regal majesty; which not by the Phrygians only, but by other nations, was adored as a goddess. To the beam of the cart he fastened a knot woven with such art, and so complex, that the monarchy of the globe was promised by the oracles to him who should untie it. Gordius is said to have built the city of Gordium, which was his residence and that of all the kings of the Gordian family.t

This seems to me to intimate that the Phrygians had, at least for some time before, been ruled by the priesthood, in the name of the chief deity; and that Gordius, at his elevation, therefore acknowledged himself as a vassal of that very deity. But be this as it may, it is evident that the Phrygians, at least some time before Gordius, had lived under another form of government than the monarchical, which then was adopted again.

+ Plutarch relates that Midas, the son of Gordius, was born of the goddess worshipped by the Romans under the name of Bona Dea, but whether she was the wife of Gordius is much questioned by the mythologists.

Ælian, book i. and Arrian, book iii. tell us that Midas, the son of Gordius, was the first king of the Gordian family that reigned in Phrygia; and that the Phrygians, having inquired of the oracle by what means they could put an end to their intestine contentions, received the answer, that "A cart would bring them a king who should restore their country to its former tranquillity;" and that, while they were musing on this reply, Midas came riding in his cart into the throng, and was immediately proclaimed king by the people. But the majority of writers have taken it for granted that Gordius himself was the first of the Gordian family that reigned in Phrygia.

Midas II.

Midas, the son of Gordius, succeeded his father to the kingdom of Phrygia. Of this Midas it is related, that when he was a child, a swarm of ants was, observed very busy one day, while he was asleep, in carrying their stores of wheat into his mouth; whereupon the oracles being consulted, returned the answer that immense riches were presaged by that omen. This alleged prediction was accomplished, for he is accounted by the ancient writers as one of the richest princes that ever existed. Strabo informs us of the sources of his wealth, relating that he drew vast treasures from mines of metal, discovered as it is supposed during his reign, in the Mount Bermius. This prince is greatly praised by some writers for the comeliness of his person; by others for the religious bent of his mind. He is said to have been instructed by Orpheus in the mysteries of religion, and to have introduced into Phrygia the worship of new deities, for whom he dedicated temples and provided priests. He introduced also the custom of mourning over the dead with doleful songs and dirges; and by annually renewing his lamentations over his deceased mother, brought the Phrygians by degrees to worship her as a goddess.* He is said to have built the town of Amyra, where an anchor of his contrivance was to be seen in the temple of Jupiter, as Pausanias tells us.† The queen of this Midas, whose name was Hermodica, is celebrated by Heraclides on account of her beauty and wisdom, and is said to have been the first that taught the inhabitants of Cyme to coin money. By her Midas had three sons. His fourth son Lityerses was born of a concubine.‡

Nothing has rendered the name of Midas more famous than the Greek proverb, Midas "ovs ra; that is, "Midas has asses' ears." But what gave rise to that saying is variously related. The poets tell us, that in a trial of skill between Pan and Apollo, both famous musicians and rivals in that art, Midas pronounced sentence in favor of the former, whereupon Apollo clapped a pair of asses' ears on his head: this badge of ignorance he artfully concealed a long time under his diadem; but at last it was unfortunately discovered by his barber, and made public. Others say that Midas, having offered an affront to Bacchus, was metamorphosed into an ass by the incensed deity. Conon apud Phet. Biblioth., tells us that Midas, having found a treasure, became very rich; that, being instructed by Orpheus on Mount Pierius, he got himself, by various artifices, proclaimed king of the Brigians; that in his reign, Silenus appeared on Mount Brime; that whatever Midas touched was immediately turned into gold; and that making use of this prodigy, he persuaded his subjects to remove out of Europe into that country which lies on the Hellespont; that he settled in Mysia, and there changed the name of his subjects, calling them no more Brigians, but Phrygians. The account of Justin coincides in part with this. Conon further adds, that Midas had a great many spies dispersed throughout the country, by whose information he knew whatever his subjects did or said, whence he reigned in peace and tranquillity to a great age, none of his subjects daring to enter into any plot or conspiracy against him. His knowing by this means whatever his subjects spoke of him, occasioned the saying, that " Midas had long ears;" and as asses are said to be endowed with the sense of hearing to a degree of perfection above all other animals, he was also said to have asses' ears; but in process of time, what was taken in a metaphorical sense, began, as is often the case, to run current in the world for truth; or perhaps, as Midas was said to have long ears, and as asses have so too it became the custom, figuratively, to say, that Midas had asses' ears.