#gordium

Phrygie

La Phrygie était le nom d'un ancien royaume anatolien (12e-7e siècle av. J.-C.) et, après sa disparition, le terme fut appliqué à la zone géographique générale qu'elle couvrait sur le plateau occidental de l'Asie mineure. Avec sa capitale à Gordion et une culture qui mélangeait curieusement des éléments anatoliens, grecs et proche-orientaux, l'une des figures les plus célèbres du royaume est le légendaire roi Midas, celui qui avait acquis la capacité de transformer en or tout ce qu'il touchait, même sa nourriture. Après l'effondrement du royaume suite aux attaques des Cimmériens au VIIe siècle avant J.-C., la région passa sous le contrôle des Lydiens, des Perses, des Séleucides, puis des Romains.

Sovereignty and divinity are inextricable, according to the cult of kingship born in Phrygia. To a remarkable degree, sacred knowledge (the prophetic gift of the mother of Midas, and her instructions to Gordius) and ritual practice (the rites and ceremonies established by Midas, and especially their distinctive music) are in essence sovereignty itself. This is implicit in the story of the kingship of Midas as told by Arrian, and it is explicit in the conclusion to the same tale in Justin’s account, where Midas “filled Phrygia with religious cults, and this, throughout his life, protected him more effectively than could an armed guard.” 

Cult practice and the exercise of sovereignty are still more graphically linked in an account of the means by which Midas extended his dominion. The story is related among the military stratagems collected by Polyaenus:

Midas, pretending that he was going to perform rites for the Great Gods, led out the Phrygians in the night with auloi, tympana, and cymbals, and with hidden swords. Townspeople came out of their houses to see the procession; those who were playing the tympana and cymbals slew the spectators as they came into the streets, took possession of their houses, which lay open, and proclaimed Midas tyrant.

This tale has no specific setting, and therefore describes no particular historical event of the reign of Midas. Rather, it describes a concept underlying his kingship, or irresistible tyranny: his ritual procession is conquest. Opening one’s door to the spectacle of the Mother’s rites is prelude to subjection to the king who celebrates those rites. The result is the appropriation of conquered land, and the tyranny of Midas.

Implicit in this tradition is the idea that the rituals that made Midas great could be adopted by others to their benefit, but always with a sense that the resulting strength or prosperity was due to ritual practices that originated in the cult of the Phrygian Mother. Polyaenus tells a similar story of Artemisia, queen of Caria in the time of Xerxes, who captured the city of Latmus by deploying the musical and enthusiastic rites of a procession of the Mother of the Gods. 

Nicolaus of Damascus tells a story of dynastic rivalry among the Neleid rulers of Miletus, in which Phrygian rites play a similar role. The ruling king, Leodamas, was slain by a rival, and Leodamas’ children and supporters fled from Miletus to Assesus, where they were besieged by their enemies. Appealing to an oracle for advice, they were told to await the arrival of “helpers from Phrygia, who would exact vengeance for the murder of Leodamas and deliver the Milesians from their troubles.” In due course two young Phrygian men arrived bringing a “covered basket containing sacred objects of the Cabeiri.” They declared that they had been sent by a god’s command to convey sacred objects from Phrygia for the benefit of the people at Assesus and Miletus. The Phrygians were welcomed at Assesus by the Milesians, who “vowed to institute the sacred objects among themselves and grant them honors” if they achieved success. Thereupon the Phrygians performed their customary rituals, and ordered the Milesians “to arm themselves, and to march en masse against their enemies, while the sacred objects were conveyed in front of their phalanx.” Upon their doing these things, a “god-sent terror” fell on their foes, who were routed and slaughtered, and strife was brought to an end at Miletus.

A march of conquest, once again, is depicted as a ritual procession, and the story, moreover, legitimizes the foundation of a Phrygian cult at Miletus. In Nicolaus’ day, in the reign of Augustus, the province of Asia had adopted on its coinage the cista mystica, the “mystic basket” alluded to in this story of early Miletus, as the symbol of its unity and prosperity under the hand of divine providence. This was the container of the mystic sacred objects that were both from Phrygia and of the Cabeiri, uniting the rites of the Mother of the Gods with those observed on Samothrace. Among neighboring peoples as well, conveyance of such a revered ritual talisman at the head of an army, accompanied by enthusiastic music, was an ancient manner of displaying sovereign power.  .... The myth-historical context underlying all of these accounts is the endowment of sovereign tyranny to Midas by the Mother, his mother. Midas was the prototypical conqueror, invoked as Lord and Leader of the Host in the archaic Midas Monument. The same monument indicates what later Greek and Latin sources affirm, namely that the rites of the Phrygian Mother were both the means and the justification for his irresistible tyranny. As a cult place dedicated to the memory of Midas and the Mother, the Midas Monument represented one of several places where tyranny was evoked by those who sought to exercise it. As opposed to the portable sacred objects that could be used to transplant the power of tyranny, as was done at Miletus or in Sicily, the rock-cut Midas Monument displayed the basis of sovereign power as a feature of the Phrygian landscape, in the highlands where the chief rivers of western Asia arose, in the native land of Midas’ tyranny. Like the story Herodotus tells attesting the power of the claim that the Phrygians were “the first of mankind,” that the word for bread was first spoken in Phrygia, and, as other sources attest, that Lityerses invented agriculture in that land, the lore of Phrygia asserted that this land was the native home to the greatest king the world had ever known. Anyone who sought sovereign power after Midas’ day, according to this ideology, had to acquire it from the source.”  

Gordio

Gordio era la capital de la antigua Frigia, la actual Yassihüyük. Está situada en el lugar donde el antiguo camino real entre Lidia y Asiria/Babilonia cruza el río Sangario, que fluye desde el centro de Anatolia hasta el mar Negro. Hoy en día todavía se pueden ver restos del camino. En el siglo IX a.C., la ciudad se convirtió en la capital de los frigios, una tribu tracia que había invadido Asia, donde establecieron su gran reino que ocupaba la mayor parte de Turquía al oeste del río Halys.

Gordium

Gordium (alias Gordion) était la capitale de l'ancienne Phrygie, près de l'actuelle Yassihüyük. Elle était située à l'endroit où l'ancienne route royale entre la Lydie et l'Assyrie/Babylonie traverse la rivière Sangarios (le Sakarya) qui coule de l'Anatolie centrale à la mer Noire. Des vestiges de cette route sont encore visibles. Au IXe siècle avant notre ère, la ville devint la capitale des Phrygiens, une tribu thrace qui avait envahi et s'était installée en Asie. Ils créèent un grand royaume qui occupait la majeure partie de la Turquie à l'ouest de la rivière Halys (le Kızılırmak).

Frigia

Frigia era el nombre de un antiguo reino anatolio (siglos XII al VII a. C.) y, tras su desaparición, el término fue aplicado al área geográfica general que alguna vez abarcó en la meseta occidental de Asia Menor, con su capital en Gordio y una cultura que, curiosamente, mezclaba elementos anatolios, griegos y del Cercano Oriente. Una de las figuras más famosas del reino es el legendario rey Midas quien adquirió la habilidad de convertir todo lo que tocaba en oro, incluso su comida. A continuación del colapso del reino, tras los ataques de los cimerios en el siglo VII a. C., la región quedó bajo control lidio, persa, seléucida y luego romano.