During the
heroic age
of
Greek mythology
, several legendary kings 
were Phrygians
:
Gordias
whose
Gordian Knot
would later be cut by
Alexander the Great
,
Midas
who turned whatever he touched to 
gold, and
Mygdon
who warred with the
Amazons
. According to
Homer
‘s
Iliad
, the Phrygians were close allies of 
the Trojans
and participants in the
Trojan War
against the
Achaeans
. Phrygian power reached its peak 
in the late 8th century BC under another, historical, king:
Midas
, who dominated most of western and 
central Anatolia and rivaled
Assyria
and
Urartu
for power in eastern Anatolia. This 
later Midas was, however, also the last independent king of Phrygia before 
its capital Gordium
was sacked by
Cimmerians
around 695 BC. Phrygia then 
became subject to
Lydia
, and then successively to
Persia
,
Alexander
and his
Hellenistic
successors,
Pergamon
,
Rome
and
Byzantium
. Phrygians were gradually 
assimilated into other cultures by the early medieval era, and after the
Turkish
conquest of Anatolia the name 
Phrygia passed out of usage as a territorial designation.

Geography

Phrygia describes an area on the western end of the high Anatolian 
plateau, an arid region quite unlike the forested lands to the north and 
west. Phrygia begins in the northwest where an area of dry steppe is watered 
by the Sakarya and
Porsuk
river system and is home to the 
settlements of
Dorylaeum
near modern
Eskisehir
, and the Phrygian capital
Gordion
. The climate is harsh with hot 
summers and cold winters; olives will not easily grow here and the land is 
mostly used for livestock grazing and the production of barley. South of 
Dorylaeum, there is another important Phrygian settlement, Midas City (Yazılıkaya, 
Eskişehir), situated in an area of hills and columns of volcanic
tufa
. To the south again, central Phrygia 
includes the cities of
Afyonkarahisar
(ancient Akroinon) with its 
marble quarries at nearby
Docimium
(İscehisar), and the town of
Synnada
. At the western end of Phrygia, 
stood the towns of
Aizanoi
(modern
Çavdarhisar
) and
Acmonia
. From here to the southwest lies 
the hilly area of Phrygia that contrasts to the bare plains of the region’s 
heartland. Southwestern Phrygia is watered by the Maeander (Büyük 
Menderes River) and its tributary the
Lycus
, and contains the towns of
Laodicea on the Lycus
and
Hierapolis
.

Origins

Inscriptions found at
Gordium
make clear that Phrygians spoke an
Indo-European
language with at least some 
vocabulary similar to
Greek
, and clearly not belonging to the 
family of
Anatolian languages
spoken by most of 
Phrygia’s neighbors. One of the so-called
Homeric Hymns
describes the
Phrygian language
as not mutually 
intelligible with that of Troy.

According to ancient tradition among Greek historians, the Phrygians 
anciently migrated to
Anatolia
from the
Balkans
.
Herodotus
says the Phrygians were called
Bryges
when they lived in Europe. He and 
other Greek writers also recorded legends about King
Midas
that associated him with or put his 
origin in
Macedonia
; Herodotus, for example, says a 
wild rose garden in Macedonia was named after Midas. Some classical writers 
also connected the Phrygians with the
Mygdones
, the name of two groups of people, 
one of which lived in northern Macedonia and another in
Mysia
. Likewise the
Phrygians
have been identified with the
Bebryces
, a people said to have warred with
Mysia
before the
Trojan War
and who had a king named
Mygdon
at roughly the same time as the 
Phrygians were said to have had a king named Mygdon. The classical historian
Strabo
groups Phrygians,
Mygdones
,
Mysians
,
Bebryces
and
Bithynians
together as peoples that 
migrated to Anatolia from the Balkans. This image of Phrygians as part of a 
related group of northwest Anatolian cultures seems the most likely 
explanation for the confusion over whether
Phrygians
,
Bebryces
and Anatolian Mygdones were or 
were not the same people.

The apparent similarity of the 
Phrygian language
to Greek and its 
dissimilarity with the
Anatolian languages
spoken by most of their 
neighbors is also taken as support for a European origin of the Phrygians. 
Phrygian continued to be spoken until sixth century AD, though its 
distinctive alphabet was lost earlier than those of most Anatolian cultures.

Some scholars have theorized that such a migration could have occurred 
more recently than classical sources suggest, and have sought to fit the 
Phrygian arrival into a narrative explaining the downfall of the
Hittite Empire
and the end of the high 
Bronze Age in Anatolia. According to this “recent migration” theory, the 
Phrygians invaded just before or after the collapse of the Hittite Empire at 
the beginning of the 12th century BC, filling the political vacuum in 
central-western Anatolia, and may have been counted among the “Sea 
Peoples” that Egyptian records credit with bringing about the 
Hittite collapse. The so-called Handmade Knobbed Ware found in Western 
Anatolia during this period has been tentatively identified as an import 
connected to this invasion.

However, most scholars reject such a recent Phrygian migration and accept 
as factual the
Iliad
‘s account that the Phrygians were 
established on the
Sakarya River
 
before the
Trojan War
, and thus must have been there 
during the later stages of the
Hittite Empire
, and probably earlier. These 
scholars seek instead to trace the Phrygians’ origins among the many nations 
of western Anatolia who were subject to the
Hittites
. This interpretation also gets 
support from Greek legends about the founding of Phrygia’s main city
Gordium
by
Gordias
and of
Ancyra
by
Midas
, which suggest that Gordium and 
Ancyra were believed to be date from the distant past before the Trojan War. 
Some scholars dismiss the claim of a Phrygian migration as a mere legend, 
likely arising from the coincidental similarity of their name to the
Bryges
.

No one has conclusively identified which of the many subjects of the
Hittites
might have represented early 
Phrygians. According to a classical tradition, popularized by
Josephus
, Phrygia can be equated with the 
country called
Togarmah
by the ancient Hebrews, which has 
in turn been identified as the
Tegarama
of Hittite texts and Til-Garimmu 
of Assyrian records.
Josephus
called Togarmah “the Thrugrammeans, 
who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians”. However, the Greek 
source cited by
Josephus
is unknown, and it is unclear if 
there was any basis for the identification other than name similarity. 
Scholars of the Hittites believe Tegarama was in eastern Anatolia – some 
locate it at Gurun
– far to the east of Phrygia. Some 
scholars have identified Phrygia with the
Assuwa
league, and noted that the
Iliad
mentions a Phrygian (Queen
Hecuba
‘s brother) named
Asios
. Another possible early name of 
Phrygia could be Hapalla, the name of the easternmost province that emerged 
from the splintering of the Bronze Age western Anatolian empire
Arzawa
. However, scholars are unsure if 
Hapalla corresponds to Phrygia or to
Pisidia
, further south.

Herodotus
also claims that Phrygian 
colonists founded the
Armenian
nation. This is likely a reference 
to a third group of people called
Mygdones
living in northern
Mesopotamia
who were apparently allied to 
the Armenians;
Xenophon
describes them in his
Anabasis
in a joint army with the
Armenians
. However, little is known about 
these eastern Mygdones, and no evidence of
Phrygian language
in that region has been 
found.

Eric P. Hamp
in his 2012
Indo-European
family tree classified the
Phrygian language
together with
Italo-Celtic
 
as member of a member of a “Northwest Indo-European” group. In Hamp’s view, 
Northwest Indo-Europeans are likely to have been the first inhabitants of
Hallstatt
with the Pre-Phrygians moving 
east and south to Anatolia in the same manner as the Galatians do later. 
Raymund Carl in 2010 mentions that the
Lausitz culture
 
was one such Hallstatt-associated culture.

History

Around 
the time of the Trojan war

According to the Iliad, the homeland of the Phrygians was on the
Sangarius River
, 
which would remain the centre of Phrygia throughout its history. Phrygia was 
famous for its wine and had “brave and expert” horsemen.

According to the
Iliad
, before the
Trojan War
, a young king
Priam
of
Troy
had taken an army to Phrygia to 
support it in a war against the
Amazons
. Homer calls the Phrygians “the 
people of
Otreus
and godlike
Mygdon
. According to
Euripides
,
Quintus Smyrnaeus
and others, this Mygdon’s 
son, Coroebus
, fought and died in the
Trojan War
; he had sued for the hand of the 
Trojan princess
Cassandra
in marriage. The name Otreus 
could be an eponym for
Otroea
, a place on
Lake Ascania
in the vicinity of the later
Nicaea
, and the name Mygdon is 
clearly an eponym for the
Mygdones
, a people said by
Strabo
to live in northwest Asia Minor, and 
who appear to have sometimes been considered distinct from the
Phrygians
. However,
Pausanias
believed that Mygdon’s tomb was 
located at
Stectorium
in the southern Phrygian 
highlands, near modern
Sandikli
.

According to the
Bibliotheca
, the Greek hero
Heracles
slew a king Mygdon of the
Bebryces
in a battle in northwest Anatolia 
that if historical would have taken place about a generation before the
Trojan War
. According to the story, while 
traveling from Minoa
to the
Amazons
, Heracles stopped in
Mysia
and supported the
Mysians
in a battle with the Bebryces. 
According to some interpretations, Bebryces is an alternate name for 
Phrygians and this Mygdon is the same person mentioned in the
Iliad
.

King Priam
married the Phrygian princess Hecabe 
(or Hecuba
) and maintained a close alliance 
with the Phrygians, who repaid him by fighting “ardently” in the
Trojan War
against the Greeks. Hecabe was a 
daughter of the Phrygian king
Dymas
, son of Eioneus, son of Proteus. 
According to the Iliad
, Hecabe’s younger brother
Asius
also fought at Troy (see above); and
Quintus Smyrnaeus
mentions two grandsons of 
Dymas that fell at the hands of
Neoptolemus
at the end of the Trojan War: 
“Two sons he slew of Meges rich in gold, Scion of Dymas – sons of high 
renown, cunning to hurl the dart, to drive the steed in war, and deftly cast 
the lance afar, born at one birth beside Sangarius’ banks of Periboea to 
him, Celtus one, and Eubius the other.”
Teleutas
, father of the maiden
Tecmessa
, is mentioned as another mythical 
Phrygian king.

There are indications in the Iliad that the heart of the Phrygian country 
was further north and downriver than it would be in later history. The 
Phrygian contingent arrives to aid
Troy

Phorcys and
Ascanius
, both sons of Aretaon.

In one of the so-called
Homeric Hymns
, Phrygia is said to be “rich 
in fortresses” and ruled by “famous
Otreus
“.

Peak and destruction of the Phrygian kingdom

 

During the 8th century BC the Phrygian kingdom with its capital at
Gordium
in the upper
Sakarya River
 
valley expanded into an empire dominating most of central and western 
Anatolia and encroaching upon the larger
Assyrian Empire
to its southeast and the 
kingdom of Urartu
to the northeast.

According to the classical historians
Strabo
,
Eusebius
and
Julius Africanus
, the king of Phrygia 
during this time was another
Midas
. This historical
Midas
is believed to be the same person 
named as Mita in Assyrian texts from the period and identified as king of 
the Mushki
. Scholars figure that Assyrians 
called Phrygians “Mushki” because the Phrygians and
Mushki
, an eastern Anatolian people, were 
at that time campaigning in a joint army. This Midas is thought to have 
reigned Phrygia at the peak of its power from about 720 BC to about 695 BC 
(according to Eusebius) or 676 BC (according to Julius Africanus). An 
Assyrian inscription mentioning “Mita”, dated to 709 BC, during the reign of
Sargon of Assyria
, suggests Phrygia and
Assyria
had struck a truce by that time. 
This Midas
appears to have had good relations 
and close trade ties with the Greeks, and reputedly married an Aeolian Greek 
princess.

A system of writing in the
Phrygian language
developed and flourished 
in Gordium during this period, using a Phoenician-derived alphabet similar 
to the Greek one. A distinctive Phrygian pottery called Polished Ware 
appears during this period.

However, the Phrygian Kingdom was then overwhelmed by
Cimmerian
invaders, and
Gordium
was sacked and destroyed. According 
to Strabo and others,
Midass

 

A series of digs have opened
Gordium
as one of Turkey’s most revealing 
archeological sites. Excavations confirm a violent destruction of Gordium 
around 675 BC. A tomb from the 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).

As a Lydian province

After their destruction of
Gordium
, the Cimmerians remained in western 
Anatolia and warred with
Lydia
, which eventually expelled them by 
around 620 BC, and then expanded to incorporate Phrygia, which became the 
Lydian empire’s eastern frontier. The Gordium site reveals a considerable 
building program during the 6th century BC, under the domination of Lydian 
kings including the proverbially rich King
Croesus
. Meanwhile, Phrygia’s former 
eastern subjects fell to
Assyria
and later to the
Medes
.

There may be an echo of strife with Lydia and perhaps a veiled reference 
to royal hostages, in the legend of the twice-unlucky Phrygian prince
Adrastus
, who 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.

As Persian 
province(s)

Achaemenid (Great 
Persian) Empire when 
Cyrus
conquered
Lydia
.

After 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
. The Phrygian
satrapy
(province) lay west of the
Halys River
 
(now
Kızıl River
) 
and east of Mysia
and Lydia. Its capital was 
established at
Dascylium
, modern
Ergili
.

In the course of the 5th century, the region was divided in two 
administrative satrapies :
Hellespontine Phrygia
 
and Greater Phrygia.

Under 
Alexander and his successors

Alexander the Great
passed through
Gordium
in 333 BC and severed the
Gordian Knot
in the temple of
Sabazios
(“Zeus“). 
According to a legend, possibly promulgated by Alexander’s publicists, 
whoever untied the knot would be master of
Asia
. With Gordium sited on the
Persian Royal Road
that led through the 
heart of Anatolia
, the prophecy had some 
geographical plausibility. With Alexander, Phrygia became part of the wider
Hellenistic
world. Upon Alexander’s death 
in 323, the
Battle of Ipsus
took place in 301 BC.

In the chaotic period after Alexander’s death, northern Phrygia was 
overrun by Celts
, eventually to become the province of
Galatia
. The former capital of
Gordium
was captured and destroyed by the 
Gauls soon afterwards and disappeared from history. In 188 BC, the southern 
remnant of Phrygia came under the control of the
Attalids
of
Pergamon
. However, the
Phrygian language
survived, now written in 
the
Greek alphabet
.

 

In 133 BC, the remnants of Phrygia passed to
Rome
. For purposes of provincial 
administration the Romans maintained a divided Phrygia, attaching the 
northeastern part to the province of
Galatia
and the western portion to the 
province of
Asia
. During the reforms of
Diocese of Asia
Diocletian
. Salutaris with Synnada as 
its capital comprised the eastern portion of the region and Pacatiana with
Laodicea on the Lycus
as capital the 
western portion. The provinces survived up to the end of the 7th century, 
when they were replaced by the
Theme system
. In the
Byzantine
period, most of Phrygia belonged 
to the
Anatolic theme
. 
It was overrun by the Turks in the aftermath of the
Battle of Manzikert
(1071). The Byzantines 
were finally evicted from there in the 13th century, but the name of
Phrygia remained in use until the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 
1453.

Culture

The ruins of Gordion and Midas City prove that Phrygia had developed an 
advanced
Bronze Age
culture. This Phrygian culture 
interacted in a number of ways with Greek culture in various periods of 
history.

The “Great Mother”,
Cybele
, as the Greeks and Romans knew her, 
was originally worshiped in the
mountains
of Phrygia, where she was known 
as “Mountain Mother”. 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
sculptor

Agoracritus
, and became the image most 
widely adopted by Cybele’s expanding following, both in the
Aegean
world and at
Rome
. It shows her humanized though still 
enthroned, her hand resting on an attendant lion and the other holding the
tympanon
, a circular frame drum, 
similar to a 
tambourine
.

The Phrygians also venerated
Sabazios
, the sky and father-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 relief
at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
.

The earliest traditions of
Greek music
derived from Phrygia, 
transmitted through the Greek colonies in Anatolia, and included the
Phrygian mode
, which was considered to be 
the warlike mode in ancient Greek music. Phrygian
Midas
, the king of the “golden touch”, was 
tutored in music by
Orpheus
himself, according to the myth. 
Another musical invention that came from Phrygia was the
aulos
, a reed instrument with two pipes.
Marsyas
, the
satyr
who first formed the instrument using 
the hollowed antler
of a
stag
, was a Phrygian follower of Cybele. He 
unwisely competed in music with the
Olympian

Apollo
and inevitably lost, whereupon 
Apollo flayed Marsyas alive and provocatively hung his skin on Cybele’s own 
sacred tree, a pine
.

Classical Greek iconography identifies the
Trojan

Paris
as non-Greek by his Phrygian cap, 
which was worn by
Mithras
and survived into modern imagery as 
the “Liberty 
cap” of the American and
French revolutionaries
. The Phrygians spoke 
an
Indo-European language
. (See
Phrygian language
.) Although the 
Phrygians adopted the
alphabet
originated by the
Phoenicians
, only a few dozen inscriptions 
in the Phrygian language have been found, primarily funereal, and so much of 
what is thought to be known of Phrygia is second-hand information from Greek 
sources.

Mythic past

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
,
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
‘s Persian “Royal Road” from
Pessinus
to
Ancyra
, and not far from the
River Sangarius
.

 

The Phrygians are associated in Greek mythology with the
Dactyls
, minor gods credited with the 
invention of iron smelting, who in most versions of the legend lived at
Mount Ida
in Phrygia.

Gordias
‘s son (adopted in some versions) 
was Midas
. A large body of myths and legends 
surround this first king Midas. connecting him with a mythological tale 
concerning Attis
. This shadowy figure resided at 
Pessinus and attempted to marry his daughter to the young Attis in spite of 
the opposition of his lover Agdestis and his mother, the goddess
Cybele
. When Agdestis and/or Cybele appear 
and cast madness upon the members of the wedding feast. Midas is said to 
have died in the ensuing chaos.

King Midas is said to have associated himself with
Silenus
and other satyrs and with
Dionysus
, who granted him a “golden touch”.

In one version of his story, Midas travels from Thrace accompanied by a 
band of his people 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.

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

According to
Herodotus
, the Egyptian pharaoh
Psammetichus II
 
had two children raised in isolation in order to find the original language. 
The children were reported to have uttered bekos which is Phrygian 
for “bread”, so Psammetichus admitted that the Phrygians were a nation older 
than the Egyptians.

Christian Phrygia

Visitors from Phrygia were reported to have been among the crowds present 
in Jerusalem
on the occasion of
Pentecost
as recorded in
Acts 2:10
. In
Acts 16:6
the
Apostle Paul
and his companion
Silas
travelled through Phrygia and the 
region of Galatia
proclaiming the
Christian gospel
. Their plans appear to 
have been to go to
Asia
but circumstances or guidance, “in 
ways which we are not told, by inner promptings, or by visions of the night, 
or by the inspired utterances of those among their converts who had received 
the gift of prophecy”  prevented them from doing so and instead they 
travelled westwards towards the coast.

Montanism, and still known in
Orthodoxy
as “the Phrygian heresy”, arose 
in the unidentified village of Ardabau in the second century AD, and was 
distinguished by ecstatic spirituality and women priests. Originally 
described as a rural movement, it is now thought to have been of urban 
origin like other Christian developments. The new Jerusalem its adherents 
founded in the village of Pepouza has now been identified in a remote valley 
that later held a monastery.