Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/227

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PHRYGIAN CIVILIZATION. 2 r i rightly considered as constituting, to use the language of naturalists, a genus, which comprises not a few species. Many a conjecture on the origin of this local art and the probable date of its chief works, many a remark as to style and peculiar characteristics of workmanship, are equally applicable to the two series we have been led to form and place side by side. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PHRYGIAN CIVILIZATION AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON HELLENIC CULTURE. Some surprise may be felt that so large a space should be apportioned to the Phrygians in this study. Our line of conduct was prompted by the historical part this nation, viewed in the light of recent discoveries, has suddenly acquired in the estimation of antiquarians. For some time past science has busied itself in drawing up the inventory of the benefits the Asiatic Greeks, from the earliest days, derived by contact with their continental neighbours, the numerous tribes they found established on the soil of the peninsula. The task was rendered exceedingly difficult because the peoples which at one time divided Asia Minor among themselves have not sown and left everywhere, as did the Phoenicians, the instances of a brisk and thriving industry. If in the days afar off armour, jewellery, domestic furniture, etc., were deposited in their tombs, these have long been empty. Hence it comes to pass that, in order to divine the inner meaning of their creeds, manners, and customs, we are fain to turn to the rocks they fashioned, the chambers they hollowed in their depths, the sculptures they chiselled, e.g. where these have not been obliterated by the weather. Tombs in Lycia may certainly be counted by hundreds, or rather thousands ; but nearly all belong to what we have called the second period, and betray the influence of Grecian arts. Of the activity of the Pamphylians and Carians, nothing remains but a few tombs imperfectly traced, and short inscrip- tions that still await decipherment. The once rich and populous Lydia is represented by a single group of tumuli and her coins. The kingdom of Gordios and Midas did not play so grand a figure in the old world as that of Alyattes and Crcesus, but yet it can boast of rock-cut monuments so plentiful and varied as to enable the student to arrive at a pretty fair notion of the peculiar genius of