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Part II.—Sipylos and Cybele

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

W. M. Ramsay
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“Und jenen Sängern zu Smyrna, Phokäa, Kyme, Neonteichos, Larissa lag immer der majestätische Sipylos vor Augen mit seinen Felsenhöhen und Abgründen, mit seinen Quellen und kleinen Seen, mit der Erinnerung und Mahnung grosser Erdrevolutionen und Zerstörung reichen irdischen Segens und menschlichen Glückes. So ist denn hier das Bild eines Himmels auf Erden, eines zum Himmel strebenden Menschenglückes, aber auch das Bild eines überkühnen Hochmuthes und göttlichen Strafgerichtes vor allen lokal befestigt worden.” These words of Stark (Niobe, p. 409) well describe the peculiar fascination that the splendid mountain still exercises on one that lives under its shadow, and the ever-growing interest with which one returns to its past history. The least satisfactory part of Stark's excellent work is precisely that which treats of Niobe in Sipylos (98–109 and 403–46). It suffersfrom the lack of trustworthy information about the district. Even after he had himself had the opportunity of seeing for a few hours the socalled “Niobe,” and had recognised in it ein Gebilde alter heimischer, in den phrygischen Bildwerken der Göttermutter vielfach sich später aussprechenden Kunst und eines tiefen Naturgefühls, his rationalising treatment of the myth (Nach d. Gr. Orient, pp. 231–54) is very unsatisfactory. We are to believe that a powerful empire under a king Tantalus existed here, that his capital was destroyed by an earthquake, and his empire ruined by an Assyrian invasion (Stark's account seems to waver between the two and finally to adopt both explanations), that his son went down to the seaport of the empire and sailed away to find an empire and a bride ready for him in Greece. Though a poetic and fervid imagination, stimulated by the charm of the wonderful Sipylos, has made Stark's account a seductive picture, yet it requires only a statement of the theory in its bare outlines to show how uncritical it is.

Type
Studies in Asia Minor
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 3 , November 1882 , pp. 33 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1882

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References

page 33 note 1 In the almost complete ignorance of Asia Minor, which has up to the present time prevailed, scholars were forced to begin from Greece, and attempt to define the legends and history of Asia Minor by its relations to the early history of Greece. It is now certain that as Asia Minor becomes more known, the procedure will be reversed, and its antiquities form a point of departure for the determination of early Greek history.

page 35 note 1 Most of the misapprehensions that prevail about the district result from an examination of part of the district and a neglect of the rest. It is exceedingly hard work to climb about the rugged mountains, and a proper examination requires a long time. I believe that I have seen more of the district than any one but the woodcutters, but there are still many places I have not examined.

page 36 note 1 I should not have ventured, in opposition to the usual opinion, to state thus boldly what seemed true to my non-geological eye, had I not consulted Sir C. Wilson on the point. Stark and others have drawn large inferences from its supposed volcanic origin.

page 37 note 1 For further details see the account published last year by Herr Humann, The fortress has also been briefly described by M. Weber, Le Sipylos, Appendix.

page 38 note 1 Strabo, p. 645. We shall speak of this identification more fully hereafter.

page 39 note 1 The best representation of it that I have seen is the drawing by Mr. Simpson in the Illustrated London News, January 1880. The simple woodcut gives almost every important detail with much greater distinctness than any photograph I have seen. Photographs often give a very inadequate idea of rock sculptures; details visible from one point and in one state of the light are not visible from another point and in another state of the light; and the apparatus can often not be placed at the only good point of view. When in addition to all these difficulties the figure is on the north side of a projecting cliff and totally in shade, the usefulness of the photographis still further impaired.

page 39 note 2 For Stark's opinion one will o course turn, notto Niobe, p. 102, but to Nach d. Gr. Orient, p. 250; Hirschfeld, in Curt. Beitr. Gesch. Kleinas, p. 83Google Scholar. Sayce, and Dennis, in Acad. 1880–1881Google Scholar.

page 40 note 1 Stark, , Niobe, p. 105–6Google Scholar; Nach. d. Gr. Or. p. 251.

page 40 note 2 The inscription was observed by Stark, , Orient, p. 251Google Scholar.

page 40 note 3 Metopen von Selinunt, p. 63.

page 40 note 4 The same square forms instead of round, which were described above in the Phrygian ram, meet us here also.

page 43 note 1 The height of the figure from the top of the head to the lap is 18 inches, the breadth at the lap is 15 inches.

page 43 note 2 We shall have occasion below to speak of the phiale in the hand of Sabazios. On the Zeus of Acmonia and Brouzos, see Bull. Corr. Hellen. 1882, ‘Trois Villes Phryg.’

page 44 note 1 Phrygia and Cappadocia, in the Journal Royal Asiatic Society, 1882.

page 44 note 2 Curtius on Nike, Athena, Arch. Ztg. 1881Google Scholar.

page 44 note 3 Originally, perhaps, the left hand was empty, afterwards some attribute was placed in it, see Jahn, , Nuov Mem. d. Inst. 1865, p. 16Google Scholar; Köhler, , Mitth. Inst. Ath. i. 97Google Scholar; Overbeck, , Kunstmyth, iii. 223Google Scholar.

page 44 note 4 Loeschke, , Mitth. IV. p. 304Google Scholar; Conze, and Michaelis, , Annali, 1861, p. 80Google Scholar; Waldstein, Journ. Hell. Stud. I.

page 45 note 1 Curtius, , Mitth. Inst. Ath. ii. 48Google Scholar. See a full list of examples of this class, Conze, , Hermes-Kadmilos, Arch. Ztg. 1880, p. 1Google Scholar.

page 46 note 1 Aristides uses this expression not exactly in the sense given above, as Stark understands it (Niobe, p. 411), but as the first Smyrna. Still it seems probable that the religious legend was current in Smyrna, and Aristides puts it in historical form.

page 47 note 1 Curtins has described its close relation to the beginnings of Hellenic civilisation, Relig. Char. of Gr. Coins. Num. Chron. 1870.

page 48 note 1 See Curtius on Ephesus, (Beitr. 1, ff.)Google Scholar; Pessinus and Coloe, whose names were unknown till lately, are the only ones of these priestly centres of which the cultus and organization are to some extent described by native documents.

page 48 note 2 Phrygia and Cappadocia, l.c.

page 49 note 1 Rh. Mus. xxx. and xxxv.

page 50 note 1 Smith, , Hist. of Assyria, p. 146Google Scholar.

page 51 note 1 Compare Curtius on the early history of Ephesus, Beitr. Gesch. Kleinas.

page 52 note 1 Nic. Damasc. fr. 49, which is a curious proof of the intercourse between Lydia and the Greek cities, although it cannot be counted historical.

page 52 note 2 The reading of the MSS. is πλαστανης or πλαστηνης v. 13; the emendation is generally accepted.

page 53 note 1 A Phrygian town is named Appia. The commonest personal names in Phrygia are Apion, Apiôn, Apia, Apios, Appe, Appias, &c. I would connect these, like all other common Phrygian names, with native religion, and not, as Cavedoni, (Annali, 1861, p. 149)Google Scholar, does, with the Roman proconsul Appius, 53 B.C.

page 53 note 2 See Köhler, , Mitth. ii. 255Google Scholar; Benndorf, Samothrace, ii.

page 54 note 1 Similar remarks might perhaps apply to various figures of Fortune on coins of Asia Minor; in other cases, however, the Fortune is simply the Roman idea copied.

page 54 note 2 See Jahn, in Leipz. Verhandl. 1851Google Scholar.

page 54 note 3 Artemis Gygaia, in Arch. Ztg. 1853, p. 151.

page 55 note 1 Curtius, Art. Gyg.; Müller, , Dorier i. p. 382Google Scholar.

page 55 note 2 See Aristides, ed. Dind., ii. 449, where the context shows clearly that the neighbourhood of Smyrna is meant, and not, as the writer of the life of Aristides in vol. i. imagines, the district of Poimanene.

page 56 note 1 Probably the river Timeles is the river of Timolos. See Steph. Byz. s.v. Tumôlos, Tomaros.

page 57 note 1 I repeat the inscription, as; the text in C. I. G. 3165 is inaccurate. The word ποταμὸν which disturbs the metre is bracketed; it shows that the dedicator is quoting from some other source. The form of the letters makes it highly probable that the inscription dates from the end of the second century B.C. The Pi has one leg shorter than the other, yet the letters have the ornate form that marks the Roman period.

page 57 note 2 Gyges n. d. Gyg. See in Philol. vii.

page 58 note 1 But the legend in Ovid contains a reference to the legend of the flood, as Abel remarks (Pauli, Encycl. s.v. Phryges), and this legend was localised in southern Phrygia on the road between Celaenae and Tyana. Pelopeia must be translated in a general sense.

page 58 note 2 Wagner, in vol. xxx. of the Mem. Acad. Brussels, ; Bull. Corr. Hell. 1880Google Scholar.

page 59 note 1 I have not myself seen the inscription, which issaid to be on a small pillar. The Greek who gave it to Mr. Palamida offered to sell me the honour of discovering this and several other things in the neighbourhood, but I declined to trade.

page 59 note 2 Comp. Ahr. Dial. Aeol § 6, 5.

page 59 note 3 Sibulla belongs to the Apollo-cultus of Asia Minor, whence she spread to Cumae in Campania. She is called the sister, or daughter, or consort, or priestess of Apollo. Her grave was shown in the temple of Apollo at Gergis in the Troad; and at Cumae her cave with her tomb in it lay beside the temple of Apollo. Her prophetic books are a gift of the god.

page 62 note 1 I too have seen at Edinburgh Brougham haranguingthe city from the mountain side: when you are beside it you see nothing but a rock, but if you go to a particular point at some distance, you would fancy that you saw a man speaking from the crag.

page 62 note 2 On this matter of fact I am sorry to have to differ from Dr. Van Lennep.

page 62 note 3 One who reads over the passages in which Pausanias refers to Sipylos, Niobe, and Tantalus, cannot fail to be struck with the life-like and telling accuracy of his language; it is that of a loving eye-witness.

page 63 note 1 Le Sipylos ct ses Ruines.

page 63 note 2 Sometimes this legend contains the thought that one of the children survives or is restored to life. This suggests that the same idea underlies it as is found in the descent and return of Kora, the death and new birth of Adonis,—the idea that the annual death of nature is not a real and final death.

page 65 note 1 He probably means the Ak Baba, ‘White Father,’ a large bird of the vulture species.

page 65 note 2 When I repeated to a friend who knows the mountains well the words of Pausanias, he said at once, ‘The Lake of Tantalus is the Kara Göl.”

page 66 note 1 Pausanias says the throne was ἐν κορυφῇ τοῦ ὄρους. These words do not necessarily mean the loftiest point of Sipylus, but some peak which is the summit of its own mountain. The character of the acropolis peak cannot he understood from below, one must go up to appreciate its commanding nature. There are loftier peaks immediately behind it, but if one climbs these, there remain still loftier in the rear. If the statement of Forbiger that a small stream, Phyrites, flows into Lake Saloe (Pauly, Encycl. s.v. Saloe) were correct, it would furnish a certain proof that the lake below the site of which we are speaking was Lake Saloe; no other lake in Sipylos fulfils this condition. But I can find no stream Phyrites mentioned elsewhere except that near Ephesos flowing into the Pagasaean Marsh, and Forbiger's account of Asia Minor is full of errors.

page 68 note 1 The question would be settled at once if Herr Humann's opinion were correct, that the name Sipylos was restricted to the northern part of the mountains. But the people of Smyrna worshipped Meter Sipylene, and Old Smyrna was built on the slope of Sipylos (Aristid. i. p. 270). It is therefore certain that Sipylos meant the whole range of hills, both on the north and on the south side. To save any zealous explorer in future a very fatiguing climb, I may add that, in exploring the valley behind the mountain on which the ‘Niobe’ and the acropolis are situated, I examined a kastro of which travellers have spoken but never seen. It is a late stronghold, dating from the border warfare between Mohammedans and Christians.