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The Phrygians (Greek: Φρύγες, Phruges or Phryges) were an ancient Indo-European speaking people who inhabited central-western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) in antiquity. Ancient Greek authors used "Phrygian" as an umbrella term to describe a vast ethno-cultural complex located mainly in the central areas of Anatolia rather than a name of a single "tribe" or "people", and its ethno-linguistic homogeneity is debatable. Phrygians were initially dwelling in the southern Balkans – according to Herodotus – under the name of Bryges (Briges), changing it to Phryges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the Hellespont. Based on extremely slight archaeological evidence, some scholars suggested that the Bryges and Phrygians were members of the Lusatian culture, who migrated into the southern Balkans and Hellespontine Phrygia during the Late Bronze Age. Many historians support a Phrygian migration from Europe to Asia Minor 1200 BC; though, Anatolian archaeologists have generally abandoned the idea. It has been suggested that the Phrygian migration to Asia Minor, mentioned in Greek sources to have occurred shortly after the Trojan War, happened much earlier, and in many stages. Phrygia developed an advanced Bronze Age culture. The earliest traditions of Greek music are in part connected to Phrygian music, transmitted through the Greek colonies in Anatolia, especially 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. In classical Greek iconography Paris, a Trojan, is represented as non-Greek by his Phrygian cap, which was also worn by Mithras and survived into modern imagery as the "Liberty cap" of the American and French revolutionaries. Phrygians spoke the Phrygian language, a member of the Indo-European linguistic family. Modern consensus regards Greek as its closest relative.

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Related concepts (80)

Phrygia

In classical antiquity, Phrygia (ˈfrɪdʒiə ; Φρυγία, Phrygía phryɡía) was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. After its conquest, it became a region of the great empires of the time. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Phrygian kings: Gordias, whose Gordian Knot would later be cut by Alexander the Great Midas, who turned whatever he touched to gold Mygdon, who warred with the Amazons According to Homer's Iliad, the Phrygians participated in the Trojan War as close allies of the Trojans, fighting against the Achaeans.

Niobe

In Greek mythology, Niobe (ˈnaɪ.ə.biː; Νιόβη ni.óbɛː) was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione (as most frequently cited) or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa. Niobe was the wife of Amphion and the sister of Pelops and Broteas. She was mentioned by Achilles in Homer's Iliad, which relates her proud hubris, for which she was punished by Leto, who sent Apollo and Artemis to slay all of her children, after which her children lay unburied for nine days while she abstained from food.

Phrygians