King Midas: From Myth to Reality

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Over the past half century, archaeologists have uncovered dozens of burial tumuli near the ancient site of Gordion, about 60 miles southwest of modern Ankara, Turkey. Built of earth over single-chambered wooden tombs, these mounds probably housed the remains of royal 016families who ruled from the Phrygian capital of Gordion during the first centuries of the first millennium B.C.E.

One eighth-century B.C.E. tumulus enclosed the remains of a child. Buried with the child were wooden animals, zoomorphic clay vessels, and astragals (the ankle bones of sheep or goats, often used as counters in board games).

Not far from the child’s tomb is Gordion’s largest tumulus, 165 feet high and 1,000 feet in diameter, dating to the end of the eighth century B.C.E. It covers a burial chamber 20 feet long and 15 feet wide, made of closely fitted beams of well-hewn pine. The chamber’s double-pitched roof rises about 13 feet above the wooden floor. To support the tomb from its tremendous earthen burden, the Phrygians surrounded it with a casing of juniper logs and then enclosed the entire structure with a massive stone wall.

The occupant of the tomb, a short man who died in his early 60s, lay in a wooden coffin against one wall. He had been clothed in a finely woven shroud bedecked with bronze fibulae (ornamental brooches). Among the nearly 400 items that accompanied him to the grave were pieces of wooden furniture, textiles, elaborate belts and vessels made of clay and bronze, some of which contained food to sustain him in the afterlife.

Who was he? Many scholars believe this elaborate tomb belonged to Gordion’s most famous son, King Midas, who is perhaps better known as a character in Greek myth (see the first sidebar to this article).

In the late eighth century B.C.E., the historical Midas ruled a people called the Phrygians, who had migrated into Anatolia from southeastern Europe. These European settlers probably arrived during the “dark age” that followed the collapse of the Hittite Empire toward the end of the 13th century B.C.E.^a The Phrygian language, though still not well understood, appears to be related to languages spoken in ancient Illyria, on the northeastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, and Thrace, which included parts of modern Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Like the Thracians, the Phrygians used elaborately stamped pottery and buried their dead in large earthen tumuli. The floruit of Phrygian wealth and power came in the late eighth century B.C.E., during the reign of Midas. Phrygia’s demise may also have 017come during the reign of Midas, around 700 B.C.E., when Gordion is believed to have been conquered and destroyed by the Cimmerians, who arrived from the eastern steppes.

The name “Gordion” appears to be a contracted form of “Gordieion,” or place of Gordius—perhaps the same Gordius who is known from literary sources as the father of Midas. According to the second- or third-century C.E. author Justin, Gordius was proclaimed Phrygia’s king because he satisfied the conditions of an oracle by driving his wagon to the temple of Zeus. The second-century C.E. historian Arrian, however, says it was Midas who became king under these circumstances. In any event, the accounts agree that the wagon was dedicated in the temple at Gordion, giving rise to the prophecy that whoever untied the knot of cornel bark twine that held the yoke of the wagon in place would become master of Asia. It was said that when Alexander the Great visited Gordion in 334/333 B.C.E., he cut the famous Gordian knot with his sword. Even if the story is mere legend, it suggests that memories of Midas’s Iron Age Phrygian kingdom remained alive centuries later.

The earliest reference to the historical King Midas comes in the annals of the Assyrian king Sargon II (721–705 B.C.E.), in which Midas is called “Mita of Mushki.” According to these records, Midas/Mita sometimes encouraged Assyrian-controlled peoples to revolt against their masters. In 717 B.C.E., for instance, Midas had enough influence to persuade the northern Syrian city of Carchemish to rebel against the Assyrians. In the last-known mention of Midas/Miti, dating to 709 B.C.E., however, the Phrygian king requests an alliance with the Assyrians.

Midas is also mentioned in classical sources, attesting to the cultural affinity between the Phrygians and the Greeks. According to Herodotus (c. 485–425 B.C.E.), Midas was the first non-Greek to make a dedication to Apollo at Delphi, on the Greek mainland (Histories 1.14). Another source, the second-century C.E. rhetorician Julius Pollux, reports in his Onomasticon (9.83) that Midas married a 019Greek princess from Kyme on the west coast of Asia Minor. The Greco-Roman historian Strabo (c. 64 B.C.E.–21 C.E.), who was born in Anatolia, tells us that Midas’s death was linked to the Cimmerian invasion of Phrygia around 700 B.C.E.

Archaeological excavations at Gordion over the last century (see the second sidebar to this article) have confirmed the literary sources in at least one respect: Midas commanded great wealth. A vast citadel complex dating to his reign was destroyed in a great fire, possibly associated with the Cimmerian invasion toward the end of the eighth century B.C.E.

Three areas have been excavated within the massive fortifications of the citadel. The palace area, at the northeast, contains two open-air courts flanked by megara (large rectangular buildings, each with an anteroom and a main hall). A large terrace in the southwestern part of the citadel consists of two 330-foot-long structures facing each other across a broad street. At the northwest is a multi-roomed building, connected to the palace and the terrace by a broad staircase leading through an enclosure wall.

The Phrygians’ building materials were mainly stone, mudbrick and wood. The walls of one of the palace’s megara (Megaron 2), for example, were made of well-dressed blocks of soft limestone set into a timber framework. The floor of this megaron’s main room consisted of a richly patterned mosaic of multicolored pebbles, one of the earliest mosaic floors known anywhere in the world. The designs are mostly abstract and geometric, perhaps intended to resemble a floor covered with colorful rugs. The exterior walls of Megaron 2 were decorated with incised images, some representing humans, quadrupeds, birds and building facades. These facades are depicted with a double-pitched roof and a wing-shaped akroterion (roof crown). Excavators have found an actual example of 020a stone akroterion at the site of Megaron 2.

The largest of the megara at Gordion, Megaron 3, stood beside the inner court of the palace area. Because of its great size (60 by 99 feet), the building required two rows of interior posts to support the roof, creating a broad nave with side aisles. The posts also helped support a balcony that ran around three sides of the main room.

Whereas Megara 1 and 2 were largely devoid of contents at the time of the great fire, Megaron 3 held a wealth of materials preserved under its collapsed roof and walls. Excavators have found clay and bronze vessels, elegant ivory-inlaid furniture and finely woven textiles. Along one wall stood a low, fabric-covered couch, similar to an oriental divan. These signs of great wealth and sumptuous living suggest that Megaron 3 was the center of the Phrygian palace, the very seat of Midas.

Like Megaron 3, the large terrace structures required interior posts to support the roof, creating a central nave and side aisles. Rather than being living quarters, however, these buildings were once lively centers of industry, primarily concerned with food and textile production. In the main rooms, grain was pounded into flour at grinding stations, where workers knelt or squatted side by side. They shared space with spinners and weavers, some of whose tools (such as spindle whorls and bone shuttles) were left behind to be partially consumed in the great fire. Cattle were found partially butchered in one of the workrooms (bulls, some showing signs of domestication, appear frequently in Phrygian art). The naves of the terrace structures were kept clear for circulation, whereas the side aisles contained hundreds of clay vessels for dining, food preparation and storage. The antechambers were basically kitchens, where cooks grilled meats or vegetables and baked bread in large, dome-shaped ovens.

These terrace industries suggest that Gordion was organized according to a centralized palace economy in which raw food-stuffs were brought to the citadel for processing and distribution. Whether they served the populace at large or particular segments of it, such as the Phrygian army, remains unknown.

The Greek poet Archilochus, who lived in the seventh century B.C.E., informs us that the Phrygians were known for drinking beer, which had also been a preferred beverage of the Hittites. Both citadel and tumuli have yielded sieved vessels that seem ideally suited for sipping grainy brews.

In Homer’s epics, the Phrygians are praised for their horsemanship. Like the bull, 021horses are a familiar feature in Iron Age Phrygian art. A pair of actual horses were buried as part of the funeral ceremony in a tumulus dated close to the time of the tomb attributed to Midas (the so-called Midas Mound). In the citadel, excavators found a set of elaborate ivory horse-trappings, designed in the Syro-Hittite style. As with the earlier Hittites, the horse was doubtless a crucial element in Phrygian military endeavors.

The Gordion excavations have uncovered a multitude of objects revealing the Phrygians’ skills as craftsmen. The earliest ceramic ware, a dark-fired handmade pottery, later developed into the monochrome (unpainted) gray ware that had become traditionally Phrygian by the time of Midas. Gordion artisans also produced painted pottery, though in lesser amounts, illustrating the Phrygian penchant for geometric designs. Many of the motifs, such as the meander patterns, recur in other media—particularly bronze engraving, wooden inlay and weaving. Gordion’s smiths, carpenters, weavers and potters, it seems, inspired each other to try new forms. Some of these designs also appear among the mosaic patterns in Megaron 2.

The Phrygians’ bronze- and iron-working brought them into contact with peoples to the west and east. The raw materials—copper, 024tin, iron ore—may have come from as far away as eastern Europe. Their production techniques, however, show an indebtedness to the Phoenicians, Syrians and Hittites. Some of the bronzes, such as a pair of large cauldrons with winged human creatures attached to their rims, are probably eastern imports from the Syro-Hittite cultural zone. Most others, however, including the numerous mold-made fibulae on Midas’s burial shroud, were probably made in Phrygian workshops. Among the more sumptuous bronze objects are elaborate belts with leather backings. Three examples from the child’s tomb are engraved with intricate meander motifs resembling the designs of woodworkers and weavers.

The Midas Mound and the child’s tomb have provided extremely rare examples of the cabinetmaker’s art. Outside Egypt, Gordion is perhaps the principal source of wooden furniture from the ancient world, although depictions of furniture are common in Near Eastern and classical art. The pieces show exceptionally fine craftsmanship. Serving stands, tables and stools bear intricate inlaid decorations of dark juniper set into a lighter-colored boxwood—often in meandering and running swastika designs.

In the lavish surroundings of the citadel’s Megaron 3, excavators found metal fittings and a series of carved ivory plaques used as decorative inlays. This style of furniture, in which ivory panels are set into wood, was inspired by the Syro-Palestinian world, where ivory-encrusted thrones, divans and horse trappings were cherished by Assyrian rulers.^b The decoration on the plaques, however, is distinctly Phrygian, showing horsemen, griffins with fish, and deer.

The Midas Mound contained five vessels bearing short inscriptions, three of which were incised on strips of wax applied to the rims of bronze bowls. Although the Phrygian script is poorly understood, it can be “read” because it is adapted from the Greek alphabet (which was developed from the West Semitic alphabet around 800 B.C.E.). Two examples from the Midas Mound, ATA and EIES, may be personal names, perhaps the names of those who paid for Midas’s elaborate tomb. A single inscription has also been retrieved from the citadel. The only other writing examples are capacity marks on a few storage vessels. Since keeping track of goods and commodities would have been extremely difficult without written records, and since we know that the Phrygians were literate, perhaps they kept track of inventories by using materials that have not survived, such as wood or wax tablets.^c

Although there is scant evidence of the religious institutions of the Early Iron Age Phrygians, they probably worshiped much as their descendants did in the later Middle Phrygian period (seventh to fourth centuries B.C.E.). At the center of Phrygian cult was a mother goddess, usually called Matar (Mother). This mother goddess was sometimes referred to with the epithet “Kubileya,” which is probably an early form of the name of the goddess Kybele. Seventh- or sixth-century B.C.E. reliefs from Ankara and Gordion show the goddess standing in the doorway of an architectural facade (see photo of sactuary at Arslankaya), perhaps a representation of her temple. The same format occurs on a monumental scale in rock-cut reliefs in the Phrygian highlands west of Gordion. The most famous of these reliefs, the so-called Midas Monument, probably dates to the sixth century B.C.E. Several of its inscriptions mention Matar, though the monument was dedicated to Midas, “king and leader of the people.” This Midas was probably the famous Iron Age king whose memory was honored by the Phrygians of a later age.

At Gordion, a number of small-scale sculptures believed to represent Matar have come to light. Middle Phrygian in date, they usually show her holding a cup to her mouth. One statue depicts the goddess accompanied by birds of prey, and it is likely that similar 025birds in stone and other materials (known in quantity from the excavations) were attached to her cult. By the time of Midas, birds of prey had become a relatively popular feature in Phrygian art. For example, they appear among the “doodles” incised on the exterior walls of the palace’s Megaron 2—a building that some scholars believe was a temple, with the akroterion that may have crowned the building’s roof possibly representing a stylized bird with outstretched wings.

A number of classical sources connect music and orgiastic ritual with the worship of the goddess Kybele—and they also describe a certain mode of musical harmony as Phrygian. As early as the late seventh century B.C.E., the Spartan poet Alcman knew of a Phrygian melody called the “Kerbesian,” as related by Strabo (Geography 12.8.21).

The first-century B.C.E. historian Diodorus Siculus relates that Midas was involved in the establishment of the cult of Kybele at Pessinous, southwest of Gordion (World History 3.59.8). However, excavations at the site have thus far revealed no remains earlier than the Hellenistic period. The traditions surrounding the founding of the Gordion dynasty might indicate that the Phrygians somehow viewed their kings as ruling under divine authority—as did the contemporaneous Assyrians, who believed that the monarch served as an intermediary with the gods but was not himself possessed of divinity.^d

Midas’s fame no doubt stemmed from the wealth and extent of his kingdom. He is the traditional founder of Ankara, which had become an active Phrygian center by the close of the eighth century B.C.E. The Great Tumulus of Ankara is a wealthy burial site whose contents place it close in date to the child’s tomb and Midas Mound at Gordion. Other ancient structures in Ankara, perhaps shrines, also date to the late eighth century B.C.E. The principal Phrygian settlement at Ankara, now crowned by the temple of Rome and Augustus and the mosque of Haci Bayram, has been explored only with a deep sounding.

The heartland of the Phrygian kingdom under Midas probably included most of west-central Anatolia, with Lydia forming a frontier at the west. To the east and southeast, the Phrygians would have encountered a concentration of Syro-Hittite principalities. Although Midas had political interests in the region, as implied by the annals of Sargon II, it is unlikely that the Phrygian presence there extended much beyond diplomacy and scattered military actions. A Phrygian inscription discovered early in this century at Kemerhisar, about 026150 miles southeast of Ankara, bears the name of Midas and may have been part of a monument to him. To the north, Phrygian inscriptions have been discovered at Bogazköy (site of the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusa), Alaca Hüyük and Pazarli. Although none of these inscriptions can be securely dated as early as the time of Midas, Phrygian penetration of the region may have nonetheless begun by the end of his reign.

The Cimmerian disaster and the death of Midas spelled the end of Phrygia as a powerful Anatolian state.

By the late seventh century, Lydia appears to have gained hegemony over much of the old Phrygian territory. It may have been under Lydian sponsorship that the new citadel at Gordion was rebuilt at a higher level on the mound before the middle of the sixth century. Since the plan of the new citadel is remarkably similar to that of the old, it is tempting to think that the builders sought to reclaim something of the grandeur that attached to the age of Midas. A mudbrick fortress to the south of the main settlement mound seems to have been a Lydian project, prompted perhaps by the threat of Iranian forces that had advanced as far west as Cappadocia by the early sixth century B.C.E. The destruction of the fortress by fire, following an attack, is generally thought to be connected with the campaign of the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great (559–529 B.C.E.).

Thereafter, the Phrygians, like other Anatolian peoples, settled into the lengthy period of Iranian domination. Gordion became part of the Phrygian satrapy and was probably a Iranian administrative center. Following the conquest by Alexander the Great, any distinctive Phrygian ethnic identity began to wane under the tide of Hellenism and other external forces. As late as the third century C.E., however, in territories west of Gordion, people had formulaic curses in the Phrygian language carved on their gravestones to warn away potential desecrators.

This article is adapted from a longer essay by the author: “Midas of Gordion and the Anatolian Kingdom of Phrygia,” in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, ed. Jack M. Sasson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1995).

Over the past half century, archaeologists have uncovered dozens of burial tumuli near the ancient site of Gordion, about 60 miles southwest of modern Ankara, Turkey. Built of earth over single-chambered wooden tombs, these mounds probably housed the remains of royal 016families who ruled from the Phrygian capital of Gordion during the first centuries of the first millennium B.C.E. One eighth-century B.C.E. tumulus enclosed the remains of a child. Buried with the child were wooden animals, zoomorphic clay vessels, and astragals (the ankle bones of sheep or goats, often used as counters in board games). Not far from […]