Phrygia

, a country of Asia Minor, generally divided into Phrygia Major and Minor. Its boundaries are not properly or accurately defined by ancient authors, though it appears that it was situate between Bithynia, Lydia, Cappadocia and Caria. It received its name from the Bryges , a nation of Thrace, or Macedonia, who came to settle there, and from their name, by corruption, arose the word Phrygia . Cybele was the chief deity of the country, and her festivals were observed with the greatest solemnity. The most remarkable towns, besides Troy, were Laodice, Hierapolis, and Synnada. The invention of the pipe of reeds, and of all sorts of needlework, is attributed to the inhabitants, who are represented by some authors as stubborn, but yielding to correction (hence Phryx ver be ratus melior ), as imprudent, effeminate, servile, and voluptuous; and to this Virgil seems to allude. Æneid , bk. 9 , li. 617 . The Phrygians, like all other nations, were called barbarians by the Greeks; their music ( Phrygii cantus ) was of a grave and solemn nature, when opposed to the brisker and more cheerful Lydian airs. Mela , bk. 1 , ch. 19 .— Strabo , bk. 2 , . — Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 13 , li. 429 , . — Cicero , bk. 7 , Letters to his Friends , ltr. 18 .— Flaccus , bk. 27 .— Dio Ca ius , bk. 1 , ch. 50 .— Pliny , bk. 1 , ch. 4 .— Horace , bk. 2 , ode 9, li. 16 .— Pausanias , bk. 5 , ch. 25 .— Hero dot us , bk. 7 , ch. 73 .――A city of Thrace.