The "Mother Cult" among the Phrygians
In the Phrygian Highlands, near Lake Emre Gölü, in present-day western Turkey,
The imposing Arslan Kaya "the lion rock monument" is carved into a volcanic peak,
The façade, decorated with images of lions and sphinxes, features a niche housing an oriental figure,
It celebrates the Phrygian mother goddess, venerated far beyond the ancient kingdom.
After the fall of the Hittite Empire, the Phrygians moved to Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey,
Their capital was Gordion, which gave its name to the legendary "Gordian Knot" of Phrygia,
Their civilization reached its peak with Midas, known for his "golden touch" of the Father,
They worshiped a central goddess whom they knew simply as "the Mother".
But this power of King Midas, that everything he touches can be changed into gold,
Was not a blessing, the king finding himself unable to drink and eat,
He therefore ended up asking Dionysus to take away the power he had granted him,
He had to go to the source of the Pactolus river carrying gold flakes, to go and wash himself, the word Pactolus has remained with us.
The Phrygians were polytheists but their cult was centered on the beloved mother goddess,
Personification of fertility and nature that they venerated through sculpted monuments,
The name "Materan", the mother, was a direct reference to Homer's Cybele,
The Greeks knew her as the "Mother of the Gods", the Romans, "Magna Mater", or "Great Mother".
At the time when the monument of Aslan Kaya was erected, the other kingdom Lydia bordering Phrygia in discretion,
Also held Materan in high esteem, it would have governed the region according to legend,
Its king Croesus famous for his wealth and for his generosity left us the expression "rich as Croesus"
Written with a lower case it is also used as a common noun to designate an opulent man, a "croesus".
In some cities of Greco-Roman antiquity, the Phrygian cap
became a symbol of endemic freedom,
Former slaves wore the "pileus", a cone-shaped felt hat,
on the day of their emancipation,
Flogged on the flag of New York, associated with the American War of Independence,
it is an emblem of freedom, fiercely,
With its earmuffs and its falling tip, in France,
the red cap remains a strong symbol of the Republic.
In 1675, the red Phrygian cap gave its name to the revolt
against the tax escalation of the Bretons in Red Caps,
In 1792, during the National Convention's Freedom Festival in the capital,
participants wore the red headgear,
A rallying sign of the Terror and the Montagnard dictatorship,
the attribute faded with the advent of Napoleon I,
In 1830, it was on Eugène Delacroix's emblematic character "Liberty Leading the People"
that the headgear appeared.
Behind the choice of the "Phryges" as mascots of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a goal,
A figure "that embodies the French spirit, that carries the colors of the country,
a part of our history", a collective,
Inspired by the Phrygian cap, these small emblems will wear
a tricolor cockade and a red dress,
From Mesopotamian civilizations to the banks of the Seine,
so many centuries have this red headgear covered.
Guy Pujol says l’ARIÉ…..JOIE