phrygia

Phrygia was an ancient region and kingdom of west-central Anatolia, in what is now Turkey. The Phrygians spoke Phrygian, an Indo-European language known from inscriptions and names, and they formed a dominant power in the central Anatolian plateau from the 8th to the 6th centuries BCE. The core of Phrygia was the Phrygian homeland around the capital Gordion, with important centers at Pessinus and throughout the inland valleys.

The Phrygian kingdom rose in the early Iron Age, with legendary rulers such as Gordias and Midas recorded by Greek authors. At its height in the 7th century BCE, Phrygia stretched across much of western Asia Minor and acted as a regional rival to Lydia. In 547/546 BCE the Persian king Cyrus II defeated Croesus of Lydia and incorporated Phrygia into the Achaemenid Empire as a satrapy. Under Persian rule the Phrygians remained a distinct ethnic and administrative group, though with reduced political autonomy. After the campaigns of Alexander the Great, the region became part of Hellenistic domains and, in the Roman period, was reorganized into provincial structures such as Phrygia and Galatia under Roman rule.

Culturally, Phrygia is associated with the Phrygian cap and the cult of a mother goddess later identified with Cybele and Attis in Greek and Roman religion. Gordion is famous for its tombs and the legendary Gordian Knot, associated with the untying of knots and decisive action. The Phrygian language survives in inscriptions and placenames but is now extinct.