a photograph by Perdrizet. The
last figure on the left is the god Men; the Sun overlooks
all the rest, and a god bearing an axe occupies the extreme
right of the picture. The shapes of these ancient aboriginal
deities have been modified by the influence of Graeco-Roman
syncretism, and I merely give these figures, as I do many
others, for lack of better representations.

The Greeks, finding this Sauazios at the head of the Phrygian Pantheon,
identified him with their Zeus, or, less frequently, with the Sun; he
was really a variant of their Dionysos. He became torpid in the autumn,
and slept a death-like sleep all through the winter; but no sooner did
he feel the warmth of the first breath of spring, than he again awoke,
glowing with youth, and revelled during his summer in the heart of the
forest or on the mountain-side, leading a life of riot and intoxication,
guarded by a band of Sauades, spirits of the springs and streams, the
Sileni of Greek mythology. The resemblances detected by the new-comers
between the orgies of Thrace and those of Asia quickly led to confusion
between the different dogmas and divinities. The Phrygians adopted Ma,
and made her their queen, the Cybele who dwells in the hills, and takes
her title from the mountain-tops which she inhabits--Dindymene on Mount
Dindymus, Sipylene on Mount Sipylus. She is always the earth, but the
earth untilled, and is seated in the midst of lions, or borne through
her domain in a car drawn by lions, accompanied by a troop of Corybantes
with dishevelled locks. Sauazios, identified with the Asianic Atys,
became her lover and her priest, and Men, transformed by popular
etymology into Manes, the good and beautiful, was looked upon as the
giver of good luck, who protects men after death as well as in life.
This religion, evolved from so many diverse elements, possessed a
character of sombre poetry and sensual fanaticism which appealed
strongly to the Greek imagination: they quickly adopted even its most
barbarous mysteries, those celebrated in honour of the goddess and Atys,
or of Sauazios. They tell us but little of the inner significance of
the symbols and doctrines taught by its votaries, but have frequently
described its outward manifestations. These consisted of aimless
wanderings through the forests, in which the priest, incarnate
representative of his god, led after him the ministers of the temple,
who were identified with the Sauades