and nymphs of the heavenly host.
Men heard them passing in the night, heralded by the piercing notes
of the flute provoking to frenzy, and by the clash of brazen cymbals,
accompanied by the din of uproarious ecstasy: these sounds were broken
at intervals by the bellowing of bulls and the roll of drums, like the
rambling of subterranean thunder.

[Illustration: 101.jpg MIDAS OF PHRYGIA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a specimen in the _Cabinet des
Medailles_. It is a bronze coin from Prymnessos in Phrygia,
belonging to the imperial epoch.

A Midas followed a Gordios, and a Gordios a Midas, in alternate
succession, and under their rule the Phrygian empire enjoyed a period
of prosperous obscurity. Lydia led an uneventful existence beside them,
under dynasties which have received merely passing notice at the hands
of the Greek chroniclers. They credit it at the outset with the almost
fabulous royal line of the Atyadae, in one of whose reigns the Tyrseni
are said to have migrated into Italy. Towards the twelfth century the
Atyadae were supplanted by a family of Heraclido, who traced their
descent to a certain Agron, whose personality is only a degree less
mythical than his ancestry; he was descended from Heracles through
Alcseus, Belus, and Ninus. Whether these last two names point to
intercourse with one or other of the courts on the banks of the
Euphrates, it is difficult to say. Twenty-one Heraclido, each one the
son of his predecessor, are said to have followed Agron on the throne,
their combined reigns giving a total of five hundred years.* Most of
these princes, whether Atyadae or Heraclidae, have for us not even a
shadowy existence, and what we know of the remainder is of a purely
fabulous nature. For instance, Kambles is reported to have possessed
such a monstrous appetite, that he devoured his own wife one night,
while asleep.**

* The number is a purely conventional one, and Gutschmid has
shown how it originated. The computation at first comprised
the complete series of 22 Heraclidae and 5 Mermnadae,
estimated reasonably at 4 kings to a century, i.e. 27 X 25 =
675 years, from the taking of Sardes to the supposed
accession of Agron. As it was known from other sources that
the 5 Mermnadae had reigned 170 years, these were subtracted
from the 675, to obtain the duration of the Heraclidae alone,
and by this means were obtained the 505 years mentioned by